Experts

Healthed work with a team of general practitioners and medical professionals to ensure the highest quality education​

Associate Professor Raj Puranik is a consultant cardiologist at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, where he admits and manages acute patient presentations and liaises with the chronic care team at Alfred cardiology and local GPs.

Raj’s role at RPA includes managing coronary syndromes, running cardiac MRI services and supervision of medical/research students.

Raj runs a research program at the University of Sydney focusing on minimising invasive tests for heart disease and evaluating the role of cardiac MRI in congenital and acquired heart disease. He has published over 70 papers, mentored over 20 research students and is a Clinical Associate Professor.
Dr Jim Newcombe completed a combined degree program in Medicine and Public Health at the University of Sydney in 2005. After three years of generalist training, he specialised as a paediatrician at Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick, with a subspecialty in infectious diseases. Dr Newcombe undertook further training in adult infectious diseases at Royal North Shore Hospital and completed dual training as a clinical microbiologist at Pathology North and South Eastern Area Laboratory Services. He is an award-winning researcher and has published peer-reviewed journal articles on a wide range of infectious diseases and microbiology topics. Dr Newcombe has an interest in clinical governance and was a Board Director of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians from 2012-2014.
Wade Davis is an ethnographer, writer, photographer and filmmaker whose work has taken him from the Amazon to Tibet, Africa to Australia, Polynesia to the Arctic. An Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society from 2000 to 2013, he is currently professor of anthropology and the BC Leadership Chair in Cultures and Ecosystems at Risk at the University of British Columbia. Author of more than 20 books, including One River, The Wayfinders, Into the Silence, and Magdalena, he holds degrees in anthropology and biology and received his Ph.D. in ethnobotany, all from Harvard University.
Davis is the recipient of numerous awards including: The Explorers Medal, the highest award of the Explorers Club (2011), the Gold Medal of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society (2009), the 2002 Lowell Thomas Medal (The Explorer’s Club) and the 2002 Lannan Foundation $125,000 prize for literary non-fiction.
Dr Brooke Nickel (BSc Hons, MIPH, PhD) is a NHMRC Emerging Leader Research Fellow in The University of Sydney School of Public Health. Her research focuses on understanding the psychosocial impact of cancer diagnosis and treatment, and how to improve cancer communication and decision making. The work she has led has been published in high impact journals in the field including The BMJ, JAMA Network Open, JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, and JNCI. She has worked with the Department of Health and is currently working with BreastScreen programs on research related to understanding the benefits and harms of breast density notification in Australia.
Colombian-Canadian anthropologist, ethnobotanist, author, and photographer
Alicia is an Accredited Practising Dietitian with many years of experience in both Paediatrics and Adult Nutrition. Alicia is Senior Weight Management Dietitian at the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, The Children’s Hospital at Westmead