Board Members

 

Dr Catherine Crock - Executive Director, Australian Institute for Patient and Family Centred Care.

A physician in Adolescent Health and Haematology at the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne since 1994, Catherine has worked closely with patients and families to redesign services and improve the quality and safety of healthcare. Her initial work in patient and family centred care involved improving pain management for children requiring procedures. She is the Chair and Founder of the Hush Music Foundation which provides music for children and families around Australia, the proceeds of which are shared amongst children's hospitals nationally. This project has raised over one million dollars. She is a surveyor with the Australian Council for Healthcare Standards and a member of the inaugural Australian WHO patients for patient safety group. She had a Churchill Fellowship 2009 to study patient and family centred care and patient safety. 

 

Susan Biggar - Director, Australian Institute for Patient and Family Centred Care.

A Melbourne writer who holds degrees from Duke and Stanford Universities (BA/MA) in Politics and International Policy, Susan currently writes as a freelancer for a variety of publications. She has also written and spoken widely about parenting, living with illness and navigating the health system. Having lived in six countries and as the mother of three boys, two of whom are living well with cystic fibrosis, Susan has extensive experience as a healthcare consumer. Member and inaugural Chair of the Royal Children's Hospital (RCH) Family Advisory Council, she also currently sits on the RCH Clinical Quality and Safety Committee and the ACT Health Patient and Family Centred Care Steering Committee.

Dr Patricia Davidson - Director, Australian Institute for Patient and Family Centred Care.

Professor Patricia Davidson (Trish), M.D., FRACS, FRCS, FRCP is the Director of Kaleidoscope including the Children's Hospital in Newcastle and the Director of Child, Young People and Families Services for Hunter New England Local Health District in NSW. Trish qualified from Glasgow University in 1978, immigrated to Australia in 1985 and after 5 years at Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne became Director of Paediatric Surgery in Newcastle in 1991. In 2006 she was awarded the Sir Louis Barnett Medal for her singular contributions to surgical education in Australia and New Zealand; the first woman to do so.

In 2008 Trish 2008 was awarded the Clinical Leader of the Year award for her contributions to HNE. She has served on the NSW Director General's NSW Kids Transition, Governance, Implementation and Programme Council aiming to develop systems that deliver the best health care for children and young people in both hospital and community settings. Passionate about including the families and the community in designing a better system, Trish became a member of the Board of the Australian Institute of Patient and Family Centred to work with those who are determined to transform healthcare together – through partnerships, culture and environments.

 

Samantha Chandler – Director, Australian Institute for Patient and Family Centred Care. 

Samantha holds a Bachelor of Commerce and a Master in Applied Finance from The University of Melbourne.  Her professional background includes experience in banking and finance, including institutional banking and venture capital.  Following the extremely premature birth of her daughter at only 27 weeks gestation, Samantha committed herself to making a contribution to the transformation of our healthcare system for the benefit of patients and their families. 

Samantha currently sits as a member of Victoria’s Neonatal Services Advisory Committee, the Victorian Maternity & Newborn Clinical Network’s Engaging Parents as Partners in Care Working Group and the Monash Women’s and Monash Newborn Model of Care Working Group.  She is President of Featherweight Club; a volunteer organisation established to support families with babies in the Special Care Nurseries at Mercy Hospital for Women and was a member of the Mercy Health Breastmilk Bank Steering Committee that was instrumental in establishing Victoria’s first breastmilk bank in February 2011.

Elizabeth Murdoch – Director, Australian Institute for Patient and Family Centred Care.

Liz joined the Institute in the "early days" as an Associate nd later joined the Board, first as Company Secretary, later as a Director.  Her current professional role is Program Director - ambulatory, Community and Allied Health Services, Mercy Public Hospitals Inc.  In this role, Liz is responsible for the operational and strategic oversight of a diverse range of Mercy's outpatient progams and services.

Liz trained as a speech pathologist BA (Psych), B.Ap.Sc (Speech Path), and has worked in a number of large metropolitan hospitals mainly in Victoria as both clinician, clinical manager and in quality management positions. Liz has a post graduate diploma in health services management and has a particular interest in organisational culture, the relationship of the patient experience of care to health outcomes and clinical safety. 

 

Andrew Gill  Director, Australian Institute for Patient and Family Centred Care.

With 20 years experience in the entertainment industry, Andrew Gill is expert at reinforcing themes, conveying messages, surprising and entertaining audiences throughout Australia and internationally.

He is in constant demand as a performer for private and public events. His understanding of commercial realities and thorough knowledge of how an audience thinks and reacts has led to ongoing commitments by his impressive list of clients.

Andrew is able to create and wholly produce live content for celebrations, corporate events, product launches and public spectacles.

 

Trish Hansen  Director, Australian Institute for Patient and Family Centred Care.

Trish Hansen heads the Art, architecture and design stream for the Australian Institute for Patient and Family Centred Care. Trish is currently the Manager of Public Art and Design with Arts SA, after practising for many years as a Senior Registered Nurse and Manager in hospitals as well as community health settings, establishing initiatives and researching ways for patients and families to inform and drive healthcare, including arts in health.  Trish considers her background in health ‘a degree in life and humanity’ and is recognised as a social innovator and an advocate for creativity, particularly in relation to art, architecture and design. Trish is an Executive member of the Australian Institute of Urban Studies (AIUS) and Director of All Together Now – a not for profit that exists to erase racism in Australia. 

Professor Rick Iedema, Director Australian Institute for Patient and Family Centred Care.

Professor Iedema is the Director for Health Communication at the University of Technology Sydney.  His target areas of research are clinical incident disclosure, clinical handover communication, infection control and team communication. His team’s national investigation of the disclosure of clinical incidents enabled the Australian Health Ministers Conference in 2008 to endorse incident disclosure and allocate additional  research funding to raise understanding of consumers’ experiences of harm resulting from  adverse events and errors. This latter study, the '100 patient stories project', reached out to patient and family interviewees across 5 Australian state jurisdictions, and produced principles that have since been integrated into the new national Open Disclosure Framework (ACSQHC 2013). In partnership with academic colleagues and clinician-investigators, Rick has published close to 200 research publications, including 3 edited books and 2 monographs. His latest book is just out with Radcliffe Medical Press UK, titled Visualising Health Care Improvement: Innovation from within.