2016 ACIPC – International Invited Speakers

We are pleased to confirm the participation of the following international speakers.

For information on confirmed speakers from around Australia, visit the National Invited Speakers page.

Professor Mary Dixon-Woods
University of Leicester

A fellow of both the Academy of Social Sciences and the Academy of Medical Sciences, Mary Dixon-Woods leads a programme of research focused on patient safety and healthcare improvement, healthcare ethics, and methodological innovation in studying healthcare. She is Deputy Editor-in-Chief of BMJ Quality and Safety. She holds honorary positions as an adjunct professor in the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine at Johns Hopkins University, a visiting professor at Imperial College’s Centre for Infection Prevention and Management, and a visiting adjunct professor at Dartmouth College. She was, in 2012, one of the first recipients of a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator Award. She served on the National Advisory Group on the Safety of Patients in England, which produced the Berwick report in 2013.  She is currently serving on the review of information technology in the NHS led by Professor Bob Wachter.

Research Interests

Mary Dixon-Woods’ programme of research is concerned with generating a high quality evidence-base to support the organisation, quality and safety of care delivered to patients. Characteristically using mixed-methods approaches, her work focuses on evaluation of quality and safety improvement interventions and programmes, culture and behaviour in health systems, and regulation and governance of health research and care. She has special interests in the ethics of quality and safety and in the development of novel methods for conducting health services research.

Professor Dale Fisher
National University Hospital, Singapore

Professor Fisher is Head of Infectious Diseases at the National University Hospital in Singapore. He has been chair of infection control there for 10 years as well being National Chair of IPC for the last 2 years.

He was a Tasmanian undergraduate, undertook his physician training mostly in Sydney and spent his early consultant years in Darwin. He first worked in Singapore during the SARS outbreak in 2003. Through a long standing relationship with the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) he was also deployed to countries requesting assistance in subsequent major outbreaks including the H1N1 pandemic and West African Ebola outbreak.

He is a member of the GOARN steering committee, conducts their scenario based leadership trainings and assists the WHO in guidelines development as requested.

He has several national awards including in Australia, the RACP John Sands Medal and in Singapore a Courage Foundation Medal (SARS), PS21 ExCEL Award (Outstanding Activist), Pinnacle Excellence Award, National Clinical Excellence Team Award for infection control and a Healthcare Humanity Award.

He has over 130 publications in the peer reviewed literature and given over 50 invited plenary and keynote presentations.

Mr Martin Kiernan
Richard Wells Research Centre, University of West London & Gama Healthcare

Martin is a Research Fellow at the Richard Wells Research Centre at the University of West London and is Director of Clinical Research and Education for Gama Healthcare. Prior to this he was Nurse Consultant and Deputy Director of Infection Prevention and Control at Southport and Ormskirk NHS Trust in the North-West of England. He has worked in the field of infection prevention and control for 25 years in a variety of settings. He has Masters Degrees in Public Health (University of Birmingham) and in Clinical Research (University of Manchester).

Martin is a member of the Department of Health (England) Advisory Committee on Antimicrobial Resistance and Healthcare-associated Infection (ARHAI) and the Public Health England National Infection Prevention and Control Steering Group He is a past President of the Infection Prevention Society, currently chairs the Healthcare Infection Society Education Committee and is a member of the Royal College of Physicians Healthcare Infection Advisory Group. Martin was also a member of the National Institute of Clinical Excellence Surgical Site Infection topic expert and guideline update groups.

His research interests centre on surveillance and urinary catheter-associated infections and his other professional interests include wound management, environmental hygiene and the adoption of a common sense, practical approach to the subject. Martin has presented at many conferences both in the UK and internationally and has published over 50 papers and articles in peer-reviewed journals. He is currently an Associate Editor of the Journal of Infection Prevention.

Professor Heather Loveday
Director, Richard Wells Research Centre at the University of West London

Heather Loveday is Professor of Evidence-based Healthcare and Director of Research at the Richard wells Research Centre, the University of West London.

She is a recognised leader in the filed of infection prevention and control and patient safety having been at the forefront of translational research, the development of the Epic national evidence-based guidelines for the prevention of healthcare associated infections in England and the evaluation of implementation strategies for the past 15 years.

Heather is also the Director of the University of West London Joanna Briggs Centre of Excellence for Evidence-based Healthcare and is the immediate past-President of the Infection Prevention Society. Her guiding passion is influencing and developing practice in infection prevention and control through research, innovation, education and improvement science and building research capability and capacity in the field of infection prevention practice.

Professor Didier Pittet
University of Geneva Hospitals and Faculty of Medicine

Didier Pittet, MD, MS, is Professor of Medicine, the Hospital Epidemiologist and Director of the Infection Control Programme and World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre on Patient Safety at the University of Geneva Hospitals and Faculty of Medicine, Geneva, Switzerland. He holds Honorary Professorships at Imperial College London, UK, Hong Kong Polytechnic University School of Health Science, and the First Medical School of the Fu, Shanghai, China. Fellow, Royal Society of Medicine, Ireland. Professor Pittet is Lead Adviser of the WHO “Clean Care is Safe Care” and the African Partnerships for Patient Safety programmes, Patient Safety, WHO Headquarter.

Professor Pittet is the recipient of several national and international honours including a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) awarded by Her Majesty Queen Elisabeth II for services to the prevention of healthcare-associated infection in the UK (2007), the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America Lectureship for his contribution to infection control and healthcare epidemiology (2008), the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases’ Award for Excellence (2009) and the American Society for Microbiology (ASM/ICAAC 2016). The book “Clean Hands Save Lives” by the French writer Thierry Crouzet (Editions L’Âge d’Homme, 2014), published in 14 languages, and the movie “Clean Hands” (AFTERMEDIA, 2016), describe Didier Pittet medical odyssey to promote patient safety worldwide.

Professor Pittet is co-author of more than 500 publications in peer-reviewed journals and 50 textbook chapters. He serves on the editorial boards of several journals and is an editorial consultant of the Lancet. Professor Pittet has delivered a large number of plenary/opening lectures at all major meetings/congresses in the field of infectious diseases/infection control/patient safety. He is recognized as a fascinating and very engaging speaker. Professor Pittet current research interests include the epidemiology and prevention of healthcare-associated infections, methods for improving compliance with barrier precautions and hand hygiene practices, as well as innovative methods for improving the patient care and safety. He is also involved in research on the epidemiology of infectious diseases, and public and global health issues. The experience of his team in engaging nations and healthcare settings worldwide in a universal commitment to patient safety is unique.

Dr Jennie Wilson
Richard Wells Research Centre, University of West London

Jennie Wilson is an Associate Professor in Healthcare Epidemiology in the Richard Wells Research Centre at the University of West London.

She has worked in the field of infection prevention and control for over 30 years, both as an infection control nurse specialist in London teaching hospitals and as a consultant epidemiologist at the Health Protection Agency (now Public Health England), where she was part of the multidisciplinary team that established HCAI surveillance systems in England and established, developed and led the national Surgical Site Infection Surveillance Service in addition to advising on the development of other HCAI surveillance systems.

She has published extensively on HCAI surveillance and prevention, is an author of the Epic National Evidence-based Guidelines for Preventing HCAI in NHS Hospitals in England and a textbook Infection Control in Clinical Practice. She has a first degree in microbiology, Masters in Public Health and her PhD is in the field of HCAI surveillance.

Her current research interests are the use of clinical gloves, patient hand hygiene, catheter-associated urinary tract infection and dehydration in care home residents. She is also leading on a partnership in the UK focused on SSI prevention called OneTogether and is programme leader for the Infection Control in Advanced Practice course at the university.

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