CHHHS Research & Innovation Symposium: Program

A clinician-researcher, he works to prevent and manage chronic disease and improve the well-being of people living with chronic disease, with a focus on northern and central Australia. He has conducted national and international clinical trials; analysed the costs, benefits and health outcomes of different ways of delivering health care in urban, rural and remote areas; worked to improve cross-cultural health communication; and to address inequity in access to care for First Nations Australians.
Professor Cass was President of the Australia and New Zealand Society of Nephrology (2014-16); Chair of the Australian MBS Review Renal Clinical Committee (2016-17); a Director of the Australian Clinical Trials Alliance (2012-17); and Board Director for Top End Area Health Services (2015-17). He is a member of the Governing Council and Management Committee for the Central Australia Academic Health Sciences Network, Deputy Chair of the NT Clinical Senate and a Fellow of the Academy of Health and Medical Sciences.

Professor Anthony Smith is the Director of The University of Queensland's Centre for Online Health. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Digital Health and Telehealth at the University of Southern Denmark, in Odense, Denmark.
Professor Smith has around 20 years research experience mainly focussed on the planning, implementation and evaluation of new telehealth applications for clinicians and patients - in metropolitan, regional and remote areas.
Professor Smith has developed and sustained an exemplary international track record in the establishment and evaluation of telehealth, principally in paediatrics and more recently in the adult and aged care disciplines. In collaboration with the Royal Children's Hospital in Brisbane, he was instrumental in establishing and managing the Queensland Telepaediatric Service (QTS) from 2000 to 2015. During this time over 23,000 teleconsultations were provided for children all throughout Queensland – in specialties including burns care, cardiology, dermatology, endocrinology, neurology, orthopaedics and psychiatry.
Specific research interests include the evaluation of feasibility, cost-effectiveness and diagnostic accuracy of telemedicine applications. Major research achievements have included the evaluation of wireless (robot) videoconference systems in paediatric wards; home telemedicine consultations for children with chronic health conditions; email-based telemedicine support for children with burn injuries; and a community-based telemedicine health screening programme for Indigenous children in the South Burnett region of Queensland. Current projects include the evaluation of telehealth applications in primary care settings and Indigenous communities; the delivery of tele-rehabilitation services into primary schools; online mental health support services in remote locations; and discipline specific clinical telehealth services in Queensland.

Dr. Maxine Whittaker is a public health physician, applied medical anthropologist, and health systems researcher who is an international expert on improving the health systems and services to increase accessibility and acceptability of quality services to populations. She is a public health leader in One Health (human-animal-environment-plant interface) and a particular focus on equity and community ownership and engagement. She has worked in global health for more than 35 years and lived/worked in many countries in Africa, Asia, and Oceania. She has published more than 120 peer reviewed publications, (h Index of 31, i10 index of 67), and written several project documents for development partners and countries, policy briefings, briefing papers, book chapters and commissioned papers. Since 2010 Professor Whittaker has been a Principal, Chief, or Co-Investigator in more than $85,000,000 worth of nationally and internationally competitive, industry and other research grants and contracts. She is the Co-Chair of the Research Review Panel for the World Health Organisation’s Human Reproductive Program – with focus on sexual and reproductive health, gender, and gender-based violence, and Chair of the Western Pacific Region WHO Technical Advisory Group on Reaching Unreached Populations. She retired in October 2021 from the position of Dean of the College of Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Sciences at James Cook University. In 2017 she was awarded the Royal Australasian College of Physicians International Medal, in recognition of outstanding service in developing countries.

Dr. Sean Taylor is descendent of the Dauareb Tribe, one of the eight tribes of Mer Island in the Eastern Torres Strait region.
Sean has over twenty years of clinical experience in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health working at different levels across Australia in range of academic and research interest, as well as clinical practice. He started his career as an Indigenous Health Worker in his home community of Mer (Murray) Island in the mid-1990’s and later completed a Bachelor of Nursing Science, Graduate Certificate in Health: Diabetes Management & Education, Bachelor of Health Sciences (Honours) and later a Doctor of Public Health at James Cook University.
Sean currently holds joint appointments as the Executive Director Aboriginal Health for NT Health, Top End, and Deputy Director Indigenous Leadership and Engagement, Menzies School of Health Research based in Darwin and an Adjunct Associate Professor, Public Health and Tropical Medicine with James Cook University.
Sean is currently a member of National Health and Medical Research Council Principal Committee Indigenous Caucus and Consumer and Community Advisory Working Group and also a member of the National Partnering with Consumers Committee. Sean is the current Chair of NT Health, Top End, Big River and East Arnhem Partnering with Consumers Committee, Communicating for Safety Committee, Aboriginal Health Committee, Aboriginal Health Partnership Committee, LGBTQIA+ Committee and Multicultural Committee and Chair of the Reconciliation Action Plan Committee with Menzies School of Health Research and NT Health, Top End, Big River and East Arnhem. Sean is a co-investigator on multiple successful nationally competitive grants.