2023 Australian Clinical Registry Annual Scientific Meeting “Innovation for Impact”

Professor Stephen McDonald is Director of Dialysis at the Central Northern Adelaide Renal and Transplantation Service, Clinical Director of Renal Services for the SA Rural Support Service and Executive Officer of the ANZDATA Registry. He is chair of the South Australian Renal Community of Practice, and of the National Indigenous Kidney Transplant Taskforce. He co-chairs the Registry Special Interest Group of ACTA.

His research interests centre around the epidemiology of end-stage renal disease. Current areas of focus include how Registry data informs clinical practice; Registry based clinical trials; pregnancy among dialysis and transplant patients; and access to and outcomes of kidney transplantation among Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people.

Professor Susannah Ahern (MBBS (Hons), MBA, FRACMA, PhD) Professor Ahern is a medical administrator and academic in health services research and management at Monash University. As the Head of the Clinical Outcomes Reporting and Research Program, she is the Monash Academic Lead for six national clinical quality registries. She has published over 80 peer-reviewed papers, thirty technical registry reports, and one book chapter. She is currently a member of a number of national committees regarding clinical quality registries and is co-Chair of the Australian Clinical Trial Alliance (ACTA) Registry Special Interest Group (SIG). She has hosted national Clinical Registries meetings in Australia since 2018, and her work informs national registry policy and practice, including the development and implementation of the National Clinical and Virtual Registry Strategy

Dr Heather Buchan is a Senior Medical Advisor for the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality of Health Care.  She is a public health physician who has worked in health policy and medical management roles in New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Australia. Her work at the Commission focuses on ways to increase the effectiveness and appropriateness of health care.

Professor Allen Cheng is Professor/Director of Monash Infectious Diseases at Monash Health and the School of Clinical Sciences at Monash University. He has research interests in clinical infectious diseases, antimicrobial resistance, influenza and other vaccine preventable diseases and communicable diseases control. He was previously Co-Chair of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation and the Chair of the Advisory Committee for Vaccines, and during the COVID-19 pandemic was Acting Victorian Chief Health Officer. He is the lead investigator for FluCAN, a sentinel hospital-based surveillance system for influenza and COVID-19.

Dr Lance Emerson is the Chief Executive Officer of the Victorian Agency for Health Information (VAHI), based within the Victorian Department of Health. Lance works with the VAHI team to drive improvements in safety and quality in Victorian health services through the provision of analytics and high quality health service performance information. Lance has a passion for development and maintenance of information systems to improve consumer care and has a PhD in the use of clinical indicators to guide better care and improve health outcomes. He has extensive experience in running specialist health organisations, having most recently been CEO of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) and prior to that, CEO of the Australian Research and Alliance for Children and Youth (ARACY). Lance is also a Board Director for Bicycles for Humanity, and the Australian Red Cross Lifeblood (formally Red Cross Blood Service).

Suchit Handa is the Director of Safety and Quality Improvement Systems for the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care. Suchit has extensive experience working as a professional rural and metropolitan hospital executive, with a focus on using data to drive quality improvement

Professor Sophia Zoungas is the Head of the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, a Professor of Diabetes, Vascular Health and Ageing, and the Director of the Monash University Clinical Trials Centre. She is also a consultant Endocrinologist and Physician with clinical appointments at both Monash Health, including the Victorian Heart Hospital, and Alfred Health, Melbourne.
Professor Zoungas is internationally recognised for her expertise in the design and conduct of large multicentre, multinational clinical trials and cohort studies which have impacted directly on public health and clinical care. She has assembled international and national teams in diabetes, cardiovascular and kidney health, including investigator lead projects and large-scale clinical trials. Her significant contribution to the advancement of diabetes research has been recognised through the Kellion Diabetes Award 2022 and induction into the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences in 2022.
Professor Zoungas has over 290 publications in peer-reviewed journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, Annals of Internal Medicine, British Medical Journal, and Nature Reviews and she is recognised as the most cited researcher in the field of diabetes.

Allyson Essex is the Assistant Secretary, Health Modelling, Partnerships and Evaluation Branch, Department of Health and Aged Care. Allyson has worked at the Department of Health and Aged Care since 2019. Her current role is Assistant Secretary for the Health Modelling, Partnerships and Evaluation Branch in the Health Economics and Research Division. Allyson is responsible for developing a strategic economic outlook across Australia's health system, including medium to long term sustainability, and identifying ways to improve value from health care and identify opportunities to minimise waste.

Claudia Lassetter is a communications professional with over 20 years of international experience, working for Deloitte, Commonwealth Bank, Procter and Gamble as well the Not for Profit Sector. She has several qualifications at graduate and post graduate level and previously taught at a business school.

Dr Ahmad Reza Pourghaderi (Reza) is a PhD in Heath Service Systems Engineering and a Principal Data Science Lead at Monash University, specialising in AI-driven care optimisation and automated data processes. He led significant initiatives like the Virtual Singapore Emergency Response project and contributed to the award-winning Singaporean COVID-SOS platform.