Faculty

Ramana Balasubramaniam is a Specialist General Surgeon focused on abdominal wall surgery in Melbourne. He has recently relocated to Australia after spending 3 decades as a surgeon in India. He is known to be a thought leader in the field of abdominal wall reconstruction, and a practising bariatric and general surgeon since many years. Dr. Ramana has been at the forefront of advanced laparoscopic surgery
for nearly 3 decades and has done over 25,000 cases, including laparoscopic biliary-enteric anastomoses, foregut surgeries, Whipple’s and other pancreatic surgeries, colorectal, endoscopic neck surgery, retroperitoneoscopic urology and other advanced procedures. He is now sharply focused on teaching hernia surgery. He is well versed in open, laparoscopic and robotic platforms
alike. He is currently working on advanced abdominal wall reconstructive techniques in ventral hernias including fascial traction in the management of giant incisional hernias. He was part of the historic first global study on the eTEP approach to ventral hernias, and is considered the pioneer of the AWR (Abdominal Wall Reconstruction) revolution in India. He has described the signs and landmarks of retromuscular anatomy in eTEP procedures and studied the outcomes of complex hernia repairs involving drains.
He has recently published two international books on hernia surgery, including the first book on eTEP hernia procedures. He teaches hernia workshops and courses throughout the world. He has founded the AWR Surgeons’ Community that has around 6500 members currently and is a highly sought after speaker and coach in international conferences as well as meetings across the world. He mentors over 1300 surgeons who constitute a community known as the Ab Wall Tribe. He is an invited faculty for European Hernia Society, American Hernia Society and for Harvard Medical School Minimally Invasive and Novel Therapeutics (MINT) events, among many others. He has multiple publications including editorials in surgical journals and chapters in international surgical books. He enjoys operating privileges
in hospitals in every major city in India. He has multiple interests in life, including mentoring and coaching, strength training and rehab, outdoor activities, wildlife photography and travelling. He is a passionate dog lover.

Adam is an Intensive Care Paramedic in the NSW Ambulance Special Operations Unit (SOU). He currently works as a Tactical Paramedic in Sydney and is a fellow of the Australian Tactical Medicine Association (ATMA).

Colonel Anthony Chambers has served in the Australian Army for more than thirty years, commissioned when he was an intern in 1995. His current role is as the Senior Medical Officer at the Directorate of Army Health. He has held a number of command appointments including both company and unit command, and has served overseas on numerous operations including to East Timor, Bougainville, Iraq, Afghanistan, Ukraine and disaster relief in Banda Aceh following the Boxing day tsunami. In his civilian role he is a general surgeon specialising in surgical oncology at St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney, and was Head of Department from 2018 to 2023. He was the on call trauma surgeon during the hospital’s response to the Bondi Junction mass casualty event in April 2024.

Vimlesh Dhir is a Transfusion professional and current RCPA Scientific Fellowship Trainee with extensive experience in blood bank. He is actively involved in supporting trauma and emergency transfusion services, with a strong focus on optimising laboratory workflows and improving turnaround times in high-demand clinical environments.
Vimlesh serves as a NATA Assessor, a member of NSWHP Transfusion Clinical Stream and ANZSBT, where he engages with the broader transfusion community to support best practices and ongoing advancements in the field. Vimlesh is particularly focused on bridging operational laboratory practices with clinical needs, enhancing patient safety, and improving the delivery of blood and blood products during critical events such as massive haemorrhage protocols.

Oliver is a NSW Ambulance Special Operations trained Intensive Care Paramedic and is currently rostered to the Tactical Paramedic Team working with NSW Police.

Dr Fitzgerald is a General and Trauma Surgeon at Canberra Hospital. She has previously filled leadership positions as Director of the ACT Trauma Service and Clinical Director Surgery for Canberra. She is a RACS Councillor, previous Chair and Committee member of RACS ACT, and regularly contributes as faculty at Australian Trauma conferences and courses. Dr Fitzgerald is a Commander in the Navy Health Reserves, having joined the Royal Australian Navy in 1991 as an undergraduate medical student. She served in a number of establishments and ships and completed many deployments. She has a passion for trauma systems of care and is committed to further developing Surgical Services and trauma care across Canberra and its surrounding regions. Outside of surgery, she enjoys quality time with family and friends, appreciating the importance of a healthy work-life balance.

Associate Professor Lai Heng Foong, BMBS, FACEM, MHS (International Health), BA(Hons)

A/Prof Foong is a Senior Emergency Specialist based in Sydney, Australia, who has a passion for Public Health and Disaster preparedness, climate change and health impacts, Indigenous Health and the social determinants of health. She has recently been appointed the Principal Research Fellow at the Heat and Health Research Centre, University of Sydney. She is involved in groundbreaking work to build resilience to a warming planet across the human lifespan by undertaking research that understands the underlying mechanisms of heat vulnerability.

She is the Chair of the Public Health and Disaster Committee of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM). She is the Chair of the Public and Environmental Health Special Interest Group of the International Federation for Emergency Medicine (IFEM). She works at the intersection of Emergency Medicine, public health and health inequity, including trauma. She has conducted research and been an advocate for women affected by domestic violence.

A/Prof Foong has co-authored a chapter on Emergency Medicine in a Climate Crisis in the Routledge Handbook of Climate Change and Health System Sustainability 2024, a chapter on Public Health in Cameron’s Textbook of Adult Emergency Medicine 2025, and a chapter on Children in a Disaster Response, Cameron’s Textbook of Paediatric Emergency Medicine in 2023. She has published in peer-reviewed journals on topics related to COVID-19 preparedness and impacts, domestic violence, heat and health and health impacts of climate change.

Andrea Herring is a Registered Nurse who has been involved in critical care, emergency and trauma nursing during her extensive career. Andrea has held a variety of clinical, educational and leadership roles at Hospital, District and State level in the NSW Health System, has worked clinically in Aeromedical Retrieval nationally and is currently the Director of Clinical Governance for NSW Ambulance. Her clinical speciality areas of interest are trauma, critical care, aeromedical retrieval and disaster management and particularly systems, teams and human factors for patient safety. Andrea has published in international peer reviewed journals, was an original member of the Australian Emergency Nursing Journal Editorial Committee, has co-authored a book chapter on Trauma Systems and is a peer reviewer for the International Journal “Injury”. Andrea has presented at and been an invited speaker at many local and national meetings on trauma systems/trauma management and education for clinicians, both in hospitals and within the aeromedical retrieval environment. Andrea is a long-standing member of the Australian and New Zealand Trauma Society (previously the Australasian Trauma Society) where she served on the National Executive for over 16 years, is an Honorary Life Member and previously was an International Director at Large on the Board of the Society of Trauma Nurses (USA). In the early 2000’s Andrea, along with Professor Danny Cass and Trish McDougall, established the NSW Institute of Trauma and Injury Management (NSW ITIM). Andrea is a Simulation Instructor with a special interest in interprofessional teams, human factors and communication skills and was involved in delivering trauma and resuscitation training for the Australian Army, pre deployment to operations in Afghanistan. Since 2020 Andrea has held senior Clinical Governance roles as Executive Director Patient Safety and Experience for St Vincent’s Health Network Sydney, which included a lead role during their COVID response, Head of Clinical Governance and Head of Clinical Operations and Governance for private organisations until her current appointment in January 2025 as the Director of Clinical Governance for NSW Ambulance.

Kerry Hitos, PhD, FACBS

Professor Kerry Hitos is the Executive Director for the Westmead Research Centre for Evaluation of Surgical Outcomes in the Department of Surgery at Westmead Hospital. She is the Vice President of the International Union of Angiology (Australia and New Zealand) and is part of the leadership team for the Perioperative Care of Surgical Patients, Clinical Academic Group with Sydney Health Partners. She graduated from the School of Physiology and Pharmacology at the University of New South Wales and received her PhD in Medicine in the Discipline of Surgery at the University of Sydney. She has further postgraduate qualifications from the Centre of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Newcastle. Professor Hitos has expertise in conducting high level scientific clinical research in cardiovascular disease, diabetes, surgery, emergency medicine, trauma, transplantation and translational research. She is recognised nationally and internationally for her work in thrombosis and haemostasis with a special interest in trauma and orthopaedics. Academically, Professor Hitos designed, developed and coordinated three units of the Master of Surgery Program in the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney. This included innovation in surgery, surgical research and evaluation as well as scientific communication for surgeons. She is a member of the Venous Thromboembolism Prevention Expert Advisory Group for the Centre of Excellence Commission and in the past Co-Chaired the New South Wales Design Working Group for Venous Thromboembolism Prevention. Professor Hitos holds several positions on editorial boards and is an invited reviewer for multiple journals. The quality and impact of her research is recognised nationally and internationally through several awards. Professor Hitos has had numerous invited presentations including national and international chairmanships. She has published over 150 research studies, articles, letters, abstracts and editorials in well reputed journals including the Journal of the American Medical Association, Circulation, Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis, Journal of Acute Care Surgery, Emergency Medicine, Injury, Emergency Medicine Australasia, Transplantation, World Journal of Surgery, Thrombosis, Internal Medicine Journal and British Journal of Surgery.

Dr Jarmin is a Trauma and General Surgeon currently based in Perth, Western Australia. He is a full time Consultant at the State Major Trauma Unit and is currently the Deputy Director of Trauma Services in Royal Perth Hospital. He is also an active Consultant in the RPH Department of General Surgery, participating in the Acute Surgery Unit roster. He is also Supervisor of the Surgical Stepdown (Trauma) Unit and Director of Clinical Training (Surgical) at Bentley Hospital. He has had extensive experience in resource limited environments having worked as a War Surgeon for Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) and EMERGENCY (Life Support for Civilian War Wounded) as well as ASPEN Medical in different conflict zones and disaster areas around the world. He has completed Trauma Fellowships at Liverpool Hospital in Sydney and John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle NSW.

Lilly is a Trauma and General Surgeon and the Deputy Director of the St George Hospital Trauma Service. After completing her FRACS in General Surgery in 2017, Lilly completed a two-year Surgical Oncology & Melanoma Fellowship followed by a one year Trauma and Acute Care Surgery Fellowship at St Michaels and Sunnybrook Hospitals in Toronto, Canada. Her main interests within Trauma include education, in particular the training of high performing trauma teams, and also systems improvement in the way trauma care is delivered.

Dr Ramanathan Lakshmanan is an Intensive Care Physician and senior clinical leader in the South Western Sydney Local Health District, serving as Executive Clinical Director of Fairfield Hospital and ICU Director at Campbelltown Hospital. With more than two decades of experience across critical care, trauma, ECMO, CRRT, and neuro intensive care, he plays a pivotal role in advancing clinical quality, education, and multidisciplinary team leadership.
He is a Conjoint Senior Lecturer at UNSW and Western Sydney University and has contributed to national and international research in organ donation, critical care quality, delirium, ultrasound education, and CRRT, including facility leadership roles in the BEST DKA and ANZICS PROEMS studies. He is also part of the WeCare group, ARC Linkage Grant recipient for organ donation awareness.
A recognised advocate for equitable organ donation, Dr Lakshmanan leads work on co created community videos to build trust and familiarity among migrant communities and improve culturally informed health communication. He also highlights systemic inequities affecting Sydney’s Indian community—particularly gaps related to lack of accessible information, cultural complexities, and resulting inaction in donor registration—promoting community led, culturally safe solutions.
Deeply engaged with the community, he serves as President of Nagarathar Sangam Australia Inc., advises the WeCARE Organ Donation Awareness initiative, and volunteers in Tamil language education. His work integrates clinical excellence, research leadership, and culturally grounded advocacy, strengthening both hospital systems and the diverse communities they serve.

Mary Langcake is a Trauma and Upper GIT surgeon, and is the Director of Trauma at St George Hospital, Sydney. As a Wing Commander in the Royal Australian Air Force, Mary has front line experience as a military surgeon in Afghanistan. She is a Past Chair of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, NSW Regional Committee. She is currently a member of the NSW Institute of Trauma and Injury Management Education Committee and previously served on the ITIM Executive Committee. Mary is strongly committed to the education of medical, nursing, and allied health staff and is currently enrolled in a Master of Surgical Education at the University of Melbourne. She has also held numerous leadership positions, including with the RACS NSW Education and Research Committee, and the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons - Surgeons as Educators Committee. In addition to her many roles, Mary is a strong advocate for the wellbeing of doctors, which has included calling for better understanding of psychological distress within the profession.

Dr. Suhrid Lodh is the Head of Interventional Radiology at St. George Hospital and a Conjoint Lecturer at UNSW. A pioneer of clinical IR in Sydney, he established the St. George IR Clinic in 2016 and led the department's redevelopment.
His clinical expertise focuses on advanced embolization, interventional oncology, and pain management. Dr. Lodh has been instrumental in modernizing trauma care at St. George, spearheading the implementation of OR1, a cutting-edge hybrid Angio-CT system. This "one-stop shop" facility allows for the immediate diagnosis and life-saving intervention of critically injured trauma patients within a single clinical suite.
In addition to his clinical leadership, he serves as the Deputy Chair of the Medical Staff Council.

Patrick Liston is an intensivist, anaesthetist and retrievalist. He works at Liverpool and Bankstown Hospitals and is a specialist on the Careflight Helicopter. He has also worked overseas in conflict zones.

DR Peter McCanny is a staff specialist in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Liverpool Hospital in Sydney, Australia. He is also affiliated with the South Western Sydney Clinical School at the University of New South Wales and Macquarie University. He is known for his work in critical care echocardiography and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO)

Elissa is an Intensivist and clinician researcher. She is a full-time Intensive Care Specialist in the Australian Army through which she works at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital. She also holds honorary academic titles at the University of Queensland and Monash University. Her PhD was on the role of the endothelial glycocalyx in severe trauma, and she is building a research program that spans the management of severe burns, trauma, blood transfusion, military medicine, and endothelial dysfunction in critical illness. She also has a strong interest in the design of novel clinical trials and is currently completing a Masters in Biostatistics. She is an emerging leader in critical care clinical trials, currently leading the Australian sites of the international, multi-centre, Threshold for Platelets (T4P) clinical trial, and is on the management committee of several other large multi-centre clinical trials. She is an active member of the ANZICS Clinical Trials Group community and supervises several student research projects.

Danielle is a Consultant Geriatrician and leads the program of aged care research at Liverpool Hospital. She is a Conjoint Associate Professor with UNSW Medicine. She holds dual fellowships in Geriatric and General Medicine, with 20 years experience in clinical and academic medicine, here and in Ireland. She is a member of several research and professional bodies, and has led/helped with development of national guidelines e.g. for Orthogeriatric care after hip fracture. Like many of us, she has seen older relatives who haven't done so well in hospital, and wondered what we can do to improve care. Her research focusses on clinically meaningful, collaborative and multidisciplinary research focusing on patient-centred care of older persons. She is an enthusiastic (if over-caffeinated) teacher, with roles within the hospital, UNSW and RACP, and several teaching accolades. In her spare time, she runs around after her children who have busy social lives and many birthday parties to attend.

Dr Matthew Oliver is an Emergency Physician and Co-Director of Trauma at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney. He is also a Senior Clinical Lecturer in Emergency Medicine at the University of Sydney. Originally from the UK and after completing a trauma research fellowship at Los Angeles General Hospital, he arrived in Australia to complete his Emergency Medicine training and completed a masters in trauma science. Matthew is also interested in Critical Care and Resuscitation Medicine and has published over 30 articles in these fields.

Dr Shady Osman is an Interventional Radiologist at Liverpool Hospital and Sydney Southwest Private Hospital in Sydney. He is a Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiology (FRANZCR) and is certified by the European Board of Interventional Radiology (EBIR).
Dr Osman specialises in minimally invasive, image-guided procedures, with clinical interests spanning advanced diagnostic imaging—particularly liver and prostate MRI—and interventional oncology. He has a strong focus on embolisation techniques, including the management of venous disease, hepatobiliary interventions, IR oncology, and trauma-related haemorrhage.
He is currently the Co-Director of Training at Liverpool Hospital and is a passionate advocate for radiology education and trainee development. Dr Osman is also at the forefront of Haemorrhoidal Artery Embolisation in Australia, pioneering the Emborrhoid technique for the treatment of bleeding haemorrhoids.

Dr Patel is a Consultant Surgeon for Acute Care (emergency) and Trauma Surgery at Gold Coast University Hospital and Consultant Surgeon for Acute Care (emergency) Surgery at St Andrew’s War Memorial Hospital.

After finishing his Medical Degree (M.B.B.S) and Masters of General Surgery(M.S) in Mumbai, India, Dr Patel moved to Australia and completed his Masters in Research(M.phil)from University of Queensland followed by general surgery fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (FRACS) at various public hospitals in Queensland but predominantly at the Royal Brisbane and Woman’s Hospital in 2017. During this time, he gained experience in all subspecialties of general surgery namely Breast and Endocrine, Hepatobiliary pancreatic, Colorectal and Burns surgery, with special interest in Acute Care (Emergency) and Trauma surgery.

He has also worked as a Visiting Surgeon at the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Centre, University of Maryland, Baltimore, USA.

He is an instructor for EMST and DSTC trauma training courses for the Australasian College of Surgeons and an Honorary Adjunct Associate Professor at Bond University, Gold Coast.

He is involved in teaching trainee surgeons, medical students and allied health staff. He is a recipient of various prestigious research scholarship and has an extensive research program with multiple academic publications.

Dr Patel’s current practice involves all aspects of acute care general surgery and trauma surgery.

Tom Patterson is a Trauma and General Surgeon at Westmead Hospital in Sydney, Australia. Tom completed his surgical training and a trauma/ASU fellowship at Liverpool Hospital.

Professor Reade is Head of the Greater Brisbane Clinical School of the University of Queensland and until 2021 with the rank of Brigadier was Director General of the Health Reserve of the Australian Army. He continues to lead an expanding research program focused on military trauma medicine based at UQ, covering trauma systems design, blood and fluid resuscitation in trauma, and traumatic brain injury. Since 2011 he has been the Professor of Military Medicine and Surgery at the ADF’s Joint Health Command, and from 2019-2021 he was President of the Australian and New Zealand Trauma Society. He is an intensive care physician at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, and an anaesthetist at Ipswich Hospital.

Simon Robertson is an anaesthetist and intensivist, and a senior staff specialist at Canberra hospital. Simon is the lead paediatric anaesthetist and deputy director of intensive care. Simon has been involved in pre-hospital and retrieval work since 1998.

Rob Scott is an Anaesthetist with a passion for trauma and education. He cares for patients through their trauma journey from the roadside, through to resus, operating theatres and the ward. This is achieved through his roles as the current Director of Anaesthetics at St George Hospital, and as a consultant in Prehospital & Retrieval Medicine with NSW Ambulance. Rob is as committed to learning, and he is to facilitating the education of others and is always curious as to what your perspective is! When not flying in the skies above Sydney, or wandering the operating theatre corridors, he can be found at home enjoying time with his wife and three young daughters.

Rachel Watkins is the Trauma Program Manager and Clinical Nurse Consultant at Westmead Hospital in Sydney, Australia, where she leads the nursing team within the Westmead Trauma Service. With over 25 years of experience in trauma care, she holds a Master’s degree in Traumatology and is an EMST Coordinator for the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. Rachel oversees trauma education and training programs, including Trauma Team Training, and co-manages WSLHD’s injury prevention initiative, bstreetsmart. She is AAAM-accredited in injury scoring, has published research on trauma nursing education and open pelvic fractures, and developed a comprehensive trauma nursing education framework. Passionate about mentoring and succession planning, Rachel is dedicated to advancing patient-centred, evidence-based trauma care and fostering professional growth within her team.

Dr. Assad Zahid is a Colorectal Surgeon. He was awarded the Mitchell J Notaras Scholarship in Colorectal Surgery for three consecutive years after completing his general surgical training. This was awarded to him by the Colorectal Surgical Society of Australia and New Zealand (CSSANZ) and the University of Sydney. His advanced fellowship training in colorectal surgery was completed at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney. He then completed further fellowships in the United Kingdom at St Mark's and Basingstoke Hospitals.
Dr Zahid has a keen interest in research and education. He is a Senior Clinical Lecturer at The Australian National University and Western Sydney University. He has published in over 40 peer-review journals. He has completed a Master of Surgery as well as a Master of Philosophy. And he has been awarded his PhD in Surgical Education and training.

David J Read is a Colorectal Surgeon and noted as one of Australia’s leading Trauma and Emergency Surgeons. He has expertise in both open and laparoscopic (keyhole) colorectal and hernia surgery.David received his General Surgical Fellowship in 1999 and subsequently completed post fellowship training in Colorectal Surgery. He works at both Melbourne Private and Royal Melbourne Hospital, and is never that far from his patients, public and private. His practice includes most facets of colorectal surgery, hernia surgery, trauma and emergency general surgery, gastroscopy and colonoscopy. David has an notably diverse personal and professional experience, having trained and worked in Adelaide, Darwin, Auckland, Bath and Sheffield in the UK, and San Antonio Texas. He has completed post fellowship training in colorectal surgery, breast surgery, Upper GI, paediatric surgery, trauma and burn, and is renown Nationally as a highly versatile surgeon. Prior to moving to Melbourne to take on the Director of Trauma portion at RMH, he worked in Darwin and the surrounding remote Indigenous Communities.

David has niche expertise in the surgery of disaster and conflict and is Nationally and Internationally recognised for this work, in the establishment of the Australian Medical Assessment Team (AUSMAT) deployable surgical field hospital in Darwin.

He is a keen teacher and researcher, with interests in effect of remoteness on cancer and trauma outcomes, Indigenous health and the epidemiology of trauma