Cabrini Scientific Advisory Committee

Members

Professor Stephen Jane completed his medical degree at Monash University. He entered the physician training program at The Alfred, completing clinical/ laboratory haematology and a PhD under Professor Hatem Salem, Director of the Australian Centre for Blood Diseases. He then spent five years in the United States of America, the first three as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, and the remainder on the faculty at St Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. He returned to Australia in 1995 as a Wellcome Senior Research Fellow to the University of Melbourne at the Bone Marrow Research Laboratories in the Royal Melbourne Hospital. He became Director of the laboratories in 2000, a Principal Research Fellow of the NHMRC in 2005 and a Professor of Medicine at University of Melbourne in 2006. Professor Jane was appointed as the Head of Central Clinical School, Professor of Medicine, Monash University and Director of Research for The Alfred Hospital in 2011. He is also a member of the Clinical Haematology Service. In the six years since his appointment, the School has increased its competitive grant funding four-fold and has recruited over 400 new researchers and 30 laboratory heads. Professor Jane has a range of research interests investigating both developmental and acquired disorders of the blood and skin in mouse models.

Professor Chris Bain is an experienced clinician and health information management and technology (IMT) practitioner with a unique set of qualifications, and a unique exposure to broad aspects of the healthcare system in Australia. He has extensive experience in designing, leading and running operational IMT functions in healthcare organisations. His chief interests are in digital health, the usability of technology in healthcare, data and analytics, software and system evaluation, technology ecosystems and the governance of IT and data. Chris is one of the very few doubly qualified (in medicine and IT) health informaticians in the country and spent the first 27 years of his career in the operational side of the health industry. For the first 12 years of this period he worked as a medical practitioner, then the last 15 years in health IMT. He has held leadership positions in Australasian Institute of Digital Health and is often called upon to participate in jurisdictional committees on topics around Digital Health. In November 2017, Chris commenced at Monash University as the inaugural Professor of Practice in Digital Health. He is based in the Faculty of IT and also has adjunct appointments with the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences and works with many stakeholders across Faculties and Institutes at Monash, and with its health system partners.

Dr Emma Baker joined Cabrini in May 2015 and is the Director of Medical Research at Cabrini Research. Emma has a laboratory research background in epigenetics and preclinical testing in cancer models and is a previous recipient of National Health and Medical Research Council and Cure Cancer Australia Fellowships. At Cabrini, Emma has leadership oversight of the Clinical Care Research Program, oversees and is responsible for the production of research communications, events and publications, and is a member of the leadership team responsible for the development and delivery of the Cabrini Research strategy.

Dr Maree Brinkman was the primary carer of her husband who had metastatic colorectal cancer for nearly 10 years. She has a Bachelor of Science (Latrobe University) a Master of Nutrition and Dietetics, (Deakin University), and a PhD in Biomedical Sciences (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium). She worked as an Accredited Practicing Dietitian in Melbourne until April 2021, and now works in research for the Nutrition Biomed Research Institute. Maree holds honorary research positions at the Department of Complex Genetics and Epidemiology, School of Nutrition and Translational Research in Metabolism Maastricht University (The Netherlands), and at the Cancer Epidemiology Division of Cancer Council Victoria.

Professor Wendy Brown is an Upper GI and Bariatric Surgeon. She is the Programme Director for Surgical Services and Chair of the Monash University Department of Surgery at Alfred Health, the Director of the Oesophago-Gastric and Bariatric Unit at The Alfred Hospital as well as Clinical Director of the ANZ Bariatric Surgery Registry and Clinical Lead of the Victorian State Upper GI Cancer Registry. Her sub-specialist interests are oesophagogastric cancer, gastrooesophageal reflux disease and bariatric surgery. Her research interests focus on the health benefits from weight loss, physiology of upper GI procedures, optimal service delivery models for bariatric surgery and registry science. She collaborates with basic researchers exploring mechanisms of satiety, NASH and oesophageal cancer. She is Chair of the International Federation for Surgery for Obesity and Metabolic Disorders (IFSO) Global Registry, Chair of the Victorian Perioperative Consultative Council Surgical Sub-Committee, Past President of OSSANZ and ANZGOSA, Past Senior Examiner in General Surgery for the RACS and past Chair of the Scientific Committee of IFSO.

Professor Andrew Forbes received his PhD in Statistics from Cornell University, USA in 1990, with his thesis involving methodological issues in matched casecontrol studies. Following this, he worked at Ciba-Geigy Pharmaceuticals, USA until December 1991 as a postdoctoral fellow, gaining experience in methodology, design and analyses of clinical trials, and consultation with clinicians. He joined Monash University in January 1992, and heads the Biostatistics Unit, which consists of 10 staff. He has research interests in development of analytical methods for interrupted time series designs, the application of causal modelling principles to practical problems and latent variable methods. He has active roles in biostatistics coursework development and teaching for postgraduate students in biostatistics, in health/clinical research, and undergraduate students in medicine and biomedical science. He is a chief investigator on numerous research projects in the department and with external investigators, and is active in statistical consulting within the Faculty of Medicine, its affiliated institutes and for external bodies.