mark fitzgerald

Professor Mark Fitzgerald is Director of Trauma Services at The Alfred Hospital; Director of the National Trauma Research Institute; Professor, Department of Surgery, Central Clinical School, Monash University; and Professor, Professor, School of Information Technology, Faculty of Science, Engineering and Built Environment, Deakin University. Professor Fitzgerald credentials include MB BS (University of Melbourne) 1981; Fellowship Australasian College for Emergency Medicine 1987; MD (Monash) 2015 (Computer Assisted Decisions Support for Trauma Resuscitation); and Global Clinical Scholar - Epidemiology and Biostatistics 2015 (Harvard Medical School). He is an Ambulance Victoria Medical Advisor, a Victorian State Trauma Committee member and the Director of the Trauma Reception & Resuscitation Project.

His research themes are systems improvement, error reduction and standardization of resuscitation care. Professor Fitzgerald has led the establishment of Trauma Systems in Sri Lanka, India, China, the Philippines and Myanmar. He has delivered 175 major presentations, 200 publications in peer reviewed journals and 11 book chapters with an H-index 37, i10-index 75, citations 4,035 (27th June 2019).

He has been awarded AUD 22 million as Principle Investigator and AUD 67 million awarded as an Associate Investigator. Professor Fitzgerald’s honours include the Ambulance Service Medal 2003; the Foundation Medal, Australasian College for Emergency Medicine 2003; Honorary Life Membership, Neurotrauma Society of India 2010; and the Gordon Trinca Medal for services to trauma, Royal Australasian College of Surgeons 2013.

kate curtis

Professor Kate Curtis has been an Emergency Nurse since 1994 and is Professor of Emergency and Trauma Nursing at the University of Sydney and an honorary professorial fellow at the George Institute for Global Health. Kate’s translational research program focuses on improving the way we deliver care to patients and their families, and has attracted more than $4 million funding. Kate is the world’s most published author in the field of Trauma and Emergency nursing, has mentored more than 40 clinicians in research projects and was the 2019 Australian nurse of the year.

Jai Darvall

Dr Jai Darvall is an anaesthetist and intensive care specialist at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, with dual appointments at the University of Melbourne as a senior lecturer in critical care education, and an honorary senior fellow in the Centre for Integrated Critical Care. He has completed a Masters of Epidemiology, and has research interests frailty in perioperative and critical care- the subject of his current PhD, as well as post operative nausea and vomiting (PONV). His research focuses on identification, risk stratification and improving outcomes for frail ICU and surgical patients, for which he has been awarded an Emerging Researcher Scholarship from the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists. He is also the Chief Investigator of the Chewy Trial, an international, multicentre randomised controlled trial, investigating chewing gum for the treatment of PONV

ANDREA Maier

Prof. Andrea Maier graduated in Medicine at the Medical University Lübeck (Germany, 2003) and registered as a specialist Internal Medicine-Geriatrics at the Leiden University Medical Centre (The Netherlands, 2009). Her research is driven by her passion to unravel ageing mechanisms and the interaction of ageing and age-related diseases, with a particular focus on sarcopenia. In 2013, she was appointed as full Professor of Gerontology at the VU University Amsterdam (The Netherlands). Since February 2016 she is Divisional Director of Medicine and Community Care at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and Professor of Medicine and Aged Care at the University of Melbourne (Australia). During the last 10 years she conducted multiple national and European observational studies as well as clinical trials and published more than 240 peer reviewed articles in international journals. Her innovative, multidisciplinary @Age research team works in the Netherlands (@AgeAmsterdam) and in Australia (@AgeMelbourne). She is an invited member of several international academic and health policy committees and the President-elect of the Australian and New Zealand Society for Sarcopenia and Frailty Research to increase the visibility, quantity and quality of translational ageing research.

SILVANA MARASCO

Professor Silvana Marasco is a cardiothoracic surgeon at The Alfred and Epworth hospitals, in Melbourne, Australia. She is the Deputy Director of the Cardiothoracic Unit at The Alfred where she performs the full spectrum of adult cardiac and thoracic surgery including heart and lung transplantation and mechanical assist device implantation. She has a Master of Surgery and Master of Bioethics, and has also completed her PhD on rib fixation which is a focus of much of her research.  Other research interests include transplant outcomes and innovative techniques, for which she has received over $5M in funding and has published over 150 articles.

JIN TEE

Associate Professor Jin Tee is a complex spine and neurosurgeon. His surgical practice focusses on minimally invasive (MIS) and open surgical solutions for degenerative spinal disorders (including pars defect repairs) spinal tumors, spinal deformity including scoliosis, crano-cervical junction abnormalities and spine trauma. He also treats brain trauma and brain tumours.

A/Prof Tee is heavuiy involved in clinical research focusing on clinical outcomes in the fields of spine trauma, degenerative spine, spine oncology and brain trauma of which he has extensively published. He is a member of the Alfred Trauma Registry steering committee and the head of spine trauma research at the National Trauma Research Institute (NTRI). He is steering committee associate of the AO Spine International Trauma Knowledge Forum. He is part of the medical advisory group (Monash Vision Group) who did the Bionic Eye Project in Melbourne.

A/Prof Tee was a medical graduate of the University of Melbourne and has a post-graduate Doctorate of Medicine from Monash University. He has also completed the AO Spine North American Combined Orthopaedic-Neurosurgery Complex Spine Surgery Fellowship at the world-renowned Vancouver General Hospital and the University of British Columbia.  

At the Alfred Hospital he is a member of the state spine/brain trauma and complex spine service.

JOHN OLVER

John Olver, AM, MB, BS, M.D. (Melb), FAFRM (RACP),

Consultant Physician in Rehabilitation Medicine, is Professor in Rehabilitation Medicine in the Department of Medicine at Monash University. He is Medical Director of Rehabilitation at Epworth Healthcare, Melbourne, Australia. In 2009, he was appointed to the Victor Smorgon Chair of Rehabilitation Medicine, Epworth HealthCare and Monash University. He is Clinical Director of the Australasian Rehabilitation Outcomes Centre (AROC).

He is a past-President of the Australasian Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine (AFRM) and of the Asia-Oceanian Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (AOSPRM). He served as treasurer of the President’s Cabinet of the International Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (ISPRM) for six years. Professor Olver was Convenor of the 2012 Melbourne WFNR Conference Committee. In 2014, he was a Recipient of a Member in the General Division of the Order of Australia (AM) “for significant service to medicine, particularly the treatment and rehabilitation of acquired brain injuries” and awarded the Centenary of Federation Medal for services to Road Safety in 2002.

Professor Olver's main research interests and a focus of publications includes: traumatic brain injury, concussion, spasticity management and stroke rehabilitation. He has co-authored over 85 papers and 5 book chapters.

ELIZABETH MARSDEN

Dr Elizabeth Marsden (MBBS, FACEM)

Dr Marsden is an emergency physician with a passion for the care of the elderly in the ED. She is the innovator and driver of the Geriatric Emergency Department Intervention (GEDI) service which has been recognised with a Queensland Premiers Award for Excellence in Customer Focus in 2016. Dr Marsden has been successful in appropriating funding for the GEDI team which includes a supportive research team from the University of the Sunshine Coast. She is completing a PhD evaluating the outcomes for residents of Aged Care Facilities in the ED since inception of GEDI in the Sunshine Coast Hospital and Health Service. Her other research interests include geriatric trauma.

TIM BAKER

Associate Professor Tim Baker is an Emergency Physician at one regional, one small rural, and one remote emergency department on the South West Victorian coast. He is Director of Deakin University’s Centre for Rural Emergency Medicine and the Chair of ACEM’s Emergency Medicine Certificate and Diploma Committee. He is interested in the knowledge, skills, and attitudes required for excellent rural emergency practice.

IAN SUMMERS

Dr Ian Summers is an Emergency Physician and the Director of Simulation at Monash Health. He has a long standing interest in the use of simulation for health professional education and patient care and in teaching emergency airway management.

 He presents at many international and Australian conferences, running panels, speaking, leading workshops and also provides coaching for speakers. He has previously been DEMT at St Vincent’s Melbourne, and Deputy Director for the establishment of  Casey Hospital ED.

 Outside of medicine you can find him photographing conferences, wildlife and landscapes, bushwalking with his children or spending far too much time on twitter as @IanMEducator or instagram as @summphotos.

ROSE SHAKERIAN

I am a consultant general surgeon with strong interest in emergency general surgery and trauma. Following completion of my fellowship in 2012, I pursued this interest in completing a Doctor of Medical Science degree assessing the impact of acute models of care in emergency general surgery, on patient outcomes.  In addition to working as a research and clinical fellow in Trauma and Emergency General surgery at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, I also completed a one-year fellowship at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh in Upper GI & Emergency General Surgery.  Since my return to Australia at the end of 2016, I have been working at the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

MICK STEPHENSON

Adjunct Associate Professor Mick Stephenson

Mick is an intensive care paramedic (MICA) and member of the executive team at Ambulance Victoria (AV). He has statewide resposibility for all road and air ambulance services including adult retrieval and stroke telemedicine. Prior to joining AV he was an intensive care nurse.

Mick’s interests lay in the value of systematic patient assessment, algorithmic care and research in the pre hospital environment. He has contributed to a number of prominent clinical trials as a co-author and steering committee member. These include research in cardiac arrest management, post resuscitation care, the potential harms of hyperoxemia in myocardial infarction and post cardiac arrest resuscitation, trauma systems and severe traumatic brain injury.  He was also a member of the Australia-India Trauma System Collaboration, which has  contributed to the development of trauma systems in India  and a subsequent reduction in trauma morbidity and mortality.

In 2015 he was honored in the Australia Day Awards for his services to ambulance through clinical improvements and has been a runner up in the Australian Clinical Trials Association clinical trial of the year award in 2016 for his and his colleagues work into the effects of hyperoxemia in those with ST elevation MI.

MYA CUBITT

GEMSEM CONVENOR

I am privileged to convene this fantastic interprofessional conversation on a topic I am passionate about. In my practice as an Emergency and Acute Medical Unit Physician at The Royal Melbourne Hospital, an adult state trauma unit, I have a unique perspective and ongoing learning opportunity as a member of the interprofessional team caring for geriatric trauma patients. You can find me on linkedin and twitter (@myacubitt).