Keynote Speakers
David Rosengren
Queensland Health; Australia
Dr Rosengren commenced as Director-General, Queensland Health on 1 November 2024. He is a Senior Staff Specialist in Emergency Medicine with more than 20 years of clinical and leadership experience in both public and private hospital sectors.
While continuing to work as a clinician, he has also undertaken executive roles where he has overseen the delivery and performance of acute public hospital services at a large scale. This includes as Chief Operating Officer for Queensland Health, Executive Director of Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital and as Chief Operating Officer for Metro North Hospital and Health Service. He has also been Acting Executive Director of Organisational Development at Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service.
Dr Rosengren has held several representative roles with the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine and oversaw the Metropolitan Emergency Department Access Initiative project in 2012. He was the Chair of the Queensland Clinical Senate between 2012 and 2019.
Debbie Sorensen
CEO, Pacifica Medical Association; New Zealand
Debbie Sorensen is the CEO of the Pasifika Medical Association Group of charitable companies, Pasifika Futures
the Whanau Ora Commissioning Agency for Pacific families in New Zealand and Moana Pasifika Super Rugby Franchise.
Debbie has been instrumental in the development of Pacific health services in New Zealand over the past 30 years including as the first Chief Advisor Pacific Health to the Minister of Health. She has led the development of the Pasifika Medical Association group over the past 15 years transforming it into the largest Non-Governmental Pacific organisation in the region.
Debbie is an experienced Company Director holding current governance roles as a Trustee of the Milford Foundation.
She is a member of the governing council Te Poutoko Ora a Kiwi Center of Pacific and Global Health University of Auckland and is a Honorary Lecturer. She is a member of the Health Advisory Committee for the Privy Council to His Majesty King Tupou VI and is a Strategic Advisor to Te Marae Ora Cook Islands. Debbie is the Chair of the Pacific Expert Advisory Committee to Hon Minister Reti Minister of Health and has previously served for 11 years as a trustee of the Fred Hollows Foundation, was a founding Chair of Make a Wish Pacific and is a Chartered Member of the New Zealand Institute of Directors. Debbie was invested in 2015 as a Commander of the Royal Crown of Tonga by His Majesty Tupou V for her work in the health sector in Tonga.
Jana Pittman
Doctor, athlete. and author.
Jana Pittman’s story is a roller coaster of triumph, defeat, failure, and success. She will take you on a journey through the peaks and troughs that helped shape her career and build her into who she is today. Recognition: Two times World Champion, and four times Commonwealth Champion, in the sport of athletics, Jana Pittman personifies resilience and determination. When continued injuries hampered her athletic career and could have signalled retirement, she swapped the track for the ice.
Jana joined the Australian Women’s bobsleigh team, to become the first woman to represent Australia in both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games. Outside of sport Jana has completed a Bachelor of Medicine & Surgery and a Masters of Reproductive Medicine, she is now a practising Doctor in the field of Women’s Health. In 2021 Jana joined the cast of Channel 7’s SAS Australia making it to the last day and the only woman remaining in the final four recruits. With Jana’s passion for women’s health, Jana is an ambassador for the Australian Cervical Cancer Foundation’ and writes a regular column in New Idea. Jana is a mother to six children, having recently given birth to twins.
Kedar Mate
President and Chief Executive Officer, Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI); USA
Kedar Mate, MD, is President and Chief Executive Officer at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), President of the IHI Lucian Leape Institute, and a member of the faculty at Weill Cornell Medical College. His scholarly work has focused on health system design, health care quality, strategies for achieving large-scale change, and approaches to improving value. Previously Dr. Mate worked at Partners In Health, the World Health Organization, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and served as IHI’s Chief Innovation and Education Officer. He has published numerous peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and white papers and has received multiple honors, including serving as a Soros Fellow, Fulbright Specialist, Zetema Panelist, and an Aspen Institute Health Innovators Fellow. Dr. Mate graduated from Brown University with a degree in American History and from Harvard Medical School with a medical degree. You can follow him on Twitter at @KedarMate
Liesl Yearsley
Akin; Australia
Liesl Yearsley is the CEO/founder of Akin – a Public Benefit AI company and Foundation Model developer. Before Akin she was CEO/founder of an AI company Cognea, which was acquired by IBM. Before that she was CEO/founder of a search engine company which went public. She has been at the intersection of advanced technology, emerging markets and social impact her whole career, and is a technical founder with multiple patents in the field.
Liesl is a global expert in Artificial Intelligence. Having worked in the field for over two decades. Rather than merely discussing AI, she has a history of constructing and expanding large-scale AI systems, facilitating millions of interactions. With a proven track record as a pioneer, founder, and CEO in the field, Liesl possesses profound, practical expertise. Instead of simply instilling fear about AI, she offers a detailed view of its inner workings, providing insights on managing it and strategies to thrive in the emerging AI-dominated world.
Simon Kuestenmacher
The Demographics Group; Australia
Simon Kuestenmacher is a Director and Co-founder of The Demographics Group.
He presents on demographic and global trends that are shaping Australia today and into the future and his observations are enjoyed by corporate, government and industry audiences alike.
Simon is a columnist for The New Daily newspaper and a regular contributor to The Australian newspaper; and he is a media commentator on demographic and data matters.
In his spare time Simon has authored three books on maps and runs what is by now the world’s largest Twitter account dedicated to maps and data. His social media posts reach over 35 million people every month. Simon ranks as one of the world’s top 10 influencers in data
Tanya Hosch
Executive General Manager of Inclusion and Social Policy, Australian Football League; Australia
Tanya Hosch is the Executive General Manager of Inclusion and Social Policy at the Australian Football League and 2021 South Australian, Australian of the year.
Ms. Hosch has a long and distinguished history in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander policy, advocacy and governance and is an accomplished public speaker.
Before joining the AFL as the first ever Indigenous person and 2nd woman in their Executive ranks in August 2016, Tanya was the Joint Campaign Director of the Recognise movement for constitutional recognition.
At the AFL, Tanya’s portfolios include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander issues, Gender Equality, Sexuality and Gender Diversity, racism and sexism.
Tanya is tasked with the implementation of the AFL’s enhanced Indigenous strategy, advising the AFL National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Council, maintenance of the Respect and Responsibility Policy, 2017, and the Gender Diversity Policy.
Tanya is a Co-Chair of the Indigenous Advisory Group of the National Australia Bank, an ANU Council member, Director of the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE), a Board Director of the Australian Film, Television and Radio School and was a member of the Referendum Council that led the process and final recommendation that resulted in The Statement from the Heart in May 2017. A career highlight was contributing as a Consultant on the ABC drama, Total Control, season one and a cameo appearance in season two.
In October 2020, Tanya was announced as the South Australian of the Year for 2021. In October 2021, Tanya was named 6th on the Australian Financial Review Cultural Power list and in December 2021, Tanya was named 23rd on South Australia’s Most Influential People list.
Other Speakers
Alison Starr
Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI); Asia Pacific
Alison Starr (she/her), an Improvement Advisor at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), lives in Armidale on the Anaiwan lands of Northern New South Wales. She has worked on several national and state-wide improvement collaboratives. She joined the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) as Faculty in 2018, and since then has taught on multiple capability-building programs in the Asia Pacific Region, as well as supporting results-oriented programs including the Timely Emergency Care Collaborative in Victoria, Australia and the Diabetes Collaborative in Singapore.
Annie Lewis
Eastern Health; Australia
Annie Lewis is an early career health services researcher whose research interests include demand management, reducing waitlists and improving access to outpatient, ambulatory and community health services. She was awarded her PhD in July 2022 and is continuing her research at La Trobe University and Eastern Health as a Research Translation Fellow. She is committed to translating research to practice to achieve improved health outcomes.
Belinda Swan
Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care
Belinda Swan is a Director in the Department of Health and Aged Care Digital Health Branch. As a co-lead of the My Health Record Section, she is responsible for policy and initiatives which seek to improve the value and utility of My Health Record for consumers, healthcare providers and the health system. Belinda is passionate about promoting consumer partnerships and the opportunities presented by digital health reforms to deliver a more sustainable, connected and learning health care system.
Bernie Harrison
Grad Cert Med Ed| RN| RM| FCHSM CHE, Director, ACHS Improvement Academy; Australia
Bernie Harriosn has over 30yrs experience in health care, as a clinician, researcher and quality and safety expert. She is an expert in Root Cause Analysis and Quality Improvement, conducting training programs in these methodologies across Australia. She regularly provides advice and leads significant RCAs and System reviews in the Australian health care system which drive improvements for patients and clients.
Her training in quality improvement and patient safety occurred in the USA in 2001 and 2010 as a Fulbright Scholar. She co-authored the Quality in Australian Health Care Study (MJA 1995), the most cited paper in the journal’s 100yr history. Her previous positions include: Executive Director of Hospital Performance for the National Health Performance Authority and Director in the NSW Clinical Excellence Commission. Her clinical experience as a registered nurse and midwife in the UK and Australia include, maternity and child health, paediatrics, and neurosurgical intensive care.
Brooke Hutchison
Metro South Hospital and Health Service; Australia
Brooke is a Social Worker with postgraduate qualifications in Tertiary Teaching and Health Management. Having practiced in rural and remote and tertiary hospitals she has transitioned from roles that focus on individual capacity building to broader community and system level approaches. She is currently the Team Leader of the Health Equity and Access Team in Metro South Health, Qld. This team focuses on improving health services and health outcomes for people with disabilities and people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
Cate Kelly
Melbourne Genomics Health Alliance; Australia
Cate is a technical advisor to Melbourne Genomics Health Alliance. She is a medical leader with significant experience as an Executive in multiple academic, tertiary health services where she has had a focus on major improvements in health care, professional governance, clinical leadership and clinical and research governance. Cate also works with a range of development partners in international health, and is a non-executive director, and chair of the Service Development and quality sub-committee, of Yooralla, a large disability services provider.
Christian Kennedy
Queensland Department of Health; Australia
Christian Kennedy is currently employed as a Patient Safety Quality Improvement Lead in Clinical Governance at Gold Coast Health Service.
Christian oversees the National Safety Quality Health Service (NSHQS) Standard 8 Recognising and Responding to Acute Deterioration for Gold Coast Health Service.
Clara Gaff
Melbourne Genomics Health Alliance; Australia
Prof Gaff is Executive Director of the Melbourne Genomics Health Alliance, an Honorary Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne, Department of Paediatrics and leads the Australian Genomics Workforce Education group. Clara has been involved in the use of genetics and genomics in healthcare through roles in genetic counselling, research, health professional education, and strategic development in Australia and the UK. She has received national and international leadership awards and is a member of the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health Regulatory and Ethics Working Group.
Duncan Brown
Culture Craft; Australia
After 20+ years of operations and organisational development experience in financial services, Duncan embarked on a rewarding journey as the CEO of ADHD Australia and started his doctorate in organisational culture. He is passionate about embracing our uniqueness and contributes as best he can to fostering an inclusive society as a non-executive director of the Multi-Cultural Communities Council of Illawarra and a sessional lecturer in ‘Difference and Leadership’ with Charles Sturt University. On 23rd August 2022, Duncan’s life was shattered with the tragic death of his 18-year-old son Kuan, from a series of cultural and systemic failures in the health system. Managing to harness his grief as a powerful source of motivation, he has found purpose and meaning, which he sees as a gift from Kuan. He truly believes that to enhance patient safety and improve the quality of care in a meaningful way, we first have to have to take greater care of health professionals and their environment
Ed Robertson
Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI); Asia Pacific
Ed Robertson is a Project Director at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI). He has worked within health systems across Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, within small regional hospitals, large tertiary centres, statewide health services, and for state government health departments. He has led improvement programs involving hospital access and flow, model of care redesign, clinical process improvement, health workforce planning, and health service planning. Ed is currently supporting the Timely Emergency Care Program run in partnership with the Department of Health (Victoria).
Edwin Lubari
Metro South Hospital and Health Service; Australia
Edwin holds several qualifications including a Master of Public Health, Bachelor of Health Promotion, Graduate Diploma of Epidemiology, and Diploma of Management.
Edwin has over 14 years’ experience in disease prevention and is passionate about equity and how broader public health approaches can be adapted to improve equity and health outcomes for socially disadvantaged population groups.
Arrived in Australia 22 years ago on a Humanitarian visa, Edwin has firsthand experience of the challenges emerging culturally diverse communities face and the limitations of the current population health interventions. Knowledge and experiences that resulted into development of a successful innovative Equity-based model.
Ellie Harvey
Monash Health; Australia
Former Director of Transformation at Monash Health and currently working in the Digital Health space, Ellie has held various senior positions in strategy, transformation and innovation across Australia, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom. She has spent the past 10 years delivering strategies and projects for organisations in healthcare, government, banking and finance and logistics. She specialises in emerging technology, human centred design and strategy execution.
Harry Iles-Mann
Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care; Australia
Harry Iles-Mann is first and foremost a young person living with complex chronic illness, and is the recipient of two liver transplants. He is also the Consumer Representative Advisor to the Digital Health Branch at Department, a digital health expert advisor to the Australian Digital Health Agency, and a co-lead for the Sparked FHIR Accelerator program.
John Newnham
Australian Preterm Birth Prevention Alliance; Australia
John Newnham is a Professor of Obstetrics at The University of Western Australia (UWA) and is a sub-specialist in Maternal Fetal Medicine.
His research interests focus on prevention of preterm birth and the early life origins of health and disease. He has initiated many clinical and laboratory research studies including The Raine Study, the Western Australian Preterm Birth Prevention Initiative and the Australian Preterm Birth Prevention Alliance and National Program.
He was awarded an Order of Australia in the general division in 2014 and was the 2020 Senior Australian of the Year.
Karen Luxford
ACHS; Australia
Dr Karen Luxford is the Group CEO, Australian Council on Healthcare Standards (ACHS) & ACHS International. Dr Luxford has extensive experience in governance, strategic planning, safety and quality, healthcare standards, engaging with a wide range of stakeholders and leading organizational change. Dr Luxford is a senior executive in health with over 30 years’ experience in a range of leadership roles in the public, not for profit and private sectors.
Dr Luxford is the President of the Asian Society for Quality in Healthcare (ASQua), a Board member of the International Society of Quality in Healthcare (ISQua), the ISQua EEA Board, ISQua EEA Accreditation Council member, an ISQua Expert, Council member of Standards Australia and Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD). Dr Luxford is an alumni Harkness Fellow in Healthcare Policy & Practice, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA and is passionate about health care.
Kate Bones
Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI); Asia Pacific
Kate Bones, MSW is Director and Improvement Advisor with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI). In her role, Kate advises and teaches on the application of improvement methods and serves as a member of IHI’s Improvement Science and Methods team which stewards IHI’s methods for the organisation. Kate has worked in health care improvement for over 20 years. Her first tenure with IHI was from 2000-2013 during which Kate was involved in Collaborative improvement programs in chronic disease management, primary care, and transitions of care. In later years, Kate worked across primary care, acute care, and mental health services to lead quality programs and apply improvement methods to achieve results. It was during this period that Kate moved with her family to New Zealand where she served as teaching faculty with the Ko Awatea Centre for Innovation and Improvement and the NZ Health Quality and Safety Commission, returning to IHI in 2021. Kate has her Master of Social Work from Boston College and spent her early years working with consumers of mental health services.
Kellie Williams
Metro North Hospital and Health Service; Australia
Kellie Williams is the Environmental Sustainability and Climate Change Manager for Metro North Hospital and Health Service, the largest health service in Australia with approximately 25,000 staff and 1 million community members in the catchment.
Kellie has a Bachelor of Environmental Science, Graduate Diploma Environmental Health, Master of Disaster Resilience & Sustainable Development and credentials in Project Management and Change Management. She has worked in local and state government and the not-for-profit sector from the far north to the south east of Queensland in a range of roles across Allied Health, Public Health, Environmental Management, Sustainability and Disaster Management.
Kellie is passionate about the interconnection between the natural environment, built environment and human health, and sees huge opportunity and importance in transitioning health care to be more environmentally sustainable and climate resilient.
Kellie’s presentation will cover aspects of these themes including an overview of Metro North Health’s strategy and progress, and some inspiring insights into understanding the context of sustainability in healthcare and how everyone can contribute to making a difference.
Lisa McKenzie
Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI); Asia Pacific
Lisa has over 20 years experience in health, aged care, disability, and community sectors. Working across multiple organisations and countries, she has a reputation for leading impactful large-scale initiatives and devising strategies to transform health systems. As a Vice President at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), Lisa supports partners across the Asia Pacific to improve the health of their communities and populations. She also advises leaders on strategic plans, governance practices and quality management systems that are responsive to evolving needs. Lisa demonstrates an unwavering commitment to delivering better and more equitable outcomes for all. She serves as a Non-Executive Director and an advisor for various nonprofit Boards at purpose-driven organisations. Lisa has a Masters of Health Administration, a clinical background in physiotherapy and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Lloyd Provost
Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI); USA
Lloyd P. Provost, Statistician and Senior Improvement Advisor at Associates in Process Improvement, helps individuals and organizations learn the science of improvement in order to improve their processes and systems. Mr. Provost’s experience is in applications of statistical process control and in designing research and quality improvement studies. Lloyd is an IHI Senior Fellow, serves on the IHI faculty for the Improvement Advisor Development Program, provides improvement advisor support for IHI’s developing countries programs, and provides support for the QI curriculum for the IHI Open School. Mr. Provost co-authored the books Quality Improvement Through Planned Experimentation, The Improvement Guide, and The Health Care Data Guide.
Mark Taylor
Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care; Australia
Mark Taylor, PhD is a Professor of Health Law and Regulation at Melbourne Law School and a Co-Director of both the University of Melbourne’s Collaborative for Better Health and Regulation and a research group on Health Law and Emerging Technologies (HeLEX). Mark’s own research seeks to develop trustworthy health data governance; able to reconcile individual and community (privacy) interests with a broader (public) interest in access, use and management of health data. Mark chaired the national Confidentiality Advisory Group in England and Wales for 5 years. He was policy advisor to the Health Research Authority in England and a member of the drafting group for the OECD Recommendation on Health Data Governance. He is currently seconded part-time to the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care as interim Chair of the Data Governance Board for My Health Record system data.
Melinda Jolly
St Vincent's Private Hospital Sydney; Australia
Melinda works for St Vincent’s Private Hospital Sydney as the Pastoral Care Coordinator and Research Assistant for this project. Melinda has a First Class Honours degree in Theology. She came to St Vincent’s from the Australian Catholic University where she tutored and lectured in both Theology and Biblical Studies. Melinda is a Dharawal woman from the Cubbitch Barta clan (known to the colonists as the Cowpastures Tribe). She has always lived on country, which is at Camden, south-west of Sydney. Melinda is a descendent of an Appin massacre survivor.
Renee Lim
Changineers Australia; Australia
Renee Lim is an educator, doctor and creative- the Director of Program Development at the Pam McLean Centre (designing health communication programs using behavioural psychology, and improvisation), and a University of Sydney academic. She locums in Palliative Care and Geriatrics, and is CEO of Changineers, an Educational Technology social enterprise. Her For Purpose consulting work includes organisations like the Paul Ramsay Foundation, SESLHD, WSLHD FLASH, and Violet.
She works across the Creative sector – in film, TV and theatre, as well as co-creating nayinthelife.com, and is a creative with KFilms. Most recently, she is Director of Engagement at KXT on Broadway.
Robert Styles
Prosocial World; Australia
Robert initially trained in music then, in a later chapter of his life, went on to become an academic doing applied research in the field of Contextual Behavioural Science through the Australian National University. Over the last couple of decades, this stream of activity has had him working with communities, organisations, and governments across the Australian, Pacific, African, Asian, European, and American regions. Presently, he is working with ProSocial World, an organisation that has developed a change method based on behavioural and evolutionary science that enhances cooperation and collaboration for groups of all types and sizes that is proving to be effective at scale. When engaged, this means co-designing behavioural and evolutionary approaches to realising environmental and socio-cultural resilience and well-being for those he is working with.
Sarah Fischer
Safer Care Victoria, Australia
Dr Sarah Fischer has over 10 years’ experience in health system management and organisational development, predominantly in healthcare safety and quality in New South Wales and Victoria. Sarah is an APHRA-endorsed organisational psychologist and has completed a PhD on exploring trust between employees and leaders from Deakin University. Sarah is the Director, Clinical Governance, Culture & Capability at Safer Care Victoria and a casual lecturer in the Psychology department at Deakin University. Her passion is improving the organisational and system conditions and contributing factors to prevent harm and provide high-quality care.
Shaune Gifford
Queensland Department of Health; Australia
Shaune Gifford works at Clinical Excellence Queensland and has been the statewide program manager for clinical deterioration since 2011.
This role involves coordinating the development and implementation of the early warning and response system tools and the patient escalation process across the state.
Simon Cooper
ACHS; Australia
Simon is the Manager of the ACHS Performance and Outcomes Service and has over 20 years’ experience public and not for profit healthcare sector. He currently leads the collection and development of the longest continually running clinical indicator program to track patient centred quality and performance metrics across health care institutions both domestically and internationally. He has been involved in the development of the inaugural sets for Cancer Care, Geriatric Care and Ambulance Health Services and led the development of the last 5 years of national indicator reporting.
Simon possesses expertise in data analytics, data wrangling, quality improvement, patient outcomes and safety culture. He worked across a wide range of healthcare organisations and specialties. His achievements include national recognition of the outcomes of the Australasian Clinical Indicator Report, developing a test for blood doping in elite athletes which was used at the Olympics, development of a BioPen and BioInk for treatment of ocular disease, the implementation of bespoke healthcare software, and quality improvement systems across a range of organisations.
He has a passion for finding insights through the use of datasets, disease surveillance, medical suitability and statistical analysis.
Stephanie Easthope
Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI); Asia Pacific
Stephanie Easthope is a Senior Director for IHI. From August 2022 to June 2024 she was the co-Director, in partnership with the Department of Health, Victoria, for the planning and delivery of the Timely Emergency Care Collaborative. Stephanie has worked in service design and improvement for more than 20 years, and through this time has completed a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, the IHI Improvement Advisor Program, IHI Innovation College, and Lean Coach (Cardiff University) qualifications. She has worked across the NZ health sector as a Principal consultant, as a Design Lead at the New Zealand (NZ) Accident Compensation Corporation, and as a improvement manager and faculty at Ko Awatea, a healthcare innovation and improvement centre in Auckland. She has supported seven District Health Boards in NZ to improve patient flow and has delivered improvement science training and coaching for leaders and teams across the health sector.
Stephen Perks
Townsville University Hospital; Australia
Dr Stevie Perks has 20 years of experience working across the Townsville University Hospital. He spent the last decade in the Pharmacist Clinical Education role where he is also the quality improvement and research lead at TUH. He has numerous international publications and is passionate about promoting “Research in Practice”. He supervises multiple research pieces from undergraduate honours projects to postgraduate PhD students with the most recent focus being the ‘best use of our electronic systems’, including prescribing, communication and clinical handover.