Prof Simon Willcock is a General Practitioner and the Clinical Director of Primary Care at MQ Health. His education and research interests include the health of doctors, low back pain, the early identification of dementia in the community, systems change in medical service delivery, and communication in medical practice. In addition to his Macquarie University role, Prof Willcock is Deputy Chair of the Sydney North Health Network and Chair of the Estia Health Clinical Governance Committee. His board roles have been in medical indemnity and health insurance, and roles in the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and the Australian Medical Association.

Dr Li Ping Chung is a respiratory physician with special interests in severe airways disease including asthma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), and non-CF bronchiectasis. In 2013, Dr Chung completed her PhD, which focused on pharmacogenetics of severe asthma. In addition to her current role as the clinical lead for airways disease at Fiona Stanley Hospital, she is also involved in the development and expansion of community respiratory services by Silver Chain to better support patients with chronic respiratory diseases in the non-tertiary setting. Dr Chung is also involved in a number of NHMRC funded scientific and clinical research projects related to asthma and other airway disease. She is currently a member of the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand (TSANZ) Research Subcommittee, TSANZ (WA Branch).

Associate Professor Deshan Sebaratnam completed his Bachelor of Medicine Bachelor of Surgery at UNSW, graduating with Honours. While completing his residency at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, he also completed his Master of Medicine.
As part of his dermatology training with the Australasian College of Dermatologists, he was chosen to complete a Fellowship at St. John’s Institute for Dermatology in London.
He is a Staff Specialist at Liverpool Hospital. He has a strong interest research, having published his work in international medical journals and presented at conferences around the world. He is an academic at UNSW and USyd, regularly lecturing to medical students, doctors in training, GPs and other specialists.
Associate Professor Sebaratnam operates at The Skin Hospital, Westmead.

Professor Mark S Cooper is the Professor of Medicine and Head of Concord Clinical School. He also undertakes research at the ANZAC Research Institute and Concord Hospital. He is a leading expert in glucocorticoid metabolism and action particularly in relation to the effects of endogenous and therapeutic glucocorticoids on bone.
He is a board member of Healthy Bones Australia.

Nathan Cheetham is a quantitative researcher studying the long-term effects of the coronavirus pandemic on health. Nathan is focused on understanding the role of social factors on health outcomes in the United Kingdom.

Since 2021, Nathan has been at King’s College London, where he has worked with the TwinsUK and COVID Symptom Study Biobank studies, researching immune response to COVID vaccination and the long term effects of COVID infection on cognition and everyday functioning.

Nathan has a background in physical sciences, completing his MSci in Natural Sciences at Durham University in 2013. He then moved to Imperial College London where he earned his PhD in Physics in 2018, researching new materials for solar energy applications.

Following his PhD, Nathan moved to NHS North East London Clinical Commissioning Group in 2019, working as a data analyst and manager. During the coronavirus pandemic, Nathan developed a mathematical model to estimate the effects of easing restrictions on hospital admissions (Cheetham et al., Scientific Reports, 2021), created a interactive tool for senior leadership to track COVID-19, and joined the North East London vaccination program team to help set up and deliver COVID-19 vaccinations.
Experience

Dr Hilton Koppe is a writer, educator, podcaster and doctor living on Bundjalung Land on the east coast of Australia. He is a long-standing member of Dementia Training Australia’s GP education team. He facilitates reflective writing workshops for doctors and other health professionals with the goal of deepening their compassion, overcoming professional isolation and reducing risk of burnout. The workshops have been adapted for people living with chronic and mental illnesses, as well as enthusiastic amateur writers. He has been invited to present his workshops all the way from Byron Writers Festival to Harvard Medical School. His book, One Curious Doctor: A Memoir of Medicine, Migration and Mortality, explores the personal impact of working as a country doctor. His play, Enduring Witness, is used to facilitate conversations about end-of-life care. Hilton is co-host of Dementia In Practice, a top 100 Great Australian Podcast.

After initially becoming a fully qualified Neurologist, Dr Lowe went on to train to become an Ophthalmic Surgeon. He is the only practitioner in Australia to hold these dual specialties. Dr Lowe has particular interest in ophthalmic surgery, medical retina, neurologically related eye disease and general ophthalmology. He completed his specialist training through Sydney Eye Hospital and Moorfields Eye Hospital in the UK. He currently holds teaching positions at Sydney University and UNSW affiliated hospitals and VMO positions at Royal Prince Alfred , St Vincent’s and Sydney Eye Hospitals. He is an examiner for the Royal College of Ophthalmologists for both Australia and New Zealand. Dr Lowe enjoys participating in charitable/pro-bono surgical training and teaching here and overseas.

Dr Kenneth Ho is a Consultant Physician and Endocrinologist with clinical and research interests in Diabetes, Obesity and General Endocrinology. He trained at St George, and Bankstown hospitals and researched at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research. He previously received a full-time National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) scholarship and other diabetes grants for his PhD studies on the role of iron chelation for the treatment of glucose, lipids and obesity. He received the Novartis Young Scientist award from the Endocrine Society of Australia in 2009. His research was published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation in 2010. Dr Ho currently holds Visiting Medical Officer and Staff Specialist appointments at Ryde, Macquarie University, Campbelltown and Camden teaching hospitals in Sydney and provides medical governance for the high risk foot service at Camden hospital. Dr Ho is a Clinical Associate Professor with the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at Macquarie University and Conjoint Associate Professor with Western Sydney University, teaching from undergraduate through to post-graduate medical, and Physician training. Dr Ho has supervised research scholars for Doctor of Advanced Medicine program through Macquarie University and is the Director of Physician Education and the Chairman of the General Clinical Training Council at Ryde Hospital. Dr Ho has published in the areas of diabetes, vitamin D, and general endocrinology; presented lectures to GPs, optometrists, pharmacists and the general public on diabetes, thyroid disorders, pituitary disorders and osteoporosis; and previously received letters of appreciation and commendation from the Northern Sydney Local Health District and the Lions Club of Sydney Chinese Society for his public lectures. Dr Ho is fluent in Mandarin and in Cantonese.

I’m a postdoctoral research associate working in the Division of Psychology, Communication and Human Neuroscience at The University of Manchester. I research hearing loss in people with dementia living in care homes and in the community. Currently, I am investigating how common hearing loss is in people with dementia and how accessible hearing assessments and audiology services are for people with dementia. Prior to this, I completed my PhD on hearing loss within care homes and how to improve hearing care provided to residents with dementia. I worked with Rebecca Millman, Piers Dawes, Christopher Armitage and Iracema Leroi on this project.
I have a degree in Psychology and previously worked in care homes as a care assistant.