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Please contact the Conference Managers for further information.
Australian Asthma Conference Managers
Address:
Level 10, 51 Druitt Street,
Sydney NSW 2000, Australia
Postal Address:
GPO Box 128, Sydney NSW 2001 Australia
Ph: +61 2 9265 0700
Fax: +61 2 9267 5443
Email: asthma2008@tourhosts.com.au

Conference MC - Julie McCrossin


Julie McCrossin is renowned across Australia for her warmth, humour, intelligence, professionalism and commitment to justice and diversity. With a renowned reputation as a radio broadcaster, TV personality, public speaker and professional speaker we are delighted to announce Julie as Australian Asthma Conference MC.

 

Julie McCrossin talks to people for a living. She presented the radio show Life Matters on ABC Radio National for 5 years until 2005, initially with Geraldine Doogue and then as solo presenter, covering countless health, welfare and educational topics with a frequent rural focus. Julie was also a team leader on the media quiz show "Good News Week" for 5 years on Network Ten and ABC TV. Julie began working for the ABC in 1983 and she's presented many Radio National programs including "Background Briefing" and "Arts National", as well as stints on ABC Rural Radio and 702ABC Sydney. Currently Julie presents a travel program called Up and Away for Qantas in-flight entertainment on Radio Q, writes for the new ABC magazine Life Etc and facilitates conferences and training seminars nationally. For over 20 years Julie has hosted hundreds of public events. Julie has university qualifications in the arts, education and law and she is an Ambassador for NAPCAN (The National Association for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect).

 

Conference Welcome


Senator the Hon Jan McLucas Parliamentary Secretary for the Minister of Health and Ageing

Senator Jan McLucas was born on the Atherton Tablelands in Far North Queensland and was educated at her local primary school in Ravenshoe, and then at Clayfield College, Brisbane. She trained as a teacher at Townsville College of Advanced Education (now James Cook University), where she was Treasurer, then President of the Student Union.

Jan taught as a primary school teacher, mainly in North Queensland, for 10 years, and continues to have a strong interest in education, especially of children living in rural and remote areas. She maintains close involvement in the North Queensland community, with particular interest in health, the environment, child care and indigenous and women’s issues.

Jan began public life with her election as a Cairns City Councillor in 1995, and entered the Senate in July 1999. She has been a member of a number of Senate Committees.  Jan chaired the two Senate Select Committees of Inquiry into Medicare and was the Chair of the Senate Community Affairs Reference Committee.

From November 2004 to November 2007, Jan was the Shadow Minister for Ageing, Disabilities and Carers. She is the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health and Ageing.

Program Speakers and Presentations


Presentation downloads are available for all invited speakers that have approved their work for web publication. Please click on the PDF icon next to the relevant invited speaker to access the presentation. New!

 

Bert Brunekreef graduated in environmental sciences from Wageningen University in 1979. He obtained his PhD in environmental epidemiology there in 1985. After spending a sabbatical at Harvard School of Public Health, he was promoted to full professor in environmental health in Wageningen in 1993. In 2000 he moved to Utrecht University to fill a post as professor of Environmental Epidemiology. He is currently director of the Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences at Utrecht University which has about 150 employees. Prof Brunekreef co-authored over 300 peer reviewed publications and has served frequently on national and international advisory boards.

 

 

Professor Peter van Asperen is Head of the Department of Respiratory Medicine at The Children’s Hospital, Westmead and Macintosh Professor of Paediatric Respiratory Medicine at the University of Sydney. He has an active clinical and research interest in childhood asthma and children with recurrent or persistent cough and has published over 130 reviewed and invited articles. He has been on the Board of the Asthma Foundation of NSW since 2002 and serves on a number of Committees of that Foundation as well as the Asthma Foundations of Australia. He has recently published a book for families of children and young people with asthma entitled “When your child has asthma”.

 

 

Renee has worked in Smoking Cessation for more than 25 years and is an inaugural member of the international SRNT (international Society for Research in Nicotine and Tobacco). She started one of the world’s first Smokers’ Clinics in Sydney, Australia in 1979. Currently she is Director of the Smokers’ Clinics in the SWSydney Area Health Service and Associate Professor, Head of the Smoking Cessation Unit in the Faculty of Medicine, Brain Mind Institute, at the University of Sydney. She is the author of several books on smoking and quitting both for the public and as text books for practitioners. She has published many research articles on smoking cessation. She has conducted clinical trials of many treatments for smoking cessation, both pharmacotherapies and behavioural interventions. She established and continues to teach the first University course on Nicotine Addiction and Smoking Cessation in any Australian University at University of Sydney, and is President of AASCP, The Australian Association of Smoking Cessation Professionals. She is the Editor-in-Chief of a new international peer-reviewed Journal of Smoking Cessation and been nominated Australian of the Year for 2008.

 

 

Dr Janette Burgess is a Senior Scientist in the Respiratory Research Group at The University of Sydney with a research focus aimed at understanding the cellular and molecular differences in asthma. In 2001 Janette was awarded a NH&MRC Peter Doherty Fellowship to focus on airway remodelling in asthma and she is currently a NH&MRC R.D Wright Fellow. She has also received funding from Asthma NSW, and is a senior scientist within a research programme in the Cooperative Research Centre for Asthma and Airways. In 2007 Janette was awarded the American Thoracic Society Ann Woolcock Award for achievement and future potential in the area of Asthma Research. She is currently a member of the ATS Respiratory Structure and Function Planning committee.

 

  • Professor Ken Fitch (WA) PDF
    Speaking on the elite athlete and asthma, considering what will by then be the recent experience of the Beijing Olympics

 

Sports Physician Professor School of Sport Science, Exercise and Health Faculty of Life Science University of Western Australia Crawley 6009 Western Australia.

Researched asthma, exercise and drugs since 1969;
MD thesis "Effects of Exercise on Asthma" 1974;
Churchill Fellow to further investigate this topic 1975.
Asthma Foundation of WA Medical Scientific Committee 1965-1985; founder 1973 and medical co-ordinator asthma swimming classes in WA 1973-1985
Life Member Asthma Foundation WA 1984 Australian Olympic team physician 1972-1984;
Member IOC Medical Commission 1980.
Chairman IOC Independent Asthma Panel 2001-;
Chairman IOC's Air Quality Asthma Panel 2007-

 

 

Professor Peter Gibson is an established independent researcher with a strong international reputation in the areas of evidence-based respiratory medicine and inflammatory markers in asthma.  His work focuses on combining high quality clinical research with laboratory-based investigation of the characteristics, mechanisms, and treatment of airway inflammation in asthma, chronic cough, chronic obstructive airways disease, and cystic fibrosis. Prof Gibson received the TSANZ Society’s prestigious Research Medal for his outstanding contribution to Respiratory Medicine Research in 2003, and received the Award for Research Excellence from the Hunter Medical Research Institute in the same year.  He has been awarded a NHMRC Practitioner Fellowship to allow him to further develop his research programme.

He has over 260 research articles and have continuous research grant funding from NHMRC since returning to Australia in 1990. He has also received funding from Asthma NSW, and leads a research programme in the Cooperative Research Centre for Asthma and Airways. He is on the executive council of the Asian-Pacific Society of Respirology, and associate editor for the European Respiratory Journal, Cough-BMC, Treatment in Respiratory Medicine, and Cochrane Airways Group-Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, as well as being a reviewer for many international respiratory journals.

 

     

    Dr Hugh Greville is a respiratory physician who has trained and worked in both Australia and North America.
    Currently he is the Clinical Director of the Statewide Cystic Fibrosis Service of South Australia. He is a user of E Health and a consultant with NEHTA.

     

  • Associate Professor Adam Jaffe (NSW)
    Speaking within the Clinical stream for health professionals

 

Associate Professor Adam Jaffe, was trained in respiratory medicine at Royal Alexandra Hospital, Camperdown, the Royal London Hospital, the Royal Brompton Hospital and Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London.  He was appointed as Consultant in Respiratory Research at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London in 2001. He was subsequently appointed to Associate Professor and Head of Respiratory at Sydney Children's Hospital in Randwick in 2006.  He is chairman of the Aiming for Asthma Improvement in Children in South Eastern Sydney. He has over $1.5 million in grants and published over 50 papers on paediatric respiratory medicine

 

 

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 COPD and is head of the Airways Group at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. She chairs the Education program in the Co-operative Research Centre for Asthma and Airways, and the Asthma Expert Advisory Committee and the National Asthma Strategy Steering Committee 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 Executive and Chairs the Dissemination and Implementation task group of GOLD. She has participated in the formulation of the Australian Asthma Management Handbook, the COPD-X clinical guidelines, and the National Service Improvement Framework for Asthma. She has written two books on asthma, one for medical students and one for patients, their families and carers.

 

 

AO, MD, PhD, BSc (Med), FRACP, FAFPHM, FFPH(UK), FRACGP(Hon)
Stephen Leeder is a professor of public health and community medicine at the University of Sydney. He is Director of the Australian Health Policy Institute, a University establishment that provides a high-level capability for authoritative, independent, non-partisan analysis of major health policy questions which confront Australian and international health systems. The Institute is the Australasian base of the Oxford Health Alliance (OxHA) and will host the 2008 OxHA Summit. Professor Leeder is also co-director of the Menzies Centre for Health Policy, a joint enterprise with The Australian National University. A major theme of the Centre is the control of, and care for people with, serious and continuing illness including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic heart failure and complicated diabetes.Professor Leeder has a long history of involvement in public health research, educational development and policy. His research interests as a clinical epidemiologist have been mainly asthma and cardiovascular disease. In 2003-04, Professor Leeder worked at Columbia University, New York, in the Earth Institute and Mailman School of Public Health, developing a substantial report, based on research data and scientific interpretation, of the economic consequences of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in developing economies. The report, A Race against Time: the challenge of cardiovascular disease in developing economies, concentrated upon the macroeconomic consequences of CVD, and especially on the fact that one-third of CVD deaths in many developing countries were occurring among people of working age.

 

 

Dr Katelaris graduated from the University of Sydney in 1976 and became a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians in 1981. After completing a PhD in Pollen Allergy and Aerobiology, she took up a position at Westmead Hospital where she was Senior Consultant in Clinical Immunology and Allergy for 24 years. She held the position of Associate Professor (clinical) at the University of Sydney. She is now Professor, Immunology & Allergy, University of Western Sydney and Senior Staff Specialist in the Sydney South West Area Health Service.

She is a past president of the Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy and was the Secretary-General of the International Congress of Allergology and Clinical Immunology held in Sydney, 2000.

She has served on the Board and the Executive of the World Allergy Organisation .She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology ,the American College of Allergy, Asthma and immunology and the European Academy of Allergology and Clinical Immunology.

Her research interests include aerobiological surveys, latex allergy, drug allergy and clinical trials in allergic rhinoconjunctivitis and asthma.

 

 

  Associate Professor Rosemary Knight is the   Principal Adviser/Chronic Diseases, Primary and Ambulatory Care Division within the Department of Health and Ageing. She was previously the Head of the School of Public Health and Community Medicine within the Faculty of Medicine at the University of New South Wales. Her special interest is in chronic diseases and the National Priority Health Areas especially cancer, health policy and health services research with a focus on translating evidence into practice

 

 

  Graeme Maguire, born and bred in Geelong Victoria, undertook undergraduate medical training in Melbourne and is still unsure how he ended up in the north of Australia for the last 12 years. Specialist respiratory training, a PhD relating to Aboriginal Australian respiratory health and a desire to never be in the one place for too long has expanded to a broad commitment to provide specialist care, advocacy, education and support to residents of regional and remote Australia and to the unsung heroes of remote health care, primary health care providers. Now based in Cairns he provides a specialist outreach service to Cape York, an inpatient service at Cairns Base Hospital and is involved with a number of research and health service development projects across the north of Australia.

 

  • Dr Brent McParland (NSW)
    Speaking within the Clinical stream for health professionals

 

Lucy Morgan graduated in medicine from Newcastle University in 1992, completed a PhD in respiratory physiology through Sydney University in 2005 and is a currently a thoracic physician in The Department of Respiratory Medicine at Concord Hospital and Nepean Hospital, Sydney. She is an active clinician and researcher and an experienced teacher of medical students, junior doctors and GPs.

 

 

  Matthew Peters is Head of Thoracic Medicine at Concord Hospital and Associate Professor of Medicine in the Concord Clinical School at Sydney University. His particular interests include asthma and the prevention and better treatment of smoking-related lung disease. Other research interests include aviation safety in patients with lung disease.

 

 

Leanne Poulos is from the Australian Centre for Asthma Monitoring (ACAM), which is a collaborating unit of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. ACAM is funded to reduce the burden of asthma in Australia by developing, collating and interpreting data relevant to asthma prevention, management and health policy. Leanne has thirteen years experience in asthma-related research that started with a laboratory scientist position involved in research and development of allergen diagnostic techniques. She has been a member of the ACAM team since its establishment in 2002 and her presentation today will cover recent asthma-related statistics.

 

 

  Associate Professor Helen Reddel carries out clinical research at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research, with a focus on practical strategies to improve asthma management. She runs a multi-disciplinary asthma clinic at RPA Hospital. Her current areas of research interest are written asthma action plans, strategies to reduce inhaled corticosteroid doses, inhaler technique education, adherence, and the patient perspective in asthma management. She is a member of the Scientific Committee of GINA, and co-chair of an international Task Force which is providing recommendations for the assessment of asthma control and exacerbations in clinical trials and clinical practice.

 

 

  Dr Cheryl Salome has had more than twenty-five years of experience in research in the area of asthma, focused on the causes and mechanisms of asthma. She has published 98 research papers, and has held grants from NHMRC of Australia and Asthma Foundation of NSW. Currently, she is the leader of the Airway Physiology research unit at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research and a Research Fellow in the Discipline of Medicine, University of Sydney.

 

 

Professor Peter Sly, Head of Division of Clinical Sciences, Telethon Institute for Child Health Research completed his medical training and MD at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He was awarded a DSc in Clinical Respiratory Physiology and Immunology from the University of Western Australia in 2002 and is a member of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. Professor Sly’s research interests include; mechanisms for the development of asthma, prevention of asthma, measurement of lung function in infants and small children, small animal models of asthma and other respiratory diseases, cystic fibrosis, and children’s environmental health.

 

 

Martin Stewart-Weeks has over 20 years’ experience in organisational management and consulting in the corporate and public sectors and with a wide range of not-for-profit organisations. 

Born in Sarawak, East Malaysia and educated in Sarawak, the UK and Australia, Martin has lived in Australia since 1978 after completing his school and undergraduate education in England.

A consistent theme of his professional experience has been public policy and management. He has held senior policy, management and advisory positions for Ministers and government agencies at the federal and state government level in Australia.  In the early 1980s, he held the position of Senior Private Secretary to a Federal Minister and in the early 90s, was a consultant in the Office of Strategic Planning in The Cabinet Office in New South Wales.

In his consulting work over the past 18 years, Martin has specialised in strategy, policy analysis, facilitation and market and social research.  In his work with the Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG) at Cisco, Martin’s focus is primarily on the public sector.  He works at the senior executive and political level to help shape Internet business solutions and online strategies at both an agency and whole-of-government level. He has been a key member of the global team developing a new e-government framework, the ‘connected republic’, for Cisco’s public sector work.

In his recent work, Martin has been focusing on the implications for government and civil society of the rise of Web 2.0 social networking technologies and capabilities.
In January 2007, Martin took up a position as Director for IBSG’s public sector practice in Asia-Pacific

Martin holds a BA (Hons) in English from the University of York, a Graduate Diploma in Applied Economics from Canberra University (formerly the College of Advanced Education) and a Masters in Social Science and Policy from the University of New South Wales.

 

 

 

  Euan Tovey has spent much of his professional life studying allergens; developing methods for collecting, measuring  and identifying them, examining methods for reducing exposure and being involved in projects to determine their role in the cause of asthma and how exposure makes asthma worse. More recently he has established an interest in measuring other non-allergen environmental components that are also involved in asthma

 

  • Ms Rosie Yalland (NSW) PDF

    Speaking on how to manage asthma emergencies within the consumer stream

 

Free Paper Speakers

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