Edith Weisberg (MB BS, MM, FACSHP, OAM) is currently the Director of Research at FPA Health and Senior Clinical lecturer in Obstetrics & gynaecology, University of Sydney. She is an acknowledged leader in the field of Women’s Health and Contraception and is a member of the International Medical Advisory Panel of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).

Edith has a significant reproductive research profile both internationally and locally. She has worked to expand the evidence base around new and existing methods of contraception and women’s reproductive and general health. Over the past 25 years she has been active in the education of health professionals and the Australian public and has never shied away from some of the controversial areas such as the wider availability of emergency contraception in Australia.

Edith has been widely published in the Australian and International academic press as well contributing chapters to five books. She is an enthusiastic medical educator and one of those responsible for the development of the Masters course in Reproductive health at the University of Sydney.

Her extensive contribution in the area of women’s health has been recognised with the 2001 Impact Award – Public Health Association of NSW and in 2003 she was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia.

She has held academic positions from lecturer to Professor in several universities in Australia including the University of New South Wales, the Australian National University and the University of Queensland. She has undertaken consultancies with State and Federal agencies as well as the private sector including the pharmaceutical industry.

Professor Saltman is experienced in both print and audiovisual media. She is the author of several books in the area of mental health, women and health, the menopause and clinical examination skills. Whilst at the Australian National University she co-authored a series of monographs on general practice restructuring. She has been the first author of over 100 medical papers in both referred and lay journals.

She is a Fellow of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and has held a number of positions within including Honorary Treasurer and Deputy Chairperson of Council.

Susan has spoken internationally on gender and medical education. She is a peer reviewer for BMJ, Canadian Medical Association Journal, JAMA, Biomed Central: Medical Education, Biomed Central: International Journal for Equity in Health, Canadian Family Physician and the Journal of the American Medical Women’s Association.

Prior to studying medicine Tom worked as an engineer in the radio and TV industries and presentation techniques and media continues as an interest. Tom has contributed over many years to General Practioners’ ongoing educational activities in the area of mental health.

(Western Australia)

Ian Hammond graduated in Medicine from Charing Cross Hospital Medical School, London. Initially Ian trained in Paediatrics and then O&G and ultimately in Gynaecologic Oncology in UK and Toronto.

Ian Hammond is currently working at the Western Australian Gynaecologic Cancer Service, King Edward Memorial Hospital for Women in Perth. He is Director of Gynaecology at King Edward Memorial Hospital for Women and is an Adjunct Professor in the School of Anatomy and Human Biology at the University of Western Australia.

Ian is an enthusiastic and respected medical educator and is actively involved in the training of specialist trainees in O&G and subspecialty trainees in gynaecologic oncology. He was responsible for the development and implementation of the Anatomy of Complications workshops (aimed at the prevention and management of complications in O&G surgery). He is a member of the expert advisory group to the National Ovarian Cancer Program and Chair, Guidelines Review Group, Review of NHMRC document ” Screening to Prevent Cancer: Guidelines for the Management of Women with Screen Detected Abnormalities.”

Ian’s current research and interests include: Evaluation of Educational Strategies in Post graduate Training, Innovation in surgical training, Quality of Life issues for cancer patients and Role of Interventional Counselling in women with gynaecological cancer as well as Audit and Performance Evaluation in Gynaecologic Surgical Practice.

She serves on a number of professional committees related to general practice such as the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners National Standing Committee-Research, the RACGP National Research Awards Committee, and the steering committee of the beyondblue Victorian Centre of Excellence for Research and Evaluation in Depression and Related Disorders and the National Prescribing Service Research and Development Working Group.

Jane has led the development of the multi-disciplinary diamond consortium (Diagnosis, Management & Outcomes of Depression in Primary Care) which aims to build capacity in primary care mental health research and evaluation (www.diamond.unimelb.edu.au).

(Queensland)

Ian Frazer BSc (Hons)., MB ChB Edinburgh., FRCP(Ed)., MD., FRACPA. is director of the Centre for Immunology and Cancer Research, a research centre of the University of Queensland at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane.

He was trained as a renal physician and clinical immunologist in Edinburgh, Scotland before emigrating in 1981 to Melbourne, Australia to continue his clinical training and to pursue studies in viral immunology and autoimmunity at the Walter and Eliza Hall institute of Medical Research with Prof Ian Mackay. In 1985 he moved north to Brisbane to take up a teaching post with the University of Queensland, and he now holds a personal chair as head of the Centre.

His current research interests include immunoregulation, and immunotherapeutic vaccines for Papillomavirus associated cancers, for which he holds research funding from several Australian and US funding bodies. Dr Frazer teaches immunology to undergraduate and graduate students of the University. He chairs the Medical and Scientific advisory committee of the Queensland Cancer Fund, and is a board member of the Cancer Council Australia. He advises the WHO and the Bill and Melissa Gates Foundation on papillomavirus vaccines.

Ian Frazer developed the first papillomavirus prophylactic vaccine, the patents for which are now licensed from the University of Queensland to Merck. The vaccine is in late phase clinical trials, with predicted US $1 billion per annum sales. He is developing with CSL a papillomavirus therapeutic vaccine based on jointly held IP, which is in early phase clinical trials. He holds issued patents in the field of optimising gene expression, currently undergoing commercial development through Uniquest, the University of Queensland’s commercialisation arm. He consults or has consulted for Uniquest, CSL, Merck, and 3M Pharmaceuticals in the fields of vaccines and immunotherapy.

Ian Frazer has held continuous research funding from the NHMRC since 1985, mostly relating to papillomaviruses or to tumour immunology. He also holds, or has held within the last 5 years, competitive research grants from the Queensland Cancer Fund, the Cancer Research Institute of New York, and the NIH.

Click more information on Professor Ian Frazer.

Before taking up his current position he spent 5 years at the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine at Monash University. He also worked at the Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre in London from 1994-1995.

Christopher is the editor of the journal, Sexual Health, a board member of the International Union Against Sexually Transmitted Diseases and a member of a number of committees and boards including Ministerial Advisory Sub-Committee on AIDS, Hepatitis C and related diseases (DHS Vic). He has over 150 scientific publications and in excess of 6 million dollars in research grants.

His main interests include the prevention and control of sexually transmitted infections and improving the quality of health care provided in sexual health services.

After training at the Lydia Department at St Thomas’ Hospital, London, he returned to Australia as Director of the Melbourne Communicable Diseases Centre in 1980. In addition he spent six years in private practice predominantly in HIV and Sexual Health Medicine in Melbourne at the height of the AIDS epidemic in gay men and then moved north to Cairns in 1993. From 2000 to 2003, he was President of the Australasian College of Sexual Health Physicians and assisted in the transition of that College into a Chapter of Sexual Health Medicine in the Adult Medicine Division of the RACP. The Chapter was formed in early 2004, replacing the former College. Until his retirement from full-time practice in 2004 he was Director of the Sexual Health Service at Cairns Base Hospital.

He is the co-author of the Teen Triple P – Positive Parenting Program for parents with teenagers in collaboration with Professor Matthew R Sanders, the founder of Triple P. He conducts research in the area of parenting, family psychology, and the treatment and prevention of behaviour problems in adolescence. Details of his work have been published in a wide range of Australian and international journals and presented at numerous state, national, and international conferences during the last 20 years.

He has served a term as Chairman of the Australian Psychological Society’s (APS) National College of Clinical Psychologists and as Editor of the Australian Association for Cognitive Behaviour Therapy’s Journal, Behaviour Change. He has recently completed a 4-year term as Director of Training and Standards for the APS overseeing the development and implementation of course accreditation at Australian universities, and professional development for APS college members. He currently lives on the Gold Coast with his wife Wendy Pailthorpe with whom he maintains a psychology practice.