Presenters

Valerie Sung | Author

valerie.sung@rch.org.au;
Associate Professor Valerie Sung is a consultant paediatrician at The Royal Children's Hospital, Senior Research Fellow at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, and Honorary Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne. A/Prof Sung’s research program on child deafness uses a health services framework focussing on ethically-sound and consumer-accepted ways to enable use of (i) routine clinical and health services data for quality improvement and research, and (ii) large-scale registries as a platform to answer important research questions and facilitate intervention trials. Specifically, A/Prof Sung’s research aims to (i) identify early predictors of child outcomes for precision medicine, (ii) establish evidence-based management through interventional trials, and (iii) discover ways to prevent or reduce adverse challenges faced by deaf and hard of hearing children and their families. Her deafness research program was recognised by a 2019 L'Oréal-UNESCO Australia For Women in Science Fellowship.

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Emma Waight | Co-Author

Emma.Waight@cerebralpalsy.org.au;
Senior Research Assistant and PhD candidate

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Asha Bowen | Co-Author

Asha.Bowen@health.wa.gov.au ;
Professor Asha Bowen is a clinician-researcher at Perth Children’s Hospital and The Kids Research Institute Australia. She is Paediatric Infectious Diseases Specialist at Perth Children's Hospital and heads the Healthy Skin and ARF Prevention team which forms part of the END RHD Program at The Kids Research Institute Australia. This uniquely positions her for rapid translation of research results from bush to bench to bedside and beyond, with impact globally. Prof Bowen co-leads the ACMVR with Prof Cheryl Jones and A/Prof Hayley Smithers-Sheedy.

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Cheryl A. Jones | Co-Author

cheryl.jones1@unsw.edu.au ;
Professor Cheryl Jones is a world-renowned paediatric infectious diseases physician clinician-scientist and health and medical educator. She is Dean of Medicine and Health at UNSW. A Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health & Medical Sciences, she has secured over $35 million in peer-reviewed funding and published more than 170 peer reviewed publications. Her research, particularly on childhood encephalitis, vaccination and mother to child transmission of infections, has significantly influenced global health policy. Professor Jones has held senior executive positions at leading University and Health and Medical research institutions, professional societies and statutory authorities and actively contributes to government policy and clinical practice guidelines. She is a Director of the Australian Medical Council, an Executive Member of the AAHMS Council and a Director of the Ramsay Health Care Research Foundation. Prof Jones co-leads the ACMVR with Prof Asha Bowen and A/Prof Hayley Smithers-Sheedy.

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Pamela Palasanthiran | Co-Author

pamela.palasanthiran@health.nsw.gov.au ;
Professor Pamela Palasanthiran is a paediatric infectious diseases specialist and joint Head of Department, Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Sydney Children's Hospital Network, Randwick (SCHN, R). She completed a Doctorate of Medicine (MD) at UNSW in the area of perinatal HIV. She took up the appointment of specialist consultant in paediatric communicable diseases at the (now called) Sydney Children's Hospital Network, Randwick and has been running the infectious diseases service there for nearly 3 decades. She is the co-chair of the Infection Prevention and Control Committee and a member of the Antimicrobial Stewardship Programme, with an active interest in both these important hospital-wide fields of quality and safety in health care. Primarily a clinician, she is also actively engaged in the education of both undergraduate and postgraduate medical students, other health professionals, guideline development and research in many areas of paediatric infectious diseases.

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Philip N Britton | Co-Author

philip.britton@sydney.edu.au ;
Dr Britton is a Paediatric Infectious Diseases physician and Early Career Researcher based at the Children's Hospital at Westmead. He co-leads the Paediatric Active Enhanced Disease Surveillance (PAEDS) network based at the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS). He is lead investigator for surveillance of childhood encephalitis, Acute Flaccid Paralysis and from 2020 COVID-19 and its the inflammatory complications ( Paediatric Inflammatory Multisystem Syndrome Temporally associated with SARS-COV-2; PIMS-TS). Dr Britton's research focuses on severe infectious diseases in children, especially neurological infection and severe acute respiratory infections.

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Julia Clark | Co-Author

julia.clark@health.qld.gov.au ;
Associate Professor Julia Clark is a Paediatric Infectious Disease Specialist in Childrens Health Queensland, Brisbane, Australia and is Director of Infectious Disease, Immunology/Allergy and Rheumatology. As an experienced full time clinician with a strong commitment to clinical research she provides specialist support for infections in immuncompromised children and leads on infection control, antimicrobial stewardship, antibiotic related guideline and policy development and implementation. She has ongoing research interests in febrile neutropenia, fungal and viral infections in the immuncompromised, congenital CMV and mycobacterial infections and is enthusiastic about fostering and developing collaborative networks for paediatric infection related clinical research.

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Sonia Dougherty | Co-Author

sonia.dougherty@health.qld.gov.au ;
Research Assistant and Queensland Children’s Hospital staff member.

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Jordann Davis | Co-Author

Jordann.Davis@health.qld.gov.au ;
Research Assistant and Queensland Children’s Hospital staff member

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Rebecca Burrell | Co-Author

rebecca.burrell@health.nsw.gov.au ;
PhD candidate and research assistant

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Alanna N. Gillespie | Primary Presenter, Author, Co-Author

alanna.gillespie@mcri.edu.au ;
Senior research assistant

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Preethi Chandrasekaran | Co-Author

preethi.chandrasekar@mcri.edu.au ;
PhD candidate, Research assistant

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Nicole Kerly | Co-Author

Nicole.Kerly@health.nsw.gov.au ;
Clinical trials nurse

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Hayley Smithers-Sheedy | Co-Author

hsmitherssheedy@cerebralpalsy.org.au;
Hayley is a NH&MRC Early Career Fellow with the Cerebral Palsy Alliance, Sydney Medical School, The University of Sydney and the Australasian Cerebral Palsy Clinical Trials Network. Her role is to coordinate and support the establishment, maintenance, and execution of research from the Australian Cerebral Palsy Register and to build both local and international research capacity. Hayley is an investigator on the Bangladesh and Sri Lankan Cerebral Palsy Registers. In her doctoral studies Hayley investigated the burden cerebral palsy due to congenital cytomegalovirus. In her post-doctoral research Hayley is investigating opportunities for early identification of neurodevelopmental disability associated with congenital cytomegalovirus infection. Whilst Hayley’s research has predominantly been in epidemiology and opportunities for prevention of neurodevelopmental disability, her other areas of research interest include assistive technology and social skills interventions for children and adults with cerebral palsy.