Chairman of the Board

John Edmonds studied Medicine at Sydney University, graduating in 1965. He undertook rheumatology training in England, initially at the MRC Rheumatism Unit in Taplow and subsequently at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith Hospital.

Returning to Australia in 1975, he was appointed as Staff Specialist in Rheumatology at St George Hospital in Sydney. With the appointment of other full time and visiting consultants in rheumatology he became Director of Rheumatology 1986-2006. His Conjoint appointment with the UNSW was as Senior Lecturer in Medicine 1979-87, and subsequently as Professor of Rheumatology. He has recently retired from the public hospital but retains his University appointment and continues a limited private practice.

He served the Australian Rheumatology Association as Honorary Secretary 1978-82, Vice-President 1981-85, President 1986-7 and Honorary Treasurer 1989-94. He was Secretary-General of the International Rheumatology Association, ILAR 1989-93. He has also had strong links with the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, particularly through its Examinations Committee as a Member of the Court of Clinical Examiners 1984-87, Committee Member 1987-94, Secretary 1993-99, Member of the Board of Censors 1996-99 and Member of the Written Exams Committee 1999-2004. He was President of the St George Hospital Medical Association 1983-6, has been a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Arthritis Australia since 2002, a Board Member of Arthritis NSW 2006-7. He was Sub-editor (Rheumatology) of the Aust NZ J Med (now the Internal Medicine Journal) and has served on the editorial or advisory boards of several international rheumatology journals including Rheumatology International, Annals of Rheumatic Disease, APLAR Journal of Rheumatology and Clinical and Experimental Rheumatology.

John has over 160 publications and during the course of his professional life has, at different times, undertaken research into the pathogenesis of ankylosing spondylitis, evidence-based physiotherapy techniques, MRI as an evaluation tool in RA and the value of therapeutic targets in RA control. Interests outside medicine include music, literature and sailing. In 2000, he gained an MA in Literature and in 2007 completed a Masters degree in Medical Humanities.

Deputy Chair

Associate Professor Moore graduated from the University of Sydney in 1979, then completed her MRCOG 1986 (Glasgow), FRACOG 1991, MD 1994, University of Liverpool, Merseyside, UK, Certified Urogynaecologist, (CU, RANZCOG) 1994. She is currently the Head of the Department of Urogynaecology at St George Hospital, Sydney.

Associate Professor Moore’s Clinical research projects have included the evaluation of vaginal rings for the treatment of stress incontinence (Introl, Contiform), the assessment of new anticholinergic drugs for detrusor overactivity, development of new outcome measures such as the St George Score and the Incontinence Cost Index. In addition, she undertook major projects for Australian government regarding outcome measures and the cost of incontinence and carried out first major longitudinal study of detrusor instability treatment outcomes. Established TGA approval for use of resiniferatoxin to treat refractory detrusor instability (only Australian centre).

Her Laboratory research projects involve immunohistochemistry, isolated organ bath pharmacology and molecular studies of receptors, to clarify the aetiology of detrusor overactivity (urge incontinence). Immunohistochemical localisation of sensory neuropeptides such as Substance P, neurokinin A, CGRP is undertaken. Studies of detrusor muscle contractility are carried out using an isolated micro-bath pharmacology apparatus, commissioned from Dept of Pharmacology at Oxford. Recently we have moved to molecular studies of muscarinic, purinergic and vanilloid receptors in the bladder, and have established cell culture of the urothelium and detrusor, allowing studies of ATP release. She has attracted major funding from the Australian Kidney Foundation, Ramaciotti Foundation, NHMRC and Australian Urological Foundation.

Kate Moore has authored over 90 peer-reviewed publications/book chapters, is an associate editor of the Journal of Neuro-urology & Urodynamics, and International Journal of Urogynaecology. Her textbook entitled “Urogynecology: Evidence Based Clinical Practice” is used widely by registrars in training, and she has co-edited the recently published second edition of “Pelvic Floor Re-education”.

She is also the Chair of a Committee of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Consultation on Incontinence, re health economics.

She has served on numerous national and international expert committees and research societies some of which include the International Continence Society, the IUGA and the CFA.

MEMBERSHIP OF SOCIETIES

• International Continence Society
• Interstitial Cystitis Association of USA
• Association of Continence Advisers, United Kingdom
• Eric (Enuresis Resource Information Centre), United Kingdom
• International Urogynaecology Association
• Continence Foundation of Australia

Board Treasurer

George Skowronski graduated from Monash University in 1974. His postgraduate training was in internal medicine and intensive care. He was one of the first Fellows of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) in intensive care medicine, completing his Fellowship in 1981. George’s training included time spent in London, Melbourne and Adelaide, and his 27-year specialist career includes various periods in Adelaide and Sydney.

George came to St George Hospital from Adelaide in 1995 as a Senior Specialist in intensive care and Director of the Intensive Care Unit at St George Private Hospital. At St George he has served periods as the Director of the Division of Critical Care and Chairman of the Senior Medical Staff Council. He also holds a conjoint appointment with the University of NSW as an Associate Professor of Critical Care.

George is an ex-President of the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society (ANZICS), an ex-chairman of the Intensive Care Specialist Advisory Committee of the RACP, and an ex-examiner for the former Faculty of Intensive Care. He chaired the Fees Committee of ANZICS and played a major role in developing the Medicare Fee Schedule for intensive care services in 1992. He was also instrumental in establishing the Clinical Trials Group of the Australian & New Zealand Intensive Care Society, which has produced a number of large-scale trials of international significance. He has also served as a State Councillor for the Australian salaried Medical Officers Association and an Adviser for the Heath Care Complaints Commission.

George is primarily a clinician rather than an academic, but has over 40 publications in diverse areas of intensive care medicine, including neurological disorders in intensive care and aspects of cardiovascular shock.

Board Secretary

Dr Gregory Davis was born in New Zealand, and graduated from the University of Auckland Medical School in 1980. After graduation Dr Davis completed his residency in Auckland before commencing specialist training in obstetrics and gynaecology. After two years of training he moved to England to complete his specialist examinations. While living in London for five years, Dr Davis continued his training in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Guy’s Hospital and completed an MD thesis on uterine cancer.

On leaving London Dr Davis moved to Adelaide in 1990 and, after completing his training in obstetrics and gynaecology, he worked as a staff specialist at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Adelaide and in private practice for two years before coming to Sydney.

Dr Davis was appointed as a staff specialist at St George Hospital in Kogarah, Sydney in February 1996 with responsibility for high risk obstetrics at the Hospital. Since that time he has worked closely with the physicians who look after medical problems in pregnancy to develop a Risk Associated Pregnancy service which is responsible for the care of women with medical problems having babies at St George Hospital. He has also worked with the midwives at the Hospital to establish community-based maternity care by teams of midwives working with medical staff which care for women antenatally, during and after labour and delivery. He has provided the medical support for the midwife-led care in the Birth Centre at St George Hospital. This led to the establishment in 2005 of the first public hospital-based home birth service in Australia.

For the past three years Dr Davis has been responsible for the supervision of the training of all the 140 junior doctors at St George Hospital in their first two or three years after graduation as the Director of Prevocational Education & Training. Dr Davis is also a member of the Prevocational Training Council for NSW which is responsible for overseeing training for this group of doctors state wide.

Dr Davis has research interests and publications in various aspects of hypertension in pregnancy, quality control in clinical care and implementing new models of maternity care. He was a Chief Investigator in the Midwifery Practice and Research Centre: an NHMRC Centre of Clinical Excellence in Hospital-based Research awarded to the Maternity Unit at St George Hospital between 1998-2001.

Dr Davis has a private obstetric practice looking after both high and low risk patients and a general gynaecology practice with particular interests in infertility and endometriosis.

Dr Davis and his wife live in the inner west of Sydney and have two teenage children. His interests are restricted to watching rugby, walking, reading murder mysteries and he is a keen cyclist, much to the horror of the rest of his family.

Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee

Professor Cook graduated with honours in Medicine from the University of Sydney in 1978, and was subsequently awarded his Doctorate in Medicine by the University of Sydney in 1989. He completed research fellowships at McMaster University, Ontario (1985-1986); the Medical College of Wisconsin (1987); and the University of Adelaide where he held the Gwendolyn Michell Senior Research Fellowship in Medicine (1988-1990).

He holds specialist qualifications in internal medicine (FRACP) specialising in gastroenterology and over the past 20 years he has built up a program of research into gastrointestinal motor disorders with a focus on pharyngo-oesophageal physiology, swallowing disorders, colonic motor function and the pathophysiology of severe constipation.

Professor Cook has attracted continuous funding from NH&MRC to support this research the past 19 years. He currently holds over $1.4 million in funding from NH&MRC and other sources; has 73 publications in peer reviewed journals and has written 40 book chapters and review articles; and serves on the editorial boards for the journals Dysphagia, and Neurogastroenterology and Motility. He has served on Grant Review panels for, and has provided expert peer review of grants submitted to NH&MRC for 20 years.

He has served on numerous national and international expert committees and research societies some of which include –

• Gastroenterological Society of Australia
• American Gastroenterology Association
• National Health and Medical Research Council (NH&MRC)
• International Society of Neurogastroenterology and Motility
• International Dysphagia Research Society (President 2003)
• Organisation Mondiale d’Etudes Spécialisées sur les Maladies de l’Oesophage
• International Society for Diseases of the Esophagus.
• Greater Metropolitan Clinical Taskforce (GMCT)

Additional research interests include: correlation between symptoms and physiological measures in gut disease, sensory perception and afferent nerve dysfunction in the functional gastrointestinal diseases as well as the conduct of clinical trials in gastrointestinal disorders.

Professor Beng Hock Chong, MBBS (Malaya), PhD(Sydney), FRCP, FRACP, FRCPA. Professor

Professor Chong graduated with MBBS from the University of Malaya in 1972, and subsequently completed a PhD in Medicine at the University of Sydney in 1987.

He has dual specialist qualifications in Clinical Haematology /Internal Medicine (FRACP) and Pathology (Laboratory Haematology) and over the past 20 years he has built up a program of research in Thrombosis and Haemostasis, with a focus on both basic science and clinical aspects of platelets (basic research: gene regulation of platelet production from marrow stem cells; translation / clinical research: mechanisms, diagnosis and treatment of immune platelet disorders).

He currently holds over $3 million per annum in NHMRC Program (shared with other investigators) and ARC grants, as well as $200,000 in other grant funding. Professor Chong has 136 publications in peer-reviewed journals, book/book chapters and invited reviews and has served on the editorial board of the Journal of Thrombosis and Hemostasis (2001-2003) and Thrombosis and Haemostasis (1997-2001).

In addition, Professor Chong has served on various boards and committees (past and present), including –

• Foundation President, Australasian Society of Thrombosis & Haemostasis (1995-1997);
• Chair, Scientific and Standardisation Committee Meeting (2005),
• Chairman, Platelet Immunology Subcommittee (2001-2004), & Co-Chair, Platelet Immunology Subcommittee (1997-2001, 2004- present), of the International Society on Thrombosis & Haemostasis (ISTH);
• Member, Organizing Committee, ISTH Congress, Sydney August 6-12, 2005; Member, Haemophilia Advisory Council, NSW Health (1998-2001);
• Member of Scientific Advisory Committee and Publication Committee (2002-present),
• International Medical Prevention Registry on Venous Thromboembolism, based at the Centre for Outcomes Research, University of Massachusetts Medical School, USA; Member of Australia and NZ Experts Working Party on Prevention and Treatment on Venous Thromboembolism (VTE) (national VTE treatment guidelines),
• International Experts Panel on Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP).

He has served on the Grant Review and Interviewing panel for NH&MRC (1992) and has been a reviewer of research grants for NHMRC, National Heart Foundation, NSW Cancer Council, and other Funding bodies overseas.

Professor Chong is frequently invited to speak on his research at international and national scientific meetings, hospitals, universities and research institutes in USA, Europe and Asia including visiting professorships at universities overseas. His other research interests include epidemiology and clinical trials of novel therapies for thrombotic and bleeding disorders, in particular Deep Vein Thrombosis, Pulmonary Embolism and ITP.

Professor John Kearsley

Professor John H Kearsley MB BS (Hons Syd) FRACP FRANZCR PhD (Qld)

Professor Kearsley is currently the Director of the Department of Radiation Oncology at St George Hospital and the Professor of Medicine (Conjoint), at the University of NSW and University of Wollongong.

Professor Kearsley graduated with Honours in Medicine from the University of Sydney in 1977. He completed specialist training in the fields of Radiation Oncology and Medical Oncology in 1984. He was awarded a PhD degree (University of Queensland) in 1992 for research work conducted at the Institute of Medical Research in the field of head and neck cancer. Professor Kearsley was also honorary medical officer for the Karuna Hospice Service in Brisbane (1989-1992).

Professor Kearsley was an intern at St George Hospital in 1977, and he returned as Director of Radiation Oncology in 1993 to assist in the expansion of cancer services at St George Hospital. Professor Kearsley has been involved in major fundraising campaigns over the past 15 years and he played a role in attracting approximately $4million of fundraising money to St George Hospital. Professor Kearsley has in excess of 100 publications in peer-reviewed journals and he has research interests in clinical radiation oncology and radiohypersensitivity.

For an 18 month period 2006/2007, Professor Kearsley was Area Director of Cancer Services for the South Eastern Sydney Illawarra Area Health Service. Professor Kearsley has a major interest in medical student teaching and a holistic approach to patient care.

Professor Richard Morris

Brett Wright

Dr Brett Wright has an extensive background in human resource management derived from working in a range of line management, academic and consulting roles. He joined St George Bank Ltd in July 2000 as the Group Executive Human Resources.

In his current role Brett is responsible to the Managing Director for all aspects of the people strategy for the St George Group of over 9000 employees. This has included developing and implementing human resource programs aimed at providing St.George with competitive advantage through people in an increasingly competitive financial services market.

Brett has original qualifications in engineering, an MBA from Sydney University and a PhD in Organisational Behaviour from the University of Western Australia where he also holds the role of Adjunct Professor.

Cherie Burton

Cherie is a member of the Australian Labour Party, a member of the NSW Legislative Assembly and the member for Kogarah. She became the member for Kogarah in March 1999 and was Minister for Housing from August 2005 until April 2007. During this time, Cherie was also the Minister Assisting the Minister for Health. Prior to this she was the Parliamentary Secretary to NSW Premier, Bob Carr.

Cherie is an active member of her electorate – an area that covers 20sq/km and has a population of over 70,000.

Danny Robinson

Danny Robinson was delighted to join the Foundation as a Director in 2007.

Danny was a member of a chartered accountant’s firm between 1966 and 1974 and was appointed Secretary of the St George Leagues Club in 1977.

Danny has a long association with the St George Rugby Leagues Club and became the General Manager in 1986. He was also a Director of the St George Illawarra Rugby League Football Club. Between 1982 and 1986 he was a director of St George Hospital and was Vice-President of the New South Wales Rugby League between 1992 and 1998. Danny also serves on the Board of the St George Bank Foundation.

Peter Christopher

Peter Christopher has a 30-year career in newspapers as a writer, editor and general manager.

Peter currently holds two positions with Fairfax Media: Southern Region General Manager, in charge of The St George and Sutherland Shire Leader, and Editor-In-Chief of community newspapers. He has previously held senior positions on metropolitan and regional newspapers. He has been Chief of Staff at The Sydney Morning Herald, Fairfax's Group Olympic Editor for the Sydney and Atlanta Olympics and sports editor at both the SMH and The Sun-Herald.

Peter was General Manager of Illawarra Newspapers in Wollongong for five years, where he also served on three boards, including the Illawarra Business Chamber, a subsidiary of Australian Business Ltd.

Tracey Burton

Tracey Burton joined the Medical Research Foundation as a Director soon after its inception in 2007. Tracey is the Chief Executive Officer of St George Private Hospital, which is a 206 bed, acute tertiary facility, owned by Ramsay Health Care, Australia’s largest private hospital operator. St George Private Hospital, together with the St George Hospital and numerous allied health centres make up the very substantial medical precinct of Kogarah, serving the local Community and also offering their highly specialised services to interstate and overseas patients.

Tracey has dedicated her career to the Australian Health Care system and has held positions in the Public, Charitable and Private Health Care Sectors in both New South Wales and Queensland. Prior to joining Ramsay Health Care, Tracey held a number of senior leadership roles including General Manager, Corporate Services for St Vincent’s and Mater Health, Sydney and Executive Director, Mater Private Hospital Brisbane.

Tracey holds a Bachelor of Health Administration (UNSW) and recently graduated from the Australian Graduate School of Management with a Master of Business Administration (Executive)