Invited Speakers
- Professor Donna Cross
- Professor Alfred Allan
- Dr Daniel Galvão
- Professor Robert Newton
- Professor Cobie Rudd
- Dr Mike McGuigan
- Professor Neil Thomson
- Professor Anne Wilkinson
- Associate Professor Chris Toye
- Mr Chris Lind
- Professor Ralph Martins
- Dr Meghan Thomas
- Dr Andrea Loftus
Professor Donna Cross
A most preventable cause of mental illness: Bullying
Donna
Cross is the Professor of Child and Adolescent Health at Edith
Cowan University in Western Australia, and Director of the Child
Health Promotion Research Centre. She has been involved in children’s
health research in Australia and the USA for 19 years. Her research
team are currently conducting 14 longitudinal school-based health
promotion research projects involving children, adolescents
and their parents in the areas of bullying prevention, aggression
and violence, cyber bullying, school connectedness and drug
use, obesity prevention, and smoking cessation.
Professor Alfred Allan
The Benefits of open disclosure
Alfred Allan practiced and taught law and psychology for more
than 30 years. An important focus of his teaching and research
has been in the areas of health law, ethics and policy, as well
as professional practice. During the last 11years one of his
research interests has been apology, forgiving and reconciliation,
specifically with reference to serious harm, such as harm suffered
as a result of human rights abuse, crime and adverse incidents
in health. His most recent research has focussed on the development
of a theory of apology that can be used in empirical research
in areas such as Open Disclosure. He is a past president of
the Australian and New Zealand Association of Psychiatry, Psychology
and Law, a past chair of the Ethics Committee of the Psychology
Association of South Africa and the current chair of the Ethics
Committee of the Australian Psychological Society (APS). He
is also a member of the APS Ethical Guidelines Committee and
chaired the working group that substantially revised the 2007
APS Code of Ethics. He publishes in legal, medical, psychiatric
and psychological journals and in his recent publications in
refereed journal he examined the use of apologies in various
areas of law, including tort cases flowing from adverse medical
incidents.
Dr Daniel Galvão
Exercise and reduction of treatment side effects in prostate cancer
patients
Dr. Daniel Galvão is a Research Fellow at Edith Cowan University
in the School of Exercise Biomedical and Health Science.
Galvão completed his PhD in 2006 examining the effects of exercise in prostate cancer patients. This work lead to publications in the official Journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases, British Journal of Urology International, and Nature Clinical Practice Urology. This series of papers have highlighted adverse effects of androgen suppression and demonstrated the efficacy of exercise as a non-pharmacological intervention strategy to reduce and even prevent treatment-related toxicities.
He is an Editorial Board Member of The Open Clinical Cancer Journal and The Open Surgical Oncology Journal and has been the recipient of research grants from Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia, The Cancer Council of Western Australia, and The Cancer Council of Queensland.
Galvão received the Young Investigator Award at the 2004 Pre-Olympics Congress in Greece, the 2007 Early Career Investigator Award from The Cancer Council of Western Australia, and the prestigious Australian Association for Exercise and Sports Science (AAESS) medal in 2008 for the most outstanding PhD thesis in Australia.
Professor Robert Newton
Application of Exercise Physiology for Integrative Management of Chronic
Disease
Professor Robert Newton is the Foundation Professor in Exercise and
Sports Science, and Director of the Vario Health Institute at Edith
Cowan University, Perth, Western Australia. Prior to appointment
at Edith Cowan University, Professor Newton was Director of the Biomechanics
Laboratory, at Ball State University in Indiana. He has also worked
at the Pennsylvania State University as a visiting research fellow
in the Center for Sports Medicine.
Current major research directions include: reducing decline in strength, body composition and functional ability in prostate cancer patients receiving androgen deprivation therapy; cancer related fatigue and the influence of exercise; physical activity and the prevention of falls in the elderly; treatment of childhood obesity.
Professor Cobie Rudd
Building Sustainability: Health Policy Priorities, Leadership and Responsibilities
Professor Rudd is Chair in Mental Health Nursing and Head of the School
of Nursing, Midwifery and Postgraduate Medicine at Edith Cowan University
(ECU). She is Director of an ECU collaborative research centre, the
Systems Intervention and Research Centre for Health (SIRCH). SIRCH’s
work combines intervention-orientated research and evaluation in policy
and planning; workforce development; and education and training.
In 2007, SIRCH established the ECU Centre for Excellence in Healthcare
Simulation. Professor Rudd previously lived and worked in Queensland
and Canberra. At a state level of government, she provided stewardship
for strategic policy development in the social justice arena, community
outreach and development, and general practice. On the national scale,
she has been a policy researcher in the field of primary health care,
working at the interface between the Commonwealth Government, state
and territory governments, business, professional and consumer groups
and academic institutions. Professor Rudd serves on a number of Boards,
including as Director, Board of the International Association for
Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement; Director, Public
Health Advocacy Institute of WA; Chair of the Combined Universities
Centre for Rural Health; and Director, International Advisory Board
of Nurse Education Today.
Dr Mike McGuigan
Exercise and Child Obesity
Mike McGuigan is a Senior Lecturer and accredited Exercise Physiologist
in the School of Exercise, Biomedical and Health Sciences.
He completed his PhD at Southern Cross University and a postdoctoral
research fellowship at Ball State University in the US. Dr McGuigan
is the coordinator of the Weigh to Go Kids program and conducts research
into the use of resistance training as a health intervention for children. His
other research interests include strength and power development
and monitoring training.
Professor Neil Thomson
Bridging the gap between research and practice in addressing the epidemic
of chronic disease
Neil
Thomson is Edith Cowan University’s
Professor of Indigenous Health and Director of the Australian
Indigenous HealthInfoNet.
Neil’s long-term involvement in Indigenous health is based on tertiary training in medicine, public health, mathematics, anthropology and public health. After five years of clinical medical practice including positions in the Kimberley region of WA, he has had more than 25 years experience in Indigenous health, where his special interests have been in the transfer/translation of research and other information to inform policy-making, planning and service delivery.
In 1997, Neil was responsible for establishment of the Internet-based Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet , an innovative way of contributing to ‘closing the gap’ in health between Indigenous and other Australians by developing and maintaining the evidence base to inform practice and policy in the area of Indigenous health. The HealthInfoNet also supports the sharing of knowledge and experiences among people working in Indigenous health.
Professor Anne Wilkinson
Caregiving to Advanced Chronic Illness (CHF/COPD) Patients: Similarities
and Differences with Other Caregivers
Anne
Wilkinson (Ph.D., Urban Studies and Public Policy) is currently Professor
and Chair in Palliative and Supportive Care at Edith Cowan University,
Perth, Australia and Director of the WA Centre for Cancer and Palliative
Care. From 2000 to 2007, Dr. Wilkinson was a Senior Health Policy
Analyst and Director of the Palliative Care Policy Center (PCPC) at
the RAND Corporation, a public policy think tank in Washington, DC.
Dr. Wilkinson has 20 years of aging and pubic policy research and
program management experience in health policy, social and health
service program evaluation experience, gerontology, and palliative
care and end-of-life research.
Among her most recent publications include a chapter on the incorporation of palliative care into community disaster preparedness planning and response and two chapters on caregiving and advance care planning for a report on the State of the Science of Palliative Care for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). This report formed the basis for a National Institute of Health (NIH) Conference on the evidence base for palliative care in December, 2004. In addition, she has contributed to two books on quality improvement in clinical and social palliative care, to be published by Oxford University Press in early 2007. One book, The Common Sense Guide to Improving Palliative Care, is a how-to manual for clinical providers documenting our 10 years of work in quality improvement. The second book, Improving Care at the End of Life: A Sourcebook for Clinicians and Managers (2nd Edition), is an update of our initial work in clinical care at the end of life.
Associate Professor Chris Toye
Wellbeing in old age: The role of modified pain assessment
Chris Toye is an Associate Professor in the Western Australian Centre
for Cancer and Palliative Care and the Centre of Excellence for Alzheimer’s
Disease Research and Care. Chris’s special interest is the care and
support of frail older adults, including those who have dementia.
Her most recent achievements include leading a national project to
develop guidelines for a palliative approach to care for older adults
living in the community. She is currently working on another national
project led by the National Ageing Research Instititute to implement
pain managment guidelines in residential aged care.
Mr Chris Lind
Chris
Lind is a Consultant Neurosurgeon at Sir Charles Gairdner
Hospital and a Clinical Senior Lecturer at the Centre for
Neuromuscular and Neurological Disorders at the University of Western
Australia. He established the The Neurofinity Surgical NeuroDiscovery
Group after taking responsibility for Functional Neurosurgery
at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in 2007. The group is an academic
neurosurgery research group established as a joint initiative of the
West Australian Neurosurgical Service and the Centre for Neuromuscular & Neurological
Disorders at the University of Western Australia. Using state of the
art surgical techniques the group's focus is neuroscientific discovery
based on exquisitely accurate electrode placement during deep brain
stimulation surgery.
His research track record to date consists of projects which he has largely developed from conception to completion as a trainee neurosurgeon on various clinical topics as well as the cell biology of gliomas which was a project he developed with a laboratory specialising in cell death related to neurodegenerative disease.
He focuses his research career on functional neurosurgery which encompasses
surgery for movement disorders, neuropsychiatric disorders and pain.
His approach is to collaborate with experienced researchers in the
allied fields of neurology, neuropsychiatry, pain management, basic
and applied neuroscience and neuroimaging to develop surgical therapies
and use surgical approaches to enable improved understanding of how
the human brain works in health and disease. In addition he has established
a laboratory programme of translational research with Dr Meghan Thomas,
in which surgical delivery of modified stem cells can be optimised
and the differentiation of stem cells into functioning neurons can
be assessed in animal models of Parkinson's disease.
Chris is a fellow of the Royal
Australasian College of Surgeons, and a member of the Neurosurgical
Society of Australasia.
Professor Ralph Martins
Early diagnosis and effective treaments for Alzheimer's Disease
Professor Ralph Martins is the Inaugural Chair in Ageing and Alzheimer’s
Disease, at Edith Cowan University. In this role he furthers his
research into the identification of novel genes in AD, the therapeutic
potential of anti-oxidant combinations and other anti-beta amyloid
agents. Since taking up the chair in 2004, Professor Martins has brought
together the research community in Western Australia, and with the
support of health care providers, he was awarded the first Centre
of Excellence for Alzheimer’s Disease Research and Care in Australia
by the government of Western Australia and this has led to the establishment
of close collaboration with the major Alzheimer teams in Perth and
Melbourne.
In 2006 in collaboration with Professors Colin Masters and David Ames he was
successful in obtaining a CSIRO Flagship grant which involves the study of 1000
volunteers from Perth and Melbourne in identify early diagnostic markers of AD. He
is a joint recipient of a Dementia CRC grant headed by Professor Marc Budge from
ANU in collaboration with Professors Masters, and Ames and Alzheimer’s Association
of Victoria.
His group has led the field in the identification of genetic risk factors for
AD in the Australian population and he has published over 140 articles in peer
reviewed international journals. Early in his career, together with Colin Masters,
he undertook seminal research which involved isolating and characterizing, for
the first time, the molecular components of the neuropathological hallmarks of
Alzheimer’s disease. In 1987 he was awarded a scholarship to Heidelberg University
to work with Professor Konrad Beyreuther. His collaborative research involved
the isolation and characterisation of b-amyloid and its precursor, the amyloid
precursor protein, which are now recognized as central to the pathogenesis of
Alzheimer's disease. During this same period he also was the first to propose
and demonstrate that the Alzheimer brain was under oxidative stress, a feature
that is now widely recognized by the Alzheimer research community.
Dr Meghan Thomas
Dr Meghan Thomas is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Edith Cowan University
and was appointed as the Director of the newly established Parkinson’s
Centre (ParkC). In addition she holds an adjunct position at the University
of Western Australia. She has demonstrated that a gene (critical in
the differentiation of a specific type of nerve cell during development)
initiated 100% of stem cells grown in tissue culture to differentiate
into nerve cells. Dr Thomas’s research has demonstrated that the gene
is expressed in a greater number of cells if the adult brain is injured.
Most neuroscientists seeking to apply stem cells therapeutically have
concentrated exclusively on the stem cells themselves. Dr Thomas
realized that changes within the host tissue, damaged by trauma or
disease, were being ignored.
Supported by a Woodside Neurotrauma Research Program PhD Excellence Award, she completed almost half of her doctoral work in the University of Cambridge Brain Repair Centre, UK, and has extended this connection into a successful post-doctoral collaboration, bringing her in daily touch with both basic neuroscientists and clinicians. Her proof-of-principle experiments illustrated the importance of matching stem cell genetic read-out to that of the host. The novelty of Dr Thomas’ research approach is reflected in her gaining in 2006 an Australian Research Council Discovery grant; the scheme is highly competitive with only two grants being awarded in that year for neuroscience Australia-wide.
Dr Thomas then became interested in how progressing this research might benefit the 8,000 West Australians living with Parkinson’s disease. To this end her current laboratory research is focused on understanding the genetic changes that occur in a Parkinsonian brain so that future stem cell therapies will result in improved outcomes. In addition she has established the Parkinson’s Centre (ParkC) which is a collaborative group of research scientists based at the Joondalup Campus of Edith Cowan University with affiliations to the Cambridge Parkinson's Disease Research Clinic, UK, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital (SCGH), Curtin University of Technology and Parkinson’s Western Australia. Her commitment to Parkinson’s research has seen her becoming heavily involved in Parkinson’s Western Australia, specifically with the support group for early onsetters.
Dr Andrea Loftus
Dr Andrea
Loftus is a lecturer at the University of Western Australia. She
completed a PhD in Experimental Psychology at the University of St
Andrews (Scotland) exploring how perception, attention and vision
affect reach-to-grasp movements. She then completed a post-doctoral
research position (University of Tasmania) investigating a new therapeutic
treatment to help recover arm and hand function following a stroke.
More recently, she completed a post-doctoral research position (University
of Melbourne) exploring the role of attentional mechanisms in the
manifestations of free-viewing perceptual asymmetries in healthy adults
and those affected by visuospatial neglect. Her research spans a
number of different areas including; perception and attention, behavioural
neuroscience, vision and human motor control. She is particularly
interested in mechanisms of attention and how spatial attention influences
reaching actions in humans. Mechanisms of selective attention are
crucial to virtually all aspects of everyday behaviour and cognition..
The broad aim of her research is to improve understanding of how mechanisms
of selective attention alter the salience of space and how this in
turn affects how we interact with the environment. This question
is addressed through the study of neurologically healthy adults and
those affected by stroke.
Dr Loftus has a particular interest in post-stroke hemiparesis and unilateral neglect, and how integrated behavioural-physical therapy techniques may benefit stroke survivors. These neuropsychological investigations are complemented by research into representations of space in healthy humans. Dr Loftus has been involved in the Parkinsons’ Centre (ParkC) project aimed at improving our understanding of the disease progression, identifying subtypes of Parkinson’s disease and what this means prognostically, and influencing `best practice’ for altering the natural progression of Parkinson’s.
