Dr Joel Collins is a consultant Clinical Haematologist (Physician).

He holds a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery from Griffith University in Queensland. He is a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, having completed his advanced training between the two major Queensland tertiary hospitals – the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital and the Princess Alexandra Hospital. Whilst completing his training, Dr Collins held the position of Chief Medical Registrar at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital.

Dr Collins currently holds an appointment as a Staff Specialist at the Toowoomba Base Hospital, and is credentialled at St Andrew’s Hospital (Toowoomba), and St Vincent’s Hospital (Toowoomba) and the Toowoomba Hospice.

Recognising that patients from the Darling Downs and Western Queensland prefer to be treated locally, Dr Collins aims to keep all patient care locally where this is possible.

Dr Collins has been working closely with the oncology staff and executive at St Andrew’s Hospital, and can now offer treatment for many high grade haematological cancers locally at St Andrew’s Hospital. Previously these patients were treated in Brisbane, or at the Base Hospital.

Dr Collins has published research in both local and international medical journals, and has been a speaker at a number of national conferences. He has ongoing active research interest in malignant haematology in particular, multiple myeloma. He is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Queensland, and the Rural Clinical School. His other professional memberships include Haematology Society of Australia and New Zealand (HSANZ), Australasian Lymphoma and Leukaemia Group (ALLG), American Society of Hematology (ASH) and the European Haematology Association (EHA).

Dr Collins was a recipient and current holder of one of five research fellowships for research into the immunobiology of myeloma.

Felicity Nelson is a science and health journalist with bylines in ScienceAlert, Guardian Australia, The Medical Republic and news.com. Her stories were published in The Best Australian Science Writing anthologies in 2020, 2019 and 2017. Felicity runs a science writing and strategy consulting business called Frogs and Stars.

Associate Professor Peter van Wijngaarden is an ophthalmologist and researcher. He is Deputy Director of the Centre for Eye Research Australia and an Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Melbourne. He is Clinical Director of KeepSight, a national eye check reminder system for Australians with diabetes. He also serves on the Medical and Research Committees of the Macular Disease Foundation of Australia and the Board of Australian Vision Research.

Prof Sean Hood is a psychiatrist in public and private practice. He is Head of the University of Western Australia, Division of Psychiatry in the Medical School, and Associate Dean with the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences. Prof Hood’s primary research focus is in clinical psychopharmacology of anxiety disorders.

Associate Professor Homayoun (Homi) Zargar is a urological surgeon with fellowship training in uro-oncology and advanced laparoscopic and robotic surgery.

Originally from Iran, Homi is a New Zealand trained urologist practicing in Melbourne, Australia since July 2015.
Homi is a strong advocate of patient centered care, with emphasis on forming quality therapeutic relationships with patients and improving their health journey. Homi provides comprehensive care for all urological cancers. He also treats general urological conditions including kidney stones, benign prostate enlargement, investigation of elevated PSA and blood in the urine.
Homi is a consultant urologist at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and a senior clinical lecturer at the department of surgery at the University of Melbourne. He also has private hospital appointment at Epworth Richmond.
Over the years of training Homi has developed an extensive academic and international profile and has published widely in the fields of minimally-invasive urology and uro-oncology with particular emphasis on kidney, bladder and prostate cancer.

Homi is a member of Kidney Health Australia advisory board and an Associate Editor of the Minerva Urologica E Nefrologica and BMC Urology. Homi is a regular reviewer for all major urological journals including European Journal of Urology, Urology, The Journal of Urology and many others, and has been awarded the prestigious European urology reviewer of the month prize.

Dr Monique Watts is a heart failure cardiologist and specialist in women’s heart disease who works at the Epworth and the Alfred Hospitals.

Dr Watts completed advanced training at the Royal Melbourne Hospital before undertaking a fellowship in advanced heart failure and transplantation at the Alfred Hospital. Dr Watts manages patients with all types of heart failure in both the inpatient and outpatient setting. In recent years Dr Watts has also established a cardiac clinic in North Central Victoria to improve access to specialist care for rural citizens. Dr Watts has also lead the development of the Women’s Heart Clinic at the Alfred Hospital which offers specialised care for patients suffering conditions more commonly seen in women such as the syndrome of MINOCA and contributory causes such as coronary artery vasospasm, spontaneous coronary artery dissection and microvascular dysfunction. Dr Watts is actively involved in clinical research, with multiple current projects in progress in the area of women’s heart disease. She also teaches for the University of Melbourne Clinical School.

Andrew Browning is an Australian trained obstetrician who has spent his entire professional career volunteering in Africa as a medical missionary specializing in obstetric fistula surgery.
He has been involved in the care of over 12,000 fistula patients across Africa and SE Asia and is considered a world expert in his field. He was involved in establishing charities in Ethiopia and Tanzania to build and run free maternity hospitals for the poor, to prevent fistula and to train midwives in clinical skills. These charities and hospitals have overseen the safe delivery of over 100,000 women to date and trained nearly 1000 midwives in clinical skills. He co-founded the Barbara May Foundation in Australia to fund those hospitals.
He has been integral to starting fistula services in several countries around Africa and SE Asia has developed new surgical techniques that are now standard practice across the globe. He oversees the FIGO (International Federation of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists) global fistula surgery training program as the past-chair of the FIGO Fistula and Genital Trauma Committee and chair of the FIGO Expert Advisory Group on Obstetric Fistula. He advises the UN and WHO on fistula and related issues and he is a frequent keynote speaker at international medical conferences.
He over 60 scientific publications, books and chapters and co-wrote the main fistula textbook with Brian Hancock which is distributed to all FIGO fistula trainees.
He was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia for his services to international maternal health.

After graduating from Medicine at Monash University in 1983, Dr Clayton Thomas developed a special interest in the area of Rehabilitation and Pain Medicine.

Professor Hugh Barry, Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Melbourne, asked Dr Thomas to establish a Rehabilitation Pain Service for the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Essendon campus, developing new pain programs and researching patient outcomes.

During his time with the RMH, in 1993 Dr Thomas was awarded a Churchill Fellowship by the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, in order to develop a predictive model for back injury to promote high quality rehabilitation with a durable outcome (USA, UK).

Given the success of the service and following Professor Barry’s retirement, Dr Thomas held the position of Acting Director of the Rehabilitation Unit, Professorial Unit at the University of Melbourne, for over three years. During his tenure Dr Thomas developed a comprehensive pain clinic at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, which remains a leading pain service within Victoria.
In 1996, Dr Thomas established a pain service at Dorset Rehabilitation Centre, to service the northwest region of Melbourne. In 1997, he was appointed Director of Medical Services at the newly privatised Victorian Rehabilitation Centre (previously the TAC Rehabilitation Centre) in Glen Waverley, and established a Pain Unit, to cater for the large group of chronic pain patients following motor-vehicle trauma.

In 1999, Dr Thomas completed his Masters in Public Health at Monash University, his thesis was on ‘The Measurement of Outcome after Major Orthopaedic Trauma’.
In 2001, Dr Thomas was granted Fellowship of the Faculty of Pain Medicine (FFPMANZCA) Australian & New Zealand College of Anaesthetists. This was through a Grandfather Clause, in recognition of his expertise and contribution in the area of pain medicine.

Dr Chang completed her medical degree at the University of New South Wales with Honors, in 2002. She completed basic physician training in St Vincent Hospital, Sydney, then completed advanced training in neurology at Royal North Shore Hospital and Movement disorder fellowship Westmead Hospital.

She completed neurology fellowship at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota in United States in 2012. She then spend a year as the Movement Disorder Fellow at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City, New York, where she was awarded a clinical movement disorder fellowship by the Dystonia Medical Research Foundation.

Currently she is working as a neurologist at Westmead Hospital and has more than 10 years of experience in Parkinson disease advanced therapies such as Duodopa intestinal gel, deep brain stimulation and apomorphine injection/infusion since 2010. She co-authored scientific papers in the natural history of dystonia, Huntington disease and the quality of life of Parkinson disease patients on Duodopa therapy and improvement in freezing of gait and dyskinesia of patients on 24-hour Duodopa therapy.

She completed a postdoctorate research degree at University of Sydney on the pathophysiology of dystonia in 2020. She sees Huntington disease and Parkinson disease patients at Westmead Public Hospital and general neurology and movement disorder patients in private rooms at Westmead.

A/Prof Lauren Sanders is a neurologist and Head of the Stroke Unit at St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne. She has expertise in stroke, headache and neuromuscular conditions and is a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne. A/Prof Sanders is co-secretary of the Australian and New Zealand Headache Society and contributes to evidence review for the Australian Stroke Guidelines. Her PhD examined management of Transient Ischaemic Attack and she recently completed a Master of Clinical Education. She is an accredited supervisor with the RACP and immediate past chair of the St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne Division of Medicine.

General Practitioner (and Rare Cancers Australia Content Manager)
Dr Emily Isham grew up in the Democratic Republic of Congo. After high school in rural Victoria, she undertook her medical training at The University of Melbourne, graduating in 2007. Since then, she moved to Tasmania with her husband, where she undertook some obstetrics & gynaecology, and paediatric training, a Masters of International Public Health, and specialised in General Practice. She also established an NGO back in the DR Congo.
She and her husband have had 5 children over the last 12 years, but had to parent one of their sons through cancer, and, devastatingly, he died at age 6. Outside of work, Emily enjoys long-distance running, music and spending time outdoors with her children.”
I’m not primarily a skin cancer doctor – I’m a GP with extra skin cancer qualifications.