2018 Invited Speakers

We’re delighted to have an outstanding selection of invited speakers joining us at ACIPC 2018.

INTERNATIONAL INVITED SPEAKERS

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Hilary Humphreys is Professor of Clinical Microbiology at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and Consultant Microbiologist in Beaumont Hospital, Dublin since 1998.

He has a longstanding research interest in hospital infections, and has led guideline development groups in the UK and Ireland on MRSA and infection prevention in the operating theatre room/theatre. In recent years, his research has focussed on the healthcare environment and the role it may play in healthcare infection causation and transmission. He is also collaborating with engineers and others in the evaluation of cold plasma as a decontamination technique.

He is Dean of the Faculty of Pathology at the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (RCPI) since 2016, Chair of the Irish Expert Group on Carbapenemase-Producing Enterobacteriales, and up to 2017, was Chairman of the Irish Department of Health’s National Clinical Effectiveness Committee.

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Ben Cooper obtained a PhD in modelling transmission dynamics of healthcare-associated infections from Warwick University in 2000 and has held post-doctoral positions at UCL and the Harvard School of Public Health. He has also worked at the UK’s Health Protection Agency.

He has been based at the Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit in Bangkok since 2010 and is an associate professor in the Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford. His work uses mathematical modelling and statistical techniques to help understand infectious disease dynamics and evaluate control measures. This involves developing mathematical models and data-driven approaches for the analysis of infectious disease data (increasingly making use of whole genome sequence data), and designing and analysing epidemiological studies.

Applications of previous work include SARS, MRSA, pandemic influenza, Ebola, and Hepatitis E. Current work focuses on multi-drug resistant Gram-negative bacterial infections and the use of adaptive trial designs in emerging epidemics.

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Paul Anantharajah Tambyah is currently Professor of Medicine at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine NUS and Senior Consultant Infectious Diseases Physician, NUHS. He graduated from the NUS Faculty of Medicine and did his postgraduate training in Infectious Diseases at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

He is also an EXCO member of the International Society of Infectious Diseases and Secretary-General of the Asia-Pacific Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infection.

NATIONAL INVITED SPEAKERS

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Dr Tara Anderson completed her medical degree at the University of Tasmania and is currently working as an Infectious Diseases Physician and Clinical Microbiologist at the Royal Hobart Hospital. Her interests are in infection prevention and control and antimicrobial stewardship. She is the Chair of the RHH, Antimicrobial Stewardship Committee and a Member of the ACSQHC AMS Committee. She is also the Medical Advisor for the RHH Infection Prevention and Control Service and the Specialist Medical Advisor for the Tasmanian Infection Prevention and Control Unit.

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Professor Barnett has a Bachelor of Science in Statistics from University College London and a PhD from the University of Queensland. He has worked for over 21 years as a statistician, working for drug companies, research councils and universities. He is an NHMRC Senior Research Fellow with a project title of: “Meta-research: Using research to increase the value of health and medical research”. He is the current vice-president of the Statistical Society of Australia.

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Dr Bartley is an Infectious Diseases Physician and Medical Microbiologist with a PhD in field of Population health from University of Queensland and QIMR-Berghofer. His clinical practice is at the Wesley Private Hospital and QML Pathology. He is the Chair of The Wesley Hospital’s Infection Control Committee and co-Chair of the Uniting Care Health Antimicrobial Stewardship Advisory Committee. Dr Bartley is an Associate Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Qld and regularly provides Lectures and tutorials to Medicine and Science students from UQ, Griffith and Bond Universities. Since 2013, he has been one of the leaders of a multidisciplinary Legionella outbreak intervention at The Wesley Hospital. He has research collaborations with the Advanced Water Management Centre and the Australian Infectious Diseases Research Centre at UQ St Lucia.

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Emma Breen is an Assistant Director of the Public Health Team at the Office of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). Emma has extensive experience in working with key agencies, organisations and government departments to develop clinical and public health guidelines and advice based on the best available evidence.

As well as this current project to update Australia’s Infection Prevention and Control Guidelines in partnership with the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare, Emma manages NHMRC’s nutrition portfolio. She holds a Bachelor of Human Nutrition and a Masters of Nutrition and Dietetics.

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Jennifer Broom is an Infectious Diseases Physician at the Sunshine Coast University Hospital. She is the clinical lead of a large research programme based on a partnership between Queensland Health and the UNSW Centre for Social Research in Health which  investigates the social influences on antimicrobial prescribing within hospitals and is developing interventional strategies to utilise social and behavioural influences to modify antimicrobial prescribing. Her current Advance QLD Senior Research Fellowship was awarded to develop and trial an intervention aimed to optimise surgical antibiotic prophylaxis prescribing in a multicentre study in Queensland hospitals.

Patricia Cattini
Infection Prevention Society

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Sharon Chen is the Director, Centre for Infectious Diseases and Microbiology Laboratory Services at Westmead Hospital, Sydney which incorporates reference laboratories in Bacteriology, Mycology, Virology. She also heads the Infectious Diseases service for organ transplantation and the Clinical Mycology service at Westmead Hospital.

Her commitments include an executive member of the Australia and New Zealand Mycoses Interest Group (ANZMIG) and the National Antimicrobial Committee of Australia. Internationally, she serves on the management committee for US Mycoses Study Group (MSG) studies, is a site CI for the ISHAM European Aspergillus PCR Initiative to standardise fungal PCR assays. The laboratory is also one of the few non-European sites for fungal diagnostics and clinical trials for the European Confederation for Medical Mycology,

Dr. Chen has an active research interest in the surveillance and tracking of fungal and transplant-related infections, outbreak investigation infection prevention in immunocompromised hosts, drug resistance and novel diagnostics

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Prof Allen Cheng is an infectious diseases physician. He is Professor of Infectious Diseases Epidemiology and is Director of the Infection Prevention and Healthcare Epidemiology unit at Alfred Health. He has a PhD (Flinders University), a Master of Public Health (Monash University) and a Master of Biostatistics. He has previously worked as an infectious diseases and general physician in Darwin and Geelong, and has worked in remote communities in the Top End of Australia, and in Papua New Guinea, Thailand, the United States and Finland.

His research covers a diverse area within infectious diseases, including sepsis and severe melioidosis, tropical medicine, influenza and vaccine effectiveness, hospital infection prevention and control, antibiotic pharmacokinetics, antimicrobial drug policy and clinical infectious diseases. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed scientific publications (as well as >40 letters/editorials and 17 book chapters).

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Geoffrey Coombs is the Chair of Public Health at Murdoch University and a Senior Clinical Scientist for PathWest Laboratory Medicine – WA.  At Murdoch University he and his colleagues have established a three million-dollar one health antimicrobial and infectious diseases research laboratory, which performs basic and clinical research on human and animal isolates.  The laboratory is the reference laboratory for the Australian Group on Antimicrobial Resistance’s (AGAR) S. aureus and Enterococcus Sepsis onset programs, and employs a suite of molecular assays, including next generation sequencing, and new bioinformatic methodologies which can handle large-scale data analysis and perform comparative genomic analysis.

He is a member of the Commonwealth’s Australian Strategic and Technical Advisory Group on Antimicrobial Resistance, Secretary General of the International Society for Chemotherapy, and President Elect of the Australian Society for Antimicrobials.  Professor Coombs is a long-term member of the AGAR Executive and is the Chair of AGAR.

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Dr Kathryn Daveson is an infectious diseases physician and the current Clinical Director at the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care Antimicrobial Resistance and Usage in Australia Program.  She has jurisdictional level experience in both Qld and ACT Health where she has worked in antimicrobial stewardship in addition to clinical infectious diseases from rural to tertiary healthcare settings.  Her other interests are in health economics, antibiotic pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, infection control and the immunocompromised host.

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Dr Petra Derrington graduated in South Africa in 1990 and completed her postgraduate degrees in the UK and Australia.  She has been the single handed Clinical Microbiologist at the Gold Coast (GC) University Hospital since 2006 and has taken on the role of Director of Pathology in 2014.  She is currently acting in the role of Chief Pathologist for Queensland.

Her major role is clinical liaison, working closely with the Clinical, Infection Control and Infectious Diseases teams at GC.  She is involved in teaching of peers and students and supports local research initiatives focused on practical service improvements.

As Director of Pathology GC, she has responsibility to ensure the efficient and smooth running of the Pathology Service at GC.  As acting Chief Pathologist, she has responsibility to provide strategic oversight and governance of all Pathology Queensland laboratories; maintain and improve quality systems, provide professional medial leadership and supervision.

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Leslie is a PhD candidate at the Centre for Medicine Use and Safety, Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Monash University. She has many years of experience undertaking research studies with older Australians, and a special interest in ethical issues in aged care. Leslie’s PhD research on antimicrobial stewardship in aged care homes is supported by the National Centre for Antimicrobial Stewardship (NCAS). Her studies include a qualitative exploration of antibiotic prescribing at end of life, and an intervention to incorporate PCR testing for respiratory tract pathogens into usual practice in aged care homes.

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Alison Farrington is a Research Manager with the Australian Health Services Innovation (AusHSI) team, based at Queensland University of Technology, and manages the national Researching Effective Approaches to Cleaning in Hospitals (REACH) Project, funded by an NHMRC partnership grant.  Alison has a Foundation Certificate in Infection Prevention and Control, is a Registered Nurse, has a Master of Professional Education and Training, and 20 years experience in health and education research and project management.

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John Ferguson (@mdjkf) is a Microbiologist and Infectious Diseases Physician with Hunter New England Health and a conjoint academic with the University of Newcastle. His interests include healthcare-associated infection and antibiotic resistance and stewardship (www.aimed.net.au). He was on the Writing Group for the National Antibiotic Guidelines for 12 years and formerly Chair of the Healthcare-associated Infection Advisory Committee at the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare for 5 years. He is currently Director of the Infection Prevention Service for Hunter New England Health. He provides support for undergraduate and postgraduate teaching at the University of Papua New Guinea and the National Academy of Medical Sciences in Nepal (www.idmicnepal.net).

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Dr Jenny Firman is the Principal Medical Adviser in the Office of Health Protection in the Department of Health.

She leads a team that provides medical and scientific advice to assist in the work of the Department in communicable disease control and health emergencies. This includes planning and responding to health emergencies such as floods, bushfires, radiation exposure, critical drug shortages, food contaminations and communicable disease threats and outbreaks. The latter has included the H1N1 pandemic in 2009, H7N9, MERS Coronavirus, and Ebola. During the latter event she was a member of the Infection Prevention and Control Expert Advisory Group developing infection control guidelines for Australian health care settings.

In addition she has been closely involved the development of the National Antimicrobial Resistance Strategy and is a member of the Healthcare Associated Infection Committee of the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health care.

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Lyn Gilbert is an infectious diseases physician with particular clinical and research interests in the ethics and politics of communicable diseases of public health importance, including healthcare-associated infections.

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Mary Fullick is a Senior Improvement Lead within the Adult Patient Safety Program at the NSW Clinical Excellence Commission (CEC) and leads the state wide SEPSIS KILLS program.

She joined the CEC in 2009 and gained initial experience in the statewide Hand Hygiene program. Since 2010 she has been involved in all aspects of the SEPSIS KILLS program development and roll out. She has developed strong networks across the NSW health system as well as links with national and international organisations working to improve sepsis care.

Mary has a clinical background as a Registered Nurse and has worked in the United Kingdom and Australia in intensive care and education prior to moving the quality and safety arena. Mary has broad experience in clinical governance and quality/safety improvement at hospital, local health district and state-wide levels. She has a strong interest in large systems improvement and culture change in the health care setting.

Mary.fullick@health.nsw.gov.au

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Fiona Gottorson is a registered nurse with extensive experience in nursing, education, quality improvement, and project management. Currently Fiona is undertaking a PhD with the National Centre for Antimicrobial Stewardship, exploring the role of nurses in antimicrobial stewardship in Australian health settings, with a focus on the nurse leadership role. She is also an independent consultant, whose current work incorporates provision of education consultancy services to ACIPC.

Fiona’s previous role was at the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare (the Commission), working within the National Healthcare Associated Infection Prevention Program, where she led the work on several projects as part of the antimicrobial stewardship initiative, including implementation of the antimicrobial stewardship actions within the National Safety and Quality in Health Service Standards, and national antibiotic awareness week. Along with antimicrobial stewardship, her main interests are in implementation and translation of research evidence to practice, multidisciplinary teamwork, and quality improvement.

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Prof. Nick Graves. I lead AusHSI, a health services research group supported by competitive grants and government funding. We aim to generate information for those who manage health services so they can improve the performance. Simple but important research that increases the value of the health benefits returned from scarce resources is exciting to me. We try to get clinicians to do their own health services research and we share our findings in journals, by giving talks/seminars and using Twitter.

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Fiona Gray is a passionate advocate for Sepsis awareness. Her own experience with Septic Shock and Post Sepsis Syndrome in 2015 left her feeling unsupported, ill-informed and alone. This led her on a journey seeking support and answers that has helped create a support network across Australia and New Zealand for both survivors and families that have lost loved ones to Sepsis.

Fiona is an active consumer health advocate in her home city of Adelaide, South Australia. In 2017 she contributed to the inaugural Australian Sepsis Roundtable, Stopping Sepsis: A National Action Plan and its subsequent report released in March this year. Fiona is hopeful that the recommendations of this report will be adopted nationally, resulting in reduced deaths and improved outcomes for survivors.

When not advocating for Sepsis Fiona is a Business Development Manager in the Mortgage and Finance Industry and has more than 20 years experience in her field.

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Krispin Hajkowicz is the Acting Director of Infectious Diseases and the Infection Management and Prevention Service at Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital and a Senior Lecturer in the University of Queensland School of Clinical Medicine. He was also the founding Director of the Queensland Statewide Antimicrobial Stewardship Program.

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Lisa Hall is an Associate Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Queensland.  Lisa is an epidemiologist and health services researcher with a PhD and significant policy experience at statewide and national levels.  Between 2013 and 2017 she was a member of the Centre of Research Excellence in Reducing Healthcare Associated Infection based at QUT.  Prior to joining QUT, she worked at the Centre for Healthcare Related Infection Surveillance and Prevention (CHRISP), Queensland Health.

Lisa’s current research focuses on the interface between evidence, policy and implementation to improve the surveillance and prevention of healthcare associated infections.  Her work examines not only the effectiveness, but also the cost-effectiveness, feasibility and sustainability of health services.

Dr Patrick Harris
The University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research

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Sally Havers is a committed Infection Control Professional of ten years, with a passion for improving and ensuring safe patient care. Sally’s current experience includes management and completion of large scale, multi-centre research projects (including ethical clearance and protocol development) as well as extensive project management experience in the development and roll out of a large national infection prevention program. Sally has experience managing multidisciplinary research and project teams, with an active commitment to Infection Control and Infectious Diseases research, both nationally and internationally. Sally has received Certification at the level “Expert” with the Australasian College of Infection Prevention and Control (re-credentialed 2017).

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Belinda Henderson is an experienced Infection Control Practitioner who is a past President of the Australasian College for Infection Prevention and Control (ACIPC) and is an active member of the ACIPC education committee. Her practice role is as a leader of the infection control team at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane. Her qualifications include a Masters of Advanced Health Practice in Infection Control and she holds Expert level credentialing with the College. Belinda is passionate about all things infection prevention.

Dr Robert Herkes – A highly respected senior clinician and leader in intensive care medicine, with extensive operating and leadership experience in the development, evolution and provision of critical care services at both state and national levels.

Dr Herkes is the Chief Medical Officer at the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care providing expert clinical advice to the wide range of programs managed by the Commission. Dr Herkes has a significant role in identifying areas for synergies, partnerships and new opportunities across the Australian health sector in collaboration with all health sector stakeholders, and providing leadership and education around the latest evidence on safety and quality in health care.

Professor Paul Johnson
Austin Health

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Cathy Jones has 25 years’ experience in public and private hospitals, including 20 years in Quality and Risk Management. Her experience spans acute hospitals, rehabilitation and mental health services in both public and private sectors. Cathy has worked for Healthscope for 12 years and prior to this was the Director of Strategy for St Vincent’s Health Melbourne. She lectures internationally on quality and safety in healthcare.

Cathy has written the quality chapter in the Transitions in Nursing: Preparation for Practice handbook, used by the majority of nurses in Australia in their final year of study. She represents the private hospital sector on several national committees with the Australian Commission on Safety & Quality in Health Care and Australian Council on Healthcare Standards.

Cathy has been a lecturer since 2003 for the International Hospital Management MBA Program at the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management University in Frankfurt, Germany. Her particular areas of interest are person centred care, measurement of clinical indicators, public reporting, outcome measures, open disclosure and consumer participation.

Tricia Kleidon
Tricia Kleidon is a Paediatric Vascular Access Nurse Practitioner at Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital, Brisbane, Australia.  Tricia is also a part-time research fellow at the Alliance for Vascular Access Teaching and Research (AVATAR) Group.  Tricia has established nurse led vascular access insertion services and is involved in teaching and training vascular access at tertiary paediatric hospitals and at postgraduate level.

Tricia’s dual role between clinical and research activities has provided unique opportunities to improve vascular access outcomes for paediatric patients.  Tricia is internationally recognised as an expert in paediatric vascular access and is a member of the Australian Vascular Access Society, Association for Vascular Access and Infusion Nurses Society.

Tricia promotes an interdisciplinary collaborative approach to planning and managing vascular access to ensure best practice.

Jean Lee
Jean Lee is an Infectious Diseases Physician at Monash Health, Victoria, Australia.  She is currently completing a PhD focused on the epidemiology and molecular biology of Staphylococcus epidermidis with the Department of Microbiology & Immunology, Peter Doherty Institute for Infection & Immunity, University of Melbourne.

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Professor Dena Lyras is the Deputy Director of the Biomedicine Discovery Institute at Monash University and the President for the Australian Society for Microbiology. Her laboratory is focussed on enteric pathogens, particularly those involved in antibiotic-associated diarrhoea such as Clostridium difficile, and they examine how these pathogens interact with the host and cause disease through the use of animal infection models.

Her laboratory uses genetic approaches to understand how these micro-organisms harness regulatory and virulence factors to cause disease, and they are developing immunotherapeutics and small molecules to prevent and treat these infections in collaboration with industry partners. Antibiotic resistance and DNA mobility are also studied in her laboratory, in the context of gut pathogens and antibiotic-associated diarrhoeal disease.

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RN, MSc Medical Device Decontamination; Grad Dip Education and Training; Cert Mgt Decontamination Reusable Medical Devices (UK); Cert Sterilization and Infection Control; Cert Perioperative Nursing; Cert Operating Suite Management; Cert IV A & W T; MACORN; MACN.

Terry McAuley has over 25 years’ experience as an independent Consultant in her own business, STEAM Consulting Pty Ltd. In this capacity, she has conducted training and consultancy reviews of hospital based sterilising services, day procedure centres, dental, podiatry and general office-based practices and performed state-wide audits for various Australian Departments of Health.

She has representsed the Australasian College for Infection Prevention and Control on the Australian Standards Committee responsible for AS/NZS 4187 Reprocessing Reusable Medical Devices in Health Service Organisations and the sister Standard AS/NZS 4815 applicable to office-based practice for over 19 years. Terry also participates in ISO TC 198 Sterilization of Healthcare Products Working Group 6 – Chemical Indicators and Working Group 12 Information for reprocessing resterilizable medical devices.

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Professor Brett Mitchell is a Professor of Nursing and Director of the Lifestyle Research Centre at Avondale College in New South Wales, Australia. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Infection, Disease and Health, a peer reviewed journal published by the Australasian College for Infection Prevention and Control. Brett has over 100 peer reviewed journal and conference presentations. He has many interests in infection control, including environmental cleaning, surveillance and urinary tract infections.

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Sally Munnoch is the Epidemiologist for the Infection Prevention Service at Hunter New England Local Health District, NSW.  In the last fifteen years, she has worked as an Epidemiologist for state and local district health departments, specialising in Infection Control, Foodborne diseases and Vaccine Safety. Sally has also worked as a short term consultant for the Department of Health and Ageing and World Health Organisation. Sally has a strong interest in reducing the burden of healthcare associated infections in hospitals and community, improving surveillance, emerging threats to public health and exploring the use of novel surveillance methods.

Dr Geoffrey Playford
Queensland Health

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Kristie Popkiss is motivated, passionate and committed to the field of Infection Prevention and Control because of the significant impact that it has on patients, visitors and staff in our health services across Australasia. She believes that Infection Prevention and Control requires more visibility, transparency and a higher profile, to improve the level of safety in healthcare facilities. Kristie is currently a Director for ACIPC and chairs the Education and Professional Development Committee. She is also the Quality and Risk Manager at St John of God Midland Public and Private Hospitals with Infection Prevention as one of the several services who report to her. Kristie’s goal is to further contribute to the greater vision of improving both the culture and implementing best practices of Infection Control for Australasia.

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Claire Rickard PhD is Professor of Nursing at Griffith University, Australia, and a Visiting Fellow at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s, Princess Alexandra and the Prince Charles Hospitals.

Her vision is for complication-free vascular access devices and infusion therapy. She founded the Alliance for Vascular Access Teaching and Research (AVATAR Group), within the Menzies Health Institute QLD, with >$13 million research funding and >200 publications.

Claire’s publications in the Lancet have seen global change from time-based to assessment-based focus for peripheral intravenous catheters, and recognition of the need for better catheter dressings.

She has been inducted in the Sigma Theta Tau International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame, and is one of only two nurses elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences.

Claire has worked with nurses, doctors, patients, medical device companies, clinical and academic researchers. She has delivered invited presentations in >10 countries.

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QUT PhD researcher Phillip Russo has published his research in the Australian Health Review looking at how Australia is missing out on the benefits to patients of a national program to monitor healthcare-associated infection rates which are largely preventable  infections people acquire while in hospital or other health care facility.
Photo:QUT Marketing and Communication/Erika Fish.
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Dr Philip Russo is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Quality and Patient Safety Research – Alfred Health Partnership, Deakin University. He has over 25 years experience in nursing, and the majority of his work has focussed on healthcare associated infection prevention and control.

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Professor Ramon Shaban is an internationally respected clinician, educator and researcher. A nurse scientist, infection control practitioner and emergency nurse, Professor Shaban’s expertise emergency care and infection prevention and control is the basis of a highly successful and integrated program of teaching, practice, and research. He is Clinical Chair, Infection Prevention and Control Sydney Nursing School and Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity, The University of Sydney and Western Sydney Local Health District. He is an active member of variety of professional groups and committees including the Australian Strategic and Technical Advisory Group on Antimicrobial Resistance, Editor-in-Chief of the Australasian Emergency Nursing Journal, and Editor of the journal Infection, Disease and Health.

Vanessa Sparke
Vanessa Sparke is a lecturer for Nursing and Midwifery at James Cook University, Cairns Campus, and is also the course coordinator of the Graduate Certificate of Infection Control. Vanessa began her infection control career at Epworth Hospital in Melbourne and after five years moved to the Kimberley region of Western Australia. After three years in the Kimberley, first as the Infection Control Nurse for Derby and Fitzroy Crossing Hospitals then moving to a regional role, Vanessa moved to Cairns and to JCU’s discipline of Nursing and Midwifery.

Now a PhD candidate, Vanessa is exploring infection control at Atoifi Adventist Hospital, Solomon Islands using a Participatory Action Research approach.

Andrew Stewardson
Andrew Stewardson is an Infectious Diseases physician and NHMRC Early Career Fellow at the Department of Infectious Diseases, Monash University and Alfred Health (Melbourne). His research has focussed on the health and economic impact of antimicrobial resistance and healthcare-associated infections, the transmission dynamics of antimicrobial resistance, and the implementation of infection prevention and control interventions.

He’s a member of several Victorian and national healthcare infection and patient safety committees, and is current Chair of the Australian Society for Infectious Diseases (ASID) Healthcare Infection Control Special Interest Group (HICSIG).

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Kelly Sykes is an USA trained Physician Associate/Assistant, earning both her Masters in Medicine and in Public Health. Kelly practiced in Internal and General Medicine for five years in the USA and Kenya before moving to Melbourne. Kelly was the Sepsis Improvement Project Lead at Melbourne Health. Kelly is now the State-wide Project Lead for the Sepsis Scaling Collaboration, scaling a sepsis pathway across Victoria, Australia

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RN, GradDipPaedNursing, Accredited HIV & Hep C Pre & Post Test Counsellor, Accredited Nurse Immuniser.

Jane Tomlinson joined the Royal Children’s Infection Prevention and Control Team as a Clinical Nurse Consultant in 2016 and has a background in hospital Infection Control since 2008. She has worked in paediatrics for 22 years. She is a member of ACIPC.

She has worked as Nurse Unit Manager and clinical nurse in paediatric infectious diseases wards, paediatric cardiac nursing and in Neonatal Intensive Care. Her interests include childhood infectious diseases, healthcare cleaning and staff health. She is an Accredited Nurse Immuniser and HIV and Hepatitis C Pre and Post Test Counsellor.

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Nicole White is a Research Fellow with the Australian Centre for Health Services Innovation (AusHSI).  Nicole holds a PhD in Statistics and has worked across a number of areas in health and medical research, including spatial epidemiology, health services, and epigenetics.  As part of her role with AusHSI, Nicole has contributed to the analysis of outcomes from the Researching Effective Approaches to Cleaning in Hospitals (REACH) project.

Her current research focuses on the cost-effectiveness of clinical genomics for informing decision making in oncology. Nicole also has an interest in evaluating the impact of big data analytics on decision making within health services.

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Dr Peta-Anne Zimmerman is an internationally respected clinician, educator and researcher in infection prevention and control. Dr Zimmerman’s experience includes expert consultancy work with the World Health Organization (WHO), AusAID, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Secretariat of the Pacific Communities (SPC), The Albion Centre and as a member of the WHO SARS Response Team. Her expertise has led her to work extensively in South East Asia and the Pacific, directly on the development of comprehensive infection prevention and control programmes and integration of public health and acute care response in infectious disease emergencies in low and middle income country settings. Peta-Anne is the Convenor of the ACIPC LMI Special Interest Group, focal point and senior faculty for the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) and member of the Credentialling and Professional Practices (CAPS) Committee.

Peta-Anne is the Director of the Griffith Graduate Infection Prevention and Control Program at Griffith University, an associate member of the Menzies Health Institute Queensland, and Visiting Research Fellow at the Department of Infection Control at Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service, Australia.

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