A/Prof Amanda Gilligan is Director of Neurosciences at Epworth Eastern Medical Centre and Director of the Epworth Neurosciences Clinical Institute. She is a consultant neurologist with a specialist interest in stroke medicine and ongoing associations with teaching and research projects, particularly in stroke therapies.

She graduated from Monash University in 1989 with honours and she completed her clinical training in neurology at the Royal Melbourne and the Austin Medical Centres. Her first research position was as the clinical coordinator for the first thrombolysis trial for acute stroke in Australia in 1992. With a NH&MRC postgraduate scholarship, she completed her PhD at the National Stroke Research Institute (now part of the Florey Institute) exploring the opportunities to treat acute stroke patients with multiple modalities, across Australia. She has subsequently been involved in many acute and secondary prevention trials for stroke patients.

She has played a key role in the development of neurology services at Box Hill, in the Eastern suburbs of Melbourne. Inspired by her sabbatical leave with Professor Pierre Amarenco at Bichat University, Paris, France in 2011, she has been energetically promoting new ways to provide the rapid access to urgent medical care for patients with stroke and TIA. She has ongoing affiliations with Monash and Melbourne Universities and Austin Health.

In 2016, she was appointed as Director of the Neurosciences Unit at Epworth Eastern, and developed a specialised rapid TIA assessment service. In 2018, she was appointed as Epworth Neurosciences Clinical Institute Director, to provide leadership in clinical services, research and education across the 11 Epworth sites.

Richard Blazé is a neurologist with a subspecialty interest in movement disorders including Parkinson's disease, tremor disorders and dystonia. He has assisted in the development of novel technologies to use in the diagnosis and treatment of Parkinson's disease. In addition to implementing deviceassisted therapies such as deep brain stimulation, Dr. Blazé utilises botulinum toxin treatments for patients with dystonia, facial spasms and chronic migraine.

Dr Andrew Evans trained at the Royal Melbourne, Western Hospitals and the Kingston Centre. He spent over 4 years in a movement disorders fellowship at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, London, UK. Dr Evans is the current director of the Movement Disorders Service at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. He has published extensively on the disease particularly addressing symptoms that impact on the quality of life of sufferers and heads a number of clinical research trials. In addition to his research, he is also a member of the Melbourne Health Ethics Committee. Dr Evans visits public and private hospitals in central Melbourne, including The Royal Melbourne Hospital and Epworth Richmond.

Mr Girish Nair is a neurosurgeon with interests in brain and spine tumours and surgical treatment for degenerative disease, deformities and trauma of the spine. He has completed fellowships in Functional Neurosurgery (surgical treatment for Parkinson's disease, Essential Tremor, Dystonia) and a Royal College accredited combined Ortho and Neuro Spine Fellowship. Mr Nair offers minimally invasive surgical techniques when appropriate and as indicated. He is the first neurosurgeon in the world to implant stem cells as part of a clinical trial which is ongoing at The Royal Melbourne Hospital.

Dr Kerry O'Meara is a Rehabilitation physician with a special interest in multi trauma orthopaedic and Head injury neurological rehabilitation and is the current Acting Director of Medical Services, Rehabilitation, at Epworth HealthCare.

Dr Neda Haghighi is an experienced radiation oncologist at Icon Cancer Centre Richmond and Icon Cancer Centre Holmesglen. She has superior knowledge in the management and treatment of brain and spinal tumours and has completed an extended fellowship in intracranial and extracranial stereotactic radiation therapy.

Dr Haghighi maintains a strong interest in clinical research relating to stereotactic treatment of CNS conditions and oligometastatic disease. She is the primary investigator; co-investigator and trial management committee member of several clinical trials in the field of CNS-related malignancies at Icon Cancer Centre and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.

She is an active member of  Trans Tasmanian Radiation Oncology Group (TROG), Cooperative Trials Group for Neuro-Oncology (COGNO) and International Society of Radiosurgery (ISRS) and is a committee member on several CNS-related interest groups. She has a special interest in radiosurgery for the treatment of benign base of skull conditions as well as functional neurological disorders. Dr Haghighi has published journal articles relating to stereotactic radiotherapy and has been an invited speaker at conferences and meetings relating to intracranial conditions and radiosurgery. She has written several of the departmental protocols relating to stereotactic radiation therapy treatment of benign and malignant conditions.

Mr Nick Hall specialises in the treatment of patients with complex, skull base tumours, trigeminal neuralgia and minimally invasive spinal surgery and general neurosurgery. Trained as a neurosurgeon in the UK, Mr Hall moved to Melbourne in 2005, where he has provided care of patients with brain and spinal conditions. Mr Hall treats many patients with acoustic neuromas and meningiomas.

Assoc. Prof Phal is an experienced consultant radiologist, with subspecialty expertise in brain, ENT and spine imaging, and is the CEO of Epworth Medical Imaging.

Assoc. Prof Phal graduated from the University of Melbourne in 1996 and completed specialisation in radiology at the Austin Hospital in 2003, followed by two years of fellowship training in musculoskeletal and neuroradiology at Oregon Health and Science University, USA. Prior to joining Epworth Medical Imaging, A/Prof Phal worked as a consultant radiologist at the Royal Melbourne Hospital for more than nine years.

Assoc. Prof Phal has a strong education and research focus.  He has published more than 50 peer reviewed articles and is an examiner for the Royal Australian and NZ College of Radiologists (RANZCR). A/Prof Phal holds an academic appointment at the University of Melbourne, where he teaches and mentors medical students and the next generation of radiologists.

Dr Ayesha Saqib is a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP). She completed her Medical Oncology Specialist training at Royal Melbourne Hospital and St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne. She has keen interest in management of breast cancer, hepatobiliary and GI cancer, Lung cancer and Neuro-oncology. She is passionate about providing her patients with an exceptional standard of care. She believes in latest evidence based approach for her oncology patients. She regularly attend national and international Oncology conferences with active participation to enhance her knowledge of new modality of treatment available across the world. Her aim is to improve patient outcome by incorporating novel agents and new treatment modalities in day to day cancer patient management.

Dr Michael Eller is a neurologist with subspecialty training in headache neurology and movement disorders. He also maintains an interest in indigenous health and tropical medicine. He has previously worked as a visiting specialist at Monash Medical Centre and Royal Darwin Hospital, and currently at Monash Neurology.

In 2003 he completed a degree in medicine from the University of Sydney. Postgraduate training was conducted at Royal Melbourne Hospital, Royal Darwin Hospital and The Alfred Hospital. Subsequent neurology training was undertaken at Monash Medical Centre and the Alfred Hospital after which he was admitted as a Fellow to the Royal Australian College of Physicians. He completed a Movement Disorder Fellowship at the Alfred Hospital. In 2009 he worked as a doctor in Vunapope, Papua New Guinea, with Australian Volunteers International.

In 2012-2014, Dr Eller was on faculty at University California San Francisco, attached to the UCSF Headache Centre under Professor Peter Goadsby. He conducted clinical and functional neuroimaging research in this capacity, as well as maintaining a headache clinic.

Dr Eller has published a book chapter and several clinical and scientific papers in high quality peer reviewed medical journals. His published topics include progressive supranuclear palsy, the use if biomarkers in parkinsonism, the utility of imaging in headache, the trigeminal autonomic cephalalgias (TACs), and visual snow. 

Dr Eller specialises in the management of movement disorders such as Parkinson disease, essential tremor, progressive supranuclear palsy, multiple system atrophy, dystonia and other neurodegenerative disorders. He is  expert in administering injection treatments for cervical dystonia, blepharospasm and hemifacial spasm. 

Dr Eller also specialises in the management of headache disorders such as migraine and TACs such as cluster headache. This includes the administration of injections for treatment migraine and the TACs. He is able to perform  injections for axillary hyperhidrosis. He also manages other general neurological disorders such as vertigo, cognitive problems, multiple sclerosis, neuropathy and epilepsy.

Professor Richard Gerraty is a neurologist with a sub-specialty interest in stroke and has had a long interest in the clinical aspects of spinal cord stroke. He did his MD on the perioperative stroke risk of carotid stenosis in cardiac and vascular surgery. He was the founding neurologist-director of the Acute Stroke Unit at St Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne and has also worked in stroke at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and the Alfred Hospital. He has been involved in pharma and investigator driven stroke trials in Melbourne. He was a member of the Leadership Group of the Department of Health’s Victorian Stroke Clinical Network, and was the Victorian chairman of the Australasian Stroke Unit Network. He is a neurologist in the Victorian Stroke Telemedicine (VST) program and a member of the VST Medical Working Group. He is a member of the Safer Care Victoria Stroke Clinical Network Reperfusion Monitoring Committee.

He continues his own research in vestibular and stroke medicine at Epworth HealthCare where he is the Stroke Service Medical Coordinator.

Dr Bernard Infeld graduated with his MBBS from the University of Melbourne in 1986, completing his Neurology training in Melbourne in 1998. Bernie completed his PhD in stroke medicine at the University of Melbourne in 1999 while working at the Western Hospital. Bernie worked at Royal Melbourne Hospital as a neurologist and in the Stroke Service from 1999 until 2004. He has worked at Epworth HealthCare since 2000 and was the Director of the Stroke Service from 2001 until 2010.

Mr Christopher Thien graduated from Monash University with honours in 1985. After his internship at the Alfred Hospital, he spent two years working in surgical research for the Alfred Hospital Department of Surgery and Monash University. This was followed by three years of general surgery resident and registrar positions. He commenced neurosurgery training in 1992 and completed this in 1995, becoming a Fellow of the Royal Australian college of Surgeons. Mr Thien manages all neurosurgical conditions, both cranial and spinal. He has a special interest in neurovascular surgery as well as intracranial tumours and epilepsy. The focus of his spinal surgery is a minimally invasive approach and he is well experienced in reconstructive spinal surgery.

A/Prof Yi Yang is a Melbourne trained spine and scoliosis surgeon specialising in the care of the spine in both children and adults. His focus is purely on the spine, ranging from paediatric conditions such as scoliosis to traumatic and degenerative conditions in adults.

After completing his medical degree and orthopaedic fellowship in Melbourne, Yi has completed prestigious spine fellowships in California and Toronto. Whilst overseas, Yi gained extensive experience in the latest techniques in spine surgery, including computer navigation and robotic surgery, minimally invasive spinal surgery, tethering for scoliosis and the latest techniques of deformity correction for both children and adults.

Yi has recently presented at multiple meetings, published in international journals and completed a book chapter on spinal conditions. These include tethering for scoliosis, biomechanical spine studies and the management of spinal cord injuries.

A/Prof Yang has public appointments at the Royal Children’s Hospital and Royal Melbourne Hospital where he focuses solely on treating spinal disorders.