Speakers
Keynote Speakers
Dr Andrew Demchuck
Dr Andrew Demchuk, is the Director of the Calgary Stroke Program located at the Foothills Medical Centre. He also holds the Heart and Stroke Foundation Chair in Stroke Research. He is a Professor within the Departments of Clinical Neurosciences and Radiology at the University of Calgary.
Dr Demchuk is a member of the Board of Directors of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and Canadian Stroke Consortium. He is co-chair of the Planning Committee of the Canadian Stroke Congress, member of the Scientific Committee of European Stroke Conference and member of Planning committee of American Heart Association International Stroke Conference.
Dr Demchuk's primary research interests are in the area of vascular imaging where he is trying to develop new treatments for stroke by optimally selecting patients based on imaging. His favourite pursuit is the training of stroke specialists through the Calgary Stroke Fellowship program. The fellowship program is his favourite activity. The program has trained over 45 stroke fellows from 13 countries in the past 10 years.
Prof Michael Hanna
Professor Michael Hanna is a Consultant Neurologist and Director of the Queen Square Division of UCLH NHS Trust leading a team overseeing 1000 staff and a clinical budget of £100m. He runs the Queen Square clinical centre for patients with genetic muscle disease which includes two nationally commissioned services funded directly by the Department of health £1.5m pa for mitochondrial disease and for neurological channelopathies. He is the Director of the newly established MRC Centre for translational research in neuromuscular disease 2008 £3m. This new MRC Centre aims to link basic science advances to clinical trials in patients with muscle wasting neuromuscular diseases including motor neuron disease. This centre has established new core activities including neuromuscular clinical trials, muscle biobanking and neuromuscular MRI. Professor Hanna has recently successfully lead a major fund raising initiative delivering a £2m state of the art neuromuscular clinical trials centre for neuromuscular diseases at Queen Square (April 2009); which will be the hub of all neuromuscular clinical trials activity. He has published over 150 peer reviewed original research papers including New England Journal of Medicine and Lancet. He has raised over £6m external research funding in the last four years in genetic and clinical research in neurological channelopathies and in mitochondrial disease.
Dr Nancy Newman
Dr. Nancy J. Newman is the Leo Delle Jolley Professor of Ophthalmology, Professor of Ophthalmology and Neurology and Instructor in Neurological Surgery at the Emory University School of Medicine, and Lecturer in Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School. She attended Princeton University, the University of London on a Marshall Scholarship, and Harvard Medical School. She trained in Neurology at the Massachusetts General Hospital and in Neuro-Ophthalmology at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. She serves on the Editorial Boards of the American Journal of Ophthalmology, the Journal of the Neurological Sciences, and the Journal of Neuro-Ophthalmology. She has over 350 publications, including scientific articles, book chapters and books, including the primary textbook in Neuro-Ophthalmology, Walsh & Hoyt's Clinical Neuro-Ophthalmology, 5th and 6th Editions.
Prof Marie Vidailhet
Marie Vidailhet, MD, is Professor of Neurology, Pierre Marie Curie Paris-6 University, and Head of the Movement Disorders group at the Salpêtrière Hospital, Paris France. She was previously head of the Department of Neurology, Hôpital Saint-Antoine, Paris for ten years.
Within the newly created Research Institute (CRICM) in Salpêtriere Hospital, she is leading a Research Team entitled "Movement disorders and basal ganglia: pathophysiology and experimental therapeutics".
Her main research is focused on motor control from pathophysiology to experimental therapeutics. With her collaborators, she contributed to the field of pathophysiology, with a multimodal approach including neurophysiology and neuroimaging. Their studies were focused on cortico-striatal and cerebellar loops and their role in sensori-motor control in dystonia. In experimental therapeutic research, she has coordinated multicentre programs on deep brain stimulation and dystonia.
She has participated in studies on eye movements and REM sleep behaviour disorders in Parkinson's disease and related disorders.
In the past 10 years she has published over 90 papers, with a H index = 37 and she has contributed to several books.
Invited Speakers
Prof Craig Anderson
Professor Craig Anderson is Director of the Neurological and Mental Health Division at The George Institute. He is also Professor of Stroke Medicine and Clinical Neurosciences in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Sydney and the Institute of Neurosciences of Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. Craig holds specialist qualifications in clinical neurology and geriatrics, and a PhD in medicine and epidemiology from The University of Western Australia.
Craig is a member of several specialist societies, is an Editor for the Cochrane Stroke Group, and a past President of the Stroke Society of Australasia. He has published widely on the clinical and epidemiological aspects of stroke, cardiovascular disease and aged care, and is on the Steering Committee for several large-scale epidemiological and clinical trial projects.
Assoc Prof David Blacker
David Blacker is a Neurologist and Stroke Physician at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Perth, visiting neurologist to the Royal Perth Rehabilitation Hospital, and Clinical Associate Professor of Neurology at the University of Western Australia. His wide range of clinical and research interests range from acute stroke therapies to rehabilitation approaches. He is presently involved in 8 local, national and international stroke studies, and is about to commence a pilot study of intravenous minocycline in combination with tPA in ischaemic stroke, as a potential strategy for reducing haemorrhagic transformation. Recently he has become interested in developing novel treatments for intracerebral haemorrhage.
Dr Andrew Fabian Bleasel
Date of birth 21st April, 1956. Sydney, Australia.
Dr Andrew Bleasel is a Neurologist at Westmead Hospital. He became interested in epilepsy while training in Neurology and went on to a Clinical Fellowship in Epilepsy at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. He came to Westmead Hospital in 1996 where he is the Director of the Epilepsy Unit. In 2010 he became the Head of the Department of Neurology. He has co-directed the Australian and New Zealand Association of Neurologists annual EEG teaching course. He is the current President of the Epilepsy Society of Australia. He teaches throughout South East Asia and Australia.
Prof David Burke
David Burke (AO, MB,BS (Syd), MD, DSc (UNSW), FAA, FTSE, FRACP) is Bushell Professor of Neurology at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and Associate Dean [Research] in the Sydney Medical School. From 2002-2008, he was Dean, Research & Development for the Health Faculties at the University of Sydney. Prior to 2002, he had spent his postgraduate career at The Prince Henry/Prince of Wales Hospitals and the University of New South Wales, where he held personal Chairs of Clinical Neurophysiology (from 1987) and of Neurology (from 1991). He was Chairman of the Department of Neurology of the hospital group 1991-2002 and Director of the Institute of Neurological Sciences 1995-2002. He was a founding scientist of the Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute and Director of Clinical Research 1991-2002.
In 1995 he was elected to Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Science and also to Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering. In 1999 he was appointed Officer in the Order of Australia and in 2003 he was awarded the Centenary Medal.
He has served the Australian Association of Neurologists as Council Member, Chair of the Scientific Program Committee, Convenor of the Biennial Clinical Neurophysiology Workshop, Honorary Treasurer and President-elect and President (2005-2007). During this term the Association became the Australian & New Zealand Association of Neurologists. He is currently a member of the Executive Committee of the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology, and has served on committees of the World Federation of Neurology and the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. He has been on the Editorial Board of Clinical Neurophysiology since 1990, and became its Editor-in-Chief in December 2007. He was Associate Editor of Muscle & Nerve for 8 years, and is/has been on the Boards of other major national and international journals, including the Association's Journal of Clinical Neuroscience.
Assoc Prof Annie Bye
Associate Professor Annie Bye is a Paediatric Neurologist at Sydney Children's Hospital. Her major area of interest is childhood epilepsy.
Associate Professor Bye has an extensive portfolio of research into paediatric epilepsy, with over 60 original research articles and 70 abstracts published in national and international peer reviewed journals. Research topics include neonatal seizures, semiology of seizures, neuropsychological and language profiles in paediatric epilepsy, quality of life in paediatric epilepsy, teaching epilepsy and most recently epilepsy education for adolescents with epilepsy.
Prof William M Carroll
A past President of the Australian Association of Neurologists, Professor William Carroll is presently the Head of Neurology and Neurophysiology at the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Perth, Western Australia, Chair of the Multiple Sclerosis Research Australia Research Management Council and the Research Review Board, a Director of Multiple Sclerosis Australia, the Asia Pacific editor of Multiple Sclerosis and an ex officio member of the World Federation of Neurology Steering Committee. He is also Vice President of the Asian and Oceanian Association of Neurologists and foundation Vice President of PACTRIMS
A graduate of the University of Western Australia School of Medicine, Prof. Carroll undertook training in neurology at the National Hospital, Queen Square, London, and then attended a number of US institutions, including the Massachusetts General Hospital, the Mayo Clinic and the University of Pennsylvania, before returning to Australia. His principal research activity has been in demyelinating disease; multiple sclerosis, neuromyelitis optica and experimental optic neuropathy and oligodendrocyte precursors in human optic nerve, as well as optic nerve electrophysiology for which he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Medicine.
Dr Jac Charlesworth
Dr Jac Charlesworth is a statistical geneticist and systems biologist at the Menzies Research Institute Tasmania. She is experienced at working with a wide range of genomic data and complex phenotypes and is particularly interested in family based analyses and combining multiple sources of genomic and biological data for gene discovery. Dr Charlesworth's research focuses on normal variation in neuroanatomic and cognitive traits as a means to identify genes and pathways involved in diseases such as multiple sclerosis. She is a collaborator on the Genetic of Brain Structure (GOBS) study run by the Texas Biomedical Reseach Institute (San Antonio, USA).
Assoc Prof Russell Dale
Associate Professor Russell Dale is a paediatric neurologist at the Children's Hospital at Westmead and University of Sydney. His clinical and research interests are movement disorders in children, and paediatric neuroimmunology. He heads the Neuroimmunology group within the Institute of Neuroscience and Muscle Research at the Children's Hospital. The group's main aim is to investigate the role of auto-antibodies in autoimmune CNS disorders. He has published 70 peer reviewed papers and co-edited the book 'Inflammatory and Autoimmune Disorders of the Nervous System in Children' with Prof Angela Vincent (UK).
Dr Andrew Evans
Dr Andrew Evans is Director of the Movement Disorder Service of the Royal Melbourne Hospital Department of Neurology, Neurologist with the Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre and is Honorary Senior Fellow of the Department of Medicine, University of Melbourne. Dr Andrew Evans is very well published, and he is actively involved in a number of clinical trials, including neuropsychiatric complications and mechanisms of pain in Parkinson's disease. He is Victorian representative on the clinical trials and research group of the Movement Disorders Society of Australia, member of the Movement Disorders Society, and member of the Melbourne Health Human Research Ethics Committee.
Dr Victor Fung
Dr Victor Fung is Clinical Associate Professor at Sydney Medical School, The University of Sydney and Director of the Movement Disorders Unit, Department of Neurology, Westmead Hospital. He is President of the Movement Disorder Society of Australia (MDSA) and Secretary-elect of the Asian & Oceanian Section of the international Movement Disorder Society, also serves on its Educational Committee and the Bylaws Committee, and has been on the Editorial Board of the journal Movement Disorders. He was the Chairperson of the MDSA Clinical Research and Trials Group from 2001-2007. He serves on the Asia & Pacific Affairs Committee of ANZAN.
Prof Emeritus Jim Lance
Jim Lance is Professor Emeritus of Neurology, University of New South Wales, and Honorary Consultant Neurologist to the Institute of Neurosciences, Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney. He is a Past President of the Australian Association of Neurologists and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science.
Dr Michelle Kiley
Dr Michelle Kiley is a consultant neurologist at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, where she is the Director of Epilepsy Services. She has an active interest in Women and Epilepsy, Status Epilepticus and EEG. At the RAH she runs the video-EEG telemetry unit, first seizure and refractory epilepsy clinics and is involved in multi-centre international drug trials.
Dr Tim Kleinig
Tim Kleinig is a stroke neurologist who works at the Royal Adelaide and Lyell McEwin hospitals. He recently completed his PhD which examined secondary injury mediators following experimental intracerebral haemorrhage, and has an ongoing active research interest in the area. His wife, Pakan, is a radiologist, who provides him with many helpful diagnostic tips. He is married with three children.
Christian Lueck
This lecture will provide neurologists with an understanding of how to interpret automated visual perimetry, focusing particularly on factors which might give rise to misinterpretation of results. The lecture will also aim to provide the neurologist with a greater understanding of functional (non-organic) disorders of vision and how to detect them.
Merrilee Needham
Merrilee Needham is a staff specialist at the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney, and a Senior Lecturer with the University of Sydney. She runs a weekly Neuromuscular clinic and has interests in all neuromuscular diseases, particularly inherited myopathies and inflammatory myopathies. She is active in research into Sporadic Inclusion Body Myositis as well as Transitional Care Models for adolescents with Neuromuscular and Neurogenetic disorders. Her PhD was awarded in 2009, and FRACP in 2006. She was trained in Neuromuscular and Neurogenetic disorders under Professor Frank Mastaglia at the ANRI and Professor Phillipa Lamont at the Royal Perth Hospital in Perth, with her general neurology training being undertaken at the Royal North Shore and Westmead Hospitals in Sydney.
Prof Terence J. O'Brien
The Department of Medicine, The Royal Melbourne Hospital, The University of Melbourne.
Terence O'Brien (MBBS Melb. MD Melb. FRACP) is The James Stewart Chair of Medicine and Head of The Department of Medicine, The Royal Melbourne and Western Hospitals, and Head of the Epilepsy Program and consultant neurologist at The Royal Melbourne Hospital. He leads a large translational research team undertaking both basic studies, involving animal models, and clinical studies. He is a specialist in neurology and clinical pharmacology, with particular expertise in epileptology, anti-epileptic drugs and in-vivo imaging in animal models and humans. He did his clinical and research training at St. Vincent's and Royal Melbourne Hospitals in Melbourne, and the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA (1995-1998). He has published more than 165 original scientific papers in leading neurological, pharmacological and imaging journals, over 600 abstracts and 11 book chapters.
Prof Robert Ouvrier
Professor Robert Ouvrier graduated BSc (Med) with Honours in 1961, MB BS with Honours in 1964, and MD in 1986, at the University of Sydney.
After training in general paediatrics, he undertook specialist training in Child Neurology in the Melbourne Children's Hospital, the University of Kentucky and the Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore USA. He was appointed Staff Neurologist at the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children in 1972, having obtained his Fellowship with the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. He is a member of the Australian Association of Neurologists and of the International Child Neurology Association.
Professor Ouvrier was appointed Head of the T.Y. Nelson Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery in 1978. From 2000 to 2009, he was Head of the Institute for Neuromuscular Research at The Children's Hospital at Westmead and remains a Senior Staff Specialist in this Hospital. He was appointed a Clinical Professor in the Department of Paediatrics at the University of Sydney in 1999. He became the Petre Foundation Professor of Paediatric Neurology in 2001. He was President of the International Child Neurology Association from 2006 to 2010.
Assoc Prof Stephen Reddel
Stephen Reddel (MB BS PhD FRACP) is a staff specialist neurologist at Concord Repatriation & General Hospital Sydney, and consultant neurologist at the Brain & Mind Research Institute, University of Sydney. He trained in neurology at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, and at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, and has a PhD in the immunology of the Anti-Phospholipid Syndrome.
He runs clinics in neuroimmunology, myasthenia gravis, sartorial elegance and neurogenetics, and provides AChR and MuSK antibody assays. He has research interests in myasthenia gravis, examining the function of anti-MuSK antibodies and the homeostasis of the neuromuscular junction; and in neurogenetics including the muscular dystrophies and inherited neuropathies.
Assoc Prof Sean Riminton
Dr Riminton is a Clinical Immunologist at Concord and Royal Prince Alfred Hospitals in Sydney and Clinical Associate Professor with the University of Sydney. He contributes to the Neuroimmunology service at Concord Hospital.
Dr Riminton's research background includes molecular basis of autoimmune pathology, vaccine adjuvants, primary immunodeficiency, the relationship between cancer and immunity, immunoglobulin therapy, and immunosuppression risk management.
He is a Fellow of the National Blood Authority of Australia and advisor to the Plasma Fractionation Review and IVIg Criteria for Use Committee. He is the founding Chair of the Immune Deficiency Foundation of Australia, the first national patient representative body for PID.
Dr Riminton designed and implemented the web-based ASCIA Register of Primary Immunodeficiency Diseases (PID) for Australia and New Zealand (www.immunodeficiency.org.au), and is Chief Investigator on the Australia and New Zealand Antibody Deficiency Allele Study (ANZ-ADA).
Dr Monique Ryan
Dr Ryan is a paediatric neurologist whose qualifications include bachelor's degrees in Medicine and Surgery (University of Melbourne, 1991), fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (1998) and a Master's degree in Medicine (University of Sydney 2001). She completed subspecialty training in paediatric neurology in Sydney, a neurology residency at the Children's Hospital Boston, and a neurophysiology fellowship at the Lahey Clinic, Boston, Massachusetts. She is head of the Neuromuscular Clinical Research Program and multidisciplinary Neuromuscular Clinic at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne. Her research interests include natural history studies of paediatric neuropathies, and clinical trials of new therapies for muscle diseases, neuropathies and myasthenic syndromes of childhood.
Prof Susan Sawyer
Professor Susan Sawyer holds the Chair of Adolescent Health at The University of Melbourne. A paediatrician by training, she is the Director of the Centre for Adolescent Health at the Royal Children's Hospital, Australia's leading academic centre of adolescent health. Professor Sawyer's research interests have focused on young people with chronic health conditions, especially in relationship to the acquisition of self management skills in young people with chronic health conditions and around transition to adult health care. She has authored over 200 peer review publications, book chapters and reports.
Assoc Prof Bruce Taylor
Associate Professor Bruce Taylor is a medical graduate of the University of Tasmania, who completed neurology training in Perth Western Australia and The mayo Clinic; he is now a principal research fellow at the Menzies Research institute Tasmania and consultant neurologist at the Royal Hobart hospital. He has a special interest in multiple sclerosis research. His work at the MRI has focused on the role of vitamin D and latitude in the development and progression of MS and the role of gene environment interactions in MS causation and progression. He heads a multidisciplinary team of researchers including epidemiologists, bio-informaticians, geneticists and statisticians.
Assoc Prof Steve Vucic
Steve Vucic is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Sydney, Director of Neurophysiology and Consultant Neurologist at Westmead Hospital in Sydney. After completing his clinical training in Neurology at the Royal Prince Alfred and Concord Hospitals, he undertook further training in clinical and research neurophysiology at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvrad Medical School Boston. Upon his return to Australia, he undertook a PhD thesis titled "Pathophysiology of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis" under the guidance of Professor Matthew Kiernan. A/Prof Vucic has received a number of research awards including the ANZAN Young Investigator Prize in 2007, the J.G Golseth Young Investigator Prize of the American Academy of Neuromuscular and Electrodiagnostic Medicine in 2007, The University of Sydney Medal for excellence in Medical Research in 2008 and most recently the M.A.B Brazier Young Investigator Award in Clinical Neurophysiology in 2010. In 2007 A/Prof Vucic was appointed as staff-specialist in neurology at Westmead Hospital where he has established a dedicated neurophysiology fellowship and research programme. His major area of research interest is in the field of neurophysiology and neurodegenerative diseases, in particular assessment of cortical and peripheral nerve excitability in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Assoc Prof Greg Woods
Associate Professor Greg Woods completed an undergraduate degree (BSc(Hons)) at Monash University, postgraduate degree at the University of Tasmania (PhD) and has worked as a research scientist in Toronto, Canada; London, England and Edinburgh Scotland. Appointed to the University of Tasmania in 1989 and joined the Menzies Research Institute in 2006. Current Appointment:- Principal Research Fellow, Menzies Research Institute, University of Tasmania, Associate Professor, School of Medicine, University of Tasmania.
An international research profile having contributed significantly to the field of dendritic cells, specifically in the area of Langerhans cells, cancer and the development of the neonatal skin immune system, the effect of sunlight on the developing skin immune system and the role of vitamin D3.
Since undertaking studies on the Tasmanian devil major progress has been made in understanding its immune system and how devil facial tumour disease (DFTD) escapes immune recognition. Involvement with the Devil Facial Tumour Disease has created unique opportunities and research programmes. Showed for the first time that devils can produce an immune response to DFTD.
Awards & Lectures
Awards
Leonard Cox Award:
The Leonard Cox Award is open to ANZAN members who received their Full membership within the last ten years. For the 2011 award this means that the candidate must have attained their membership (and FRACP or equivalent) in May 2000 or later and have produced a significant body of scientific work. The application is by submission of a curriculum vitae and a description of up to two pages of the nature of their work, its scientific significance and its likely contribution to the field of neurology. The successful applicant will be chosen by the ANZAN Scientific Programme Committee and invited to present the work as a half hour lecture at the ASM.
The recipient of the Leonard Cox Award for 2011 is Dr Steve Vucic.
Lectures
E Graeme Robertson Lecture
In 1976 the Council of the Australian Association of Neurologists decided to fund an invited annual lecture in honour of E Graeme Robertson at each Annual Scientific Meeting of the Association.
The first E Graeme Robertson Lecture was given in Hobart in 1978. There was a lecture given in each subsequent year with the exception of 1998 when unforeseen circumstances prevented the lecturer from giving his presentation.
In 2011 the E Graeme Robertson Lecture will be given by Professor David Burke.
Mervyn J Eadie Lecture
The Mervyn J Eadie Lecture was introduced in 2001 to honour members who have made a significant contribution to the neurosciences. Prof Mervyn Eadie is a distinguished neurologist, neuropharmacologist and author in Queensland. He has contributed to the Association in many ways, in particular as the editor of "Clinical and Experimental Neurology", and the co-author of "Neurology in Australia" and "A Directory of Neurology in Australia". Prof Eadie also wrote "The Flowering of a Waratah - A History of Australian Neurology and of the Australian Association of Neurologists".
In 2011 the Meryn J Eadie Lecture will be given by Professor Robert Ouvrier.
W Ian MacDonald Lecture
2008 was the inaugural year of the W Ian McDonald Lecture. Ian McDonald was an outstanding academic neurologist, a true friend of many in this Association, a mentor and supporter of trainees and someone whose passing will be greatly missed by all neurologists in Australia and New Zealand. The W Ian McDonald lecture has been introduced to honour his enormous contribution to world neurology and to reflect the great warmth felt towards him by so many ANZAN members.
In 2011 the W Ian McDonald Lecture will be given by Professor Michael Hanna.