Professor Raina MacIntyre

 

Prof MacIntyre is Professor of Infectious Diseases epidemiology and Head of the School of Public Health and Community Medicine, UNSW Medicine. She is also an adjunct professor at Arizona State University. She is an internationally recognised and awarded researcher in infectious diseases epidemiology and vaccinology,with over 280 peer-reviewed publications (123 in the past 5 years). She has won international and national awards including the Sir Henry Wellcome Medal and Prize from the US Association of Military Surgeons, The Frank Fenner Award in Infectious diseases, the National Immunisation Achievement Award by The Public Health Association of Australia, and the Peter Baume Public Health Impact Prize. She has dual medical specialisations in internal medicine and public health and leads two NHMRC Centres of Research Excellence in Immunisation and Epidemic Response. She has worked in immunisation for over 20 years, including 15 years at the National Centre for Immunisation Research. She won the peak award for Immunisation in Australia, the PHAA Immunisation Achievement Award in 2014, for her research in vaccinology. She has a particular interest in vulnerable populations, including immunosuppressed, migrants and refugees, and adult vaccination with a focus on the frail elderly.
Specific vaccination interests include influenza, pneumococcal disease, HPV, measles, hepatitis A , small pox, anthrax and herpes zoster. She has also done vaccine trials in immunosuppressed populations to study the immunogenicity of vaccines against weakened immunity. Methodologies include phase 3 clinical trials, epidemiology, mathematical modelling and translational research. She has done recent work on vaccine effectiveness of influenza vaccine against myocardial infarction. She leads a NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence in immunisation for high risk populations. She is on the Council of 100 for the journal Vaccine, the peak journal in this field. She has been a plenary speaker on elderly vaccination atthe International Federation for Ageing, the Australian Primary care Nurses Association, and Medicines New Zealand Adult Vaccination Symposium. She leads UNSW VIRL - a research centre in adult and high risk vaccination. VIRL has made a major contribution in the areas of refugee and migrant immunisation, immunisation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, and elderly vaccination.

 

 

 

 

Dr Rob Menzies

 

Dr Menzies is an infectious disease epidemiologist focusing on the surveillance and evaluation of immunisation programs and vaccine policy development. He has led six major national immunisation program evaluations for State and Federal governments, more than 100 peer-reviewed publications, and served as Chief Investigator for three NHMRC/ARC research grants. He has particularly focused on ensuring the best use of vaccines for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (Indigenous) people.
Dr Menzies is nationally recognised for his research work pioneering the publication of vaccination coverage for Indigenous children from the Australian Childhood Immunisation Register. This included initiating and leading the publication series “Vaccine Preventable Diseases and Vaccination Coverage in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

 

 

Dr David Muscatello

 

Dr David Muscatello is a Senior Lecturer in infectious diseases epidemiology. He has a PhD in the epidemiology of influenza. He also has many years experience in government as an epidemiologist specialising in acute disease surveillance using administrative databases, public health intelligence and biostatistics including time series analysis. He played a major surveillance role in the New South Wales
government response to pandemic influenza in 2009 and has served on the Australian National Influenza Surveillance Committee. David is also a graduate of the New South Wales Public Health Officer Training Program and has supervised and trained numerous Public Health Officer and Biostatistical trainees. He is particularly interested in the use of time series analysis for estimating mortality and morbidity from infectious and other diseases and for assessing the impact of health policies on populations. in the areas of refugee and migrant immunisation, immunisation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, and elderly vaccination.

 

 

Professor Paul Torzillo

 

Paul Torzillo is a Senior Respiratory Physician and Intensive Care Physician at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney and is also the Clinical Director for Critical Care Services in Sydney South Western Area Health Service. He is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Sydne. Paul has been involved in Aboriginal health since he was a medical student in the early 1970s. He was involved in a number of western NSW Aboriginal communities then and worked on the National trachoma and eye health program. In 1983, he helped establish Nganampa Health Council working as a medical officer. He has had a continuous involvement with that organisation since then and is currently the Medical Director. He has been a member of many national committees on research, policy and service implementation in Aboriginal Health. He has had a major interest in health services development for remote Aboriginal communities. His other main area of work has been in environmental health and housing maintenance programs - known as Housing for health projects. He has published widely in Aboriginal health and served on a range of national committees covering many issues in Aboriginal health. He was awarded an AM - Order of Australia in 2005.