The RMH Research Conference 2025

George Kiossoglou was diagnosed with AML in 2013 and has undergone an Allogenic Stem Cell Transplant in the same year. In 2017 he started as a Consumer at WEHI and since then is involved with VCCC Alliance, Victorian Cancer Advisory Committee, MACH, UoM, ONJCRI, several Grant Review Panels, CCV, CCSA and RMH in the Ethics, Consumer Research Advisory Group, FACT accreditation. Amongst others, he works with basic scientists and clinician scientists providing insights and guidance through his lived health and life experiences.

Dr Suyin Ng is the Executive Director of the Parkville Local Health Service Network. Prior to this role, Suyin was the Executive Director for the West Metro Health Service Partnership from July 2021. Suyin works with Boards, CEOs, executives, clinicians, and operational leaders from the Parkville LHSN to support reform of the Victorian health system for the benefit of patients, staff and our communities. Suyin commenced her career as an intellectual property lawyer at Mallesons Stephen Jaques (now King & Wood Mallesons). With a passion for travel, she joined the in-house legal team at global travel book publishing company, Lonely Planet, where she became General Counsel before eventually leaving her legal career to take up a strategy role. Suyin was Chief Operating Officer for the Lowy Institute in Sydney and immediately prior to joining RMH, spent five years as a management consultant, primarily advising Victorian health and social services organisations on strategy and organisational design. Suyin is passionate about the role of leadership in driving system change and enjoys working with people on complex problems. Suyin holds a Bachelor of Laws with Honours and a Bachelor of Arts (with Honours) from Monash University.

Professor Christobel Saunders AO is Consultant Surgeon in the Department of General Surgery at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and PeterMac, and James Stweart Chair of Surgery at the UoM. She is Director of Research for the Melbourne Medical School and deputy Lead of the Faculty of Medicine Dentistry and Health Science (UoM) Impact Domain in Health service transformation research. She is a leading cancer researcher with over 30 years of experience in evaluating the efficacy and utility of therapy for early breast cancer. Internationally recognised as one of Australia’s most prominent research-oriented cancer surgeons, she has led extensive clinical trials of new treatments and contributed significantly to psychosocial, translational, and health services research. In the past five years alone, she has published over 250 peer-reviewed journal articles. Professor Saunders is also deeply involved in strategic health planning, serving on key national committees such as the Medicare Review Advisory Committee and the Medical Services Advisory Committee. Her contributions have been recognised through numerous awards, including the Order of Australia (2018) and WA Scientist of the Year (2017) and Research Australia “Health Services Research Award” in 2024.

Professor Neeraj Bhala is Academic Director and Head of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and University of Melbourne. He was a Clinical Associate Professor and Consultant Physician and Gastroenterologist at the University of Nottingham, having been at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham and New Zealand. He has an interest in patient safety and population health informatics, as well as longstanding interests in tackling burden and inequalities. He has a clinical research background in epidemiology and big data globally and locoregionally as well as applied health approaches to influence policy and improve outcomes at RMH.

Kath Feely has worked in public health for more than 20 years. In 2014 she started transitioning from physiotherapy into clinical informatics. As Chief Allied Health Information Officer at The Royal Melbourne Hospital she supports allied health staff in all things informatics. She prioritises upskilling clinicians in digital health and use of standardised data to evaluate and improve clinical service delivery and patient outcomes. Kath is also passionate about sharing health information with patients to empower then during their health care journey.

Mr Anand Ramakrishnan is the Director of the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne, Australia. He has a Doctorate in Medicine (University of Melbourne) for work profiling the mesenchymal stem cell population in adult human lipoaspirate and its utility for tissue engineering and a Master of Public Health (International and Refugee Health through Monash University). He holds a Research Fellowship in Reconstructive Microsurgery through the Bernard O’Brien Institute of Microsurgery at St. Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne and two paediatric craniofacial fellowship . He is currently on the Surgical Committee of Interplast Australia and New Zealand, an NGO that provides pro bono reconstructive plastic surgery in the Asia Pacific. Anand has both convened and been invited Faculty for National and International Conferences in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and Craniomaxillofacial Surgery. He is a reviewer for the Head and Neck Sections of the Australia and New Zealand Journal of Surgery and on the editorial board of the Australasian Journal of Plastic Surgery. His professional interests are in microsurgical reconstruction of the head and neck and craniomaxillofacial trauma surgery. His current research interests include development of a new modality of 3-D printing, antimicrobial prophylaxis in H&N cancer surgery and outcome analysis following head and neck cancer reconstruction.

Dr Henry Zhao is a consultant neurologist with Royal Melbourne Hospital and Ambulance Victoria and MRFF Senior Research Fellow with the Dept of Medicine, Uni of Melb. He completed his stroke fellowship at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and then went on to complete his PhD in pre-hospital stroke, helping to pioneer the Australian-first Melbourne Mobile Stroke Unit program and reorganising stroke triage within Ambulance Victoria.

Dr Jacqui Waterkeyn is the Director, Office for Research at the RMH. She has been in the clinical research and therapeutic product development sectors for over 30 years with broad experience across various roles within Pharma, Biotech, CROs, MRIs and major health services. Jacqui was instrumental in the origins of Phase I Units across Australia and their associated research approval pathways including the rollout of the VMIA Research Governance Toolkit in the mid-2000’s. Jacqui has built clinical research capabilities and driven successful deliverables across multiple stakeholders. Prior to joining RMH, Jacqui was the Director, Sponsor Operations at Orygen, a specialist primary mental health service and MRI. Here she established an in-house CRO business unit, sponsor operational compliance and oversight, as well as research governance and contractual approvals. Jacqui is committed to filling the knowledge and operational gaps between the commercial and non-commercial sectors for the benefit of clinical researchers, commercial and non-commercial entities and for our patients. This includes including streamlining collaborations and approvals across networks.

Professor Stephen Tong a clinician researcher with an interest in developing diagnostics and therapeutics for pregnancy complications. He is involved in cohort studies and clinical trials running across many countries. He has a strong record of competitive funding. Since 2013 he has received – as Chief Investigator A - eight NHMRC grants, and an MRFF grant. He has received three NHMRC Achievement awards for the top (co-)ranked Fellowship application. Prof Tong is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, NHMRC Fellow (L2), and a Dame Kate Campbell Fellow. He is co-director of Mercy Perinatal and Director of Research at Mercy Health. He has published over 250 papers. Since 2020 he has published papers/invited editorials in Lancet three times, BMJ, Nature Communications, Nature Medicine, JAMA Paediatrics, JAMA Psychiatry, Lancet Global Health, and others. All but one as first or co-senior author.

Adam Steinberg is a nephrologist at The Royal Melbourne Hospital where he is also the Deputy Director of Physician Education. Adam teaches clinical skills at The University of Melbourne where he is finishing his PhD on quality indicators in the practice of nephrology across Australia and New Zealand. His clinical interests include chronic kidney disease and education, person-centred values-based care, shared decision making, and supportive care. Adam is senior faculty at VitalTalk and has been teaching communication skills to medical students, nurses, registrars and consultants across different disciplines. He is a board member at Dying with Dignity Victoria.

Alastair Sloan is Professor of Tissue Engineering and Dental Biology and the current PVC Research Collaboration. Prior to taking up his appointment as PVC, he was Head of School of Melbourne Dental School from January 2020 through to September 2024. A bioscientist and bioengineer, he obtained his BSc from the University of Wales, UK and his PhD from The University of Birmingham, UK. He began his tenured academic career at the University of Birmingham prior to joining School of Dentistry, Cardiff University in 2005 where he established the Mineralised Tissue Group. He was Head of the Department of Oral and Biomedical Sciences at the School of Dentistry and also served as Director of International and latterly Director of Research. Between 2015-2017 he was Director of the Cardiff Institute for Tissue Engineering and Repair (CITER) and in 2017 was appointed Dean of the School of Dentistry at Cardiff University, a post which he held until his relocation to The University of Melbourne. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology (FRSB) and member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. An active educator, Alastair has designed and led courses for undergraduate and postgraduate coursework programmes and is the Chief Examiner for the Primary Basic Sciences examinations of the Royal Australasian College of Dental Surgeons (RACDS). As a researcher he has been awarded in excess of AUD$11M of external grant funding, published over 100 peer reviewed papers and sits on numerous research funding panels in Australia and the EU. He was appointed as Chair of the Australian and New Zealand Council for the Care of Animals in Research and Teaching (ANZCCART) in 2023 and is the current Vice-President of the International Association for Dental Research (IADR) Australia and New Zealand Division. In 2021 his research career was acknowledged with the award of an Ad Eundem Fellowship of the Faculty of Dentistry, Royal College of Surgeons Ireland (FFDRCSI) and the IADR Distinguished Scientist Award, The Isaac Schour Memorial Award.

Joanne Rowe is the Coordinating Principal Investigator for the Victorian Hospital Disability Identifier initiative and part of the Disability Liaison team at the Royal Children’s Hospital. An Occupational Therapist with a Master of Public Health, Joanne has led health equity initiatives across Australia, Asia, and the Pacific. She brings expertise in applied research and system reform, working in partnership with governments, NGOs, practitioners, and consumers to shape policy and practice. Her work focuses on understanding and dismantling barriers to healthcare access for people with disability. Through her leadership of the Disability Identifier initiative—a research collaboration across the Parkville Precinct and Austin Health—she has helped drive real-world change in how hospitals identify patients with disability to build more inclusive, responsive healthcare systems.

Andrew Perfors is the Director of the Complex Human Data Hub in the School of Psychological Sciences at the University of Melbourne. He uses computational models of the mind, in combination with behavioural experiments, to study human cognition: how we acquire and use concepts and language, how we make decisions, how we learn from and share information with each other, and how that process of collaborative meaning-making changes the information environment itself. Andy has many thoughts about AI, from the perspective of computational cognitive science (what it can and can't do, and how it is similar to and different from human minds) and somebody who studies information systems (what are its impacts on science and society, and what we can do to navigate this territory).

Dr Casey Peiris is a physiotherapist and Associate Professor jointly appointed at La Trobe University and the Royal Melbourne Hospital as Head of Allied Health Research. Her research focuses on real-world health service challenges, responding directly to clinician and patient needs. With a background in chronic disease management and rehabilitation, she integrates clinical expertise into research on physiotherapy, physical activity, and service delivery. Dr Peiris is passionate about building research capacity in clinicians and embedding research into everyday practice to improve patient care.

Katrina Lenzie-Smith is a solution-focused leader with proven experience in outside-of-the-box strategic planning in complex health service settings, including as Senior Advisor, and Education Consultant to the Ministry of Health, New Zealand. She is currently the Director of Nursing Research at the Royal Melbourne Hospital (RMH) and an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne. She is responsible for the nursing research portfolio at the RMH by developing a Nurse-Led evidence-based practice structure and process to enable all nurses, in all specialties, and at all levels to undertake, lead, participate, and publish research. She is leading several studies across the tertiary hospital bringing a strong focus on collaboration, continuous quality improvement, and nurse research outcomes.

Dr Kit Huckvale is Acting Director of the Centre for Digital Transformation of Health, University of Melbourne. Kit is a trained medical doctor and health informatician with a PhD in eHealth from Imperial College London. He developed and directs the University of Melbourne's Digital Health Validitron, a unique support platform for digital innovation that brings research expertise and infrastructure to accelerate translational initiatives using data, software, and artificial intelligence to improve healthcare. Kit's research centres on the quality and safety of new technologies in healthcare. Recent projects include the using digital sensing and artificial intelligence methods to explore disease phenotypes in mental health, and the use of novel AI methods for improving randomized trial designs. He has worked with Microsoft Research Cambridge, Novartis, and the UK Department of Health on translational projects ranging from novel disease detection to long-term condition management.

Chris French is a clinician researcher with a broad range of research areas and collaborations related to neurological disorders. Utilising his background in cellular electrophysiology, he currently works on ion channel behaviour, binding sites of common drugs, small molecule brain tumour inhibitors, nootropic drug effects, biological computation and brain computer interfaces. In these endeavours he has greatly benefited from very active collaborations with electrical and biomedical engineering colleagues at University of Melbourne and other universities. He is director of the MDHS Honours program, RMH Department of Medicine Masters program and a neurologist at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. He was formerly a member of the NHMRC National Health Committee.

Dr Caitlin Farmer is the Clinical Lead for Advanced Practice Physiotherapy at the Royal Melbourne Hospital with strong skills in project management, clinical governance and stakeholder engagement. She has a postgraduate clinical Masters of Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy from Latrobe University and completed her PhD, which investigated optimising imaging reports in people with low back pain, with Wiser Healthcare at Monash University in 2023. She is also the current Victorian Branch President and on the National Advisory Council for the Australian Physiotherapy Association.

Professor Karen Dwyer serves as the Director of Nephrology and Kidney Care Services at Royal Melbourne Hospital and holds a professorial position at The University of Melbourne. With more than 20 years of expertise in clinical nephrology and five years in lifestyle medicine, her work focuses on prevention, health-span, and well-being. Karen’s practice is characterized by the transformative impact she has on patients, providing state-of-the-art, evidence-based treatments while empowering individuals to actively engage in their own health and wellness. A passionate advocate for gender equity, she is dedicated to ensuring that marginalized communities have access to the highest standard of health care. In addition to her clinical and advocacy work, Karen has a distinguished research career, serving as both a lead investigator and collaborative partner in innovative, solutions-oriented research across diverse and interdisciplinary teams. She is also an active contributor to medical education, from teaching medical students to facilitating peer learning initiatives.

Jo Douglass is a specialist physician in Respiratory Medicine and Allergic Disease. Since January 2020, she has held the James Stewart Chair of Medicine at the University of Melbourne, based at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, where she also serves as Executive Director of Research. In 2023, she was appointed Co-Director of the newly established Snow Centre for Immune Health. Jo graduated in Medicine from Monash University, Melbourne Australia, undertaking specialist physician training in Australia and the UK. She has led clinical services in Allergy and Clinical Immunology at the Royal Melbourne Hospital where she has also been a Divisional Director. She has an MD by research and over 150 publications with publications in asthma, therapeutics, allergic disease and immune disorders. Her most recent research focus has been allergic and Thunderstorm Asthma funded by the MRFF. She is a former President of the Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy (ASCIA), co-chair of the Australian Immunodeficiency Strategy (2021 - current) and serves on numerous government, industry and consumer-lead advisory boards.

Adam is a clinician-researcher who works in the Royal Melbourne Hospital Intensive Care Unit. He also serves as Clinical Director of the Melbourne Centre for Clinical Trials (MCCT) at the University of Melbourne, with the aim of helping researchers conduct large clinical trials that inform care of patients.

Associate Professor Michael Christie is a senior anatomical and molecular pathologist, Deputy Director of Pathology at the Royal Melbourne Hospital (RMH), and Chief Medical Officer / Deputy Director of the $21M Colonial Foundation Diagnostics Centre (CFDC), a joint RMH–Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI) initiative. The CFDC combines RMH’s diagnostic expertise with WEHI’s cutting-edge research capability to accelerate the translation of spatialomics into clinical care for inflammatory and immune diseases. Michael has led the development of NATA-accredited molecular pathology services at RMH, including the whole exome sequencing service for adult genetics. He has authored over 80 peer-reviewed publications (h-index 32) and contributes to the profession through leadership roles in Melbourne Health Pathology, service on advisory boards, and work as a NATA technical assessor, alongside extensive undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and PhD supervision.

Dr Owen Bradfield is the Chief Medical Officer of the Medical Indemnity Protection Society (MIPS). Owen is a medical practitioner, health lawyer and health law researcher, with 15 years’ experience in the medical indemnity insurance industry. He has advised and represented health practitioners in a range of medico-legal disputes, including civil claims, regulatory complaints, employment disputes, Coronial inquests and Medicare investigations. Owen passionately advocates for fair regulatory and legal processes for healthcare practitioners and supports practitioners who are navigating complex medico-legal issues. Owen combines his role at MIPS with health law research at the University of Melbourne, where he examines the intersection between doctors’ health and legal claims. Owen is a 2020 Fulbright Scholar and winner of the 2022 Premier’s Award for Health and Medical Research in the Health Services Research category. Owen is Deputy Chair of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Ethics Committee.

A/Prof Stephanie Best is an implementation scientist and leads the Melbourne Implementation Science Group at the School of Health Sciences, University of Melbourne. She is deputy lead for the University of Melbourne’s Transforming Health area. Stephanie has more than a decade of research experience in implementation research, working with a wide range of health and social care practitioners and other stakeholders. She has a track record of designing and delivering international, national and state-wide implementation projects. Before her academic life she had an extensive international clinical and health care management career as a Chartered Physiotherapist.