Ca-PRI 2024: Plenary 1 Presenters
Jon Emery
Professor Jon Emery is the Herman Professor of Primary Care Cancer Research at the University of Melbourne, and the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre Primary Care Research and Education Lead. He is also Director of the Cancer Australia Primary Care Collaborative Cancer Clinical Trials Group (PC4), and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Department of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Cambridge.
David Weller
David is James Mackenzie Professor of General Practice and Co-Director of the Centre for Population Health Sciences at the Usher Institute, University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
Dorothy Keefe
Professor Dorothy Keefe is the CEO of Cancer Australia, Australia’s national cancer agency. Prior to this she had a long and distinguished career as a medical oncologist at the Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH), and as Professor of Cancer Medicine at the University of Adelaide, where she remains an Honorary Clinical Professor. Her long term research interest has been Supportive Care in Cancer. She has a Master’s degree in Medical Leadership and a strong interest in advocacy, career development and mentoring. She is committed to patient centred care, reducing unnecessary variation in cancer outcomes, and to improving outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people affected by cancer.
During her tenure as CEO, she has led the enquiry into Lung Cancer Screening and the development of the first national Australian Cancer Plan.
Grant McArthur
Professor Grant McArthur is a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and holds a PhD in Medical Biology. He is the Executive Director of the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre; inaugural Lorenzo Galli Chair of Melanoma and Skin Cancers at the University of Melbourne and is a Senior Principal Research Fellow at the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). He is also Head of the Molecular Oncology Laboratory and a Senior Consultant Medical Oncologist at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. His research interests include melanoma, clinical trials of targeted therapeutics, discovery of novel drug targets in cancer, targeting oncogenes, immunological effect of targeted therapies, personalised medicine, cell cycle control, metabolism and protein synthesis in cancer.
Martin Wong
Professor Martin C. S. Wong is a specialist in Family Medicine and a researcher in the field
of cancer screening and prevention of chronic diseases. He has been the Co-Chairman of the Grant Review Board, Health and Medical Research Fund, the Health Bureau (HHB); member of the Research Council of HHB; Convener of the Advisory Group on Hong Kong Reference Framework for Care of Diabetes and Hypertension in Primary Care Settings; and the Editor-in-Chief of the Hong Kong Medical Journal.
Ca-PRI 2024: Plenary 2 Presenters
Claire Nightingale
Dr Claire Nightingale is a senior research fellow at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health at the University of Melbourne. Dr Nightingale obtained her PhD at the Burnet Institute, and holds a Master of Science in Public Health (Health promotion) from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Dr Nightingale’s research interests include the evaluation and implementation of models of care that increase access and acceptability to under-served populations, including point of care testing and self-collection. Dr Nightingale has over a decade of experience in global health research and practice, including working on HIV, cervical cancer, and sexual health programs while living in Myanmar, Papua New Guinea and Cambodia. Dr Nightingale currently leads the Cancer Screening Team within the Centre for Health Policy.
Julia Brotheron
Professor Julia Brotherton is a public health physician and Professor of Cancer Prevention Policy and Implementation in the Evaluation and Implementation Science Unit, Centre for Health Policy, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne. She is also a Professorial Fellow at the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (Sydney) and Visiting Professor, University of Malaya. For over fifteen years Julia has been involved in research and policy development informing the implementation and evaluation of HPV vaccination and cervical screening programs.
Lisa Whop
Associate Professor Lisa Whop is a Torres Strait Islander NHMRC Early Career Research Fellow and epidemiologist. She is Australia’s leading authority on cervical cancer control in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. Her research program focuses on cervical cancer control (screening and vaccination) for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. She is Chief investigator on the Centre for Research Excellence on Targeted Approaches To Improve Cancer Services (TACTICS) for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians where so co-leads the Prevention and Screening stream and Principal Investigator on an ARC Discovery Indigenous grant focused on understanding the modifiable factors that influence uptake and completion of HPV vaccination for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adolescents. She brings research experience working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, creating meaningful ways of engagement and community empowerment within an Indigenist research approach to direct her program. She has special interests in achieving equity by process and outcomes in epidemiology, vaccine preventable disease and translation of research into policy and practice.
Christine Campbell
Dr. Campbell is a Reader in Cancer and Primary Care at the Usher Institute, University of Edinburgh, UK. She leads a programme of research into socio-demographic and ethnic disparities in cancer outcomes, the role of primary care in screening provision and symptomatic diagnosis, and implementation of cervical screening in low resource settings.
Ca-PRI 2024: Plenary 3 Presenters
Ian Walker
Ian Walker is executive director of policy, information and communications at Cancer Research UK
Simonne Neil
Dr Simonne Neil is the Senior Manager of Research Implementation at the VCCC Alliance. Simonne is a registered medical practitioner with 25+ years’ experience in the public, private and not-for-profit health and medical research sector.
Robin Urquhart
Robin Urquhart is an Associate Professor and the Canadian Cancer Society Endowed Chair in Population Cancer Research in the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, with cross-appointments in the Department of Surgery and Division of Medical Education, at Dalhousie University.
Famke Huizinga
Famke Huizinga is a psychologist and PhD researcher interested in lifestyle, cancer, medical psychology and epidemiology.
Sarah Bailey
Sarah Bailey is an Associate Professor of Primary Care Diagnostics at the University of Exeter. Her PhD established the link between platelet count and cancer in primary care. She now leads a portfolio of research focussed on cancer in primary care, and the development and implementation of new detection strategies for symptomatic patients. Sarah's work includes practice-changing research on the use of blood-based markers of cancer, faecal immunochemical tests for symptomatic patients, and the integration of genetic risk scores into suspected cancer pathways.
Allison Drosdowsky
Allison Drosdowsky is a PhD candidate and Health Services Researcher with a background in quantitative research methods and biostatistics. Her research interests include investigating timely cancer diagnosis through use of linked datasets, the translation and implementation of research, meta-research and novel research methodologies.
Biswajit Paul
I am a medical doctor with a post graduate degree in community medicine and PhD in global health - behaviour change in chronic respiratory disease. I am a primary care physician and a public health researcher with research interests in cancer screening, non-communicable diseases including Chronic respiratory disease, diabetes, hypertension and poisoning.
Luke Mounce
Luke Mounce is a data scientist and statistician at the University of Exeter Medical School. His work focusses on aiding clinical decision making in the early diagnosis of cancer, harnessing the power of large datasets of routinely collected health data. His ongoing programmes of work explore the impact of comorbidities on cancer diagnostic outcomes, the utility of blood-based biomarkers - particularly high platelet count - and optimising referrals for investigation for suspected cancer. He is Lead Statistician on the ERICA Trial exploring the effectiveness of imbedding electronic cancer risk assessment tools in GPs' clinical software.
Ca-PRI 2024: Plenary 4 Presenters - The Great Debate
Alanta Colley
Alanta is a comedian, science communicator and story teller from Melbourne. With a background in international public health, her first solo science comedy show 'Parasites Lost' sold out its entire run at Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 2017 and has been enjoyed by audiences in Adelaide, Perth, Sydney and for the Gates Foundation in Seattle. Her second solo show 'Days of our Hives' about bee keeping and bee losing attracted more bee keepers than any other show at comedy festival.She's toured nationally with her science comedy debate series 'Sci Fight', was a recipient of the Inspiring Australia Science Arts Grant in 2019, and is a regular guest on ABC radio. She's appeared on ABC TV News and in Frankie Magazine. She also moderates for the Transitions Film Festival and recently was a guest reporter on ABC’s TV’s new show WTFAQ.
Monique Bareham
In 2022 Monique was named the Australian of the Year, South Australian Local Hero SA, and received the Joy Noble Medal for her lymphoedema patient advocacy leading to the launch of the South Australian Lymphoedema Compression Garment Subsidy Scheme in 2020. Originally an orchestral musician and teacher, Monique moved into the public sector and was a manager when, at 37, her life was turned upside-down by a cancer diagnosis. Her life saving treatment left her with severe cancer treatment-related lymphoedema and unable to resume to her career path. Monique reinvented herself as a patient advocate and dedicated her energy to improving the lives of cancer survivors and individuals affected by lymphoedema with a focus on systemic advocacy.
Paul Grogan
Paul Grogan is senior strategic advisor at the Daffodil Centre, a joint venture of Cancer Council NSW and the University of Sydney.
Paul has been with the Cancer Council federation for more than 20 years and was a media and policy adviser for federal and state governments for 15 years before that, including 10 years as head of media and parliamentary in the NSW office of the Australian Department of Health.
Rebbeca Haddock
Rebecca Haddock is an internationally recognised academic researcher with over 15 years experience across the university, government and non-government health and science sectors as a scientist, scientific evaluator, project manager, strategic policy advisor and health policy intermediary. Rebecca is known for her leadership and strategic engagement skills which underpin her ability to translate health research and deliver independent advice on health systems issues to government and industry stakeholders. She is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Institute for Health Transformation, Faculty of Health, Deakin University; and a Visiting Fellow in the Faculty of Health, Queensland University of Technology. Rebecca holds a PhD in Neuroscience from the Australian National University
Willie Hamilton
Willie Hamilton, CBE, MD, FRCP, FRCGP, is professor of primary care diagnostics at University of Exeter.
The major part of his work is in cancer diagnostics in the symptomatic patient. He leads the DISCOVERY team, with staffing varying from 10-18, plus 4 PhD students, all supported by his grant awards. These grants total over £79m, including CRUK’s first Catalyst award.
He has published approaching 400 papers including the 2010 and 2015 overall Research Paper of the Year for studies on ovarian cancer and on the public appetite for cancer testing. He was clinical lead on the UK’s NICE guidance on suspected cancer, NG12, published in 2015. This governs over £1bn of annual NHS spending.
He was awarded a CBE in the 2019 New Years’ Honours List for services to improving early cancer diagnosis.
Ca-PRI 2024: Presenters
Abbie Lockwood
Abbie Lockwood is a Project Manager at Bendigo Community Health Service.
Alex Lee
Alex Lee is a researcher and data scientist at the university of Melbourne. He is involved in a range of research projects using statistical and machine learning techniques applied to linked health services data to improve cancer outcomes.
Alex Young
Dr Alex Young is a qualitative researcher with a multidisciplinary background. They are currently working on the PEOPLE-Hull study on lung health information and early diagnosis of lung cancer, and the Catch-up study on the acceptability of home urine testing for HPV screening in older women. They have previously worked on studies in dementia care and digital health. Alex received their PhD from the University of Nottingham and has an MSc in Digital Anthropology from UCL.
Alice Bastable
Alice Bastable is the manager of Cancer Council Victoria's 5 year-Cervical Cancer Elimination Strategy. She leads numerous projects that aim to increase cervical screening participation, improve access to assessment and treatment and promote HPV vaccination. She previously worked in a tertiary hospital for over a decade as a clinical dietitian before making the move into public health and is currently completing a Master of Public Health.
Amy Jones
Dr Amy Jones is a research programme manager at Te Whatu Ora Waikato, in Hamilton NZ. She manages a number of large health equity research projects. Most of these projects have a holistic approach to supporting Māori patients and their whānau with the goal to eliminate health inequities for Māori in Aotearoa NZ.
Ana Machado Colling
Ana Machado Colling is a Research Assistant in the Evaluation and Implementation Science Unit at the Centre for Health Policy at The University of Melbourne. She has experience in working with priority populations such as culturally and linguistically diverse groups, conducting qualitative research, and has experience in clinical research data collection methods. She has a strong interest in promoting health equity, particularly in the context of cervical cancer. Her primary focus is on the effective implementation of self-collection strategies in cervical screening, aiming to contribute to the equitable elimination of cervical cancer as a public health concern in Australia.
Anna C Singleton
Dr Anna Singleton is an NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow (EL1), Senior Research Fellow and ECR at the University of Sydney. Anna is passionate about consumer co-design and implementation of scalable interventions to support health and wellness of people living with and beyond cancer. Anna's research has been published in high-impact journals, including the Journal of Clinical Oncology and won national awards, including the Australian Clinical Trials Alliance Trial of the Year for Consumer Involvement in Research and TelstraHealth Top 25 Brilliant Women in Digital Health. Anna's work has already had direct positive impacts on over 1000 people with breast cancer and was implemented into 2 hospitals in Sydney in 2023. She hopes to continue supporting patients to feel better and stay well after cancer treatment.
Becky Kirikareye
Dr Becky Wariebi Kirikareye is a family physician and a College Instructor with interest in cancer control and maternal health. In addition to her role at Marjorie Bash College of Health Sciences and Technology, she serves as the Medical Director at Mbaise Christian Health Center in Nigeria.
Belinda Goodwin
Belinda is the Senior Manager of the Health Systems and Behavioural Research team at Cancer Council Queensland. She leads research into cancer prevention and screening, behaviour change and geographical inequities in cancer survivorship.
Benjamin Jacob
Dr Ben Jacob is an Academic GP based in RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences in Dublin, Ireland. After completing GP training and a MSc in Statistics, he was awarded funding for a predoctoral fellowship in "Early Cancer Detection", wherein he led the development of PRiCAN—a research group for primary care focused cancer research in Ireland. He is currently undertaking a PhD focusing on risk prediction in the setting of lung cancer screening.
Bethany Wickramasinghe
Bethany is a data scientist with a background in population health data analytics. She is completing a mixed methods PhD at University College London exploring the utility of prescriptions data in improving early cancer detection in primary care in the UK. Bethany is particularly interested in patient and healthcare factors that can signal earlier diagnostic opportunities, specifically prescriptions information in the context of non-specific symptoms and cancer.
Brian Nicholson
Brian is a GP and clinical researcher at Oxford in the UK. He is the lead for the Cancer Theme in the primary care department. His interests lie in early detection of cancer, primarily in patients who present with non-specific symptoms in primary care.
Bora Kim
Dr Kim is an early-career research fellow with a clinical background in cancer nursing. She conducts research in the area of supportive care for individuals with cancer across the spectrum, ranging from acute treatment to survivorship. Her research primarily focuses on colorectal cancer survivorship with a specific emphasis on improving access to services. Additionally, she has a research interest in supporting individuals during systemic cancer treatment through a shared care model.
Caroline Bulsara
Professor Caroline Bulsara is currently a qualitative researcher in the Institute for Health Research and the postgraduate research coordinator for the School of Nursing & Midwifery at the University of Notre Dame. She has worked across WA universities using her methodological expertise to build research capacity in a number of areas primarily in psycho oncology and cognitive impairment research. Her main areas of strength and expertise include mixed methods and evaluative research, qualitative research methodologies along with community participatory research. She has worked in a number of leadership roles both within the universities and externally to build health research capacity most notably within primary health care and non-government and not for profit organizations.
Carolyn Ee
Carolyn is a Supportive Care and Integrative Oncology Specialist GP at Chris O'Brien Lifehouse cancer centre, an academic GP at NICM Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University, and Survivorship Research Co-Lead at PC4. She has expertise across co-design and qualitative research, randomised controlled trials, evidence synthesis and guideline development and translation.
Catherine Lambert
Catherine is the Statewide Coordinator, Cancer Shared Care at Gippsland Primary Health Network. Catherine graduated from the University of Tasmania with a Masters’ degree in sociology and has an additional post graduate qualification in Health Informatics from Monash University. Prior to joining the PHN in 2021, Catherine worked in the acute sector. During that time, she was a project and information manager across several different roles that included implementation and evaluation of multiple clinical projects including service enhancement, hospital access, nurse education and quality improvement projects. As information manager, Catherine managed the Decision Support Unit, responsible for managing the hospital based centralised information management system including clinical costing and business reporting. Catherine also has experience in complaints management in the health sector and Ombudsman jurisdiction, as well as a research background in the education sector.
Celia Butler
Celia is a Senior Applications Engineer at Synopsys; working with engineers, researchers and medical professionals to generate models used to solve complex problems. Celia has previous experience leading research projects and product development in commercial and academic teams. She is a Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Exeter.
Cheryl Martin
Cheryl Martin has a background in public health and community services and is the Strategic Manager of the Loddon Mallee Integrated Cancer Service. Her background in the primary care sector has influenced her passion and opportunistic view of proactively collaborating with GPs to understand their perspective and better support them in their vast and important roles with patients and health services on a cancer journey. She is a keen cyclist who likes to live life well, is involved in the local Bendigo community and growing up in Central Victoria adds a greater understanding to her perspective on rural health issues.
Chisato Hamashima
1983 M.D. Iwate Medical University 1987 Dr.Med.Sc Iwate Medical University Postgraduate School 1987-1996 Staff Physician, Cancer Institute Hospital (Tokyo, Japan) 1996-1997 Staff researcher, Department of Health Policy and Management, School of Medicine, Keio University (Tokyo, Japan) 1997-2002 Senior lecturer, Department of Preventive Medicine, School of Medicine, St. Marianna University (Kawasaki, Japan) 2002- Section Head, Cancer Screening Assessment Section, Research Center for Cancer Prevention and Screening, National Cancer Center of Japan (Tokyo, Japan) 2018- Professor, Health Policy Research Section, Devison of Nursing Faculty of Medical Technology Teikyo University(Tokyo, Japan) Visiting Researcher National Cancer Center of Japan (Tokyo, Japan)
Chloe J Jennett
Chloe is a research program manager and PhD candidate at the Daffodil Centre, which is a joint venture between the University of Sydney and Cancer Council New South Wales. Chloe’s PhD research is focused on factors associated with participation in cervical screening with primary human papillomavirus testing. Chloe has an interest in implementation science, and as part of her PhD research is using mixed-methods surveys of people eligible for cervical screening and healthcare workers.
Claire Bavor
Claire Bavor is a PhD student and research assistant in the Evaluation and Implementation Science Unit in the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health. Her work in implementation science focuses on improving equity in Australia’s National Cervical Screening Program through the implementation of flexible models of screening to improve access to self-collection. Claire’s PhD sits within Supporting Choice for Cervical Screening, a national project that aims to generate the evidence about how the choice for self-collection can be implemented across a range of services and settings to increase equity and participation in cervical screening.
Claire Friedmann Smith
Claire is a senior post-doctoral researcher working the Cancer Group based in the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford.
Claire Zammit
Claire is an early career researcher and PhD candidate whose work primarily focuses on implementation science and evaluation with a focus on improving participation across Australia's National cancer screening programs with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and organisations. Commencing her PhD candidature in 2022, Claire's project aims to co-design, implement, and evaluate community-driven strategies to improve cervical screening participation through self-collection in Aboriginal Community Controlled Health settings. Claire has also worked across several projects evaluating models of self-collection within primary care and is currently the Coordinator of the EASI-M study/implementation trial. She is passionate about health equity for all and works to ensure health systems are accountable, accessible and inclusive.
Dann Brandenbarg
Daan Brandenbarg currently works at the Department of Family Medicine, University of Groningen. Daan does research in Oncology and General Practice.
Deborah de Guingand
I am an early career research fellow within the Cancer in Primary Care team at the Department of General Practice at the University of Melbourne. My experience encompasses leading both investigator initiated and commercially sponsored clinical trials across multiple disciplines and varying disease processes. I have worked across different organizations and departments within the public and private health sector and enjoy adapting my communication styles to engage effectively with multiple stakeholders and make clinical science reachable and understandable to those it impacts most.
Dipesh Gopal
Dipesh is a London-based GP and pre-PhD researcher in living with and beyond cancer and health inequalities.
Dominique Tremblay
Dominique Tremblay, PhD is a full professor in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at Université de Sherbrooke (Quebec, Canada), and a researcher at the Centre de recherché Charles LeMoyne. She has been honored with a Senior Career Award from the Fonds de recherche du Québec-Santé. Dr. Tremblay's research program aims to advance the understanding of the co-development and integration of complex interventions in real-world practice and to evaluate their intended effects for people living with and beyond cancer, their loved ones, as well for clinical team members. A collaborative, ongoing partnership with people living with and beyond cancer and stakeholders involved in cancer-related decisions is the foundation of Dr. Tremblay's applied research. Her key message: "Through the sharing of scientific knowledge and real-world experiences, we are accelerating a meaningful transformation of the cancer experience that values everyone's contribution."
Lauren Winkler
Dr Lauren Winkler (nee Touyz) (PhD, MClinPsych, BPsych(Hons), BTeach is a research psychologist who leads the coordination of the ScreenEQUAL program of work. Dr Winkler’s research has a strong emphasis on equity and increasing participation in the National Cervical Screening Program among people with intellectual disability in our community. She has a PhD in Medicine (Paediatrics, UNSW Sydney), where she spent several years developing, piloting and trialing, Australia’s first evidence-based hybrid online and telephone parent-led intervention (‘Reboot-Kids’) to promote health behaviour change and prevent future cardiometabolic treatment late effects for childhood cancer survivors.
Elaine Goulbourne
Elaine Goulbourne is the Clinical Director for Primary Care & Peter Gilgan Centre for Women’s Cancers as well as the Director for Clinical Resources and Performance at Women’s College Hospital in Toronto, Canada. Elaine has a background in nursing and decades of experience as a healthcare leader and executive. She is committed to increasing access to quality care for underserved populations.
Elinor Millar
Elinor is a public health physician working at Te Aho o Te Kahu Cancer Control Agency, the Government agency responsible for providing central leadership and oversight of cancer control in Aotearoa New Zealand. In recent years, Elinor has led a range of work at the Agency, including supporting ongoing access to cancer services during the COVID-19 pandemic and looking at how to improve the equitable delivery of cancer treatment in light of a health system reform. Elinor is particularly interested in improving the diagnostic pathway for people with cancer in Aotearoa to reduce inequities caused by late diagnosis.
Elinor Nemlander
Dr. Elinor Nemlander is a PhD student and a specialist in family medicine practicing at a healthcare center in Stockholm. From 2020 to 2023, she assumed the role of project leader in the comprehensive implementation of teledermatoscopy in the Stockholm region, Sweden.
Eliya Abedi
Eliya Abedi is a specialist in family medicine and a PhD student at Karolinska Institutet. She is clinically active at a primary care centre, and also works with care development regarding early detection of cancer in primary care.
Elizabeth A Johnston
Dr Lizzy Johnston is an early career researcher and Team Leader (Survivorship Research) at Cancer Council Queensland. In this role, Lizzy is working on several large-scale projects to support the health and wellbeing of cancer survivors and their caregivers, particularly those living in rural areas.
Fiona Crawford-Williams
Dr Fiona Crawford-Williams is the Deputy Lead of the Cancer Survivorship Program within the Caring Futures Institute of Flinders University. Her areas of interest are in models of survivorship care, with a focus on multi-disciplinary, holistic care and equity for rural and remote populations. Dr Crawford-Williams has experience in public policy and health system research.
Gary Abel
Gary Abel is an Associate Professor statistician and health services researcher at the University of Exeter. He leads the NIHR funded SPOtting Cancer among Comorbidities or SPOCC programme which is investigating the role of pre-existing comorbidities in the cancer diagnostic process, and will develop an intervention aimed at improving diagnosis in patients with conditions associated with disadvantage. His research focusses on the use of routinely collected health data.
Ge Chen
Ge Chen (Known as Wawa) is a PhD student in University of Bristol. Her PhD research is in nutritional epidemiology, focuses on exploring the association of the Mediterranean diet with breast cancer survivorship. Wawa also works as a graduate research assistant for DISCO (Diagnosis of Symptomatic Cancer Optimally) team in University of Exeter. The projects of her work are mainly focuse on cancer early detection and diagnosis in primary care. Before studying in the UK, she worked as a medical doctor in Beijing, China, specializing in integrative Chinese and Western medicine with a focus on cancer survivorship and palliative care.
Georgia Ramsay
Georgia Ramsay is a Research Assistant in Jon Emery's Cancer in Primary Care Team at The University of Melbourne. She has worked in clinical research for 10 years in both hospital and primary care settings. This includes epidemiological studies, clinical trials for medications and devices, and post-market monitoring of approved therapeutics.
Gitte Bruun Lauridsen
General practitioner trainee, and PhD student at the Research Unit for General Practice at the University of Southern Denmark.
Griffin Randle
Griffan Randle is the Project Officer Cancer Integration for Gippsland PHN. He is responsible for managing multiple cancer related projects across Gippsland.
Hannah Jongebloed
Hannah is a PhD student and registered psychologist. Hannah has worked clinically and as an Associate Research Fellow in the School of Nursing & Midwifery prior to starting her PhD. Hannah’s PhD project builds on work previously undertaken at Deakin where she was the project manager for two studies to understand the health service infrastructure and clinician workforce that can support a lung cancer screening program. This work informed a funding announcement from the Minister of Health and Aged Care to implement a national lung cancer screening program across Australia in 2025.
Harriet Hall
Harriet Hall is the Senior Programme Manager at Cancer Research UK.
Javiera Martinez-Gutierrez
Javiera Martinez is an academic, primary care researcher, and family physician. She is a research fellow in the Department of General Practice at the University of Melbourne, Australia. She also holds an honorary appointment at Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile in the Department of Family Medicine. Her research focus is cancer prevention, screening, and early detection in primary care. She is interested in community participation and the use of mobile technologies to improve cancer detection and care in general practice. María Gabriela Soto Pimentel. Psychologist, Master in Public Health and Master in Clinical Psychology. She is an academic in the Department of Family Medicine at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Her areas of teaching and research are person-centered care, family-oriented healthcare, and cancer prevention strategies in primary care. She also works with healthcare teams and leaders on wellness and positive work environments.
Jennifer Deane
Jennifer Deane is a researcher within Population Health Sciences and the Centre for Cancer at Newcastle University. Her background is within health psychology and health services research. Jennifer's research interests are on the early diagnosis of cancer, in particular head and neck cancer, communication around cancer and the inequalities within healthcare systems. She has worked on projects which cover the range of the cancer pathway from early diagnosis to living with and beyond cancer.
Jennifer McIntosh
Associate Professor Jennifer McIntosh is an Academic Specialist, Cancer Screening and Implementation Science Research, School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne. She is an Investigator with the Bowel Cancer Screening Alliance with research expertise in cancer, sexual health, diabetes, and implementation science, using both quantitative and qualitative methods. She works closely with policy makers, clinicians, research scientists and consumers internationally and in Australia. Her current research focusses on developing and evaluating interventions to improve colorectal cancer screening in Australia including digital solutions for use general practice.
Jianrong Zhang
Jianrong Zhang is a PhD candidate based at the University of Melbourne & Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre, in Australia. He accomplished medicine degrees, clinical and research training in Thoracic Surgery and Oncology, in China; the Master of Public Health & Policy Scholar training in USA. His research areas include global health, thoracic oncology & surgery, primary care, and health services research. Since 2014, he has published over 60 articles and served different roles in international conferences, academic journals and societies.
Joanne Cairns
Dr Jo Cairns is currently in the final year of a five-year Yorkshire Cancer Research funded Career Development Fellowship at the Hull York Medical School which focuses on reducing cancer-related inequalities through screening and earlier detection. 2. Prior to joining HYMS, Jo was a lecturer in health promotion and public health at Canterbury Christ Church University (2017-2019). Previously, Jo worked for Alcohol Research UK as a senior research and policy officer (2016-2017). She also worked as a post-doctoral research associate and teaching fellow at Durham University (2012-2016) upon successful completion of her PhD in health geography (2009-2012). 3. Jo’s research and teaching experience are interdisciplinary spanning across social sciences, public health and medicine. The underpinning thread of all of her research is her drive to redress health inequalities through more equitable access to health care provision and by tackling the wider determinants of health experienced by marginalised population groups.
Jo-Anne Manski-Nankervis
A/Prof Jo-Anne Manski-Nankervis is an academic general practitioner (GP) at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine in Singapore and an Honorary at the Department of General Practice, Melbourne Medical School. She applies a Learning Health System approach to explore general practice activity and to design and evaluate interventions to optimise care provided in that setting. She is interested in the application of guidelines and evidence into practice in the areas of chronic disease and cancer.
Junjie Huang
Dr Junjie Huang is currently a Research Assistant Professor at the JC School of Public Health and Primary Care and the Associate Director of the Centre for Health Education and Health Promotion (CHEHP), Faculty of Medicine, Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). He is also a National Licensed Clinician of China and Co-Chair of the Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) Global Health Working Group of Associations of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU). He got a PhD in Public Health at CUHK and MSc in Clinical and Translational Research at University College Dublin in Ireland. Dr. Huang’s research focuses on Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention, Primary Care Health Education and Promotion, and other emerging Public Health topics.
Jyoti Chaudhary
Jyoti Chaudhary is Program Coordinator, First Nations People Cancer Screening Program at Dandenong & District Aborigines Co-Operative Limited. Her background includes health promotion (COVID-19 rapid response; cancer screening) and coordinating outreach optometrist services to regional Victoria. She holds a master’s degree in public health from the University of Western Australia.
Karolina Lisy
Dr Karolina Lisy is a senior research fellow in Cancer Experiences Research at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. Karolina’s PhD focussed on the regulation of hypoxically-induced gene expression in solid tumours, with subsequent post-doctoral training in knowledge translation and evidence-based medicine and healthcare. Her current research interests include cancer survivorship, specifically understanding survivors’ experiences and needs and developing and evaluating effective supportive care interventions and models.
Kate Whittaker
Kate Whittaker is the Manager of Cancer Care Policy at Cancer Council Australia. Kate holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Newcastle and is passionate about the consideration of policy and practice implications of potential research outcomes upfront in the planning of research studies.
Katelyn Collins
Katelyn is a Research Assistant at the Cancer Council Queensland and PhD student at the University of Southern Queensland. Her work focuses on understanding the most effective ways to design interventions to improve participation in the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program.
Kelechi Eguzo
Dr. Kelechi Eguzo is a family physician/general practitioner in oncology and a research scientist interested in cancer control, medical education, antimicrobial stewardship and maternal health. He volunteers for the American Society of Clinical Oncology, Marjorie Bash Foundation, and other organizations in Nigeria. Due to his work on cancer control, he was recognized by the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) with a Young Leader Award.
Kiana Collins
Kiana is a researcher and PhD student working in the Cancer Group based in the Nuffield Department of Primary Health Care Sciences at the University of Oxford.
Kimberly Devotta
Kimberly Devotta is a Ph.D candidate in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto and a Research Manager at the Peter Gilgan Centre for Women's Cancers at Women's College Hospital. Her research focuses on cervical cancer screening decision-making and uptake, and uses participatory methods such as concept mapping.
Kirubakaran Balasubramaniam
Dr Kirubakaran Balasubramaniam is an associate professor, GP and senior researcher at the Research Unit for General Practice at University of Southern Denmark. His areas of interests include healthcare-seeking, timely diagnosis of cancer and follow-up cancer care in general practice.
Larissa Nekhlyudov
Dr. Larissa Nekhlyudov is Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and is a practicing internist at the Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. She is Clinical Director, Internal Medicine for Cancer Survivors at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute where she offers clinical care for long term survivors of childhood and adult cancers. Dr. Nekhlyudov is particularly interested in improving the care of cancer survivors and the interplay between primary and oncology care. She has been at the forefront of the field of cancer survivorship, nationally and internationally, by leading and participating in the development of survivorship care policies and clinical guidelines, educational programs, and research.
Lauren Whiting
Lauren Whiting is the founder and CEO of Lift Cancer Care Services with a background as an oncology physiotherapist. She developed Lift as a one-stop-shop for cancer patients to access oncology specialised allied health services in a single location as well as supervised exercise medicine.
Li Li
Li Li, MD, PhD, Walter M. Seward Professor and Chair, Department of Family Medicine; Co-Leader, Cancer Prevention and Population Health Program, UVA Comprehensive Cancer Center, UVA School of Medicine. I am a clinician-scientist with extensive expertise in cancer molecular/genomic epidemiology, colon cancer disparities, and prevention translational research. My research focuses on population and genomic research in colon cancer etiology, risk factors, screening, and prevention. My work aims to understand the genetic, lifestyle, socioeconomic, and environmental factors that drive racial disparities in risk of colorectal cancer.
Louise Bettiol
Dr Louise Bettiol is an experienced GP with a broad scope of experience including remote and rural clinical roles and has also been a practice owner. In addition to her clinical roles she is active in RACGP and ACRRM education, hospital and primary health care board positions alongside local community engagement. She is a keen gardener and home renovator with a passion for living life well, an aspiration she also has for her patients. As such, she is enthusiastic to be a part of strategic service improvement in the primary care-acute cancer services sector.
Lucas de Mendonça
Lucas is a Family Doctor with a particular research focus in Clinical Decision Support Systems usage in Primary Care and how it is validated clinically to ensure its accuracy.
Lucy Boyd
Lucy is an early career mixed-methods researcher with work grounded in psychological science, health management and behavioural science in medicine. She is a systems thinker with a passion for equity in various Australian and international settings. Lucy's work focuses on cancer prevention and screening in primary care. She is interested in implementation science, evaluation and driving change in clinical and non-clinical systems.
Lucy Gilkes
Associate Professor Lucy Gilkes has been a General Practitioner for 30 years. She also has academic roles including the discipline lead for General Practice at the University of Notre Dame Fremantle. She is the founding Chairperson of the recently developed WA GP based research network, which represents a cross-institution collaboration of GPs and GP based researchers with an interest in GP research in WA. Lucy's research areas include medical education and seeking to increase GP and student involvement in research projects which are relevant and useful to General Practitioners and their patients.
Mariken E. Stegmann
Mariken Stegmann is a General Practitioner in the Netherlands. She obtained her PhD in June 2021. Her research project was about communication in oncology and the role of the GP in the process of shared decision making. Besides being a GP she now works as a post doc researcher and clinical epidemiologist on the department of primary and long-term care in the University Medical Center Groningen. Her current research focuses on shared decision making, transmural communication and patient centered care.
Makala Castelli
Makala is an experienced health consumer, passionate advocate for improving patient experience and the founder of Oncana – a personalised digital supportive care platform for people living with and beyond cancer. She uses her own lived experience and that of her community to shape her advocacy work – driving change in survivorship, supportive care and promoting patient leadership. Makala’s impact in consumer advisory spans the public and private health sectors. She provides the consumer perspective for the Queensland Cancer Clinical Network and is regularly engaged in strategic consumer roles at Mater Health. Professionally, Makala is a C-suite executive with a background in corporate strategy, marketing and corporate affairs. She is an experienced company director and a Fellow of the Governance Institute of Australia. In 2022 Makala was awarded the PC4 Training Award to support her in undertaking a systematic review of patient-led cancer survivorship care.
Meena Rafiq
Dr Meena Rafiq is an Academic GP and Clinical Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne and University College London. She has a specialist interest in research using linked Electronic Health Records to improve early cancer diagnosis, with a particular focus on identifying early markers of cancer using data from GP blood tests. Alongside working as a GP in Australia and the UK, she has a PhD in Early Cancer Diagnosis in Primary Care, an MSc in Epidemiology and expertise in conducting 'big data' research using a number of Primary Care datasets worldwide.
Michael Jefford
Professor Michael Jefford is a Consultant Medical Oncologist at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre (Peter Mac) in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. He is Director of the Australian Cancer Survivorship Centre, based at Peter Mac (www.petermac.org/cancersurvivorship) and a Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne.
Moira O'Connor
Moira O'Connor is a Senior Research Fellow in the School of Population Health, Discipline of Psychology, Curtin University. Her research focusses on psycho-social oncology and palliative care.
Moira Smith
Dr Moira Smith is a Senior Research Fellow, and Co-Director of the Health Promotion and Policy Research Unit at the UOW. Prior to this, Dr Smith had over 20 years’ experience in clinical dentistry, in New Zealand and the UK. Her research focuses on the broad determinants of health and gathering of evidence to inform policy development and implementation.
Mussab Fagery
Mussab is a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne as a part of the Cancer Health Services Research (CHSR) unit, working under the supervision of Professor Maarten IJzerman. His research will be addressing the translation gap of complex genomic testing through liquid biopsy into cancer health services. The project will support both the identification and prioritisation of the value proposition for using liquid biopsies in cancer management. Before joining CHSR, Mussab has been working as Research Associate with the Centre for Health Economics Research and Evaluation (CHERE) at the University of Technology Sydney. In that role, he has worked on multiple projects aimed at the provision of external evaluation of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) and other health technology-related submissions for the Australian Department of Health. Mussab has also worked for the Centre for Applied Health Economics, Griffith University, with the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) team.
Natalia Calanzani
Natalia is a lecturer in Applied Health Sciences at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. She is part of the Academic Primary Care Research Group and has carried out cancer and primary care research across the cancer care continuum, from symptom appraisal to end-of-life. Natalia has also carried out a process and outcome evaluation of a multilevel Scottish programme aiming to improve cancer survival. Her current research focuses on rural/urban variation in cancer outcomes, and setting research priorities in this area.
Natasha Steele
Natasha Steele is a Clinical Assistant Professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine. She has a clinical focus in internal medicine. She completed her medical education at the University of Washington School of Medicine.
Nicolas H. Hart
Associate Professor Nicolas H. Hart, PhD AES CSCS ESSAF is an NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow in Cancer Survivorship and Program Director of Clinical Exercise Physiology at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). His clinical research focuses on improving outcomes for people living with cancer, with an emphasis on people affected by advanced or metastatic cancer, canvassing (1) survivorship and supportive care issues (including exercise, nutrition, psychosocial, and toxicity management), and (2) cancer outcomes (including disease biology, disease progression, and overall survival). He also holds academic titles at Flinders University, Edith Cowan University, Queensland University of Technology, and University of Notre Dame Australia. Associate Professor Nicolas Hart is one of the Co-Chairs of the Primary Care Collaborative Cancer Clinical Trials Group (PC4) Survivorship Engine Room; Chair of Fatigue within the Cancer Symptoms Trials Group (CST); and a Survivorship Fellow with the Multinational Association for Supportive Care in Cancer (MASCC).
Nicole Rankin
I am an implementation scientist, whose research focuses on the science of research translation, including how evidence can be more rapidly translated into clinical practice, and how to improve patient and health service outcomes. A major focus of my research is lung cancer; my research portfolio in this context extends from screening, early detection, and management through multidisciplinary care through to palliation and survivorship.
Oisin Brady Bates
Dr. Brady Bates is a 4th year Reg currently on the Trinity College Dublin general practice specialist training scheme. He is a research fellow at the GP dept. at Royal College Surgeons in Ireland as part of a research theme that focuses on the early detection of cancer and cancer screening. He is a national lead in the national health service's training and planning programme.
Oliver Frank
Dr. Oliver Frank is a specialist general practitioner in Hillcrest in Adelaide, and a University Senior Research Fellow in the Discipline of General Practice in the Adelaide Medical School at the University of Adelaide. His professional and academic interests are in prevention, clinical informatics, quality care and health services. He researches in these areas, with a particular interest in developing tools and systems to help patients, GPs and practice nurses to make maximum use of the many opportunities before and during consultations in general practice for recommended preventive and other care to be offered and provided or arranged.
Olufikayo Bamidele
Dr. Olufikayo Bamidele is an Early Career Researcher (Research Fellow) on the TRANSFORM programme at the Hull York Medical School (HYMS), University of Hull. With a background in Microbiology and Public Health, Olufikayo’s research is broadly focused on addressing ethnic inequalities in cancer experiences and outcomes, particularly in relation to the psychosocial aspects of prostate cancer in Black men and their partners. She is passionate about improving understanding on how ethnicity intersects with other determinants of health to influence illness and healthcare experience among underserved groups. Her methodological expertise is in qualitative research and evidence synthesis. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Public Health, she has authored several peer-reviewed journal publications and delivered national and international talks. She also teaches a Scholarship and Special Interest Programme (SSIP) module on ‘Ethnicity and Cancer Service Provision and Uptake’ to Year 1 medical students at HYMS.
Patrick Redmond
Patrick is a GP and Associate Professor in General Practice in RCSI having previously worked as a clinical academic in Ireland, Australia, and the UK. He graduated in Ireland and then completed a PhD as part of the Health Research Board PhD Scholars Programme. He worked at The Healthcare Improvement Studies (THIS) Institute, University of Cambridge, the University of Western Australia, and at King's College London. He leads a programme of work to better understand patients’ cancer journey from diagnosis to survivorship, and improve outcomes and reduce healthcare costs.
Peter Murchie
Peter Murchie trained in medicine at the University of Aberdeen, graduating in 1994. He completed vocational training in general practice in Northeast Scotland before embarking upon a career in academic general practice through a Cancer Research UK Primary Care Oncology Fellowship. He is currently Professor of Primary Care and lead of the Academic Primary Care Research Group, within the Division of Applied Health Sciences University of Aberdeen. He leads a research programme which uses clinical data to pursue two main aims: first to better understand the cancer diagnostic pathway within primary care, and second, to improve community-based cancer survivorship care. He maintains a foothold in daytime and out-of-hours general practice in Northeast Scotland.
Pradeep Virdee
Pradeep is a statistician based in the primary care Cancer Theme at Oxford in the UK. His interests lie in the use of repeated blood testing for early detection of cancer in primary care. He is also interested in investigating how acceptable repeat blood testing is among GPs and patients when it comes to finding high risk cancer patients.
Raff Calitri
Raff Calitri has a background in Psychology and holds expertise in behaviour change and clinical trial management. He has manged clinical trials involving complex behavioural interventions for over 7 years and brings these skills into the field of early cancer diagnosis. He currently manages the ERICA trial, which certainly falls into the category of complex.
Rebecca Bergin
Dr Rebecca Bergin is a Research Fellow in the Cancer Epidemiology Division at Cancer Council Victoria, and Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of General Practice and Centre for Cancer Research at the University of Melbourne. Her research aims to understand and address inequities in cancer outcomes, quality of care and patient experience by optimising pathways to cancer diagnosis and treatment. In 2020, Dr Bergin was awarded a Victorian Cancer Agency (VCA) Early Career Research Fellowship to investigate the diagnostic pathways of people with young-onset colorectal cancer in Victoria.
Renae Lawrence
Dr Renae Lawrence is a General Practitioner and Lecturer at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. She is an early career researcher and her current research focuses on improving physical activity for cancer survivors within general practice. She also has previous research experience within the field of cancer care. Dr Lawrence has a Bachelor of Medical Studies/Doctor of Medicine and is a Fellow of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.
Rifat Mehjabeen
Rifat Mehjabeen is a public health professional working for the Cancer Institute NSW. She is the project manager for the Reporting for Better Cancer Outcomes (RBCO) program. The RBCO program supports continuous improvement of the cancer health system across NSW. It drives partnership with cancer services to harness useable data and information to drive improvements in care and generates insights out of cancer data with appropriate system engagement.
Rob Campbell
Rob Campbell is a Medical Oncologist, keen cyclist, busy Dad and a ''home grown'' Bendigo boy! He is also the Clinical Director of the Loddon Mallee Integrated Cancer Service and has a strong commitment to patient centred care, using quality improvement initiatives to strength rural cancer services, including care closer to home and being innovative as clinicians.
Ruth Heisey
Dr. Ruth Heisey is Department Head, Family Medicine and Primary Care at Women's College Hospital, and Associate Professor at the University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. As a GP Oncologist with a passion for ensuring optimal care for women at risk for, or living with, breast cancer- she was the inaugural director of the Peter Gilgan Centre for Women's Cancers. Elaine Goulbourne (co-presenter) is the Clinical Director, Primary Care and the Peter Gilgan Centre for Women's Cancers, Lecturer, Faculty of Nursing, University of Toronto as well as the Director of Clinical Resources and Performance at Women's College Hospital.
Sabine Fletcher
Sabine Fletcher joined Belinda Goodwin’s Health Systems and Behavioural Research Group at the Cancer Council Queensland in June 2023. Sabine has over 6 years’ experience as a Clinical Trials Coordinator both in the academic and Healthcare sectors in a variety of areas including respiratory, cardiac and brain research. She has a background in Molecular Bioscience and completed her PhD in the area of Cancer Research in Prof Alpha Yap’s laboratory at The University of Queensland in 2011. As Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Prof Vicky Avery’s laboratory at Griffith University, Sabine contributed original research in the areas of Malaria Research and Drug Discovery until 2015.
Samantha Harrison
Samantha Harrison is the Head of Strategic Evidence at Cancer Research UK (CRUK) and CRUK Lead for the International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership.
Samuel Merriel
Sam is a GP in West Lancashire in England, NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer in the Centre for Primary Care and Health Services Research at the University of Manchester, and Associate Editor of the British Journal of General Practice. His main research interests are the early detection and prevention of cancer in primary care and the evaluation and implementation of new diagnostic tests. Sam has conducted extensive research into prostate cancer diagnosis in primary care, including the role of symptoms, the accuracy of Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) in primary care, and the potential impact of prostate MRI. Sam served on the recent National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) prostate cancer guidelines update committee in 2021, and he has been a member of expert reference groups for Prostate Cancer UK, Movember, the National Cancer Research Institute, and NHS England.
Sarah Heynemann
Dr Sarah Heynemann is a Melbourne-based, early-career medical oncologist and PhD candidate with Sydney Health Ethics, The University of Sydney. She has a long-standing research interest in cancer survivorship, particularly as the concept applies to the metastatic setting. She facilitates the VCCC Alliance 'Survivorship for Primary Care Practitioners' online course, and is an early-career representative on the scientific committee for the Thoracic Oncology Group of Australasia (TOGA).
Saskia W.M.C. Maass
Saskia Maass, a post-doc at UMC Groningen in the Netherlands, is a dedicated general practitioner and a recent PhD graduate. Her research focuses on the long-term psychological and physical effects of breast cancer treatment.
Shakira Onwuka
Shakira Onwuka is an implementation scientist and mixed-methods researcher. She has worked in cancer prevention, screening, early detection, and survivorship across “the cancer continuum”. She has further experience in developing decision aids and other complex interventions to be trialled in primary care. She is currently working as a Research Fellow in lung cancer screening and recently submitted her PhD research in bowel cancer prevention.
Shaoke Lei
Shaoke Lei is a Research Fellow in Cancer Services and Data Science at the University of Melbourne. His research interests lie in Data Science and its application to early cancer diagnosis, with a particular focus on the diagnostic testing patterns for cancer symptoms in General Practice. He has more than 6 years experience in health service research, which focused on reducing low value care; developing and trialling models of care to keep patients out of hospital and working to improve access to care. He completed a BSc in Mathematics at University of Bristol, MSc in Applied Statistics at University of Oxford and PhD in Statistics at University of Melbourne.
Sibel Saya
Dr Saya is a postdoctoral research fellow and an academic genetic counsellor and the University of Melbourne Centre for Cancer Research and the Department of General Practice and Primary Care. Her PhD and postdoctoral work have examined the use of a genomic risk score for targeted cancer screening within general practice. Dr Saya's research interests include the use of new genetic and genomics tests within general practice, specialising in clinical trials that examine these questions.
Silja Schrader
Silja is a health data analyst at the University of Melbourne within the Department of General Practice. Her research focuses on applying biostatistical methods to linked clinical and population health data in order to identify cancer risk and improve health outcomes. She has experience working within a variety of fields, including epigenetics, infectious diseases and non-communicable diseases.
Simon Baker
Simon Baker has a background and experience in Public Health and Project Management working across a number of sectors including, government, disability, education and health. His roles have included implementing various local and State-wide project, and he has a passion for rural and remote health, in particular working with and alongside vulnerable population groups. In his spare time, you will find him being ‘active’ with sport and chasing his kids around.
Sonia Strachan
Sonia Strachan is a Prostate Cancer Support Nurse, her role provides an essential local resource for patients and their families who are undergoing treatment for prostate cancer and also focuses on education and awareness of early detection and treatment. Sonia works in conjunction with the patient’s medical team, providing ongoing support to diagnosed patients and their families, assist patients in understanding their diagnosis and treatment plan, and coordinate their care — offering support and referring to relevant services. This can be from diagnosis, Recurrence and end stage care. Sonia has a Bachelor of Nursing, Graduate Diploma of Palliative Care & has completed the La Trobe University Prostate Cancer Nurse Course. Sonia became a Prostate Cancer Nurse Specialist with the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia in 2014.
Sophie Chima
Sophie is a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne. Her research involves the use and implementation of clinical decision support tools for cancer diagnosis in primary care.
Sue Crengle
Suzanne Marie Crengle is a New Zealand Māori academic, of Kāti Māmoe, Kāi Tahu and Waitaha descent and as of 2020 is a full professor at the University of Otago, specialising in public health medicine.
Tessa Saunders
Dr Tessa Saunders is a research fellow in the Evaluation and Implementation Science Unit, within the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health. Tessa works in the Cancer Screening Team and is coordinating a national project which aims to generate the implementation evidence needed to scale up self-collection cervical screening in order to increase equity and participation. Tessa has worked in health system improvement and program implementation for over 15 years, both in the primary care sector and, more recently, as a translational researcher in the Indigenous Eye Health Unit at The University of Melbourne. She has an MPH from Monash University and a PhD from the University of Tasmania. Tessa has a passion for equity and enjoys facilitating collaborative approaches to address the health and wellbeing needs of diverse population groups. She is currently living and working on the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation.
Thomas Round
Dr Thomas Round is an academic GP at King's College London in the field early cancer detection research, including a number of successful National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and Cancer Research UK (CRUK) grants. He is also a part time salaried GP is in East London at the innovative Bromley by Bow Health Partnership. Since 2020 he is an Associate Editor for the British Journal of General Practice (BJGP).
Victoria White
Victoria White holds a Professorial position at Deakin University in the School of Psychology and is an Honorary Research Fellow at Cancer Council Victoria. She has many years’ experience in cancer control and oncology research, working with researchers across Australia and internationally on projects related to different cancer related behaviours including understanding treatment patterns and factors associated with variations in care, variations in diagnostic pathways, uptake and utility of supportive care programs, variations in health related outcomes for cancer survivors and use of tobacco and alcohol in adolescents. Victoria has published widely and regularly reviews for national and international per review journals. Her work has been supported by funding from NHMRC, Cancer Australia, Commonwealth and Victorian Department of Health and the Medical Research Future Fund.
Virginia Signal
Dr Virginia Signal is a senior research fellow within the Cancer and Chronic Conditions (C3) research group and Health Environment & Infection Research Unit (HEIRU). Her main research interests lie within improving Maori health and addressing inequities, particularly those seen for cancer and infectious diseases.
Yangfan Li
Yangfan Li is currently a Research Assistant within the Department of Public Health and Primary Care at the University of Cambridge, where his work is funded by CRUK and part of the COVID-impact consortium. He recently graduated from the MPhil in Population Health Sciences with a specialization in Health Data Science from Cambridge and previously completed the BSc in Mathematics with Applied Mathematics from the University of Nottingham. His primary research interests center around advancing the development of cancer risk prediction algorithms through the analysis of electronic health records. Yangfan's work embodies a commitment to leveraging health data science to make significant strides in cancer risk assessment.
Yin Zhou
Yin Zhou is a General Practitioner and Academic Clinical Lecturer at Queen Mary University of London, UK. She has an interest in diagnostic safety and quality in primary care, in particular relating to early cancer diagnosis. Her research interest lies in understanding missed diagnostic opportunities in cancer patients, examining variations in diagnostic pathways and testing strategies, as well as the development and evaluation of interventions to improve early cancer diagnosis.