Global Speakers

Jillian Skinner began her career as a journalist in Melbourne, becoming the first woman journalist on the Victorian Parliamentary Press Gallery.

She later worked as a journalist in Adelaide, Sydney and South East Asia before operating her own editorial, strategic planning and marketing consultancy.

She held the role of Director of the New South Wales Office of Youth Affairs and has served on bodies such as the New South Wales Women’s Advisory Council and the New South Wales Youth Advisory Council.

In 1994, Jillian was first elected to the NSW Parliament as Member for North Shore. She has been re-elected by the electorate six times.

Jillian has more experience in the health field than any other politician in Australia, having first been appointed Shadow Minister for Health in 1995.

In 2011, she was appointed NSW Minister for Health as well as the first dedicated Minister for Medical Research in the state or nation.

She served as Deputy Leader of the NSW Parliamentary Liberal Party for six years.

Jillian’s achievements as NSW Minister for Health include:

• record health spending to deliver tens of thousands more emergency department treatments, hospital admissions and elective surgeries.
• an unprecedented hospital building program which will exceed $10 billion in two terms.
• devolving the NSW health system so Local Health Districts have responsibility for operational matters such as budgets, workforce and patient care.
• greater engagement in decision making by clinicians and staff, which has boosted morale and encourages innovation and new models of care to flourish.

Professor Phillips is the Chief Medical Officer and Chief Public Health Officer for South Australia. His portfolio includes public health, safety and quality, emergency management, medical workforce and training, epidemiology, libraries and research.

He was previously Professor and Head of Medicine, Flinders University, Flinders Medical Centre and Repatriation General Hospital, Adelaide. Before that Professor Phillips held senior clinical academic posts at the University of Melbourne, followed by Oxford University. His interests are in building a better health system through innovation, collaboration and leadership. He remains clinically active in acute general medicine with interests in health services research.

Kevin Reid is an innovative CEO and professional Health Administrator. He helps NFP companies to become excellent at what they do. He takes underperforming organisations and turns them around. Previously, Kevin was the CEO for a Division of General Practice where he also acted as Change Manager for the PCEHR. His leadership resulted in signing up more doctors and more patients than any other organisation within the first 12 months of implementation. He has graduated from QUT and UNSW. At Macquarrie University Graduate School of Management he earned his MBA and is currently the CEO of Manly Warringah Pittwater Community Aid Service where he has 23 staff members and 220 volunteers providing aged care to thousands of clients across the Northern Beaches of Sydney.

He excels in building and implementing large and diverse portfolios of successful health care programs in collaboration with private industry and government initiatives. He has extensive experience in aged care, as well as proven business development experience and ability to meet and exceed all targets. He is an analytical strategist dedicated to successfully implementing process improvements to foster growth. His passion is building relationships and promoting synergy across organizations and among key stakeholders. He fosters a culture of collaboration among all of the teams and people he supervises.

Dr Damian Claydon-Platt is the Chief Clinical Information Officer at Epworth Healthcare, a large not-for-profit healthcare group in Victoria. Damian is a medical doctor with 17 years clinical experience working predominantly in the Intensive Care Environment. As the CCIO of Epworth Healthcare, he is currently involved in the strategic alignment of IT priorities to clinical and organizational requirements, influencing of corporate vision to embrace the benefits of information technologies, stakeholder engagement across the group, and implementation of clinical-facing information systems.

Cheryl has worked in Health for over 25 years, including roles in nursing, research, education and senior management, in adult and paediatric specialist referral hospitals in Adelaide and Sydney, Australia. She has a Diploma in Applied Science, a Bachelor of Nursing, a Masters of Health Service Management, and is a Student of Lean. Cheryl moved from Adelaide in 2001 to take up senior management roles at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, NSW where she worked as Director of Clinical Operations. In 2011, with the formation of The Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network (SCHN), she commenced a new role as Director of Clinical Integration for SCHN.

Key responsibilities include Clinical leadership for e-health Strategy and Adoption, clinical data collections and analytics, health records, Reporting, Activity Based Funding (ABF), and Efficiency and Revenue sustainability. Cheryl has a focus on developing people and their processes, to evolve models which support safe service delivery, fair resource allocation, efficiency, equitable access, and innovation in Health services.

Nicole is the Chief Executive Officer at Aged Care Consultancy Australia and has over 20 years’ experience in aged care, retirement living and disability and holds a Clinical Associate Professor title with University of Tasmania in recognition of her international and national expertise in the sector. Nicole completed her PhD in aged care in 2010 at University of Technology, Sydney and resides on the editorial board for the Journal of Palliative Care & Medicine Journal (OMICS) . Nicole continues to develop innovative and leading edge support to organizations both in business optimization and risk management, whilst specializing in board and clinical governance, case management and leadership.

Dr Avi Ratnanesan is the Chief Executive Officer of Energesse, a leading firm that specializes in improving patient experience and customer experience in healthcare. Energesse provides thought leadership in patient-centred innovation and technology solutions including MES Experience for real-time patient feedback and PanSensic for free-text analytics of patient stories. Dr Avi’s career began as a medical doctor in the UK and Australia following his degree from the University of Sheffield. After an MBA (Honours) from the University of Queensland, he ventured into biotech and pharmaceuticals with responsibilities including Chief of Staff at Pfizer Australia, leading the innovation agenda and helping grow the organization to over a $1 billion in annual revenue. He is a highly rated international keynote speaker whose exploits have been featured in Sky News, ABC, SBS and Insurance Business America. He also coaches CEO’s, executives and health professionals to develop their careers and achieving their highest potential.

Dr James Nol is the Chief Medical Radiation Practitioner and the Operations Director at Blacktown & Mt Druitt Hospital NSW. In his current role, Dr Nol developed and implemented the Open Access, Radiology Reporting on Demand, Imaging Paper Printing in Australia and the multiskilling programs for Medical Radiation Practitioners. Winning the NSW Health Baxter’s Quality Awards in 2004 and was the Finalist of 3 other quality and innovation projects. He is currently working on a new project, MR Screening – The New Paradigm.

He had been a guest speaker at local and international conferences such as the Health Round Table 2015.

Dr Sue Ellen McKelvey has worked as a clinician in multi-disciplinary teams for over 30 years, and has developed and managed a franchise business of integrative healthcare models. As founder of the healthcare delivery IT platform ‘Visual Outcomes’ 8 years ago, and as CEO, she is passionate about what it offers to healthcare here in Australia and in the USA. This is a platform that values relationships in healthcare, allowing greater expression of quality in healthcare outcomes. Access is given to a broader level of data capture than that required in basic delivery of the processes in healthcare. It is focused on ambulatory settings; not currently used for any hospital-based healthcare delivery systems.

In 2012, Sue-Ellen was granted her PhD in a team oriented clinical research based study of the approach to chronic illness in individuals. The patients used self-monitoring with a care team including medical and non-medical approaches in their healthcare program.

Visual Outcomes, as a healthcare platform, has always valued the patient. The patient is online and interactive, a foundation block built into the database from commencement of the original modelling. Sue-Ellen calls patients ‘clients’; advocating that they be more active in their own healthcare outcomes.

Sue-Ellen is enjoying the focus on value- based care emerging in healthcare systems around the world. Today she is contributing to the discussion on remote healthcare management models; and how this can be useful for all the stakeholders in healthcare.

Tanya Felton is Telstra’s Global Industries healthcare leader. Her healthcare background has focused on technology and she has a passion for smarter, connected hospitals and health systems. Joining Telstra in 2011, Tanya works with customers to create innovative solutions to solve the challenges of delivering health services in complex environments. Most recently, she undertook a Design Thinking project with Australia’s largest not for profit health care provider to understand and enable better care.

Carmel Kennedy has over 20 years’ experience in management roles, 15 of those years in senior management positions within the private hospital sector. Carmel completed her General Nursing Certificate, RNSH in Sydney in 1985. She then undertook a Post Graduate nursing certificate in spinal cord injuries at the NSW College of Nursing which she completed in 1987. In 1995 she completed her Masters in Business Administration at Wollongong University. In the same year, Carmel became Deputy Director of Nursing at Southern Highlands Private Hospital. She then moved to Westmead Private Hospital as the Clinical Services Manager. In 2004 she was promoted to the role of Director of Clinical Services.

Following her time at Westmead Private Hospital, she transitioned to Mt Wilga Rehabilitation Hospital where she was employed as both the Director of Clinical Services and CEO. Carmel has been the Director Clinical Service at Macquarie University Hospital since March 2012 where she worked closely with the team to be one of the first Hospitals to achieve accreditation against all 10 of the NSQHS standards.

Amith, an Emergency physician by training is the director of Westmead Emergency Medical Research Unit at Westmead Hospital and an Honorary Research fellow at the Westmead Institue for Medical Research. Recently appointed as Clinical lead for the hospital in the home initiative for WSLHD, he is also a Senior Lecturer at Sydney Medical School. Amith has been active in ED research fields of critical illness, sepsis and models of care delivery. He has coordinated the development of Sydney Multicentre Emergency Department Sepsis Archive, working closely with local, state and national bodies on Healthcare initiatives for creation of sepsis care networks. With multiple sepsis related publications currently underway, Amith’s background knowledge and research in healthcare delivery, training in leading information technology initiatives and experience with systems overseas and local experience in research into models of care and healthcare performance provide him the insight into the challenges and prospects for use of big data in future research and guidelines development.

Joanne is a highly experienced Health Informatician who has expertise in a wide range of areas. Specializing in patient journey modeling she has significant experience in managing healthcare improvement/ transformation projects involving both technical and clinical stakeholders using various technologies and involving complex organizational cultures. Joanne was responsible for designing the integration of four disparate clinical services into one integrated patient journey for the recently opened North West Cancer Centre in Tamworth NSW.

André Jenkins graduated with an Honours Degree in Psychology and worked in Mental Health Information Development for 10 years in Tasmania, South Australia and NSW before joining the Clinical Excellence Commission (CEC) in 2005 as Director of Information Management.

André is now leading CEC’s Analytics Strategy which will provide strategic insights into health outcomes, preferences, behaviours and system performance to enable informed decision in near real time. The strategy aligns with the NSW Health Analytics Strategy.

As CIO of CEC, André also leads the organisation’s Information Management and Information, Communications and Technology programs. He has also been responsible for the development of CEC’s Chartbook and then eChartbook programs and the initial establishment of the CEC’s CHASM program.

He has co-authored papers on using data to support healthcare improvement and is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Australian Institute of Healthcare Innovation at Macquarie University.

Chris Giles is a senior executive with considerable experience leading and managing regional, rural and remote health services.

Chris has a strong clinical background as a nurse then midwife, which have proven very valuable in her recent executive roles. These executive roles include working in health care organisations in Western Australia, Victoria and Queensland.

Currently Chris is the Chief Executive Officer of Portland District Health in South West Victoria, prior to this she spent three years living in the Torres Strait working as a District CEO for Queensland Health.

Chris has championed clinical informatics in each of her last three executive roles seeing and demonstrating in each the vital role good clinical systems have in sharing information to improve patient care and safety across a range of settings.

At Portland District Health this has included the implementation of an electronic medication management system as part of the organisations journey towards a full patient electronic health record.

Stella is the inaugural Executive Director Allied Health for Canterbury DHB and also the West Coast DHB. This role provides strategic leadership and professional support for allied health, technical and scientific clinical staff in hospitals and community services. As part of the Executive management team Stella works in partnership with the Executive Director of Nursing and Chief Medical Officer to provide advice to the Board and management on clinical governance and clinical standards.

Stella trained as a speech language therapist and has worked in the public health system, private practice, education and welfare. Since moving to Allied Health leadership roles Stella has been involved in fostering excellence in clinical standards, research and innovation, quality and patient safety.

As part of the Executive Management Teams of West Coast and Canterbury DHBs, Stella has a number of Executive Portfolios that include the Christchurch Health Precinct; Digital Health System and Health Innovation (Via Innovations Executive Director) which sees her act as the Commercial relationship manager for the Strategic Partnerships with Orion Health; Hewlett Packard and GE Healthcare.

In terms of governance roles Stella is the Chair of the West Coast Clinical Board and the West Coast Alliance Leadership Team; Health Workforce New Zealand Board member and a Trustee of the World Buskers Festival.

Stella believes it is essential in health leadership to have a ‘global view’ and is always delighted to have the opportunity to meet with and share learning with health and related industry leaders from across the globe.

Maz Khan has over 30 years of experience in the Australian healthcare industry as well as subcontinent, Middle East and the UK.

Maz has worked with many well known multinational pharmaceutical and healthcare companies in Australia namely Baxter, Lilly, Aventis and Wyeth. He contributed to these companies in various capacities in operations, sales & marketing and market research management.

In his last role as Director and the Head of Healthcare Division of Frost & Sullivan in Australia, he has advised clients on pipeline development, strategy, policy and new business ventures of pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical devices companies in Australia and Asia Pacific.

His strengths lie in an in-depth understanding of healthcare markets across many continents, from operation management, sales and marketing, management of business intelligence and sales force effectiveness functions as well as market research and its execution in the healthcare industry. This provides him with a sound basis and ability to guide companies on the adoption of methodologies and study designs to suit individualized specifications and needs.

Maz is also a qualified moderator and trainer and has conducted workshops in healthcare marketing and market research for clients as well as those new to the industry. He is a qualified practicing market researcher (QPMR) and a member of AMSRS.

Professor Robert Adams, MBBS, FRACP, FRCP (London), MD is a specialist respiratory and general physician with extensive experience in public health, clinical epidemiology and health services research. He completed post-doctoral training at the Channing Laboratory, Harvard Medical School and is currently appointed as Professor in the Discipline of Medicine at The University of Adelaide. Prof Adams has extensive experience with large population based cohort studies. He has designed and successfully implemented trials in the diagnosis and management of asthma, health service improvement and initiated cohort studies in mental health patients. He has been CI on NHMRC and ARC projects that examine health ageing in relation to obesity, and spatial epidemiology of metabolic health. He has authored 173 peer-reviewed publications in journals and books. Prof Adams has also contributed to health system safety research and practice. He led the TeamSTEPPS teamwork training program at SA Health and is a member of the board of the Australian Patient Safety Foundation. He was the Inaugural Chair of the SA Health Literacy Alliance. He is a member of the Translational Methods Sub-committee of the newly formed South Australian Advanced Health and Research Translation Centre, one of the four recognized nationally by the NHMRC.

Mark has degrees in science, economics, commerce and a PhD in psychology, and 25 years of experience in the application of multi-disciplinary applied research projects in various industries, including the health sector. One of his areas of interest is the application of data and modelling to improve decision-making, particularly in the health sector.

He convenes Cumberland.au (a collaboration interested in systems thinking, design thinking and health care modelling) and is a recipient of the Premier’s International Research Fund grant, which has facilitated a number of modelling projects including the RACH ICU and General Medicine Departments. Mark is also involved in implementing concept-mapping based research in educational improvement and aged care with researchers from UniSA and the University of Adelaide. Additionally, he is a director of a consulting company.

A Senior Emergency Specialist at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, Patrick trained in medicine at University College London before moving to Australia to pursue an interest in Emergency Medicine. Having worked in New South Wales, Darwin and Victoria he became a Fellow of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine in 2008. Shortly after, he settled in Adelaide and enjoys working in a department which sees a large number of high acuity patients. Special interests include resuscitation, medical cognition and error, ultrasound, teaching, and the use of technology in medicine. A degree in Social Psychology from the London School of Economics continues to prove useful in his clinical work and in helping institute and manage change. Patrick also has an academic appointment at the University of Adelaide.

Simon commenced his career as a nurse in Melbourne working through multiple specialties before concentrating on the Critical Care area. After many years of experience in the clinical arena, Simon transferred into the corporate environment where he became involved in the development and implementation of cutting edge technology. Being an integral part of global product development teams, Simon has implemented new innovations into the ANZ region whilst successfully completing multiple Operating Theatre Digital Integration projects. Now, as Director of the newly formed Integrated Workflow Solutions business unit at Getinge, Simon continues to work at the forefront of ground breaking development to support the ongoing quest in the development of clinical best practice principles.

Ari Palandjian has 20 years IT experience, and has turned his attention to creating end to end desktop virtualization solutions that can be implemented into multiple industries. With the powerhouse of Dell, Cloud Client-Computing is able to create an in-house tailor made solution.

Martin has over 12 years experience in health portfolio supporting markets in Asia, Europe and North America. In his current role at SAP, he is responsible for defining and driving SAP’s healthcare strategy across Asia Pacific, supporting market units in sales, enabling strategic innovations for HANA, mobile and cloud use cases. Martin works with different customers including Public Sector, public and private hospitals/hospital groups, defense organisations and regional health providers. Most recently health strategy discussions include customers from aged care industry and research centres to address current challenges in health delivery and the future of digital health. Martin holds a masters degree in Medical Informatics of the University of Heidelberg, Germany, and University of Utah, United States.

As Senior Manager of Systems Engineering at Nutanix’s Australia and New Zealand business, Carlo is responsible for building and leading the company’s sales and system engineering teams in the region.

With more than 17 years’ experience in the technology industry, Carlo is an expert in datacentre management and virtualiation, and is passionate about helping businesses in all industries realise and unlock the power of IT.

Prior to joining Nutanix, Carlo worked with a number of leading tech companies and providers, including Dell, Ingram Micro and Dimension Data. He holds many awards and certifications recognising the impact he has had throughout his career.

Darren Ashley is a virtualisation veteran. Having founded the first ever distributor of VMware products in the UK in 2001, Darren led the virtualisation charge, transforming the company into the most successful VMware partner in EMEA, awarded 2004, 2005, 2006. Moving to Australia in 2007, Darren founded a new entity, BEarena. His latest venture has grown into focused stable of technology talent, bringing vendors such as Veeam in 2009, and Nutanix in 2012 to ANZ.

Barbara MacKenzie delivers next generation digital solutions to AHCL’s highly respected and awarded private hospital group located in Sydney, Australia.

She has led SAH’s technology infrastructure and operations teams through an exciting era of digital technology adoption over the past 15 years. Barbara has successfully delivered a digitally enabled major hospital redevelopment at SAH’s 113 year old Wahroonga campus.

Barbara regularly delivers presentations on Sydney Adventist Hospital’s inspirational digital journey at Digital Health Technology conferences in Australia and Asia. She thrives on the many new challenges presented by this era of digital transformation in Healthcare.

Andrew Timms is the APAC sales director for Paessler AG, developers of PRTG Network Monitor. Andrew has been in the IT industry for over 20 years and has worked with many health care providers across Europe and APAC. He started his career in the UK working for a large US reseller and was responsible for many hospital IT upgrades from Servers to software. Now he works with Paessler to not only develop the channel but to also educate Australia on the wonders of monitoring and how it can make work easier, save money and ultimately save lives.

Thesan Naidu is NSW Healthcare Technology Specialist at Peacock Bros, one of the ANZ region’s largest providers of identification, tracking and mobility solutions. Prior to joining Peacock Bros, he worked in communication technologies for both public and private hospital and aged care groups. With over 20 years of industry experience, including being an accomplished ICT trainer, he has a passion for delivering technology platforms and tools that empower better healthcare delivery.