Australia's health 2006 conference session speakers

AIHW contact details

26 Thynne Street
Fern Hill Park
Bruce ACT

GPO Box 570
Canberra ACT 2601

Tel 61 2 6244 1000
Fax 61 2 6244 1299

Web www.aihw.gov.au

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21 June 2006, Hyatt Hotel Canberra, Commonwealth Avenue, Yarralumla

Dr Fadwa Al-Yaman

Head, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health and Welfare Unit, Information and Strategy Group, AIHW

Fadwa Al-Yaman has a BSC, Zoology (First Class Honours) PhD in Immunology, John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University and a Master of Population Studies from Research School of Social Sciences at the ANU. Fadwa currently heads the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health and Welfare Unit at the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Before joining the Institute of Health and Welfare in 2000, Fadwa worked as an Immunologist at the Australian National University and before that she worked as a Research Fellow at the Papua New Guinea Institute of Medical Research where she spent four years setting up the immunological side of the first major trial of a blood stage malaria vaccine for children.

The major focus of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health and Welfare Unit is to monitor and report on progress in the health and welfare of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The Unit uses relevant current strategic information plans and agreements to guide its work program and set its priorities in the health, housing and community services areas. In addition, relevant policy and reporting frameworks are used to guide priorities. Since the Unit's inception, policy relevance of the information produced on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples has been a major driver of the work program.

Professor Ian Anderson

Deputy Director, Department of Public Health, University of Melbourne

Professor Ian Anderson currently holds the Chair in Indigenous Health at the University of Melbourne. He has been a full-time research academic since 1998 when he established the Onemda VicHealth Koori Health Unit with external funding from the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation and the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing. He is also currently the Research Director for the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Aboriginal Health.

Ian has worked in Aboriginal health for about 20 years in a number of clinical/health care and administrative/policy roles. Over that period of time he has been involved in a number of aspects of Aboriginal health policy. He chaired the working party that developed the first National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sexual Health Strategy in 1997. He is currently a member of the National Health and Medical Research Council. Ian has a long-standing interest in issues of identity, representation and art practice and has written on these issues.

Dr Kuldeep Bhatia

Head, Asthma, Arthritis and Environmental Health Unit, Health and Functioning Group, AIHW

Dr Kuldeep Bhatia is head of the National Centre for Monitoring Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Conditions, located at the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. A human geneticist by training, Kuldeep has a strong interest in disease monitoring. He studied the immunogenetic basis of polyarthritis in Papua New Guinea and has been involved in putting together baseline information on arthritis and musculoskeletal conditions in Australia. He has also co-ordinated the development of indicators for monitoring arthritis and musculoskeletal conditions in Australia.

Assoc. Professor Helena Britt

University of Sydney

Professor Helena Britt is Director of the Australian General Practice Statistics and Classification Centre, within the Family Medicine Research Centre at the University of Sydney. The Centre is a collaborating unit of the Institute, and is responsible for ensuring we have timely and reliable statistics about the clinical activities of general practice. The Centre therefore operates the BEACH program, a continuous national study of general practice activity. It is also responsible for the development of classifications and terminologies for electronic use in general practice. Helena is a member of the World Organisation of Family Doctors (Wonca) International Classification Committee and Chair of the Asia Pacific Regional Classification Committee.

Helena, originally a research psychologist, has been in health services research in general practice for almost three decades. Her doctorate is in general practice rather than psychology. She has published about 100 papers in professional journals and has presented widely on data collection methods, classification, and GP activity, with recent interest in the effect of changes in activity on future general practice workforce.

Dr Tony Butler

Research Manager, (University of New South Wales) Centre For Health Research in Criminal Justice

Assoc. Professor Tony Butler is the research manager for Justice Health NSW. In this role he is responsible for coordinating the research activities of the organisation which involves working closely with a wide range of researchers. He completed his PhD in prisoner health in 2001, and has continued to work in the area. He has conducted two population based prisoner health surveys in 1996 and 2001, organised two highly successful Research Symposia on Prisoners' Health and conducted the largest mental health survey of prisoners in Australia. He implemented an injury surveillance system in the NSW correctional system, developed a national minimum dataset for prisoners, conducted research into traumatic brain injury among prisoners and is involved with several NHMRC- and ARC-funded projects. These include a study of the health of young people serving a community order, a prison-based smoking cessation trial, and a study of prisoners' sexual health.

Assoc. Professor Butler is a conjoint associated professor of the UNSW, a guest lecturer at Sydney University, runs a course for the School of Public Health and Community Medicine (UNSW) entitled "Sex, drugs and stigmatisation - researching marginalised groups". He is also a NHMRC Postgraduate Research Scholarship Review panel member and supervises several masters and PhD students. In 2005 he received a NHMRC Career Development Award.

Current research projects include:

Causes of mortality among ex-prisoners;
A multi-component intervention for smoking cessation among Australian prisoners;
Sexual Health and Attitudes of Australian Prisoners;
"Breaking the juvenile crime cycle: rehabilitating high-risk juvenile offenders";
the National Prison Entrants' Blood borne Virus Survey;
An intervention to reduce impulsive-aggressive behaviours in repeat violent offenders; and
Developing a national minimum dataset for prisoners.

Mark Cooper-Stanbury

Head, Population Health Unit, Health and Functioning Group, AIHW

Mark has held research and executive positions at the Institute since 1993. For the past eight years he has run the Institute's outposted unit at the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing, and for the past year has also been head of the Institute's Population Health Unit. This unit, among other things, is responsible for the Institute's general work in chronic diseases and associated risk factors.

Mark has prepared or contributed to over 30 of the Institute's major publications, as well as contributions to reports for the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Steering Committee for the Review of Government Service Provision, and Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing. He has also co-authored a number of articles in peer-reviewed journals.

Professor Bob Cumming

(University of Sydney) Epidemiology and Geriatric Medicine at the Centre for Education and Research on Ageing

Professor Robert Cumming graduated in medicine from the University of New South Wales in 1979. After four years of clinical work, he went on to study epidemiology at the University of Sydney and at Columbia University in New York. He has worked at the University of Sydney since 1990, where he is now Professor of Epidemiology and Geriatric Medicine.

He has appointments in both the School of Public Health and the Centre for Education and Research on Ageing. In the past he has served as Head of the School of Public Health at the University of Sydney and as Secretary of the Australasian Epidemiological Association.

Professor Cumming's main area of research has been osteoporosis, falls and fractures. More recently, he has become involved in research on a broader range of ageing-related conditions, including sensory impairment and dementia. He is a Chief Investigator on several NHMRC-funded cohort studies, including the Concord Health and Ageing in Men Project (CHAMP), the Fracture Risk Epidemiology in the Elderly (FREE) Study and the Blue Mountains Eye Study. He has published more than 150 journal articles.

Mr Michael de Looper

Senior Analyst, Population Health Unit, Health and Functioning Group, AIHW

Michael de Looper is a Senior Analyst in the Population Health Unit at the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Mr de Looper's areas of interest at the Institute include the health of population groups, long-term trends in health and international comparisons of health status. His other primary focus is in the area of health inequalities. Associated areas of interest are the health of underprivileged and disadvantaged groups, and historical aspects of health data. He helped coordinate chapter 4 of Australia's health 2006, Health of population groups. Mr de Looper has training in epidemiology, health and statistics. He has an MSc in psychology from Australian National University.

Ms Tracy Dixon

Senior Project Manager, National Centre for Monitoring Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Conditions, AIHW

Tracy Dixon is a Senior Project Manager at the National Centre for Monitoring Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Conditions. Tracy has worked for several years as a researcher and epidemiologist in chronic disease, both in Australia and overseas. This has encompassed work relating to risk factors, impacts, treatments, quality of life, and health expenditure. Current projects include the epidemiology of hip and knee replacements, and developing indicators for osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis.

Mr John Goss

Head, Summary Measures Unit, Economics and Health Services Group, AIHW

Mr John Goss is the Principal Economist and Head of the Summary Measures Unit at the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Mr Goss joined the Institute in 1986. He has held a series of research and executive positions in the area of health and welfare expenditure assessment and currently is involved in burden of disease and disease costing analyses. Mr Goss has undertaken analysis on a wide range of topics including the growth and structure of the medical workforce, costs of promoting physical activity, the implications of increasing the excise on tobacco, health expenditure in Australia in comparison with other countries, projection of health expenditure, health system performance assessment, public and private hospital costs, and international comparisons of health financing systems.

Mr Gordon Gregory

Executive Officer, National Rural Health Alliance

Gordon Gregory is Executive Director of the National Rural Health Alliance - a position he has held since August 1993. The NRHA is the peak non-government body working to improve the health of people throughout rural and remote Australia, organiser of the biennial National Rural Health Conference, and owner-manager of the Australian Journal of Rural Health.

Before 1993 Gordon worked at the Rural Development Centre at the University of New England, and then for nearly eight years in Canberra on the personal staff of a Federal Minister as an adviser on rural affairs, horticulture and fisheries. (One of the first tasks he had in the fisheries area was to address cross fishermen from the South Coast of NSW - and their even crosser wives - about how the national interest was served by reductions in their annual quota.) In 1976 or so he undertook a study of local government amalgamations in NSW that led to a modest publication; strange how life goes in cycles.

He is a lapsed economist who has had a long-standing interest in policies and services for rural, regional and remote communities in Australia.

Professor Jane Hall

Director, Centre for Health Economics Research and Evaluation, University of Technology Sydney

Professor Jane Hall is a health economist whose current research interests include the investigation of individual decision making, valuation of health and health care benefits, and social welfare measurement. Professor Hall is the founding Director of the Centre for Health Economics Research and Evaluation and Professor of Health Economics in the Faculty of Business, University of Technology, Sydney.

Among her current research are studies of unpaid health care, and developments in the Australian health care system. Her previous research includes economic evaluation studies in many areas of health services and public health. Professor Hall is involved in health policy and planning issues both in Australia and internationally and has served on numerous advisory committees and working parties.

She is currently President of the Health Services Research Association of Australia and New Zealand. Since 1997, Professor Hall has been the Commonwealth Fund's Harkness Fellowship in Health Care Policy representative in Australia. She serves on the Coordinating Committee of the Fund's International Program in Health Policy and Practice. She has recently been elected a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia.

Mr Tony Hynes

Head, Expenditure Unit, Economics and Health Services Group, AIHW

Tony Hynes is the head of the Expenditure Unit at the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. The Expenditure Unit is responsible for collating and reporting annual estimates of expenditure on health and welfare in Australia. It also provides the Australian focus for both the OECD and WHO in relation to health and social expenditures. The Unit provides expert advice on national health accounting practices and related issues to OECD, WHO and the Asia Pacific Area National Health Accounts Network (APNHAN).

From 1974 to 1989 Tony worked in a number of health and welfare policy research and development areas within the Commonwealth Departments of Social Security and Health, including a short period in 1985 at the newly established Australian Institute of Health.

After five years working with a non-government advocacy organisation, Tony returned to the AIHW at the beginning of 1995 and has worked continuously within the Expenditure Unit since that time. He represents Australia on the OECD's National Health Accounts Expert Group and is Australia's representative on the APNHAN.

Dr Lisa Jackson-Pulver

Senior Lecturer, Muru Marri Indigenous Health Unit, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of New South Wales

Dr Lisa Rae Jackson Pulver was appointed to her current position in 2003, following a career that has progressed through public and community health. Dr Jackson Pulver is committed to identifying the causes in issues of health in order to develop solutions to improve population health outcomes for disadvantaged groups and communities. Being an Aboriginal woman, Lisa's particular, although by no means exclusive, area of interest is Indigenous Health. Lisa is a modern, Wiradjuri woman whose traditional roots lie in a beautiful, forested region of south western NSW, but whose own life has been lived in urban Sydney. Dr Jackson Pulver's health background includes positions as Epidemiologist, Public Health Officer, Postgraduate Health and Medical Student, Registered Nurse and Counsellor.

Dr Jackson Pulver's background has made her acutely aware of the lack of available data to identify underlying issues in the health for Aboriginal people who today, usually reside in the large metropolitan and urban centres of Australia. Along with her colleagues in the Muru Mari Indigenous Health Unit, the unit whose reputation she helped establish, Lisa is working to provide that data. This she achieves through extensive and comprehensive research with an impressive list of research credits to her name; conference participation, including leadership and presentation; publications including conference papers, public domain reports and journal articles; and, through her teaching career both before and after her appointment to UNSW.

Over the last three years, Dr Jackson Pulver has been a full and participating member of a number of important committees, including the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), Committee of Deans of Australian Medical Schools (CDAMS), and an invitee to the Australian Vice Chancellors Committee (AVCC) and Australian Health Ethics Committees' recent review of ethical guidelines, the CDAMS Medical Education forum and represented the University at a recent Briefing to the House of Commons in London.

Clinical Professor Christine Jenkins

(University of Sydney) Woolcock Institute of Medical Research

Christine Jenkins is Clinical Professor of Medicine, Sydney University and a thoracic physician at Concord Hospital, Sydney. She has a strong clinical and research interest in the management of asthma and chronic obstructive airways disease and is head of the Airways Group at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. She is Leader of the Education program in the Co-operative Research Centre for Asthma and Airways, which is funded by a joint Industry and Federal Government grant to fund innovative, collaborative research into new diagnostic and treatment initiatives for airways disease.

Christine currently chairs the National Asthma Reference Group which advises the federal Department of Health and Ageing on asthma issues. She has an active interest in guideline formulation and implementation, and the evidence base which underpins best practice. She is a member of the GOLD (Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease) Executive and Dissemination committees and has been a participant in the formulation of the Australian COPD guidelines.

Christine is an active clinician, teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students and is frequently invited to speak at national and international meetings focusing on airways disease. She has recently written a book for patients and their families, titled Know Your Asthma and co-edited a textbook for students and GPs, Understanding Asthma. Christine's AM in the Order of Australia was awarded for services to respiratory medicine, especially as a physician, administrator and educator, particularly in the field of asthma education.

Assoc. Professor Lyn March

(University of Sydney) Department of Rheumatology, Royal North Shore Hospital

Assoc. Professor Lyn March holds a conjoint academic appointment in the departments of Medicine and Public Health at the University of Sydney and is a Senior Staff Specialist in Rheumatology and Clinical Epidemiology at Royal North Shore Hospital. Lyn has been a member of the NAMSCAG Data working group since arthritis became a National health Priority and is now a member of the Steering Committee for the National Monitoring Centre for Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Conditions.

Lyn is currently the acting President of the Australian Rheumatology Association. Among Lyn's numerous research interest in osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis, Lyn has held NHMRC-funded grants to follow the health costs and outcomes of joint replacement surgery and other treatments for arthritis for the past 10 years and to evaluate risk factors and prevention strategies for falls and fractures in the elderly for the past six years.

Assoc. Professor Guy Marks

Australian Centre for Asthma Monitoring, and Woolcock Institute of Medical Research

Guy Marks is a respiratory physician and epidemiologist who, for the last four years, has directed the Australian Centre for Asthma Monitoring, a collaborating unit of the AIHW at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research. He is a staff specialist respiratory physician and head of the Department of Respiratory Medicine at Liverpool Hospital in Sydney and also Head of the Epidemiology Group at the Woolcock. Since 2001 he has been an NHMRC Practitioner Fellow. His research has mainly focused on asthma. He has published extensively on the epidemiology of asthma including the identification of environmental and other risk factors for the disease and the prospects for prevention, measuring disease outcomes including quality of life and describing trends and patterns in asthma treatment.

Ms Lynelle Moon

(Joint) Head, Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes Unit, Health and Functioning Group, AIHW

Lynelle has been the Head of the Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes Unit since 2003, and has been at the Institute since 1995. Lynelle has extensive experience in many aspects of health statistics. She has academic qualifications in mathematics, statistics, and population health, and is now undertaking her PhD in epidemiology.

She also spent two years with the OECD in Paris in 2001-2002, working on a cross-country project comparing policies and treatments for a number of important diseases, and the effect of these differing approaches on costs and health outcomes.

Mr Andrew Phillips

Senior Analyst, Labour Force Unit, Economics and Health Services Group, AIHW

Andrew Phillips is a senior analyst with the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare in Canberra, where he works on a number of rural health projects. Andrew's background is in public health and epidemiology, having worked as epidemiologist in western NSW for many years and later as environmental epidemiologist in Hobart. Andrew's own rural work experience includes high school teaching, fencing, silo building, commercial fishing, logging and work in a variety of other agricultural activities. Andrew has tertiary qualifications in environmental management, epidemiology and education.

Dr Naila Rahman

Senior Project Manager, National Centre for Monitoring Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Conditions, AIHW

Naila Rahman has a Masters in Psychology from Dhaka University and a PhD in Epidemiology and Population Health from the Australian National University. Her diverse work experience, overseas and in Australia, includes work on various health related topics, particularly highlighting the psycho-social aspects. During her eight years at the AIHW she has worked on child and youth health, chronic diseases, and National Health Priority Areas. At present, as one of the founding members of the National Centre for Monitoring Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Conditions, she is fully committed to this issue.

Professor Martin Silink

President Elect of the International Diabetes Federation, and Professor of Paediatric Endocrinology, University of Sydney

Professor Martin Silink is President-Elect of the International Diabetes Federation 2003-2006 and will take office as IDF President 2006-2009. He is Chairman of the IDF Child Sponsorship Program and is Professor of Paediatric Endocrinology at the University of Sydney and The Children's Hospital at Westmead, Sydney, Australia.

Professor Silink graduated MB BS with first class honours from the University of Sydney in 1965 and was awarded his Doctorate of Medicine in 1974. He is a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians.

Professor Silink is a member of many professional societies including American Diabetes Association, European Association for the Study of Diabetes, The Endocrine Society (USA), and Lawson Wilkins Pediatric Endocrine Society (USA).

Previous appointments include President of the International Society of Pediatric and Adolescent Diabetes (ISPAD) (1999-2002), Vice President of the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) (2000-2003), Chairman of the International Diabetes Federation's Consultative Section on Childhood & Adolescent Diabetes (1994-2003).

He is on the Editorial Board of Pediatric Diabetes, Clinical Pediatric Endocrinology and the IDF Diabetes Atlas. His CV includes over 100 peer-reviewed articles, invited chapters and is editor of national guidelines on the management of childhood diabetes. His main research interests are diabetes complications in the young and the changing patterns of diabetes in childhood and adolescence.

Dr Chris Stevenson

(Acting Joint) Head, Cardiovascular Diseases and Diabetes Monitoring Unit, Health and Functioning Group, AIHW

Chris Stevenson is an epidemiologist and biostatistician in the Health and Functioning Group of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. He trained as a statistician at the University of Melbourne and the Australian National University and worked at the Australian Bureau of Statistics. He then moved to the AIHW and completed a PhD in epidemiology at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health. He is currently joint head of the AIHW Cardiovascular Diseases and Diabetes Monitoring Unit, where he is primarily responsible for the National Centre for Monitoring Cardiovascular Disease. He is also a Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University Medical School, where he lectures in Population Health.

Mr Ken Tallis

(Acting) AIHW Deputy Director, and Head, Information and Strategy Group, AIHW

Ken was raised in coastal New South Wales. He trained first as a mathematician and statistician, then as an economist and econometric modeller. For most of his professional life, he has analysed social and economic data. He has worked in the research or statistics arms of several government agencies; he has also worked in the mathematics and economics faculties of several universities.

Ken is acting Deputy Director of the AIHW and head of the Information and Strategy Group which is responsible for informatics (including metadata, standards and classifications), statistical methods, privacy and ethics, and for information on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and welfare.

Ms Glenice Taylor

Head, Labour Force Unit, Economics and Health Services Group, AIHW

Glenice Taylor is the head of the Labour Force Unit at the AIHW. This Unit is responsible for maintaining national collections based on the State/Territory surveys of medical practitioners, nurses and other registrable health professions. The Unit also holds information from other sources, such as the ABS Census and other surveys.

This information is used by bodies involved with health workforce planning and monitoring in the medical, nursing and other health professions. The main 'customers' for this data are the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing and the national health workforce committees responsible to the Health ministers.

Glenice has worked in a variety of public service positions, including a few at the ABS.

Professor Richard Telford

Research Director, LOOK (Lifestyle of our Kids), Commonwealth Institute (Australia) and Faculty of Medicine, ANU

Professor Richard Telford is Research Director of the Commonwealth Institute Lifestyle of our Kids (LOOK) project. LOOK is a longitudinal project over four years involving primary school children. It is a multi-disciplinary project that monitors many aspects of health, specifically early symptoms of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, bone health, immuno-competence, psychological problems, as well as postural and coordination.

He is also currently an Adjunct Professor at the Australian National University in the School of Medicine.

Over the past three decades Richard has pursued research in the areas of exercise physiology, immunology, haematology and nutrition of elite athletes. This research has also lead him to study the effect of lifestyle on the health of Australians in general. He has published in excess of 100 research papers in both peer reviewed journals and books.

For his contribution to sport/sports science, Richard has been awarded the Office of the Order of Australia (AM). He is a Foundation Fellow of the Australian Sports Medicine Federation and a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine.

Professor Andrew Tonkin

Chief Medical Officer, National Heart Foundation

Professor Andrew Tonkin is Chief Medical Officer of the National Heart Foundation of Australia. He is also head of the Cardiovascular Research Unit, Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine at Monash University, and a consultant cardiologist at the Austin and Repatriation Medical Centre, Melbourne.

He is a current member of the National Heart, Stroke and Vascular Health Strategies Group. He also chairs the Steering Committee for the National System for Monitoring Cardiovascular Disease in Australia and has chaired national working parties developing a variety of evidence-based guidelines.

Dr Gavin Turrell

School of Public Health, Queensland University of Technology

Gavin Turrell is an NHMRC Senior Research Fellow in the School of Public Health at Queensland University of Technology. His primary research interests are in social epidemiology, with a particular focus on the social determinants of health and health inequalities. His research is mainly population-based, and examines how social and economic factors (measured at the individual, group, and area levels) influence health and health-related behaviours. Gavin's research also focuses on how to reduce health inequalities through public policy, health policy, health promotion and other intervention strategies.

Assoc. Professor Theo Vos

Head, Centre for Burden of Disease and Cost-Effectiveness, School of Population Health, University of Queensland

Theo Vos is Director of Centre for Burden of Disease and Cost-Effectiveness at the School of Population Health of the University of Queensland. The Centre aims to provide health policy makers with best available evidence to guide the allocation of resources. Theo has carried out burden of disease studies in Mauritius and Victoria and has made major contributions to the national Australian study and studies in Zimbabwe, Thailand, South Africa and Malaysia. He is leading the update of the Australian Burden of Disease study including for the first time an Indigenous study. He has also led cost-effectiveness studies in the areas of cardiovascular disease and mental disorders. He is currently directing two large economic evaluation projects:

the ACE-Prevention project which over the coming five years will model the cost-effectiveness of 100 prevention options for non-communicable disease in Australia; and
the SPICE project in Thailand examining intervention options for HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, mental disorders, lifestyle risk factors and road traffic injuries.

Professor Michael Woods

Productivity Commission

Michael C Woods Mike Woods is a Commissioner with the Productivity Commission. He presided on the recent study into Australia's Health Workforce and is currently Presiding Commissioner on a study into Science and Innovation.

Mike is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Canberra and an Associate of the ANU National Graduate School of Management. His fields of research and teaching include public sector financial management and micro-economic reform. He is also Technical Director for Fiscal Reform under the China Australia Governance Program.

Mike was formerly the Secretary of the Treasury for the ACT and has held senior executive positions in the ACT, Commonwealth and NT public services in economic policy, public finance and health.

Professor Ian Wronski

Pro-Vice Chancellor, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Molecular Sciences, James Cook University

Professor Ian Wronski is Pro-Vice Chancellor of the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Molecular Sciences at James Cook University, Townsville. He has held this position since the formation of the Faculty in 1997. He has been a driving force in the rapid expansion of the Medical and Health sector in northern Queensland particularly in the development of health and allied health courses to address workforce shortages in rural and remote Australia. This has seen the introduction of a broad range of health professional programs at both undergraduate and postgraduate level, including medicine, nursing, pharmacy, occupational therapy, medical laboratory science, sport and exercise science, physiotherapy, speech pathology and veterinary science and has played a key role in the expansion of the health sector to accommodate the expanded health practitioner workforce.

In parallel, he has played an active role in the development of a national rural and remote health workforce strategy through:

involvement in key national committees on the medical , nursing, allied health and Indigenous health workforce;
shaping policy via regular interactions with Ministers, policymakers and other opinion leaders;
professional organisations such as, Chair of the Australian Council of Deans of Health Sciences (2005 - ), President of the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (2000 - 2003), education committees of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine, and Council of the Australasian College of Tropical Medicine.

Ian's professional background is in medicine. He was previously Head of the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, James Cook University until 1997. With approximately 25 years experience in Rural and Remote, Public and Indigenous Health as a clinician and health service planner, he has been involved in many of the national developments in indigenous and rural health policy. He has maintained his commitment to health workforce innovation, particularly in the development of complementary models of health practitioner to meet the changing nature of health service delivery predominantly in the primary health care context, including Indigenous Health Care Workers, Physician Assistants, and Medical and Surgical Assistants. He has a deep interest in health workforce development, health information management, public health epidemiology, performance measures, and goals and targets at both the health service and system levels.