Chief Medical Officer
Sweden
Thomas Linden is a physician and specialist in neurology and psychiatry and has been clinically and scientifically engaged in problems with memory and thinking in patients with neurological disorders, as well as in the promotion of brain health in development and in recovery after injury. He has explored methods for enhancing recovery and repair efter brain injury, such as early mobilisation, aerobic exercise, social interaction and enriched environment.
He did post-doc training at Australia’s National Stroke Research Institute and is A/Prof at the Institute for Neuroscience and Physiology in Gothenburg, Sweden as well as visiting professor to the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health in Melbourne, VIC and a conjoint A/Prof to the Hunter Medical Research Institute at the University of Newcastle, NSW.
Currently he is the Government Chief Medical Officer of Sweden and Director of the Department of Knowlege-based Policy of Health Care at the National Board of Health and Welfare, that e.g. issues National Guidelines in different areas and recently decided on concentrating spinal cord injury rehabilitation nationally. During the pandemic the board early pointed out the need for capacity build-up in rehabilitation for those treated and also issued guidelines to the health-care system for build-up of facilities to treat patient with post-covid related needs.
Harvard Medical School
USA
Dr Ross D. Zafonte is the Earle P. and Ida S. Charlton Professor and Chair of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School. He is President and Senior Vice President Medical Affairs Research and Education at Spaulding Rehabilitation Network as well as Chief of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr Zafonte’s textbook, Brain Injury Medicine, is considered one of the standards in the field of brain injury care. His work is presently funded by the NIH, DOD and NIDRR, and he is currently directing several large clinical treatment trials. His research primarily focuses on understanding mechanisms of recovery after Brain and Spinal Cord Injury. At the RedSox MGH HomeBase program, he directs the Brain Injury and the Warrior Health and Fitness programs and at the Football Players Health Study at Harvard University, he is the Principal Investigator. Dr Zafonte also sees patients in numerous clinics and hospitals in the Boston community including former NFL athletes as part of a special MGH initiative known as the Brain and Body Program.
Dr Zafonte has published extensively on traumatic brain injuries, spasticity, and other neurological disorders, as well as presented on these topics at conferences nationally and internationally. He is the author of more than 300 peer review journal articles, abstracts and book chapters. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Neurotrauma and, in 2020, was named the Editor in Chief for the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association. His most recent awards include the Innovative Clinical Treatment Award presented by the North American Brain Injury Society, the 2020 Distinguished Member Award from the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and a Public Service Medal from the Unites Stated Department of the Army for his work with military veterans.
Through all of Dr Zafonte’s endeavors - research, academic, clinical and administrative - he has sought to improve the lives of persons with traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury and other catastrophic illness.
University of Queensland
QLD
Professor Barlow is an academic paediatric neurologist, clinical researcher, and specialist in acquired brain injury in children and adolescence. Barlow studied at the University of Edinburgh and British Columbia before taking up her first academic position at the University of Calgary in 2002. Here she developed and directed the Traumatic Brain Injury and Concussion Research Program at the Alberta Children's Hospital and where she cemented my interest in the biology and treatment of children with brain injuries. Her research focuses on the neurobiological signatures and treatment of subtle neurological dysfunction in mild traumatic brain injury and concussion, especially the behavioural and cognitive impairments that are found in post-concussion syndrome.
Australasian Rehabilitation Outcomes Centre (AROC)
NSW Australia
Ross is currently the Director of AROC which is the national rehabilitation integrated outcomes Centre for Australia and New Zealand. He has had a diverse mix of clinical, academic, and quality management experience having worked education, health, aged care and disability services as well as in organisational development and management positions.
Prior to joining AROC Ross was Academic Program Director for the Master of Medical and Health Leadership program at the University of Wollongong. He has a passion and research interest in quality outcomes in health as well as change management.
Gold Coast Titans
QLD Australia
Renee is the Gold Coast Titans General Manager of Community and Game Development. Renee has been working with the Titans since the club's inception in 2007. She has been a leader in the push for inclusion and disability participation in not only Rugby League, but the entire sporting community nationally. Renee organises and leads the Club’s Leagueability program, partnerships with disability charities and organisations and organises various events and initiatives for people involved in the disability sector.
St Vincents Hospital Sydney
NSW Australia
Professor Steven Faux is the Director of the Departments of Rehabilitation and Pain Medicine at St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney and a Conjoint Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of NSW and Adjunct Associate Professor of Medicine the University of Notre Dame. He has authored over 70 journal articles and received the Ko Awatea International Excellence award for patient safety in developing and translating evidence based guidelines in acute pain management for the elderly. He was a finalist in the NSW Premier’s Award for the development of an integrated rehabilitation service.
Professor Faux has conducted the first Australian RCT in tele-rehabilitation for Chronic Pain, the first international RCT in polytrauma rehabilitation and the first examination of pain profiles in asylum seekers and refugees held in detention. He is a foundation member of the National Facility for Human Robot Interaction Research at University of NSW and has obtained a number of Australian Research Council grants to conduct research in robotics in cognitive impairment, the use of unobtrusive sensors in falls prevention and the use of immersive (3D) virtual reality for stroke education and rehabilitation. Professor Faux has conducted research in brain injury in Canada as a visiting Professor at McGill University and Montreal General Hospital and maintains active research collaborations in France, the UK and India. He holds executive committee appointments on the NSW Pain Network, then National Stroke Coalition, the Australian Stroke Registry and the NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation. He is a passionate advocate for refugee health, anti-discrimination and the rights of the disabled.
Independent Hospital Pricing Authority (IHPA)
NSW
Joanne Fitzgerald has worked at the Independent Hospital Pricing Authority (IHPA) since 2012 and currently holds the position of Executive Director, Hospital Policy and Classification. In this role, Joanne oversees IHPA’s pricing policy development and has responsibility for developing and managing the activity based funding classifications including the Australian Refined Diagnosis Related Groups (AR-DRG) and Australian National Subacute and Non-acute Patient (AN-SNAP) classification systems.
Joanne holds a Bachelor of Applied Science (Health Information Management) degree from the University of Sydney and has over 20 years experience as a health information manager working with health classifications in both the public and private health sector.
University of NSW
NSW Australia
Associate Professor Sylvia Gustin (Ph.D., BPsych, MPsych) is Director of the Centre for Pain IMPACT (*investigating pain mechanisms to advance clinical translation) at Neuroscience Research Australia and Founding Director of the NeuroRecovery Research Hub at the University of New South Wales.
Sylvia has been using multimodal neuroimaging techniques to investigate the central circuits underlying chronic pain, spinal cord injury neuropathic pain and rehabilitation. Her program of research forms a translational pipeline where her basic science research informs the development of novel therapeutic interventions that are translated to improve the lives of people with a disorder affecting the brain and spine. She develops and tests new technology treatments (e.g., Virtual Reality Walking and gamified Brain-Computer Interface Neuromodulation) to ameliorate neuropathic pain after spinal cord injury. Her research also focuses on developing and testing novel haptic virtual reality walking treatments/interfaces to offer restoration of somatosensory perception among individuals previously classified as having total sensorimotor loss.
She is the Rebecca Cooper Fellow and her research is funded by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF), Rebecca L. Cooper Medical Research Foundation, International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP), US Department of Defence (DoD), NSW Defence Innovation Network and NSW Health.
The University of Melbourne
VIC Australia
Christine Imms (BAppSc(OT), MSc, PhD, Fellow OTARA) is the Apex Australia Foundation Chair of Neurodevelopment and Disability at the University of Melbourne. She is an occupational therapist, academic and researcher who focuses on collaborative approaches that lead to improved participation outcomes for those with child-onset neuro-disability and their families. Her research track record includes 120 peer reviewed publications, more than $15 million (AUD) in grant income, and supervision of 41 research students to completion. In 2021, Christine became Founding Director of Healthy Trajectories: A child and youth disability research hub on the Melbourne Children’s Campus.
NeuroRehabilitation Sunshine Coast
QLD Australia
Dr Warren Jennings-Bell is a Consultant Physician in Rehabilitation Medicine with an interest in ultrasound-guided botulinum toxin injections for spasticity . Prior to studying medicine Warren studied at the University of Wollongong where he was a lecturer and dissector in Anatomy. He has attended anatomy, spasticity and ultrasound events in Europe, Asia and the United States. He now runs a private spasticity management service on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland.
Royal Melbourne Hospital
VIC Australia
Professor Fary Khan (MBBS, MD, FAFRM (RACP)) is the Director of Rehabilitation Services, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Director Australian Rehabilitation Research Centre; Clinical Professor Department of Medicine, The University of Melbourne and The Nossal Institute of Global Health, and Monash University.
Fary Khan is a Specialist in Rehabilitation and Physical Medicine, and Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP). She has 20 years of experience in Neurological, Cancer and Trauma rehabilitation. She set up evidence-based specialized rehabilitation programs for specific conditions such as Multiple sclerosis, Guillain-Barre syndrome, stroke, oncology, musculoskeletal injuries and disaster management. She represents Australia (and Pacific) region for Rehabilitation Medicine at a number of international forums. She is current Chair of the Disaster Rehabilitation Committee, International Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (ISPRM) and Disaster Rehabilitation Special Interest Group, Rehabilitation Medicine Society of Australia and New Zealand.
She led the Emergency Medical Team under the auspices of the WHO in the Nepal earthquake and other natural disasters since. She holds 20 National/International Executive positions and over 15 international academic appointments at various Universities. She is Executive member of ISPRM Women’s Task force and Cancer Rehabilitation Working Group. She has an interest in Refugee Health and Disability. She works with the Executive for the UN -International Council for Caring Communities- representing medical disability. She is also regional representative for the Asia-Oceania Society of Neurorehabilitation (AOCNR), Australian representative for Steering group for the Psychosocial Influences upon Chronic Disease Outcomes across Europe, and others. She leads the Global Rehabilitation ‘Flying Faculty’ (endorsed by the Australasian Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, RACP, ISPRM), established to support capacity building activities in Rehabilitation Medicine, with educational training programs in over 15 countries.
She has a leadership role in Rehabilitative care in Australia with experience in health outcomes and health services research. She has received numerous awards, including the Sidney Licht Lectureship Award (2018) by the ISPRM, the Inaugural RMH Research Medal in 2014 and the Inaugural RACP specialist award for ‘Outstanding contribution to Research and Mentoring’ in 2009. She has published over 350 scientific papers in peer-reviewed academic journals (including 18 Cochrane reviews, 20 book chapters), and is a regular invited speaker at national and international conferences (over 60 presentations in last 5 years). She leads a team of interdisciplinary researchers, implementing and evaluating healthcare innovations and quality improvement programs. She has supervised 8 PhDs and postdoctoral fellows, and currently supervises 8 PhD and 3 MD students at the University of Melbourne. She is also a reviewer for more than ten neuroscience and rehabilitative care journals.
Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Hospital
NSW Australia
Professor Susan Kurrle is a geriatrician practising at Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Hospital in northern Sydney and at Batemans Bay Hospital in southern NSW. She is the Clinical Network Director for Rehabilitation and Aged Care in Northern Sydney Local Health District. She holds the Curran Chair in Health Care of Older People in the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney. She has led the NHMRC Partnership Centre on Dealing with Cognitive and Related Functional Decline since 2012 focussing on research and implementation projects dealing particularly with the care aspects of dementia and functional decline. She has been involved in frailty research and practice since 2008 and currently leads the Northern Sydney Frailty Initiative bringing together the Local Health District (acute hospitals) and the Primary Health Network (general practice and allied health) to recognise and manage frailty in older patients. She has worked with colleagues at Griffith University on intergenerational care programs and most recently was involved with the ABC TV series ‘Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds’ which showed the improvements in mood and function that intergenerational care programs can have for older people.
Caulfield Hospital
VIC Australia
Jim Lavranos graduated with a degree in Prosthetics and Orthotics from Latrobe University in 1999 and has over two decades of experience in the field from multiple perspectives. He has worked as a clinician, supervisor and teacher in projects throughout Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand and India, as well as in a variety of clinical roles in both private facilities and public hospitals within Australia. Jim has also collaborated with Monash and Melbourne Universities’ engineering departments on numerous research projects including appropriate technology for disaster relief, rapid prototyping of a myoelectric hand, and more recently a VR training station for upper limb prosthetics. He is currently the manager of Caulfield Hospital Prosthetics department.
Gold Coast Hospital Health Services
QLD
Dr. Leeder is a Staff Specialist at the Complex Management Unit, Gold Coast Hospital Health Services. She completed physician and general practice training in the UK prior to moving to Australia in 2016 to complete her training in rehabilitation medicine. She has worked in multiple rehabilitation settings as a general practitioner, rehabilitation medicine trainee and a staff specialist. She has an interest in managing complex morbidity, ageing and disability.
Princess Alexandra Hospital
QLD Australia
Dr Alexander Lehn attended medical school in Germany (Regensburg and Munich) and conducted his residency and basic physician training in the United Kingdom (Bristol) and Australia (Nambour and Brisbane). He then undertook a Fellowship in movement disorders at the Princess Alexandra Hospital followed by a Fellowship in movement disorders and dementia in Newcastle upon Tyne in the United Kingdom.
Dr Lehn heads the movement disorder service at Princess Alexandra Hospital and, together with Dr Sarah Olson, runs the deep brain stimulation service at Princess Alexandra Hospital and Mater Hospital Brisbane.
Dr Lehn has a strong interest in Functional Neurological Disorders and from 2015 to 2019 ran a dedicated clinic for Functional Neurological Disorders at Mater Hospital Brisbane.
Hopkins Centre
QLD
Timothy McCallum is one of Australia’s most exciting and loved local performers and is fast becoming an international phenomenon. At the age of 18, he was well on his way to commencing a successful career in the music & theatre industry when a diving accident changed his life forever and potentially shattering his dreams of treading the boards ever again. After breaking his neck, leaving him a quadriplegic, doctors and specialists told him that he would never sing again the way he used to. But his resilient character and extraordinary spirit have touched the hearts of the arts community, as they have watched him defy the odds, rehabilitate, and return to the stage to continue his performing career. Tim has been touring much of Australia performing and speaking about his incredible journey, the barriers, and challenges he has had to face and overcome to now be one of Australia’s most sought-after entertainers.
Children's Health Queensland Hospital
QLD
Dr Lynne McKinlay is a Senior Medical Educator at Cognitive Institute. In addition to her work for Cognitive Institute, Dr McKinlay is Medical Director, Learning and Workforce for Children’s Health Queensland and continues practise as a specialist in paediatric rehabilitation medicine. Dr McKinlay is driven to improve healthcare through her experience that a clinician is able to make a difference at both the individual patient and the health system levels through innovation, systems improvement and the development of communication and health leadership skills.
Griffith University
QLD
Danielle Pretty has professional experience in arts/health program delivery that spans both decades and disciplines- having delivered programs in fitness, dance, pilates, circus arts and community sport. She also has experience in merging art and heath to support art and cultural participation, with previous involvement in projects such as “the carnival of the here and now” - a program to disrupt the narrative on aging.
Danielle is part of a multi-disciplinary team investigating dance as an adjunct rehabilitation therapy for TBI. Her research within the team will develop and implement modified dance programs and assess their neuroplastic, cognitive, and socio-emotional impact. Her special interest is in using functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy to investigate neural activity during movement. The teams recent project is Ballet for Brain Injury (BFBI) a first of its kind dance project in partnership with Queensland Ballet, Citrine Sun Entertainment, the Hopkins Centre and Griffith University.
University of Queensland
QLD Australia
Associate Professor Marc Ruitenberg conducted his doctoral research on spinal cord injury in the Neuroregeneration Laboratory of Prof. Joost Verhaagen at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, and was awarded his PhD for this work in 2003 from the VU University Amsterdam. He then moved to Perth (Western Australia) for further training with the WA Neurotrauma Research Program as a postdoctoral fellow. Marc was recruited to The University of Queensland in 2009, where he is now Head of the Central Nervous System Injury and Inflammation Research Laboratory, and also a Reader in Neuroanatomy within the Faculty of Medicine at The University of Queensland.
He is also an Honorary Research Fellow of SpinalCure Australia. Marc’s research is focused on furthering our understanding of what actually happens inside the spinal cord when someone gets injured, how the body responds to it, and how inflammation influences recovery. His laboratory is combining pre-clinical research with the study of human SCI to achieve this, and he has also been directing the world’s first clinical trial on the use of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) to target post-traumatic inflammation in acute spinal cord injury.
Gold Coast Hospital And Health Service
QLD Australia
Dr Alana Schuurs is a senior clinical psychologist with the Community Rehabilitation Program (GCHHS) and the lead researcher in a 10-year longitudinal study into functional neurological symptoms, covering diagnosis, semiology, treatment, and outcomes. She has approximately 12 years of experience working as a clinical and health psychologist with people who have psychophysiological symptoms, varying from Functional Neurological Symptom Disorder to other somatic and dissociative disorders.
Gold Coast Titans
QLD Australia
Ethan Sloane is the Chief Morale Officer of the Gold Coast Titans. Ethan has been an essential part of the Titans since 2018 when he was employed. Ethan has always been a big fan of the Titans and brings so much joy and motivation to our staff, players and community members of the club!
The University of Queensland
QLD Australia
Professor Michele Sterling (PhD, BPhty, MPhty) is Professor and Program Lead of the Musculoskeletal Injuries research program at the RECOVER Injury Research Centre, The University of Queensland, Australia and Director of the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence: Better Health Outcomes for Compensable Injury. She is a Musculoskeletal Physiotherapist and a Fellow of the Australian College of Physiotherapists. She leads a multidisciplinary team including researchers from physiotherapy, medicine, exercise science, epidemiology, and psychology. Michele’s research focusses on the mechanisms underlying the development of chronic pain after injury, predictive algorithms for outcomes and developing effective interventions for musculoskeletal injury and pain. She has conducted numerous cohort studies and clinical trials investigating the effectiveness of various treatments and their combinations including exercise, psychological treatments, manual therapies and multidisciplinary care. She has over 200 peer-reviewed publications in this area. Michele is an elected member of the leadership Council of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) and a Section Editor of Pain.
Monash University
VIC Australia
A/Professor Rene Stolwyk is an Associate Professor and Senior Clinical Neuropsychologist at the Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health and Monash-Epworth Rehabilitation Research Centre, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. For over 15 years, he has worked at the nexus of clinical research, clinical practice and clinical education.
Through strategic partnerships with government, healthcare and industry, A/Prof Stolwyk leads a translational research program with a mission to improve cognitive and mental health outcomes for people with brain impairment. Relevant to this plenary talk, A/Prof Stolwyk has led the development and validation of on-road driving assessment protocols for people with brain injury and has investigated the efficacy of driving simulation technology for use within driver rehabilitation programs. A/Prof Stolwyk led one of the first randomised controlled trials which identified group compensatory memory rehabilitation as an effective technique to improve memory function post-stroke. Further, he led the development and evaluation of a world-first teleneuropsychology assessment and rehabilitation service, which not only improved quality of care for rural neurology patients but was also instrumental to enabling neuropsychology services to continue during the COVID-19 pandemic. A/Prof Stolwyk is now clinical lead of the Monash TeleNeuropsychology Service, which provides telehealth services to multiple rural hospitals throughout Victoria. Further to his research and clinical work, A/Prof Stolwyk is also convenor of the Clinical PhD (Clinical Neuropsychology) training program at Monash University where he leads a team of highly-skilled educators providing excellence in clinical training to the next generation of Australian neuropsychologists.
A/Prof Stolwyk’s international standing in the field of neuropsychological rehabilitation is evidenced through regular keynote and workshop presentation invitations at international conferences (International Neuropsychological Society) and authorship within leading international texts and guidelines (Brain Injury Medicine, Teleneuropsychology Clinical Practice Guidelines). A/Prof Stolwyk is a member of the national Clinical Guidelines for Stroke Management Cognition and Mood working groups, executive committee member of the Organisation for Psychological Research in Stroke, and a fellow of the Australian Psychological Society College of Clinical Neuropsychologists.
Princess Alexandra Hospital
QLD Australia
Michael Wagels completed a BMedSci undergraduate research degree in 1999 and an MBBS undergraduate medical degree in the same year. He completed his FRACS in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery in 2012 and completed fellowships in cranio-maxillo-facial surgery and surgery of the hand and wrist. Michael was awarded a PhD by the University of Queensland in 2014. His thesis evaluated amputation in severe lower limb trauma and the behaviour of auto-transplanted muscle for traumatic lower limb injuries.
Michael has a special interest in complex lower limb reconstruction, hand and wrist surgery, reanimation of the upper limb and head and neck reconstructive surgery including cranio-facial surgery. He is also interested in the translational aspects of tissue engineering for complex reconstructive defects, including long segment nerve injuries. In 2019 he was appointed Director of the Australian Centre for Complex Integrated Surgical Solutions (ACCISS) at the Translational Research Institute. Michael was appointed Clinical Director of the Herston Biofabrication Institute (HBI) at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital in 2020.
Royal Children's Hospital
Dr Neil Wimalasundera trained in the UK and was clinical lead for the Wolfson Neurodisability service at Great Ormond Street Hospital before starting at the Royal Children’s Hospital in 2017.
He is the clinical director for the Victorian Paediatric Rehabilitation Service at the RCH and specialist interests include the management of complex movement disorders, cerebral palsy and acquired brain injury.