Panels & Debates

A/Prof Justin Tse is Clinical Dean, St Vincent’s Clinical School, The University of Melbourne. He has been involved in medical education for twenty years and has interests in intern work readiness and e-learning. He is also involved in cancer research and completed his research thesis on Prostate Cancer screening. He is a primary care physician and serves as a Research Fellow for the Cancer Council of Victoria and an advisor to the RACGP on cancer related care.

Associate Professor Kylie Mason is a clinical haematologist with Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and the Royal Melbourne Hospital, where she leads the Late effects and Survivorship and the Classical Haematology teams. A/Prof Mason is a member of the Late Effects Haematology clinic and has an interest in the transition of young adults from the paediatric arena to the adult hospitals. Her background includes experience in AYA health as a committee member of the Centre for Adolescent Health at the RCH and through CanTeen. A/Prof Mason is herself a survivor of Acute Leukaemia and understands first hand the importance of good transition and long term care of people living beyond cancer.

Bernadette is a qualified Occupational Therapist who has been working in cancer care for the last 14 years, primarily in the areas of service improvement and supportive care. Bernadette is currently a Senior Project manager with North Eastern Melbourne Integrated Cancer Service (NEMICS). Bernadette has a strong interest in cancer survivorship careand has contributed to the implementation of an innovative new service model delivering survivorship care through community partnership. Bernadette is passionate about patient self-determination and enabling people with cancer to have the best quality of life possible, both during and after treatment.

After completing medical training at Monash University, Dr Wheeler was a medical resident and registrar at Monash Medical Centre prior to commencing Radiation Oncology training at Peter Mac. After gaining the FRANZCR he completed a fellowship at The St Jude Childrens research hospital in memphis TN, USA. Dr Wheeler became Chair of the Paediatric and Late Effects Service at Peter Mac in 2005 and is particularly interested in ameliorating the long term effects from radiotherapy.

Yvonne is a Nurse Practitioner in the clinical haematology service at Peter Mac & the Royal Melbourne Hospital, clinical lead for the Allogeneic BMT long term follow up service, Associate Director of Nursing & team lead for haematology, late effects and paediatric specialist nurses.

Yvonne has a special interest in late effects experienced by patients after Allogeneic BMT, particularly screening, risk reduction and self-management. Yvonne is also interested in sexual health issues, chronic graft versus host disease and post-transplant rehabilitation. Yvonne has led and been involved in research studies focussing on innovative shared care models of long term follow up and strategies to optimise post transplant recovery including exercise programs. She has completed a research study supported by the VCCC nursing research hub that explored facilitators and barriers to transitioning from paediatric to adult long term follow up.

Nicholas is an cancer advocate, surviving and thriving after Acute Myeloid Leukaemia at the age of 16. He is currently studying a Bachelor of Social Work at La Trobe University, hoping to enter the world of adolescent and young adult cancer care with his unique perspective.

Meg originally worked as a Radiation Therapist and educator at RMIT University in Melbourne before moving into strategic oversight of programs at Cancer Council Victoria including 13 11 20 Cancer Information and Support, Cancer Education and Peer Support Programs, and the Victorian Cancer Clinicians Communication Program. Meg has been instrumental in building communication skills programs for health professionals and non-clinical staff working with cancer patients in Victoria. Meg has personally delivered more than 1000 experiential healthcare communication skills programs to several thousand clinical and non-clinical staff. Meg is a member of the International Association for Communication in Healthcare (EACH) and is the Australian representative on the teaching subcommittee (tEACH) for this group. In 2016, Meg convened the inaugural Teaching Communication in Healthcare Conference and Education Program in partnership with EACH and the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services, bringing together more than 120 local and international delegates.

Meg has led a previous Cancer Survivorship grant bringing exercise and information to regional cancer patients using telehealth. Meg moved to Deakin 3 years ago, and has co-designed Your Thoughts Matter, a whole of organisation intervention for communication skills training currently being implemented at 3 health services. Over the next 3 years, Meg and the team at OCPH Deakin will deliver Conversations Matter to 7 regional Cancer Centres. Meg has post-graduation qualifications in individual and organisational coaching, adding to her skill set of program design, education, and facilitation.

Neville Board is Victoria’s Chief Digital Health Officer and heads the Digital Health Branch. The Branch leads implementation of Victoria’s digital health roadmap, to improve the safety and efficiency of Victoria’s healthcare system, and to keep patients at the centre of care.

The team is implementing unique patient identification across Victorian health services, connecting health services to the My Health Record system, and operates a series of applications for health services.

The Branch also leads the Victorian health service cyber security and ICT operational assurance programs, applying Australia’s only Digital Health Maturity Model. The Branch conducts health sector planning and assurance, sets standards for clinical systems, and is supported by a clinical advisory council and the Victorian Health CIO Forum.

Prior to coming to Victoria in 2018, Mr Board headed the eHealth and Medication Safety program at the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care. He also convened the WHO clinical practice working group for the Global Patient Safety Challenge Medication without Harm.

Professor Dorothy Keefehas led Cancer Australia, Australia’s national cancer agency, since 2019.Prior to this she had a long and distinguished career as a medical oncologist at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, and as Professor of Cancer Medicine at the University of Adelaide, where she remains an Honorary Clinical Professor.Her long-term research interest is in Supportive Care in Cancer and she is a past-President of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer (MASCC). She has led cancer services at all levels, as well as health reform in South Australia. She has a Master’s in Medical Leadership and a strong interest in advocacy, career development and mentoring.She is committed to patient-centred care, reducing unnecessary variation in cancer outcomes, and to improving outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. During her tenure as CEO of Cancer Australia, she has led the enquiry into Lung Cancer Screening for Australia, and started work on the first national Australian Cancer Plan.

Dr Karen Price was awarded the 2016 RACGP FMCER grant to undertake her part time PhD with the Monash Department of General Practice. She is exploring the construct of peer-connection in general practice. This explores GP’s wellbeing, and goal-directed informal learning.
Karen’s research builds on her lifetime expertise as a GP. She is the co-developer and facilitator of GPs Down Under, an 8000+ member community of Australian and New Zealand GPs. She has chaired committees and developed mentor programs for both the AMA and the RACGP. Karen began her general practice in a large procedural practice which included providing medical assistance to the local district police surgeon. She has also been a successful practice owner growing a languishing practice into a thriving community practice in under a decade whilst wrangling three young school-aged children (who are now fully grown).

Karen has presented nationally and internationally; plenary lectures; workshops on women’s medical leadership; social media; resilience, and informal learning.

She is published on women’s medical leadership and received a 2011 Monash University award for medical student teaching. Karen continues to develop evidence-based medicine, leadership, advocacy, and peer support, in both research and her ongoing clinical general practice.
Most recently her advocacy, research and lifetime experience have coalesced into running for RACGP President after her service as deputy chair of the Victorian Faculty of the RACGP and past chair of the Women in General Practice committee of the RACGP. Karen was elected RACGP President in the 2020 national election. She commenced her two-year term on 30 November 2020.

Linda Denehy is Professor of Physiotherapy at the University of Melbourne and a registered Physiotherapist. She also has a joint appointment as Professor of Health Services Research: Allied Health at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. Professor Denehy has extensive teaching and learning experienceat both under and post graduate levels and introduced the new Doctor of Physiotherapy course in 2011. She waspreviously Head of the Physiotherapy Department at the University of Melbourne. Professor Denehy is a past President of the Council of Physiotherapy Deans of Australia and New Zealand and is the current deputy chair of the Council of Victorian Health Deans. She is a current member of the Australian College of Optometry Council. Linda has supervised over 40graduate research students to completion.She currently supervisesfour PhD and five Post-Doctoral students.Her research interests are in rehabilitation including in intensive care, oncology and perioperative management where she is passionate about improving patient centred outcomes. She has over 200 publications andhas been successful in nationally funded research in both Australia and the United Kingdom.

Professor Michael Jefford is both a Consultant Medical Oncologist and Director of the Australian Cancer Survivorship Centre at Peter Mac, and is a Professorial Fellow with the University of Melbourne.

He completed medical oncology training (FRACP) in 1999. He holds a PhD (2002) and Graduate Certificate in University Teaching (2013) from the University of Melbourne and Masters degrees in Health Services Management (2003) and in Public Health (2006) from Monash University. He is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

His major clinical focus is on the management of people with gastrointestinal cancers.

Michael has made significant contributions around service delivery, research, policy and program development, and to the international literature regarding cancer survivorship. He is the current Chair of the Clinical Oncology Society of Australia (COSA)’s Cancer Survivorship Committee and Chair of the International Psycho-Oncology Society’s Survivorship Special Interest Group. He co-chairs the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s Health Equity and Outcomes Committee.

Amongst other leadership roles, Michael is a COSA Board Member (Director). He was previously Deputy Director of Medical Oncology at Peter Mac and has held senior leadership roles with cancer-related organisations including Cancer Council Victoria and BreastScreen Victoria, and professional organisations such as the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and the Medical Oncology Group of Australia.

Most of his research has a cancer survivorship focus, aiming to better understand issues affecting survivors; to develop and implement strategies to minimise post-treatment consequences; to develop improved models of care, and to better understand and minimise disparities in cancer survivorship outcomes. In addition, he is co-investigator on several cancer therapeutic and supportive care / psychosocial studies. He has been awarded over A$19m in grant funding as a chief / principal investigator.

He has been heavily involved with professional education and university teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate level. In 2007 he established the Specialist Certificate in Clinical Research (Oncology), an award course of the University of Melbourne, which he coordinated for 8 years.
He is widely published and has presented work at numerous international meetings covering clinical oncology, survivorship, psycho-oncology and cancer control broadly.

Prof Raymond Chan (RN, BNurs, MAppSc, PhD, FACN, GAICD) is Director and Professor of Cancer Nursing, Caring Futures Institute, Flinders University. He holds prestigious titles as NHMRC Investigator Fellow and Matthew Flinders Fellow. Ray is currently leading a number of implementation-effectiveness trials in optimising shared-care to address the needs of cancer survivors. Prof Chan has published over 160 peer-reviewed articles and 2 book chapters. He currently also holds leadership roles in the MASCC Survivorship Group and COSA Survivorship Group.

Sophy Athan has significant experience as a consumer advocate and representative in cancer research projects through her role as Chair of the VCCC Alliance Cancer Consumer Advisory Committee, as well as through her involvement in several other oncology-specific committees and advisory panels. Sophy currently serves on a number of boards and Government Health Committee. She is on more than twenty committees and advisory panels within the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre, Victorian Cancer COVID-19 Taskforce, Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency, University of Melbourne, Health Issues Centre, Victorian Clinical Council, Victorian Agency for Health Information, Outer East Primary Care Partnership, Endeavour College Academic Council and Eastern Melbourne Primary Health Network. Sophy previously served on many other committees, including steering committees for the Department of Health and Human Services. She continues to be involved around issues of quality and safety, mental health, disability, aged care, and diversity, advocating for better health outcomes for everyone. Sophy has been a regular presenter at national and international conferences. She has graduate and postgraduate degrees in Arts and Social Sciences, several graduate diplomas, and leadership qualifications.

Sophy is involved with the VCCC Alliance Strategic Program Plan as an Ex-officio member on the Steering Groups for Link clinical, biological, genomic and patient outcomes data to enable discoveries and Develop leadership skills and empowerment of researchers, clinicians and consumers.

Dr Mahesh Iddawela is an oncologist at Alfred Health and Latrobe Regional Hospital.

He has a special interest in genitourinary, Breast cancer, Gynaecological cancer and melanoma.

Dr Iddawela completed his medical oncology training at Cambridge University, UK. He also completed a PhD at Cambridge University investigating role of precision oncology in breast cancer and then working as a Consultant at Cambridge University Hospital. Since moving to Australia, he has been actively involved in cancer survivorship, precision oncology and service development. His research has been presented at many local and international meetings and published in journals such as Nature communications, Lancet Oncology and British Journal of Cancer.

My name is Joanne Hickman and I am 49 years of age. I am married with two adult children and have a career in nursing working primarily in the disciplines of cardiac care and now immunisation as Nurse Unit Manger for Monash Immunisation, which is a hospital based immunisation service for high risk patients. In 2017 I was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma. Being on the other side and receiving care made me realise that the lived experience of being a patient is an essential part of delivering a health service. In 2019 after a year of navigating my new “normal” I became involved with Peter Mac as a consumer representative. I sit on various committees, one of which is the Community Advisory Committee and also participate in other projects as they present. I also have recently commenced a part time role with the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute as Consumer Engagement Manager for the Centre of Health Analytics whist job sharing my NUM role.

As digital health is upon us, I look forward to the Great Debate around the challenges and benefits of its presence.

Dr Ben Smith is a Cancer Institute NSW Career Development Fellow at theIngham Institute and University of New South Wales, Medicine & Health.Ben’s research aims to ensure equitable access to high quality evidence-based survivorship care for all people living with cancer. He has a particular interest in digital health interventions and fear of cancer recurrence.

Dr Craig Underhill is Director of Cancer Services at Albury-Wodonga Regional Cancer Centre; Clinical Director, Hume Regional Integrated Cancer Services and Regional Oncology Lead for the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre (VCCC).

He is conjoint Associate Professor at the University of NSW Clinical School in Albury. After training in Melbourne and working as a research fellow at Guys Hospital London and Ludwig Institute Melbourne Dr Underhill helped develop a medical oncology service in Albury-Wodonga and established an independent not-for-profit Clinical Trials Unit (Border Medical Oncology Research Unit) which has twice been awarded NSW Premier’s Award for Innovation in Cancer Clinical Trials.

Dr Underhill has worked to develop clinical and research partnerships with the public and private sector to improve access to cancer services for regional patients.

As the VCCC Regional Oncology Lead he advocates for the increased access to clinical trials for regional Victorians and leads the VCCC teletrials program. This program has operationalised teletrial methodology (also known as decentralized clinical trials). He is leading a research program awarded by the Australian Government over 5 years to implement teletrials and conduct health services research via telehealth.

Kalinda is a Yawuru woman of Broome, born and living in Darwin, Australia. Sheis an early career Scientia Lecturer at the Centre for Big Data Research in Health at UNSW and Research and Education Lead for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health at the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre. Kalinda is an epidemiologist who has worked in the research sector for over 20 years.Her interest is in empirically addressing complex health disparities in populations through existing data. Kalinda’s innovative research focuses on Indigenous Data Governance, the measurement of health disparities, improving cancer services and outcomes as well as building health research capabilities in regional and remote Australia.
Dr Griffiths is on the steering committee for the Indigenous Data Network in Australia and holds a number of national and international committee roles, including the Australian Bureau of Statistics Health Surveys Advisory Group, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Indigenous Statistical and Information Advisory group as well as the Clinical Advisory Group of the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program and the International Group for Indigenous Health Measurement.

Kalinda holds a Certificate III in Laboratory Techniques, Bachelor of Biomedical Science, Master of Public Health and a PhD in Cancer Epidemiology. Dr Griffiths also holds honorary positions at the University of Melbourne and Menzies School of Health Research and is also Deputy Editor of the Health Promotion Journal of Australia.

She is the recipient of a number of awards. Notably, she was awarded the ‘Northern Territory Young Australian of the Year’in 2011 and more recently, the 2019 Lowitja Institutes ‘Emerging Researcher Award’. She was also a 2019-2021 Science and Technology Australia ‘Superstar of STEM’ and is currently the Australian Health Promotion Associations‘Thinker in Residence’.

A/Professor Kate Burbury is a consultant haematologist, Director of Digital and Healthcare Innovations and Deputy Chief Medical Officer at the Peter McCallum Cancer Centre. Kate is the lead for Digital health, healthcare innovations, healthcare research and implementation, and the strategy for building our regional partnerships around Victoria and interstate. She is also the lead clinician for MPN/CML, as well as the haemostasis/ thrombosis service and peri-procedural optimisation, including prehabilitation.

Kate has an active translational research and clinical trial portfolio and actively involved in the development of expert guidelines and governance structures both for the institution as well national and international expert groups. Kate has published numerous peer-reviewed manuscripts, as well as being a member of the editorial board and an invited reviewer for numerous journals. She has an extensive list of presented abstracts, as well as an invited expert speaker at national and international scientific meetings.

Margaret has a background in business development, fundraising, health promotion, peer support and project management, moving from engineering and managed services to the NFP sector after having children.

Her latest work at Red Nose was the development and delivery of a $1.3mil pilot program called Hospital to Home implemented with five hospitals across Australia. The program delivers peer support and navigation to bereaved parents in the acute stages of grief following a stillbirth or neonatal death, with support provided by outreach workers with lived experience.

Margaret is a passionate consumer advocate and was a faculty member of Safer Care Victoria’s Safer Baby Collaborative. She also provides personal insight as a carer and consumer on Eastern Health’s Rainbow eQuality working group and Peter Mac’s United Colours of Us Diversity and Inclusion working group, and is a Board Director for Transcend Australia.