Professor Brendon Yee FRACP | Specialist contractor

Professor Brendon Yee is a Senior Staff Specialist at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. He is a respiratory and sleep physician and a Clinical Professor at the University of Sydney. He is also the Head of the Discipline of Sleep Medicine at Sydney University. He is a senior researcher/clinician at the Sleep Research Group, at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research. Brendon has a strong interest in clinical research and medical education.

Dr Lauren Booker | Curriculum advisor

Dr Lauren Booker is a Postdoctoral Fellow at La Trobe University and the Institute for Breathing and Sleep. She has over 12 years of experience managing and implementing sleep and circadian rhythm misalignment sleep disorder research, with a special interest in infant circadian rhythm development. She is focused on improving the knowledge and treatment of sleep disorders by helping provide scientific evidence to guide and shape policy and practice. The RACP is very grateful for her expertise in reviewing the paediatric sleep medicine knowledge guides.

Associate Professor Alan Young FRACP | Chair

Biography unavailable

Dr David Cunnington FRACP  | Deputy Chair

David is a specialist sleep physician at Sunshine Coast Respiratory and Sleep, and co-founder of the online sleep resource, SleepHub.com.au. David trained in sleep medicine both in Australia and at Harvard Medical School. In addition to training in sleep medicine, David has also completed training and achieved qualifications as an International Sleep Specialist, Fellow of American Academy of Sleep Medicine, Diplomat of Behavioural Sleep Medicine and Registered Polysomnographic Technologist. Having credentials in a range of specialities in sleep as well as his experience in practicing sleep medicine for 20 years gives David broad perspective on training in sleep medicine.

Dr Sonia Cherian FRACP

Sonia is a graduate of the University of Adelaide Medical School. She completed her internship and basic physician training at the Royal Adelaide Hospital and moved to Auckland where she completed her advanced respiratory training. She undertook her sleep fellowship at Wellington City Hospital. Following this, she completed a pleural and lung cancer fellowship at Glenfield Hospital, Leicester, UK. She held a consultant post at University College London Hospital (UCLH) before returning to Auckland City Hospital as a full-time Respiratory and Sleep Physician.

Dr Claire Ellender BSc, MBBS, FRACP, PhD

Claire is a Respiratory and Sleep specialist at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane. Her areas of research include evaluating health literacy and sleep education materials and complex sleep disorder management. Claire works closely as a conjoint appointed academic within the Faculty of Medicine, University of Queensland at the PA Southside Clinical unit.

Dr Stephen Kinder FRACP

Stephen is the Sleep Fellow at Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane for 2023. He has completed prior training in Respiratory and General Medicine, working across Queensland regional and metropolitan centres. He also holds a strong interest in medical education, maintaining a Senior Lecturer role within Griffith University.

Dr Benjamin Nguyen FRACP

Benjamin is a Staff Specialist at St Vincent’s Hospital and a Visiting Medical Officer at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney. He also works as a Respiratory and Sleep Physician at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research and is a Clinical Lecturer for the University of Sydney.

Dr Lauren Nisbet

Lauren is an advanced trainee in Paediatric Sleep Medicine and General Paediatrics and is the current Sleep Fellow at Monash Children’s Hospital. She has a passion for the field of sleep medicine and wishes to further improve learning opportunities and experiences of trainees. Lauren has a strong interest in clinical research and completed her PhD investigating the cardiovascular impacts of sleep disordered breathing in preschool-age children. She has been part of working groups developing unit protocols at the Royal Children’s Hospital, writing interview scenarios and responses for undergraduate medicine entry at Monash University, and has also authored articles for the Raising Children’s Network.

Dr Antonia O'Connor FRACP

Antonia recently obtained her FRACP in paediatric respiratory medicine with paediatric training undertaken in Adelaide. She is currently doing advanced training in paediatric sleep medicine in Sydney. Antonia also recently obtained her PhD in researching the use of augmented reality for asthma education in children and adolescents. She has previously worked in a clinical fellow role which solidified her interest in medical education and supporting junior doctor welfare.

Dr Shyamala Pradeepan FRACP

Shyamala is an Adult Respiratory and Sleep Physician working with NSW health, with over 10 years of experience. She has been trained across states in Australia and overseas and is very passionate about ongoing medical education and training to the needs of the day and future. Shyamala believes this is only way to reach the larger audience, the patients.

Associate Professor Sadasivam Suresh FRACP

Sadasivam is a Paediatric Respiratory and Sleep Physician and Fellow of the college who has a long association with education related activities of the college. He has a graduate certificate in clinical education and has been involved in student and vocational education of basic/advanced trainees. He has experience in accreditation in sleep services through ASA and through RACP with BPT accreditation which gave him a deeper understanding of how educational training standards are key to sustained excellence in delivery of education. Sadasivam is also the current chair of the PDEC and with his association with examination processes as an NEP, he has good insight at the coalface and understand the importance of the curriculum renewal project. According to him, curriculum renewal is a key aspect of continuing educational delivery for the college and with his wide-ranging experience in the education space, he would like to bring that to good effect by contributing to the process.

Associate Professor Arthur Teng FRACP

Arthur is a senior staff specialist paediatrician, sleep physician and Head of the Department of Sleep Medicine at the Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick. Currently he is Conjoint Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and Clinical Senior Lecturer at the University of Tasmania. He was Respiratory Fellow and Chief Resident at the then Prince of Wales Children’s Hospital before training with Professor Colin Sullivan at the David Read Laboratories, University of Sydney, about ten years following the invention of CPAP. His clinical and research interests include the neuropsychological impact of sleep disorders in children, parasomnias, infantile obstructive sleep apnoea and childhood narcolepsy. He has published across the broad spectrum of paediatric sleep disorders in peer-reviewed journals including Sleep, J Applied Physiology, AJRCCM, ERJ, Sleep Medicine, J of Sleep Research, Respirology etc., and several textbook chapters. He supervised multiple Honours, Masters and PhD Projects through the Universities of Sydney and NSW. Arthur has also trained over 20 scientists and physicians, from Australia and around the world.

Dr Sarah Yeo FRACP

Sarah is a respiratory physician currently completing post-fellowship year in sleep medicine. She completed MBBS at the University of Adelaide, where she is now a Senior Clinical Lecturer, has completed a Cystic Fibrosis Fellowship at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, and obtained FRACP after training at the Central Adelaide Local Health Network. She is current SA/NT Branch President of the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand and is a member of the TSANZ working party for developing guidelines for recognition of competency in respiratory medicine in interventional pulmonology and pleural procedures.  Sarah has a keen interest in diagnosis and management of lung cancer, mechanisms of resistance of lung cancer to immunotherapy, interventional pulmonology and pleural procedures, as well as curriculum design and continuing education through every phase of training encompassing post-fellowship competency-based assessment.