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Keynote Speakers

MAJGEN Paul Alexander

MAJGEN Paul Alexander joined the Army in 1976 and completed his medical training at the University of Melbourne in 1978. Following several years of clinical training in Victorian hospitals, he commenced the first of several regimental appointments as the Regimental Medical Officer (RMO) of the 3rd Battalion Royal Australian Regiment. This was followed by several years working as an RMO in Papua New Guinea with the PNG Defence Force. He then served as the RMO for the Special Air Service Regiment for three years and completed SAS selection during his tenure.

In 1988 he undertook a period of postgraduate medical training in the UK in the areas of Sports Medicine and Tropical Medicine as well as undertaking several military attachments with UK medical units. On return to Australia he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and appointed as Commanding Officer of 11th Field Ambulance and subsequently as Commanding Officer of 1st Military Hospital Yeronga. Three years were then spent with the US Army as the Australian Army Exchange Officer to the US Army Medical Department where he was employed in the area of Capabilities, Combat and Doctrine Development and was involved in the redevelopment of US Army battlefield hospital systems.

On return to Australia he was promoted to Colonel and posted to Headquarters 1ST Division as the Senior Medical Officer and during this period, deployed with the initial peacekeeping force to Bougainville on Op BEL ISI. He transferred to the Army Reserve in 1998 and subsequently assumed the position of Director Reserve Health Services for Army in Qld. During this period he deployed as the Public Health Officer to the UN Peace Keeping Force in East Timor.

He was promoted to Brigadier in January 2004 and assumed the position of Assistant Surgeon General ADF - Army. He continued to work in clinical practice and was a partner in a large group medical practice in Queensland, undertaking the duties of managing partner. He was active in primary health care policy development as the Chairman of the Redcliffe Division of General Practice.

MAJGEN Alexander has also been actively involved in risk management and legal medicine. He has completed a Masters in Legal Medicine and is a Fellow of the Australian College of Legal Medicine. MAJGEN Alexander was promoted to the rank of Major General on 25th March 2008.

MAJGEN Alexander was appointed Commander Joint Health and Surgeon General Australian Defence Force on 4 August 2008 and Joint Health Command was established on 11 August 2008.

Professor René Amalberti

René Amalberti is doctor in Medicine (Marseille, 77), PHD Cognitive Psychology (Paris, 92), Professor of Medicine, physiology and ergonomics (Paris, 95).

After a Residency in Psychiatry, he integrated the Airforce in 1977, graduated in aerospace medicine, was train as flight surgeon, and got a permanent Military Research position in 1982. He retired with a rank of General  in February 2008 as deputy director of the Institute of Aerospace Medicine.

He is now working half time as Senior Adviser Patient Safety at the Haute Autorité de Santé (the French medical accreditation agency) and half time as risk manager  in a medical insurance (MACSF).

From 1982 to 1992, he was involved in several major European research programs on human errors. In the mid 80’s, during three years, he was a member of a European Research Project (MOHAWC) with Jens Rasmussen and Jim Reason. He pioneered in the mid 80’s the concept of pilot’s assistant (electronic crew) for fighter aircraft, and, in the early 90’s, the Crew Resource Management. In late 1992, he was detached half-time from the military to the French ministry of transportation, took the lead of human factors for Civil Aviation in France, and soon after, in 1993 (until 1999), became the first Chief Human factors and Flight safety for the European Aviation Authorities (JAA). During this period of time, he engaged into rule making in human factors for aviation, and pioneered a new approach of safety in complex systems termed ecological safety, putting emphasis of the role on compromises in risk controls and human factors.

His global contribution to safety in Aviation was acknowledged at national and international levels. He received the French aeronautical medal in 1993, the French Gold flight safety medal in 1995, the Roger Green‘s medal from the Royal Aeronautical Society in 2005, the special award of the Human factors Flight Safety Foundation in 2007, and the Special award of the International Association of Ergonomics in 2009.

From 1999 to 2008, although continuing working as a high level resource person for military (UAVs, accidents investigation) and civil aviation authorities (certification Airbus A380), he progressively diversified the terrains studying risk management in the nuclear, the oil industry, professional fishing, and ground public transportations. He is still the present chairman of the French National Programme of research, Quality and Safety in land transport (2002-11).

In 2000, he engaged researches in the emerging domain of human error in medicine, patient safety and resilience. In 2000, he was a member of the faculty at the first international Salzburg seminar following the publication of the well known US report To err is human. In 2001, he started cooperation with the French agency of accreditation, co-authoring the accreditation guide on risk management. His present work at the HAS is a mix of research and strategic assistance for change in France on that important topic.

He has published over 100 international papers, chapters, and authored or co-authored 10 books, most of them on intelligent assistances, human error, system approach, deviances, safety and system resilience.

Professor Jeffrey Braithwaite, PhD

• Professor and Foundation Director Australian Institute of Health Innovation
• Professor and Director Centre for Clinical Governance Research Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Australia

Professor Jeffrey Braithwaite is a leading health services organizational researcher with an international reputation for his work in health systems improvement, particularly investigating the culture and structure of acute settings, leadership, management and change in health sector organizations, quality and safety in health care, accreditation and surveying processes in international context and the restructuring of health services. Professor Braithwaite is well known for bringing management and leadership concepts and evidence into the clinical arena and he has published extensively (more than 400 total publications) about organizational, social and team approaches to care which has raised the importance of these here and internationally. He has presented at international and national conferences, workshops, symposia and meetings on more than 400 occasions including delivering many keynote addresses in Australia and internationally. Theories and ideas he has helped shape, formulate or devise, and provided research findings for, are now in common use as a result of his work. He has attracted over $34 million of research funding, chiefly investigator-initiated National Health and Medical Research Council and Australian Research Council project and program grants.

Dr Mukesh Haikerwal

Dr Mukesh Haikerwal is a practicing General Medical Practitioner, Commissioner to the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission and Professor in the School of Medicine in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Flinders University in Adelaide, South Australia. He is currently working with the National e-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA) as the National Clinical Lead, leading a team of healthcare providers from multi disciplinary backgrounds, to assist in NEHTA’s liaison with the healthcare community and to provide input into the development of the NEHTA work program to deliver e-health for Australia. He was also the former head of the Federal Australian Medical Association (AMA) that is responsible for national policy development, lobbying with federal parliamentarians, co-ordinating activity across the AMA State entities and representing the AMA and its members nationally and internationally.

Judge Neil MacLean

Judge Neil MacLean was appointed as New Zealand’s first Chief Coroner in late 2006 and took up office in January 2007 prior to the coming into force of the Coroners’ Act 2006 on 1 July 2007.

Prior to that he had been a District Court Judge in Gisborne and Hamilton, primarily dealing with summary and indictable criminal matters together with some civil work.  Before his appointment to the District Court Bench in 1993 he was a Partner in the Law firm of Duncan Cotterill & Co and had been a Christchurch Coroner since 1978.

Dr Diane Watson, CEO

Dr Diane Watson is Chief Executive of the Bureau of Health Information and has a strong track record in the provision of publicly available reports and information on health care to inform clinicians and the community. Prior to arriving in Australia in 2009, Dr Watson worked at the Health Council of Canada which was established by the Prime Minister and Premiers to monitor and report to Canadians on the performance of their health care system.

She has held senior scientist and management positions at the Centre for Health Services and Policy Research at the University of British Columbia, the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Dr Watson has also created health system performance reports with the Canadian Institute for Health Information and Statistics Canada.

Speakers

Christopher James Baggoley

BVSc (Hons), BM BS, B Soc Admin,
FACEM, FIFEM, MRACMA

Professor Chris Baggoley was appointed as Chief Executive of the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care on 21 December 2007.  Prior to this appointment he was Chief Medical Officer and Executive Director of Public Health and Clinical Coordination in the South Australian Department of Health.

His other medical positions were Professor/Director of Emergency Medicine at Royal Adelaide Hospital, Executive Director, Medical Services and Director of Emergency Services at ACHA Health SA and Director of Emergency Medicine at Flinders Medical Centre in Adelaide.

Professor Baggoley’s other key roles in health have been President of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine, Chair of the Committee of Presidents of Medical Colleges, and Chair of the Board of the National Institute of Clinical Studies.

Professor Mary Chiarella

Mary’s career spans 40 years both in the United Kingdom and Australia across a variety of nursing services.

Mary is Professor of Nursing at the University of Sydney. In 2003/04 she was the Chief Nursing Officer, NSW Health Department and prior to that was the Foundation Professor of Nursing in Corrections Health, with the University of Technology, Sydney.

Mary has provided her professional expertise to health services, organisations and governments over the years. Examples include a review of professional practice and boundary issues for Justice Health, membership of the NSW Law Reform Commission Division Working Group on minor’s consent to medical treatment. She was a founding member of the Australian Bioethics Association and the Australian Institute for Health, Law and Ethics, was Chair of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Council from 2007 -2009 and is the NSW nominee on the Nurses and Midwives Board of Australia.

Mary’s particular research interests focus on legal, policy and ethical issues in nursing and health care delivery. She publishes and speaks nationally and internationally on her work. Examples of her research include an international review of nursing regulation, an examination of the legal and professional status of nurses, reviews and analyses of disciplinary decisions of professional Tribunals, and an international review of policy in end-of-life care. She has recently completed a state-wide review of advanced practice roles for the Nursing and Midwifery Office of the NSW Health Department, a second review of the disciplinary decisions of the NSW Nurses and Midwives Board and a review of the implementation of nurse practitioners in South Australia. She has undertaken a number of projects for WHO, including a global review of nurse-led models of primary health care, a review of policy and leadership in primary health care and policy development related to MDG 5. She continues to work closely with the Nursing and Midwifery Office of NSW Health and is currently leading two state-wide projects: a second review of nursing care models in haemodialysis and a new project on the perioperative nursing workforce. The current research project in which she is a co-researcher is an evaluation of the competency framework of the Nursing Council of New Zealand.

Stephen Clark

Dr Stephen Clark is the CEO of Quality In Practice (QIP) and Australian General Practice Accreditation Limited (AGPAL). QIP/AGPAL is Australia’s leading provider of quality improvement services in primary health care environments and is committed to improving safety and quality outcomes so that people's health and wellbeing can be maximised. Dr Clark is an experienced leader with over 20 years executive management experience. This includes working at national and international levels as a Chief Executive and Company Director. He holds a PhD from James Cook University and is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management and a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Steve is married with six children in a blended family.

Catherine Crock

Dr Catherine Crock, Executive Director Australian Institute for Patient and Family Centred Care.

A physician in Adolescent Health and Haematology at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne since 1994, Catherine has worked closely with patients and families to redesign services and improve the quality and safety of healthcare. Her initial work in patient and family centred care involved improving pain management for children requiring procedures. She is the Chair and Founder of the Hush Music Foundation which provides music for children and families around Australia, the proceeds of which are shared amongst children’s hospitals nationally. This project has raised over one million dollars. She is a surveyor with the Australian Council for Healthcare Standards and a member of the inaugural Australian WHO patients for patient safety group. She has a Churchill Fellowship 2009 to study patient and family centred care and patient safety.

Martin Fletcher

Martin Fletcher commenced with the Australian Health Practitioner Agency (AHPRA) in December 2009 as the inaugural Chief Executive Officer. With over 10 years experience in patient safety in Australia, the United Kingdom and internationally, he brings strong expertise in public protection and quality improvement to the work of establishing and leading AHPRA in the new National Registration and Accreditation Scheme.

Prior to joining AHPRA, Martin was Chief Executive of the National Patient Safety Agency, the leading National Health Service body for patient safety in England and Wales. In this role, he managed a diverse portfolio including responsibility for a national safety reporting system across the NHS.

Among his previous positions, from 2004 to 2007 Martin worked with the World Health Organisation in Geneva to establish a global programme of work on patient safety. From 2003 -2004, he helped to set up the National Patient Safety Agency, with a particular focus on developing its programme of work in the north of England. From 2000 to 2002, he worked with the Australian Council for Safety and Quality in Health care to establish the first national programme of work on patient safety in Australia. Prior to this, Martin held various positions in healthcare policy and management including managing primary health care services in Australia.

Martin holds a Master of Management degree in public sector management, an Honours degree in behavioural sciences and an undergraduate degree in social studies.

Jane Gray

Jane Gray is the Director, Innovation Support for Hunter New England Health in NSW. She is responsible for providing advice and support for the redesign of health services, and supporting the translation of good ideas into practice.

Previously, Jane established and led NSW Health's Patient and Carer Experience Program for the Health Service Performance Improvement Bureau. This program included the NSW statewide patient survey, a program of collecting patient and carer experiences, and initiatives to improve patient, carer and staff experience in NSW emergency departments.

Jane is passionate about measuring, understanding and improving the experience of patients, families and staff.  She recently became in establishing the Australian Institute for Patient and Family Centred Care.

She has a background in Communication, having specialised in media issues management and organisational communication. Jane has a Master of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Arts (Communication).

Bernie Harrison

Bernie Harrison is currently the Director of Organisational Development and Education at the Clinical Excellence Commission (CEC) in NSW. She is responsible for the Clinical Leadership Programs and implementing clinical practice improvement training in NSW. Whilst at the CEC she has led the development and directed the base line survey of the Quality Systems Assessment Program and is the program director for the Blood Watch Program. She is a clinical lecturer in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Sydney.

Bernie has 17 years experience in medical record review programs including in 1992 project managing the Quality in Australian Health Care Study (QAHCS) which was published in the MJA in 1995. Following publication of that study she was appointed to the NSW Ministerial Advisory Council for Health Care Quality. In 2001 she was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study in the USA and undertook courses in health care improvement methodologies. She has over ten years experience in running CPI workshops both in Australia and internationally.

Professor Cliff Hughes

Professor Clifford Hughes is the CEO of the Clinical Excellence Commission in New South Wales.

For 25 years, until January 2005, he was a Senior Partner in an extremely busy cardiothoracic surgical practice at Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. He has led five medical teams to China and performed numerous cardiac (open heart) procedures in six provinces in China.  He has also operated in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, India and Bangladesh 

He was a Member of the Australian Council on Safety and Quality in Health Care and chaired taskforces on Safe Hours, Fatigue and Device Tracking. He holds fellowships in the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, the American College of Surgeons, the American College of Cardiology and the American College of Chest physicians as well as the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand.

Professor Hughes was awarded the Order of Australia in 1998 for “service to cardiac surgery, international relations and the community”.

Brian Johnston

Brian Johnston has been Chief Executive of The Australian Council on Healthcare Standards since November 2000 and its international business entity, ACHS International, since its establishment in 2005.  He has been an enthusiastic supporter of standards based accreditation programs since their establishment in Australia in 1974.

The Australian Council on Healthcare Standards (ACHS) is an independent, not-for-profit organisation, dedicated to improving the quality and safety performance of health care organisations in Australia through a continuous process of performance review.  Established in 1974, the ACHS is the leading independent authority on the development, implementation and assessment of quality improvement systems for Australian health care organisations.  Accreditation status is awarded to those organisations that demonstrate compliance with industry supported standards of performance.  ACHS activities include standards development, performance assessment, education, information dissemination and research.

He has been a member of the International Society for Quality in Health Care’s Accreditation Council since 2001 and was its elected Chair from 2006 to 2009.  He is also involved as a surveyor for the Council for the assessment of both standards and other accrediting organisations.

He is a Fellow of the Australian College of Health Service Managers, a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management.  He holds an appointment as Visiting Fellow, Centre for Clinical Governance Research, at the Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, and is a member of the Management Advisory Committee of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons’ Australian Safety and Efficacy Register of New Interventional Procedures – Surgical (ASERNIP-S).

Peter Lee

Peter graduated from the Sloan Program, Cornell University in 2005 under the Ministry of Health Postgraduate Scholarship and chose to be posted to the Standards and Quality Improvement Division to spearhead the national quality improvement and patient safety programmes. He currently manages a S$7 million Healthcare Quality Improvement and Innovation Fund to seed and support improvement and innovative ideas by the public healthcare institutions where promising projects are proactively identified and scaled up for national implementation. Peter holds a concurrent appointment and is responsible for spearheading the Ministry’s Organisational Excellence and Development initiatives.

Peter has been serving as a member of the International Society for Quality Improvement in Healthcare annual conference International Review Panel since 2007 and also Chairs the Asia Hospital Management Award – Departmental Service Improvement Project Judging Panel since 2008. 

Prior to his current stint, Peter had held appointments in various departments in the Ministry. He was responsible for managing the Ministry annual healthcare budget and coordinated casemix implementation for the public healthcare sector in Singapore. He was awarded a Commendation Medal for his contributions during the SARS pandemic in 2003.

Peter is actively involved in community service and holds an external appointment as Deputy Registrar of Marriage with the Registry of Marriage, Singapore.

Dr Karen Luxford

Dr Karen Luxford, PhD, FAIM

Dr Karen Luxford has recently been appointed as the Director, Patient-Based Care at the Clinical Excellence Commission in NSW to head up a new Directorate to promote patient-centred care and its role in improving patient safety and health service quality. Prior to this appointment, Karen was General Manager of the National Breast and Ovarian Cancer Centre with over 10 years experience in senior executive roles overseeing programs in cancer control, information, policy and practice.

In 2009, Karen was a Harkness Fellow in Healthcare Policy & Practice at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA and studied exemplar health care organizations focused on patient-centred care and the role of patient feedback in improving quality of care. Karen’s interests include new models of care, patient care experience, promoting evidence-based best practice, and health services delivery.  

Karen is an Honorary Associate of the School of Public Health, University of Sydney, a Visiting Fellow, College of Medicine, Australian National University, and founding Executive Committee member of the Health Services Research Association of Australia & New Zealand.

Hon James McGinty

The Hon James McGinty was appointed Chairman of the Board of Health Workforce Australia in February 2010 by the Hon Nicola Roxon, MP, Minister for Health and Ageing.

Elected to the WA Parliament on 26 May, 1990 as the Labor Member for Fremantle, Mr McGinty has held various ministerial roles within the WA Parliament, including Attorney-General from 2001-2008 and was also Leader of the Opposition.

He has Degrees in Arts and Law from the University of WA and has tutored in Constitutional and Administrative Law at the Law Schools of both the University of WA and Murdoch University.   In 1988, he was awarded the Blackstone Anniversary Prize in Constitutional Law. 

As the former WA Health Minister, Mr McGinty brings to the role of Chairman the wide range of expertise needed to guide Health Workforce Australia through its establishment and into the future, thus ensuring Australia’s health workforce is positioned to lead the way in the provision of health care.

Maureen Robinson

Maureen has an impressive track record of leading and creating reform in healthcare quality, including leading the review and redevelopment of the national Australian healthcare standards as Executive Manager for the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards. Among many other reports and policies, Maureen developed Australia’s first state based health quality and clinical governance framework, “The Framework for Managing the Quality of Health Services in NSW’ and wrote the “Clinician’s Toolkit for Improving Patient Care”. Maureen also designed and oversaw the implementation of the NSW Safety Improvement Program and the NSW Incident Information Management System.

Maureen has worked in the New Zealand health and disability sector since May 2006; among other work, establishing the priorities for quality in the sector and reviewing the clinical and corporate governance arrangements in District Health Boards.

Maureen has clinical experience in both the Australian and United States health systems and an extensive background using quality improvement to enhance service delivery and patient care. She was a member of the Australian Council for Safety and Quality in Health Care, a founding member and Chair of the State Quality Officials Forum and a member of the Australian National Health Priorities Action Council.

Kirstine Sketcher-Baker

Kirstine Sketcher-Baker has a statistical background with a longstanding interest in monitoring patient safety and quality of care in hospitals.

Kirstine has led the development of the Variable Life Adjusted Display (VLAD) statistical methodology and the development of supporting tools and business processes to successfully implement VLADs throughout Queensland public and private hospitals and more recently Alberta Health Services, Canada. 

She is currently a member of the Queensland Health Patient Safety and Quality Executive VLAD Subcommittee, the National Core Indicators Working Party and National Mortality Technical Working Group.  She also frequently provides expert and specialist advice in monitoring to several states in Australia as well as international health authorities seeking to implement VLADs and other monitoring techniques in their jurisdictions.

Dr Nicholas Waldron

Dr Nicholas Waldron is a Consultant Geriatrician working at Armadale Hospital in Perth. In 2008 he was awarded the NHMRC NICS - WA Health Fellowship assisting him to develop practical expertise in implementing evidence into practice. In his role as the current lead of the WA Health Falls Prevention Network he has a unique opportunity to understand and effect change across the health continuum.