Professor Alan Cass
Professor Alan Cass is Director of The George Institute's Renal and Metabolic Division, and Professor and Director of the Poche Indigenous Health Centre in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Sydney. He has trained and worked as a kidney diseases specialist physician, epidemiologist and health services researcher. From 1998 to 2002, he undertook research into Aboriginal health and worked as a clinician in the Northern Territory. In 2003, he was awarded an Australian Harkness Fellowship in Healthcare Policy at Harvard University, where he examined access to, and quality of, renal care in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States. Alan received the 2002 MJA/Wyeth Award for the best research paper published in Medical Journal of Australia, entitled "Sharing the true stories: improving communication between Aboriginal patients and health carers".
Professor Cass is Chair of the Scientific Committee of the Australasian Kidney Trials Network and has extensive experience in running investigator-driven, large-scale, multi-centre clinical trials. He has undertaken a series of consultancies for state and federal governments and Kidney Health Australia regarding strategies to improve the provision of chronic and end-stage kidney disease services.
Dr David Guest
David Guest is a general practitioner in Lismore in Northern New South Wales. He is chair of the IT committee of the Northern Rivers Information Technology committee. He has had a long standing interest in the use of computers in general practice, particularly in relation to their use in chronic disease management.
Professor Paul Mitchell
Paul Mitchell is a medical retinal specialist and professor of ophthalmology at the University of Sydney, and Director of Ophthalmology for the Sydney West Area. His clinical work focuses on the management of AMD, diabetic and other vascular retinopathies and on systemic diseases and their effects on the eye. His research has targeted the epidemiology of eye disease and clinical aspects of retinal diseases.
Significant contributions in the fields of public health and ophthalmic epidemiology have been made via the landmark Blue Mountains Eye Study (BMES) that has already yielded close to 300 international publications including in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).
Paul was awarded the 2004 Association of International Glaucoma Societies (AIGS) award for research into the epidemiology of glaucoma. He has served in many organisations and was elected in 2007 as the Trustee for the Clinical & Epidemiologic Research section of the Association for Research in Vision & Ophthalmology (ARVO).
Professor Paul Mitchell is the Director of the Centre for Vision Research.
Associate Professor Stephen Twigg
Associate Professor Stephen Twigg, MBBS (Hons-I), PhD, FRACP is a staff specialist in endocrinology at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, and teaches at the University of Sydney.
He has been an adult endocrinologist for over 10 years, including 2 years in the USA, and in his clinical practice focuses mainly on the prevention of diabetes and its complications.
Steve runs a research laboratory which is focused on developing molecular methods to help prevent diabetes complications.
He is the President of the Australian Diabetes Society and, on behalf of the ADS and ADEA, recently published a Prediabetes Position Statement to provide medical guidance in managing the condition.
Associate Professor Twigg has worked for short periods in rural and regional settings and recently completed a 5 year AusAid program in diabetes in the Pacific Island of Kiribati.
He regularly presents at national and international conferences in diabetes prevention and care.
Dr Norman Swan (Chair)
Dr Norman Swan regularly presents Rural Health Education Foundation satellite broadcasts.
He is best-known for his wide broadcasting experience, including the award-winning Health Report, which he produces and presents for ABC Radio National - as well as his other ABC Radio and Television program hosting.
Dr Swan trained in Medicine in Scotland and in Paediatrics in London and Sydney. A broadcaster and journalist with the ABC's Science Unit since 1982, he has been Australian Producer of the Year and was awarded a Gold Citation in the United Nations Media Peace Prizes.
In 2004 Dr Swan was honoured by the Australian Academy of Science, which presented him with an Academy Medal, only the third time such an award has been made. The Academy gave it for his outstanding contributions to science in the public domain. Around the same time, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow made him a Fellow.
He has won an Australian Writers' Guild Award, three Walkley National Awards for Journalism and the Michael Daley Award for Science Journalism on two occasions.
In addition to his broadcasting, he edits his own newsletter, The Health Reader, published in association with Choice magazine, and has been the Australian correspondent for the Journal of the American Medical Association and the BMJ. He has also consulted to the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Geneva.
