Speakers

Chris is passionate about improving health care outcomes for all South Australians, and delivering improved services and opportunities for people in his southern suburbs electorate.

Chris has previously served as Minister for Police, Correctional Services, Emergency Services and Road Safety, Assistant Minister to the Treasurer and Convenor of SA Labor’s Policy Platform Committee.

Before election to Parliament he served as Adviser and Chief of Staff to the federal former Health Minister and Attorney-General, Nicola Roxon, as Chief of Staff to former SA Health Minister John Hill and as an Associate Director at Deloitte Access Economics. His areas of policy work included tobacco plain packaging and national public hospital funding reforms.

He was educated at public schools in Adelaide and graduated from Flinders University with a Bachelor of Laws and Legal Practice and a Bachelor of Arts.

Chris is the lucky husband to Connie and proud dad of two young kids. When has free time he enjoys walking his dog on the beach, taking his kids to the playground, volunteer surf life saving at Moana and barracking for the Crows.

Norman co-hosts RN’s Health Report and during the COVID-19 pandemic, has co-hosted Coronacast, a podcast on the coronavirus.  Norman is also a reporter and commentator on ABC’s 7.30, Midday, News Breakfast and Four Corners and a guest host on RN Breakfast. He is a past winner of the Gold Walkley and has won other Walkleys including one with his Coronacast colleagues in 2020. He created Invisible Enemies, on pandemics and civilisation for Channel 4 UK and SBS which was subsequently broadcast in 27 countries.?Norman has been awarded the medal of the Australian Academy of Science, an honorary MD from the University of Sydney and in October 2022 a Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences.

During COVID he wrote two books. So You Think You Know What’s Good For You (Hachette) is a best seller and was released in the UK.  His latest book So You Want To Live Younger Longer has also been on the best-seller list.

Norman trained in medicine and pediatrics in Aberdeen, London and Sydney before joining the ABC. 

A professor of Anaesthesia at the University of Adelaide and Royal Adelaide Hospital, Professor Guy Ludbrook practices in the public and private sectors, and perioperative medicine as the medical lead at Royal Adelaide’s postoperative Advanced Recovery Room Care unit (ARRC). 

Guy’s research background is in anaesthesia, pharmacology, health systems, and health economics, with a PhD in pharmacology, and an MSc in health economics from LSE. He has been published extensively in peer-reviewed literature, and has received approximately $25M in research funding. 

Guy is a Director of PARC Clinical Research, an early phase clinical trials unit which manages around 20 academic and industry clinical trials each year. He is involved in regulation of therapeutic goods through roles with the TGA, and safety and quality though roles with ANZCA.

Associate Professor Tarik Sammour is a colorectal surgeon with a specific interest in colorectal surgical oncology, complex pelvic malignancy, and robotics.

He became a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) in 2012. Following this, he undertook two years of accredited post-fellowship training in colorectal surgery at Royal Melbourne Hospital and the Royal Adelaide Hospital as part of the Colorectal Surgical Society of Australia and New Zealand (CSSANZ) accredited training program.

He then travelled to the United States and spent an additional fellowship year at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston training in advanced colorectal surgical oncology under the mentorship of leading surgeons in the field.

Tarik Sammour holds an Associate Professor of Surgery position at the University of Adelaide, and a full-time public appointment in the Colorectal Unit at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. His private practice is based at St Andrew's Hospital.

Tarik has authored over 200 peer reviewed publications in surgical journals and 8 book chapters. Having completed a PhD in Surgery in 2011, he continues to pursue an active research program, focusing specifically on clinical trials to improve patient outcomes after colorectal surgery.

Research program details can be found here: https://www.colorectalresearch.org/

His full list of publications can be found here: https://goo.gl/4BX1zm

Ben Harris is the Director Policy and Research at Private Healthcare Australia. An economist by training, Ben has worked for many years in health and social policy roles for government and the not for profit sector. He is also the author of a number of policy papers, including Is Medicare Fair? and Australia’s Mental and Physical Health Tracker.

Conjoint Associate Professor Carolyn Hullick was appointed Acting Chief Medical Officer in March 2023 and has been a Clinical Director at the Commission since March 2021.

A/Professor Hullick is associated with projects focused on aged care, transitions of care and the appropriate use of antipsychotics. She is also closely involved with sepsis identification and management.

A/Professor Hullick is an Emergency Physician in Newcastle, New South Wales. She is a Harkness Fellow having spent 12 months at Weill Cornell Medical School in New York, investigating care for older people in emergency departments. With this expertise in geriatric emergency medicine, she has developed a program to support acutely unwell residents in residential aged care facilities and has geriatric emergency medicine leadership roles with the Australasian College and the International Federation for Emergency Medicine.

A/Professor Hullick recognises that vulnerable and complex older people need a health system which collaborates, communicates and places people and their families at the centre of care.

Dr Chris Moy is a General Practitioner from Adelaide. His specific interests include aged care, palliative care and health communication systems.

He has participated in many initiatives related to aged and end-of-life care including the Expert Advisory Panel of the SA Advance Directives Review and the SA Health End of Life Decision Making Project – with the latter developing the Resuscitation Plan-7 Step Pathway which is the standardised end of life clinical plan used across SA. He recently completed the role of Chair of the SA Voluntary Assisted Dying Implementation Taskforce.

The key aspiration of making a patient’s Advance Care Directive available alongside their health information at the point of care led Chris to significant involvement in the development of digital health in Australia and, in particular, the My Health Record, telehealth and electronic prescribing.

Chris recently completed a role as Federal Australian Medical Association Vice-President and, prior to this, was Chair of the Federal AMA Ethics and Medico-legal Committee for 4 years. He also recently completed a term as AMA South Australia President.

His knowledge of health systems, ethics and how health policy intersects with politics became important in his recent leadership roles where he became involved in significant policy, political and media roles during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr Danielle McMullen is the Vice President of the Australian Medical Association and a General Practitioner. She has demonstrated skills in leadership, and effectively engaging decision-makers to deliver strategic policy objectives. She has also shown herself to be a trusted voice of the medical profession in the media.

Clinically, Danielle has an interest in women’s health and family planning, mental health, and doctors’ health. She brings that lens of caring for people across their lifespan to her advocacy work. She has been a valued participant in recent projects including TGA opioid reforms, COVID-19 management in NSW and the Strengthening Medicare Taskforce. Danielle is committed to helping build a connected healthcare system of the future, where digital tools help support clinicians deliver best-practice care to their patients.

David A Scott MB, BS, PhD, FANZCA, FFPMANZCA, FCAI, is Chair of the Victorian Perioperative Consultative Council, Professor, Department of Critical Care, School of Medicine, University of Melbourne, and a senior anaesthetist and past Director in the Department of Anaesthesia and Acute Pain Medicine at St. Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne. He is a Chief Investigator for the PROTECT trial investigating perioperative optimisation for improved cognitive outcomes. He is past President of ANZCA and past chair of the ANZCA Safety and Quality committee.

David Story; MBBS, MD, BMedSci, DipPOM, FANZCA is Professor of Anaesthesia and Head of the Department of Critical Care at the University of Melbourne; and Vice President of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA). His main research interest is clinically and cost-effective approaches to reduce perioperative risk, complications, disability, and mortality.

David Watters AM, OBE, ChM FRCSEd, FRACS is Alfred Deakin Professor of Surgery at Deakin University in Geelong, Victoria, Australia. He specialises in general, colorectal and endocrine surgery but is also actively engaged in advocating for global surgery. During his career, he spent almost 20 years in developing countries including Papua New Guinea (Professor of Surgery, 1992-2000), Hong Kong (1991), Zambia (1985-90) and South Africa (1982-84).

Recently he was appointed to the role of Director of Surgery at Safer Care Victoria (SCV) in July 2022 to lead a Perioperative Learning Health Network within their Centres of Clinical Excellence Program. He is committed to improving perioperative care before, during and after surgery and working with all the disciplines involved across the whole patient journey. He has just completed a three-year term as Chair of the inaugural Victorian Perioperative Consultative Council (2019 -2022) and still provides support and advice to the Council.

He is a Past President of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (2015- 2016), having spent nine years on their Council from 2007.  He has been Professor of Surgery for Barwon Health and the University Hospital Geelong since 2000, initially with the University of Melbourne (2000-2010), before Deakin University opened its own Graduate Medical School in Western Victoria (2011-).

He is an Edinburgh University graduate, and in addition to the FRACS, a fellow of the Edinburgh, Hong Kong, and East Central and Southern Africa Colleges of Surgeons, a Life Member of the Medical Society of Papua New Guinea (2017) and Honorary Member of the Asian Surgical Association (2015). His research interests, in addition to global health, include surgical audit and performance, surgical outcomes, perioperative mortality, and surgical history. He has over 200 peer reviewed publications, and he has published 6 books, four on Clinical Care in the Tropics and two on Surgical History: Stitches in Time - Two centuries of Surgery in Papua New Guinea (Xlibris, 2012) and Anzac Surgeons of Gallipoli (RACS 2015). 

In recognition of his contribution to surgery and surgical training in PNG he was awarded the OBE (2012). Within the Order of Australia, he was awarded the AM for “significant service to Medicine and Medical Education and Leadership Roles with Professional Organisations” (2018 Queen’s Birthday Honours.) Deakin University appointed him the title of Alfred Deakin Professor in August 2016. He is a Rotary Paul Harris Fellow (Port Moresby, 2000), on the Editorial Board for the World Journal of Surgery, and a Senior Editor for the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Surgery.

Dr Deveny is an experienced and well-respected senior executive with a strong commitment to providing sustainable health outcomes for all Australians, and a demonstrated ability to build and maintain positive, productive partnerships with key stakeholders and the broader community. 

Dr Deveny is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Consumers Health Forum. Elizabeth is also the current Chair of the Australian Digital Health Agency. Dr Elizabeth Deveny's recent roles include CEO of South Eastern Melbourne PHN, CEO of Bayside Medical Local and Chair of Southern Metropolitan Partnership. 

She holds a masters in vocational health education and a PhD in Medicine (clinical decision support development), both from Melbourne University. 

Elizabeth Deveny MEd PhD (she/her)
Chief Executive Officer 

Ellen Rawstron is the Executive Director, PRISM at the Agency for Clinical Innovation.

Ellen joined the ACI in 2010 and has worked extensively across clinical networks, project management and in senior leadership roles across the organisation. Her previous experience encompasses supporting clinical training programs at the NSW Institute of Medical Education and Training (now the Health and Education Training Institute) and at the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care. Ellen has worked in health for 14 years and is passionate about partnering with clinicians, consumers and health managers to design programs which deliver meaningful change. She holds a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws from Macquarie University, and spends her time outside of work in volunteer and community organisations, including active service with the NSW State Emergency Service.

Jacqueline Close, is an orthogeriatrician at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney and Clinical Director of the Falls, Balance and Injury Research Centre at Neuroscience Research Australia, UNSW, Sydney.

She has an interest in the care of older people in the surgical setting and has led a number of initiatives to improve the care and outcomes for this population. Jacqui is a past President of the Australian and New Zealand Society for Geriatric Medicine and is a co-founder and current Chair of the Australian and New Zealand Hip Fracture Registry. She sits on the ACSQHC Hospital Acquired Complications Curation Committee and is passionate about harnessing the power of data to drive the quality of care delivered to patients.

Mike Grocott is the Professor of Anaesthesia and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Southampton, director of the Southampton NIHR Biomedical Research Centre (2022-27), an NIHR Senior Investigator (reappointed 2022).

Mike is vice-chair of the board of the UK national multidisciplinary Centre for Perioperative Care (CPOC) and was previously elected vice-president of the Royal College of Anaesthetists (2019-20). He was the founding director of the Health Services Research Centre at the Royal College of Anaesthetists (2010-15) and founding chair of the UK National Emergency Laparotomy Audit (2011-16). He is co-chair of the global anaesthesia/perioperative care core outcomes initiative (StEP-COMPAC) and in 2022 he chaired the “High-risk patients” panel for the global Outcome4Medicine initiative.

Mike is joint editor-in-chief of Perioperative Medicine and a board member of the British Journal of Anaesthesia. He is chair of the UK National Institute of Academic Anaesthesia and has authored/co-authored more than 350 scientific manuscripts and been awarded more than £50 million in grant funding. He is an adjunct professor of Anesthesiology at Duke University School of Medicine in North Carolina (USA) and honorary professor at University College London

a/Executive Director of Medical and Clinical Services, Alice Springs Hospital

as an Emergency and Aeromedical Retrieval specialist, I have been in Alice Springs for over 12 years. I have spent most of that time as Director of the Central Australian Retrieval service, during which I lead an all of system review and redesign to focus the logistics and clinical co-ordination on delivering positive outcomes for patients and their community with the philosophy of the right clinician for the right task at the right time. With a background in mountain rescue, expedition and medicine in the developing world my passion is service delivery that works with the community and environment to find the best of all worlds

Associate Professor Peter Subramaniam MBBS, FRACS (Gen Surg), FRACS(Vascular), A/FRACMA is a senior vascular surgeon at Royal Adelaide Hospital, a Medical Lead in Surgery and the Chair of the Clinical Council of the Central Adelaide Local Healthcare Network. He is the immediate Past President of the Australia and New Zealand Society of Vascular Surgery and was elected President of the World Federation of Vascular Societies in 2021-2022. He Co-Chaired the Vascular and Interventional Radiology Clinical Committee of the Commonwealth Medicare Benefits Schedule Taskforce. Peter Chairs the Board of the Adelaide Vascular Trials, has previously Chaired the RACS State Committee and is currently the Vice President of the AMA in South Australia. In his role as Chair of the Clinical Council of the Central Adelaide Local Healthcare Network, he is an observer on the network’s Governing Board. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Peter served as a senior surgical advisor to the SA Health Acute Response Committee and is a current member of the State Elective Surgery Taskforce.