CEO, Women’s & Children’s Healthcare Australasia; Australia

Barb Vernon (BA Hons, PhD) is the CEO of Women’s & Children’s Healthcare Australasia, a peak not-for-profit body of 200+ hospitals across Australia and New Zealand. WCHA seeks to accelerate the spread of excellence & innovation among hospitals through helping them to share data and expertise to improve care and outcomes for women and children. Under her leadership over the past 10 years, WCHA has partnered with both government and research organisations to facilitate improvements in clinical care and outcomes for priority groups of patients, such as women at risk of pre-term birth, children with global developmental delay or young people living with an eating disorder. She is passionate about closing the gap between evidence and practice in the maternity and paediatric care sectors, and sees the creation of Learning Health Networks as a key strategy to accelerating and sustaining improvement efforts.