Keynote Speakers

Greenaway Memorial Lecture Monday 9.00 - 10.15 am   Peter Doherty Professor Peter Doherty FRACP (Hon) Peter Doherty returned to Australia in June 2002 after 13 years in the United States as Professor of Biomedical Research and Chair of the Immunology Department at St Jude Children's Research Hospital, Tennessee. While based at St Jude's he has been a regular visitor to Melbourne as an Eminent Fellow of the University of Melbourne. He has been appointed Laureate Professor in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology at the university where he will continue his research in his specialist area of viral immunity. Professor Doherty, with Professor Rolf Zinkernagel, was awarded the 1996 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for work in discovering how the immune system recognises virus-infected cells. This work laid the foundation for research into autoimmune disease therapies such as rheumatoid arthritis.

Priscilla Kincaid-Smith Oration Vaccines and value for future health Tuesday 1:00 - 2:30pm   Terry Nolan Professor Terry Nolan Professor Terry Nolan was appointed in 2001 as the Foundation Professor and Head of the School of Population Health and Department of Public Health at the University of Melbourne. He was Professor in Paediatrics at Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne prior to taking up this appointment (FRACP 1983). He went to medical school at the University of Western Australia and did his paediatric training at Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne and Montreal Children's Hospital, Canada, where he also obtained a PhD in epidemiology and biostatistics from McGill University. He is a member of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) and of Research Committee of NHMRC. He is Chair of the NHMRC Clinical Trials and Large-scale Studies Advisory Committee. His research includes clinical trials of new children's vaccines, epidemiologic studies of vaccine-preventable disease, and evaluation of new models of immunisation program delivery.

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Paediatrics & Child Health Division Plenary Lecture Community child health, human rights and the development of civil societies  Tuesday 9.00-10.30am Who is looking after the health of Australian children?  Tuesday 4.00-5.30pm     Fiona Stanley Professor Fiona Stanley AC Australian of the Year 2003 Professor Stanley is Founding Director, Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, Professor, Department of Paediatrics, the University of Western Australia and CEO, Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth. The Institute is multi-disciplinary and researches prevention of major childhood illnesses. Professor Stanley's main areas of research are analytical studies investigating the causes and prevention of birth defects and major neurological disorders particularly the cerebral palsies; the causes and lifelong consequences of low birth weight and other pre- and postnatal problems; patterns of maternal and child health in Aboriginal and Caucasian populations; strategies to enhance health and well-being in populations.

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Paediatrics & Child Health Division Visiting Speaker Who is looking after the health of Australian children?  Tuesday 4.00-5.30pm Training and Education: American Academy of Pediatrics  Wednesday 7.45-8.45pm Doctors and Global Emergencies  Monday 2.15-3.30pm   Errol Alden Dr Errol Alden Dr Alden is Deputy Executive Director of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), an organization of 53,000 pediatricians. In addition to serving as Deputy Executive Director, Dr Alden is a Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Chicago. As head of the AAP Department of Education, Dr Alden has overseen the inception and growth of several pediatric education programs on topics such as neonatal resuscitation, subspecialty recertification, and Pediatrics Review and Education Program. Dr Alden was awarded the Joseph St Geme Jr Leadershp Award in May 1997, the only award for leadership in medical education given by the entire pediatric community. Dr Alden is a member of an International Pediatric Association Standing Committee on Disaster Planning and Support Programs for Children.

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Paediatric Research Society of Australia and New Zealand Guest Speaker (sponsored by Nutricia) When should you use EEGs and scans to investigate children with seizures? Wednesday 7.45-8.45am Progressive intellectual and neurological deterioration in children Wednesday 2.00-3.30pm How does health surveillance help children? Thursday 9.10-10.30am   Chris Verity Dr Christopher Verity Chris Verity is a consultant paediatric neurologist at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, and an Associate Lecturer and Examiner of the University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine. Much of his research has been in paediatric neuro-epidemiology. He has analysed data on febrile convulsions and epilepsy in children from the Child Health and Education Study and the Avon Longitudinal Study of Pregnancy and Childhood. Since 1997 he has been funded by the UK Department of Health to perform a national surveillance study of vCJD in children (the PIND Study). He was Medical Co-ordinator of the national Paediatric EPITEG Trial and is on the steering committees of the MRC Multicentre Study of Early Epilepsy and Single Seizures and the United Kingdom Infantile Spasms Study.

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Chapter of Community and Child Health Plenary Lecture Human rights of asylum seeking children - CCCH Satellite Meeting  Sunday 25 May   Sev Ozdowski Dr Sev Ozdowski Dr Sev Ozdowski was appointed the Human Rights Commissioner and Disability Discrimination Commissioner of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission in December 2000. Dr Ozdowski has a long-term commitment to human rights and his relationship with the Human Rights Commission dates back to the original Commission of the early 1980s. He is the author of many papers on sociology of law, human rights, immigration and multiculturalism.

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Ferguson-Glass Oration, Australasian Faculty of Occupational Medicine No place for wimps. The effects of changing technology on occupational health: A perspective from the extremes of Antarctica and space Tuesday 9.00-10.30am   Desmond Lugg Professor Desmond J Lugg Professor Desmond Lugg is Chief, Medicine of Extreme Environments at NASA HQ, Washington DC, and Visiting Professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), Galveston, Texas, in the Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health. From 1968 to 2001 he was Head of Polar Medicine, Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) and Program Leader, Human Biology and Medicine for the Australian Antarctic Program. He has led a number of expeditions to Antarctica and in summer 1980-81 was scientific leader of the International Biomedical Expedition to Antarctica (IBEA). For the last 12 years he has collaborated with NASA, the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) and universities in USA in human studies in Antarctica; an analogue for long-duration space flight.

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Redfern Oration, Australasian Faculty of Public Health Medicine Improving the quality of public health: fact or fantasy?  Tuesday 2.00-3.30pm   Mark Chassin Dr Mark R. Chassin Dr Mark R. Chassin is the Edmond A Guggenheim Professor of Health Policy and Chairman of the Department of Health Policy at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. He is also Senior Vice-President for Clinical Quality at the Mount Sinai Medical Center. Prior to Mount Sinai, Dr Chassin served as Commissioner of the New York State Department of Health. In 2001, he was recognised for his contributions to the fields of quality measurement and improvement with several honours. He was in the first group honoured with lifetime membership of the National Associates of the National Academies, a new program of the National Academy of Sciences. He also received the Founders' Award of the American College of Medical Quality and the Ellwood Individual Award of the Foundation for Accountability.

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