Launceston General Hospital

TAS Australia

Vanessa is a clinical psychologist based in Launceston with over 25 years experience working in public and private sectors in both mental and general health arenas. She is also a Local Pain Educator with Pain Revolution and currently works at Launceston General Hospital and in private practice with In-Balance Physiotherapy. Her current focus is on the development of brief psychologically focused early intervention programs for acute and chronic pain within acute services to help address the shortfall of accessible services for pain in regional areas.

Launceston General Hospital

TAS Australia

Dr Ianthe Boden is a Senior Research Fellow at UTAS’ School of Medicine and the Clinical Lead Physiotherapist for Perioperative Services at Launceston General Hospital. With a PhD on the prevention of postoperative pulmonary complications and a Master’s in Critical Care, Dr Boden’s research has been published in top medical journals and won major international awards. LIPPSMAck POP (preoperative physiotherapy prior to elective abdominal surgery) has been recognised as one of the top 20 Physiotherapy trials of all time. She is currently leading a consortium of 35 hospitals across 6 countries to assess the incidence of pulmonary complications and mortality after major surgery.

Tasmanian Department of Health

TAS Australia

As Chief Pharmacist Peter is the principal advisor to the Minister and Secretary in relation to the regulation of the manufacture, distribution and use of drugs of dependence, medicines poisons and therapeutic goods in Tasmania. 

Peter’s professional focus has been on promoting the judicious use of medicines and poisons in Tasmania by utilising contemporary agile risk-based regulation.  

Peter’s major achievements include:

• Design and implementation of:
• Australia’s first Real-Time Prescription Monitoring (RTPM) system DORA.
• Tasmania’s Controlled Access Scheme for the medical use of unproven cannabis products.
• Directing the 2020-21 periods of the Public Health Emergency Operations Centre (PHEOC) for COVID-19.

Royal Hobart Hospital

TAS Australia

Trudi is a staff specialist anaesthetist /pain specialist (and ex GP) at the Royal Hobart Hospital. During her years as clinical lead of the Acute Pain Service she has particularly tried to improve consistency of care and safety through enhanced staff resources and clearer processes. She has been involved in a number of opioid stewardship initiatives at the RHH and is part of the fledgling Tasmanian opioid stewardship programme’s core team. Outside of work she loves mountain biking, kayaking, bushwalking and just being outside!

Royal Melbourne Hospital

VIC Australia

Dr Ganguly is a young anaesthetic fellow trained in regional Australia, now engaged in pain fellowship at a Level 1 trauma centre. His main interests include, acute, transitional and chronic post surgical / trauma pain and the predictive factors leading to morbidity, chronicity and disability. Dr Ganguly also enjoys the educational opportunities of his role, both engaging with patients at a local level and other health professionals including global outreach.

Austin Health

VIC Australia

Dr Heldreich is a specialist anaesthetist trained in the UK and Australia. Her diverse training includes Emergency medicine, Pre-hospital care and Trauma. She has worked across many rural and urban settings throughout Australia. During her anaesthesia training she developed a particular interest in the acute management of patients with complex pain issues attending for surgery and completed further training time working with the Austin Chronic Pain Service. 2 years ago she started the Peri-Operative Pain management  and Planning service (POPP) at the Austin hospital and this has recently been expanded into an overarching perioperative pain service, providing bespoke pre-operative analgesic planning, close liaison with all key stake holders in the inpatient period and then follow up through a nurse led transition clinic in the post-operative period.

Launceston General Hospital

TAS Australia

Ms Emma Kinman has been involved in pain management for almost three years, as part of the team which began the Acute Pain Service at the Launceston General Hospital. She is passionate about ensuring there are safe structures for the care of advanced modalities for pain management and patient education.
Emma has been nursing for over 20 years, gaining a broad range of experience in a regional hospital, working most recently in anaesthetics and recovery. She has worked with an NGO in Africa and Nepal and is a member of the European Pain Federation and PIGNI.

Federal Street Pain Clinic

TAS Australia

Dr Chris Orlikowski is a specialist pain medicine physician. He is a fellow of the Faculty of Pain Medicine of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists. In the past, he was Director of the Acute Pain Service at the Royal Hobart Hospital for 5 years. He offers a wide range of procedures including spinal cord stimulators.

Tasmanian Health Service

TAS Australia

Viet is an Emergency Physician at the Royal Hobart Hospital where he also serves as the Director of Emergency Medicine Research. He is also Director of the  Tasmanian Emergency Medicine Research Institute (TASER) and EM discipline lead at the Tasmanian School of Medicine.

Tasmanian Health Service

TAS Australia

Ms Marjan van Velzen completed her nursing training  in 1982 followed by a 2 year theatre training specialising in anaesthetics in the Netherlands. She arrived in Australia in 1985  and started in the Royal Hobart Hospital in August 1985 as an anaesthetic nurse. In 2003, she started to do some relief shifts in the Acute Pain Service. Marjan applied for a permanent job in the APS in 2010  and has worked in the APS and anaesthetics since.