Speakers

A/ Prof. Ben Rogers in an Infectious Disease and HITH specialist at Monash Health and the Monash University School of Clinical Sciences, Victoria. His research is supported by an NHMRC Emerging Leadership grant focused on to optimising HITH use of antimicrobial therapy.

https://research.monash.edu/en/persons/benjamin-rogers

Michael is the Medical Director of Hospital in the Home at Epworth Health, a large not-for-profit private hospital group in Melbourne. He has been involved in Hospital in the Home for 29 years in senior clinical roles, and has written extensively on HAH research, policy and development. He has consulted internationally to HIH groups and governments.

He is a Co-Convenor of the World Hospital At Home Congress and a Director of Mobile Radiology Australia. Michael is Home Hospital International Fellow at Ariadne Labs, a joint centre for health systems innovation of the T.H. Chan Harvard School of Public Health and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Associate Professor Peter Hibbert (B.App.Sc.(Physio), Grad.Dip.Comp., Grad.Dip.Econ., PhD) is a Program Manager at the Australian Institute of Health Innovation. He has worked for the last 20 years in research and policy implementation in patient safety and measurement of evidenced-based care, including three years as an Associate Director at the National Patient Safety Agency in the UK. He previously worked as a physiotherapist for 12 years.

His interests are quality and safety in healthcare, indicator development, measuring evidence-based care, patient safety investigations, and analysing patient safety incidents. He provides expert advice to the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare and developed their current national Incident Management Guide.

As well as research, Hibbert has hands-on clinical governance roles including membership of Board level committees for quality and safety at Central Adelaide Local Health Network and South Australian Ambulance Service, and undertaking high profile investigations when patients are harmed.

As the Chief Pharmacist and General Manager of CPIE Pharmacy Services (based in SA), Andrew is responsible for delivering a unique range of integrated pharmacy services to support infusions in the home. Andrew’s passion for drug delivery and infusion device safety has led him and his team to develop and commercialise a novel single-use ambulatory infusion pump, for which he is the Managing Director (Infusion Innovations Pty Ltd).

Chris is the current Executive Director Allied Health for the Central Adelaide Local Health Network, having taken up this position in February this year.  Prior to this she held the Chief Allied Professions Officer role for Te Whatu Ora – Capital, Coast and Hutt Valley District based in Wellington, New Zealand, and has worked in Allied Health leadership roles over the last 15 years.  Chris trained as an Occupational Therapist.

Chris is passionate about the role of Allied Health as a key and relatively untapped solution to new and innovative approaches to address many of our challenges, of which the role of Allied Health within ambulatory, community and primary care models is fundamental to provider earlier intervention and support for patients to help maintain their health and wellbeing within their homes and community settings.

Dr Alexander Beath is a HITH Consultant with a background in internal medicine and emergency medicine before becoming a fellow with the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.  Passionate to learn from the HITH experts of Australia and around the world to increase the capabilities of his HITH service and always looking to collaborate and innovate.

Medical Director of Sydney Local Health District, Hospital in the Home services at Balmain, Canterbury, Concord and Royal Prince Alfred Hospital for the last 11 years. My background is general practice. I am currently participating in research on our new Emergency Hospital in the Home service providing acute care to our older community dwelling residents for a range of conditions with a proportion referred on to HITH.

Dr Emily Kirkpatrick is the Executive Medical Director of the Calvary Medibank Joint Venture, which has treated over 200,000 patients across five states through the NSQHS accredited virtual hospital. Emily is a passionate advocate for reform of the Australian healthcare system, notably in her previous role as SA’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer, bringing unique perspectives on whole of system and integrated care.

After training as a General Practitioner Erica spend a decade as a Staff Specialist in Palliative Medicine at Calvary Mater Newcastle and consulted privately in palliative care and supportive oncology at Lake Macquarie Private Hospital. She served as clinical lead of the palliative medicine program for the University of Newcastle and has a background that includes clinical research and provision of consultative expertise in the clinical piloting of medicinal cannabis in primary care. In late 2021 Erica became the Medical Director (NSW) for Silverchain. Based in Seven Hills the Western Sydney Silverchain service partners with Western Sydney Local Health District to provide in-home medical and nursing care to a large and diverse population living with life-limiting illness.  Her interests are in equitable care delivery, informed decision-making at the end-of-life and medical education.

Helena is GP of 30+ years’ clinical experience, with extensive corporate and clinical governance experience. She is Executive Medical Director for the Silverchain Group and a Board Director for both the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (for which she also chairs the national Primary Care Committee), and the Barossa Hills Fleurieu LHN. Helena has a particular interest in trauma-informed, compassionate leadership-never more important than now.

Dr James Pollard is an Infectious Diseases Physician, Chair of Infection Prevention and Control, and Clinical Director of Community Care at Cabrini Health, a large private hospital group in Melbourne, Australia. James has had a career long passion for extending acute care into the community, with particular focus on IV antibiotics and OPAT, and decentralised healthcare more broadly. He has other interests in HIV, Viral Hepatitis and healthcare design. James has been President of the HITH Society since 2019, and on the board since 2013.

Dr Karyn Cuthbert B Med FACEM is the Canberra Hospital HITH Service Director and has a passion for “all things HITH” in which she has worked for 15 years. She has been involved in 2 HITH improvement and expansion projects, chaired the HITH Society ASM in 2021 and is an executive member of the HITH Society

Dr Lee Fong is a Medical Advisor at the ACSQHC and a Hunter GP, working in clinical governance, service development, guideline development and advocacy roles.

He has a particular interest in facilitating connections, collaboration and innovation across healthcare organisations, with the goal of realising system changes that improve healthcare equity.

Dr Leena Patel is the Medical Director for Silverchain Acute Care Services in WA; a GP working in the Silverchain WA Home Hospital service and a Clinical Tutor at the University of Notre Dame School of Medicine. Leena has worked as a GP for many years and has a passion for holistic healthcare in the community. Her focus is on exploring more treatment options that can be provided in the community where safe and appropriate.

With a background in Rural Medicine, Dr Young has transferred his knowledge of acute and community-based medicine to the development of efficient and safe models of care in the home.  He is a passionate advocate for the Hospital in the Home model of care and has been involved in developing innovative service models that prides itself in providing patient focused, innovative and safe care in the home.  He is the CEO and founder of Hospital in Your Home which provides contracted HiTH and home based Palliative Care on behalf of hospitals and other healthcare providers.

Emma Cornwell is the Director Commercial Business Development, Mergers and Acquisitions for Silverchain. Emma has more than 20 years’ experience in not for profit, business and health service organisations, uncovering, building and nurturing sustainable partnership frameworks. She is incredibly passionate about creating innovative value models to leverage partnerships, assets and services in both the health and aged care sectors to achieve quantifiable outcomes that enrich the lives of patients and communities.

Emma’s experience includes innovative wayfinding with public health organisations and with all levels of government, drawing from a plethora of strategic and operational knowledge, to create sophisticated strategies that are intuitive, responsive and scalable.

Laureen has over 20 years’ experience in nursing, including the establishment and expansion of HITH services, and leadership across the care continuum and corporate health department. As an executive leader within the Healthcare Improvement Unit, she has extensive experience in clinical service redesign and healthcare transformation. Using her formal and experiential training Laureen has been instrumental in working with clinicians to improve access to high quality care for Queenslanders.

Michelle Horsnell is a registered Nurse with 29 years’ experience working within the community setting. Currently employed at Cabrini Health in Victoria as Program Director for Cabrini @ Home. Currently overseeing HITH, Chemotherapy in the home, post-acute care, Rehab in the home and the palliative home care service.

Michelle has completed a master’s in health management at Murdoch University and has particular interest in community care delivery and Safety and Quality in this setting.

Neil is a Director Clinical Operations at Monash Health, Victoria. He is operationally responsible for Monash at Home – Aged & Rehabilitation Care service, which started in 2020. He is also the project lead for the Monash at Home – Aged & Rehabilitation Care service expansion. Neil is a registered nurse with experience across Australia and Canada working across critical care, acute inpatient, community palliative care, community nursing, Hospital In The Home (HITH) & Complex Care (HARP). Projects roles in and across Primary Care Partnerships/Department of Health, private hospitals, and public hospitals. Management roles across Complex Care, Transition Care Program (TCP), Aged Care Assessment Service (ACAS). In addition to Bachelor of Nursing Neil he holds a Master of Public Health and Master of Business Administration.

Rebecca has worked in both in the Acute Care, Public Health and Community setting, as a clinician, leadership, and significant health project roles.  Rebecca manages multiple Health Roundtable Programs including HITH, Emergency, Nursing, Maternity and Paediatrics.

With two decades of expertise across health care strategy, policy, commercials, and complex project delivery, Siegi Schmidmaier leads Silverchain Group’s South Australian operations as the Executive Director of RDNS Silverchain. Siegi has previously led strategy and innovation at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, and has a Master of Science (Public Health) and a Bachelor of Nursing.

With a deep commitment to healthcare leadership, a proven track record of driving operational excellence and a passion for high quality patient-centred care, Tracey is a seasoned healthcare Executive and clinician. With over 35 years’ experience across primary, secondary, tertiary and community healthcare settings, Tracey is currently the acting Executive Director Silverchain QLD.

Usha is a pharmacist, currently leading Virtual Care programs and Allied Health for Integrated Care in the Central Adelaide Local Health Network. She carries a special interest in virtual care, technology innovation, out of hospital care pathway optimisation, adolescent transitional care, quality management systems and consumer engagement.

Voni Leighton, RN. MACN, is the Co-Founder and Clinical Director of Vitalis Health, which is the largest Independent HITH provider in Australia.

She serves on the Board of the HITH Society, Australasia and is an advisor to the New South Wales State Government Health Taskforce on Ageing.

Her Clinical training was obtained in Scotland before she specialised in ICU in London in the Late 1980’s before relocating to Australia 33 years ago.

She founded Vitalis Health in 2015.