Group membership
Our Consumer Advisory Group is a panel of community members with a background in health consumer affairs, and representing a wide variety of patient and consumer groups across Australia and New Zealand.
Led by one of our Fellows, they advise us on how to improve consumer engagement and patient centred care across our professional standards and education approaches, as well as policy and advocacy activities.
Dr Anthony Mylius | Physician Co-Chair
Dr Tony Mylius AM BMBS FRACP FCSANZ FCHSM is a Cardiologist and Consultant Physician. He has worked in Clinical Cardiology for well over 25 years in Adelaide, New Zealand, and now in Western Australia, predominantly in regional and rural practice.
Tony is motivated by his passion to work to achieve improved health outcomes for patients across the health system. He has a desire to optimise health service performance through supporting and empowering health consumers, as well as clinicians and other health care providers, to achieve those best practice goals.
He was Co-Chair (with Professor Nick Buckmaster) of the Integrated Care Working Group of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) Health Reform Reference Group which developed the Model of Chronic Care Management endorsed by the RACP.
Tony is a member of the RACP WA State Committee and has served in other roles including as a member of the College Policy and Advocacy Executive Committee and Health Reform Reference Group. He has continuing involvement with the WA Country Health Service in strategic planning around health service provision and regional cardiology services.
From 2010 to 2013 he worked as Regional Medical Director for the WA Country Health Service (Wheatbelt) and was a member of the WA Department of Health Cardiovascular Health Network’s Executive Advisory Group 2012 to 2019. In 2015 Tony was appointed Clinical Co-Lead of the Cardiovascular Health Network in the WA Health Department. In 2017 he was appointed a member of the Clinical Senate of WA. He previously taught medical students as Medical Coordinator in the Rural Clinical School of WA.
In 2020 Tony was awarded the Order of Australia for "Significant service to community health, and to cardiology".
Debra Letica | Co-Chair
Debra’s the Chair of WA Primary Health Alliance Community South Committee, Community Member of the Pharmacy Registration Board of WA, and member of NPS MedicineWise Choosing Wisely Advisory Group. In April 2018, she received a Health Consumer Excellence Award for her commitment to improving health outcomes and patient experience. Debra's interested in reducing health disparities and integrated care for people with disabilities, building collaborative teams and improving the health system.
Henry Ko
Henry's participated on healthcare committees for Consumers Health Forum since 2008. He is currently a member of the Commonwealth Department of Health’s Consumer Consultative Committee on Health Technology Assessment and the College of Intensive Care Medicine’s Community Advisory Committee, amongst other groups. He has focused on health access and communication for CALD groups, child and youth health issues and invisible disabilities.
Ngāpei Ngatai
Tenā koutou katoa
Ko Taranaki te mounga
Ko Whai-tara nui a Ngarue te awa
Ko Te Atiawa ratou ko Ngati Mutunga o Wharekauri, Ko Ngati Maniapoto ngā iwi
Ko Ngati Te Whiti raua ko Ngati Rāhiri ngā hapu
No Taranaki au
Ko Kaimanāki Oranga
Ko Ngāpei Ngatai toku ingoa
No reira, tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa
Greetings to everyone
Taranaki is the mountain
Whai-tara nui a Ngarue is the river
These are the names of the main tribes that I belong to
These are the names of the sub-tribes I belong to
I am from Taranaki
I am a Consumer Advisor
My name is Ngāpei Ngatai
Therefore, greetings once, greetings twice, greetings to everyone once again
Ngāpei has 10 years experience and understanding as a Consumer Advisor, bringing with her a strong cultural perspective and extensive governance skills. She is currently involved in the strategic planning and implementation of services throughout all 20 District Health Boards within Aotearoa New Zealand. Her greatest achievement and involvement to date has been in the development of the Cancer Nurse Coordinator role, Faster Cancer Treatment, Psychosocial Oncology services and Hand Hygiene. Ngāpei herself overcame breast cancer 11 years ago.
Rachel Skoss
Rachel is a health services researcher focusing on:
- building health literacy in consumers and caregivers
- how health services can better meet the needs of people with disability
She is a passionate advocate for people with intellectual disability. Rachel understands the interface between health, mental health, and disability sectors. She is a parent of a child with disability and comes from various governance and committee roles in the health, mental health and disability sectors.
Zehnab Vayani
Zehnab is committed to working collectively with others to improve healthcare in Queensland. She advocates for healthcare services to be:
- more accessible
- holistically focused
- better integrated around the needs of health consumers and their families
Zehnab focuses on social determinants of health informed by her own family lived experience of complex health care across a number of care settings.
She is a champion for co-designed innovation in healthcare that balances ethical considerations around health consumer and carer human rights, quality, safety, and accessible information to inform advances in personalised healthcare and medicine.
Jodi Adams
Jodi is a consumer representative with the National Register of Palliative Care Consumers and Carers. She is an active member in a number of advisory groups in the Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne. Jodi has a role as a volunteer Peer Support Leader for her eastern metropolitan SWAN (Syndromes Without A Name) families, facilitating social gatherings for caregivers and families. Jodi has extensive lived experience with her daughter who had a rare life limiting condition across a range of healthcare settings including Complex Care and Palliative Care.
Jodi participated in an interview sharing her personal story for the Australian Paediatric Palliative Conference in 2022. She is an advocate for supporting the whole family when their child has ongoing medical needs and is passionate about improving accessibility to services and support for carers and their families, particularly those under palliative care and continued beyond in bereavement