The Australian Government today announced the establishment and membership of a new Principal Committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council – the Health Care Committee.
The Health Care Committee’s major role is to provide NHMRC’s CEO, Professor Warwick Anderson, with advice on applying the results of the best available research to health care in hospitals, surgeries and clinics.
It will provide expert advice on evidence and knowledge transfer to improve healthcare across all domains including primary care and aged care and will draw on NHMRC support for clinical and health services research and findings.
The Health Care Committee will have a significant role in supporting NHMRC's response to the National Health and Hospitals’ Reform Commission report and in addressing the National Primary Health Care Strategy.
It is one of two new committees established for NHMRC’s 2009-2012 triennium, the other being the Prevention and Community Health Committee.
They join three other NHMRC committees that have served Australians and the country’s health and medical researchers for many years.
The Health Care Committee will complete a three-year term on 30 June 2012 and will be chaired by Professor John Horvath, formerly Chief Medical Officer for the Commonwealth. Professor Horvath has exceptional skills in public health and clinical practice.
He will be joined by 15 other committee members who bring to the table knowledge from the community and have expertise across a wide variety of medical, clinical and public health research activities.
They include Dr Tamara Mackean, a senior researcher with expertise in capacity building and Dr Mark Wenitong, an Indigenous clinician and general practitioner.
Media Contact
Parliamentary Secretary’s Office: Lisa Sedgwick, 02 6277 4414
NHMRC: Carolyn Norrie, Tel 02 6217 9342 Mob 0422 008 512 Email carolyn.norrie@nhmrc.gov.au
Members of NHMRC’s new Health Care Committee
Chair
Professor John Horvath AO
Professor Horvath is currently Principal Medical Consultant for the Australian Department of Health and Ageing and was formerly Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer (CMO) from 2003-2009. Prior to his appointment as CMO, Professor Horvath was Professor of Renal Medicine at the University of Sydney and a specialist renal physician at Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 2001 for his services to medicine.
Members
Professor Chris Baggoley
Professor Baggoley is Chief Executive of the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (ACSQHC). He is a specialist emergency physician and was previously Director of Emergency Medicine at three Adelaide facilities: Flinders Medical Centre, Ashford Community Hospital and Royal Adelaide Hospital. He was also president of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine, Chairman of the Committee of Presidents of Medical Colleges and Chair of the Board of the National Institute of Clinical Studies. Prior to his role at ACSQHC he was Chief Medical Officer and Executive Director, Public Health and Clinical Coordination at the South Australian Department of Health.
Professor Chris Del Mar
Following an education in science and then medicine at the University of Cambridge, Professor Del Mar worked in London before moving to Mackay in Northern Queensland in 1977, where he worked clinically until 1988. He then joined the University of Queensland and was Professor of General Practice from 1995 to 2004 and Visiting Professor of General Practice at Oxford University from 2007. He has published on evidence-based practice, primary care, skin cancer management and acute respiratory infection, and is a Coordinating Editor in the Cochrane Collaboration.
Dr Mukesh Haikerwal
Dr Haikerwal is a general medical practitioner in Melbourne’s western suburbs. He is a past Federal President and Vice President of the Australian Medical Association and has spent five years on the board of AMA Victoria, including two years as Victorian State President. He was the founding Chair of the Westgate Division of Family Medicine and is currently working with the National e-Health Transition Authority. Internationally, he is the Chair of the World Medical Association Finance and Planning Committee. He was awarded Honorary Fellowships by both the Australian Medical Association and the Royal Australian College of General Practice and presented with the Australian Medical Association President’s Award. He is a Commissioner to the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission and a Professor in the School of Medicine in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Flinders University in Adelaide.
Professor Amanda Henderson
Professor Henderson is an Australian Learning and Teaching Council Associate Fellow and Professor in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Queensland’s Griffith University. She is also Nursing Director, Education at the Princess Alexandra Hospital, one of Queensland’s largest tertiary referral facilities. Her scholarship is focused on the establishment of clinical settings that promote the development and use of healthcare knowledge that can ultimately impact on patient care. She has an extensive career in education, research and leadership overseas and nationally within both academic and clinical healthcare settings, and an outstanding international publication record in leading nursing and health journals.
Professor Clifford (Cliff) Hughes AO
Professor Hughes is CEO of the Clinical Excellence Commission in NSW. He spent 25 years in a cardiothoracic unit in the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney as a Senior Partner and Head of the Unit. He led five medical teams to China, performing cardiac (open heart) procedures in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, India and Bangladesh. He was a member of the Australian Council on Safety and Quality in Health Care and Chair of the Therapeutic Device Evaluation Committee. He was Secretary and then Chair of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery for the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons as well as Chairman of the Ethics Committee. Professor Hughes was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 1998 for ‘service to cardiac surgery, international relations and the community’.
Mr Demos Krouskos
Mr Krouskos migrated with his family from Greece in 1954. He was educated at Fitzroy High School, La Trobe University and Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. Since 1985 he has held a number of voluntary and professional positions in health care. In 1991 he was appointed Chief Executive Officer of North Richmond Community Health Centre and in 1999 as Director for the Centre for Culture Ethnicity and Health, positions he still holds concurrently. His health interests include health and cultural diversity, health equity, health and human rights and research into the cultural contexts of health care.
Dr Tamara Mackean
Dr Mackean is a descendant of the Waljen clan of the Wongai Peoples from the Goldfields region in Western Australia. Following varied clinical experience in obstetrics, psychiatry, ophthalmology and general practice, she became involved in medical education. She is currently a Senior Research Fellow with the Centre for Aboriginal Medical and Dental Health at the University of WA. She is also a trainee with the Australasian Faculty of Public Health Medicine of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) as the recipient of the inaugural RACP Indigenous Trainee Scholarship. Dr Mackean is the immediate past President of the Australian Indigenous Doctors’ Association and works with governments, organisations, communities and individuals to bring about positive change for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Professor Guy Maddern
Professor Maddern holds the R.P. Jepson Chair of Surgery at the University of Adelaide. He is Director of Research of the Basil Hetzel Institute based at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Adelaide. For the past 11 years he has served as the Surgical Director of the Australian Safety and Efficacy Register of New Interventional Procedures run by the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. In his College role he has headed the roll-out of the national Audit of Surgical Mortality aimed at informing surgeons, hospitals and government of improvements required in the care of surgical patients. He is a practising hepatobiliary surgeon with research interests in techniques of tumour ablation. As the Director of Surgery at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Head of the Discipline of Surgery of the University of Adelaide, the constant tension between service, teaching and research provide a daily challenge.
Professor Leonie Segal
Professor Segal joined the University of South Australia in 2007 as Foundation Research Chair in Health Economics and Policy, after eight years as Deputy Director at Monash University’s Centre for Health Economics. She has a Masters of Economics and a PhD in Health Economics. Professor Segal has five current ARC/NHMRC grants and contracts with Commonwealth and state governments worth more than $10 million. Her research focus is in health system reform, priority setting and economic evaluation of complex interventions, covering issues such as the health workforce and child protection. She has produced more than 95 publications in the last 12 years and is on several policy committees including the Minister for Health and Ageing’s Preventative Health Taskforce and the Australian Medical Council Strategic Policy Advisory Committee.
Professor Helena Teede
Professor Teede is an endocrinologist, Jean Hailes Foundation Director of Research, Southern Health Head of Diabetes, Monash University Professor of Women’s Health and NHMRC Research Fellow. She is a Director of Diabetes Australia – Vic, a council member of the Australian Endocrine and International PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome) societies and sits on the Australian Government’s women’s health policy roundtable. With more than 130 publications, she leads a multidisciplinary research team focused on national health priority areas. Professor Teede translates evidence into improved healthcare outcomes within a Jean Hailes translation framework encompassing clinical care, education, research, collaboration and leadership across community, clinicians and policy makers.
Mr George Toemoe
Mr Toemoe joined St Luke’s Hospital Complex in 1997 as Director of Business and Corporate Services, was appointed Chief Executive Officer in August 1998 and retired from that position in March 2009. He has always had a strong interest in medical and clinical matters, associated medical technology and IT initiatives and capabilities, particularly from a patient care point of view. He has also been strongly involved in a number of health and industry associations. Mr Toemoe has tertiary qualifications in industrial chemistry and accounting/finance, is a Certified Practising Accountant and a member of the Australian Council of Health Service Executives.
Professor John Wakerman
Professor Wakerman is the inaugural Director of the Centre for Remote Health, a joint centre of Flinders University in Adelaide and Charles Darwin University in Alice Springs. He is a public health medicine specialist and general practitioner, with a long background in remote primary healthcare services as a medical practitioner, senior manager and researcher. He is an active advocate for rural and remote health issues. He has specific academic interests in remote health services research and health management education.
Dr Mark Wenitong
Dr Wenitong is from the Kabi Kabi tribal group of South Queensland. He is currently the Senior Medical Officer at Apunipima Cape York Health Council and was previously the Senior Medical Officer at Wuchopperen Health Services in Cairns. He is a past president and founder of the Australian Indigenous Doctors Association. He has been heavily involved in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workforce and has helped develop several national workforce documents. Dr Wenitong is involved in several research projects and has worked in prison health and refugee health in East Timor as well as studying and working in Indigenous health internationally. He was a member of the Northern Territory Emergency Response Review expert advisory group in 2008. He is involved in clinical and policy work with the aim of improving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health outcomes in Australia.
Professor Doris Young
Professor Young is Professor of General Practice at the University of Melbourne and has been a practising GP in a community health centre in the north-western region of Melbourne delivering comprehensive care to a disadvantaged, diverse and multicultural community for more than 20 years. She has been actively involved in undergraduate, vocational and postgraduate GP education and has extensive knowledge and experience in establishing and evaluating different models of teaching and research practices in general practice and primary care settings. She has had long-standing involvement in the development, support and evaluation of the Divisions of General Practice program in Australia. She has also been a board member of the Northern Health Regional Health Service in Victoria for eight years.
Dr Helen Zorbas
Dr Zorbas is Chief Executive Officer of the National Breast and Ovarian Cancer Centre. She has directed a number of key national projects and programs in evidence-based practice, clinical guidelines, monitoring, service improvement and psychosocial support to improve cancer care. Dr Zorbas has held a number of positions on key national cancer and health committees, most notably Chair, BreastScreen Australia Evaluation Advisory Committee; member, NHMRC National Health Committee; member, NHMRC Health Advisory Committee; Chair, Australian Screening Advisory Committee Quality Improvement and Workforce Working Group; Chair, NHMRC Microwave Cancer Review Committee; and Acting Chair, Cancer Institute NSW Board. She has past experience as a GP and currently holds a Staff Specialist appointment.