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.

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.

Mr Jalil is a neurosurgeon with  a special interest in minimally invasive and endoscopic spine surgery, cerebrovascular disorders and brain tumours. He completed a subspecialty fellowship in Canada and underwent further training in the United States to refine his surgical techniques to improve his patients’ outcomes. Mr Jalil has received extensive training in endoscopic spine surgery including from the United States, Asia and Australia. He successfully completed the first uniportal endoscopic spinal surgery in Victoria and is one of the most experienced endoscopic spinal surgeons in Victoria.

Having obtained his medical degree from the University of Melbourne in 2010, Mr Jalil undertook his neurosurgical training at several major hospitals in Melbourne and Sydney – including St Vincent’s Hospital, Austin Hospital, The Alfred, St George Hospital, Royal Melbourne Hospital and Royal Children Hospital. Upon being awarded his fellowship from the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, the University of Toronto granted Mr Jalil a subspecialty training position in complex spine surgery as part of a joint Neurosurgery and Orthopaedic program at St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, Canada.  

In addition to his practice, Mr Jalil is actively involved in the teaching of neurosurgery registrars, residents and medical students

Dr Michelle Kahn is a senior neurological physiotherapist with over 15 years of clinical experience. She was awarded her PhD in 2021 and continues to combine clinical practice with research as a Research Fellow of the University of Melbourne. Clinically, Michelle works in the inpatient brain injury and neurorehabilitation teams at Epworth HealthCare and leads the Epworth Gait Clinic which she established in 2023. Her main clinical and research areas of interest are gait disorders and spasticity after neurological injury, topics on which she has numerous publications and regularly delivers professional development training and conference presentations.

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 Hannah Rosenfeld is a general neurologist who manages patients with a broad range of neurological issues including headache, dizziness, multiple sclerosis, seizures and Parkinson’s Disease.

Mr Jeremy Russell is an Australian trained neurosurgeon who manages all general neurosurgical conditions.

He has subspecialty expertise in both cerebrovascular and skull base neurosurgery, having obtained fellowships in both areas at the Toronto Western Hospital in Canada over a period of two years under world renowned neurosurgeons Prof Michael Tymianski and Prof Fred Gentili respectively.

Mr Russell uses the latest in imaging techniques, including Stealth Neuronavigation, functional MRI and cerebrovascular reactivity testing in formulating decisions for treating patient conditions and planning their surgeries.

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.

Dr Mina Ghaly is a movement disorders and general neurologist. He undertook extensive training in the field of movement disorders at St Vincent's Hospital, and in Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and worked with expert DBS neurologists in Melbourne and overseas. Dr Ghaly is one of a few neurologists globally who uses high intensity focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) to treat tremors, Parkinson's disease and other movement disorders. 

He has a special interest in Parkinson's disease pathology, and the use of Device Assisted Therapy (DAT) such as Duodopa, Apomorphine and advanced neuromodulation technology (DBS and MRgFUS). He also uses Botulinum toxin injection (Botox)to treat his patients.

Dr Ghaly also consults in a range of neurological conditions such as stroke, epilepsy, headache, diseases of the peripheral nerves and muscles, multiple sclerosis and vertigo.

Keith Gomes underwent subspecialty training in complex spine surgery in the UK. He also has subspecialty training in stereotactic and functional neurosurgery in Canada. He is a Lecturer at Monash University and has public appointments at the Alfred Hospital, Eastern Health and Austin.

Mr Gomes' interests include complex spine surgery, neuro-oncology and functional neurosurgery. He also has an interest in traumatic brain injury and consults at the Acquired Brain Injury Unit, Caulfield Hospital. He is a member of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and Neurosurgical Society of Australasia.

Dr Paul Talman is a neurologist. He completed his medical degree in 1982 at Monash University. Paul was admitted to fellowship of the Royal Australian College of Physicians in 1991 and completed his Ph.D. at the University of Melbourne in 1995. 

In 2004 Paul Talman initiated the Australian MND Registry bringing together the leading clinical neurologists from around Australia to design and build a national registry for MND. Since that time this group has developed a web based data collection system which has registered and followed over 2,500 MND patients and published on disease phenotypes and key stages in disease progression and survival.

Mr Andrew Gogos is a neurosurgeon and spine surgeon based in Melbourne. He is an expert in brain tumour and cranial surgery, having completed a prestigious brain tumour fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) focusing on brain mapping and minimally invasive techniques. Andrew is passionate about providing individualised care utilising the latest technologies and minimally invasive techniques to improve outcomes for his patients.

He has a special interest in treating patients with brain tumours (including glioma, pituitary tumours, schwannoma, meningioma and metastases), trigeminal neuralgia and Chiari malformation. He has advance training in awake brain surgery, brain mapping and endoscopic techniques.

In addition, Andrew is experienced in the latest minimally invasive techniques for the treatment of spine conditions, including, sciatica, disc protrusions, spondylolisthesis and tumours.

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.

Sara Issak is a senior clinician physiotherapist in neurological rehabilitation, and has worked across rehabilitation and acute settings in Melbourne and London. She currently works in outpatient neurological rehabilitation at Epworth HealthCare, and the Epworth FND clinic. Sara is currently completing her PhD, at the University of Melbourne, investigating the characteristics of gait disorders in people with FND.

Dr Moksh Sethi is an epilepsy specialist with expertise and special interest in seeing patients with seizure disorders.

He completed his neurology training at the Austin and St Vincent's hospitals, and then completed a clinical epilepsy fellowship at the Austin Hospital. He works as a consultant neurologist at Eastern and Northern Health. He specializes in the assessment and management of patients who have a suspected or confirmed first seizure, as well as those diagnosed with epilepsy or seizure disorders.