NHMRC committee appointments

Ron Trent, John Christodoulou, Merrilyn Walton, Louise Baur and Ngiare Brown are among the Sydney Medical School staff appointed by the Australian Government to the prestigious NHMRC principal committees. The committees play a major role in shaping national health care and research policy and practice. The number has been expanded from three to five this year with the inclusion of the new Health Care Committee and the Prevention and Community Health Committee. Existing committees are Australian Health Ethics Committee, NHMRC Research Committee and Human Genetics Advisory Committee.

Ron Trent, Professor of Molecular Genetics, has been appointed for a second three year term as chair of the Human Genetics Advisory Committee. The committee’s role is to provide national leadership in responding to developments in human genetics.

Also appointed to the Human Genetics Advisory Committee were Associate Professor Ngiare Brown, director of Sydney Medical School’s Poche Centre for Indigenous Health, and paediatrician and geneticist Professor John Christodoulou. John Christodoulou is the Director of the Western Sydney Genetics Program, The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, Sydney, and Professor in the disciplines of Paediatrics and Child Health and Genetic Medicine, in Sydney Medical School. He is a former past President of the Human Genetics Society of Australasia.

Associate Professor Merrilyn Walton, Associate Professor Peter Sainsbury, Professor Ian Olver and Mr John Stubbs, have all been appointed to the Australian Health Ethics Committee. The role of the Australian Health Ethics Committee is to set and maintain standards of ethical conduct in health and medical research. It meets dual objectives of encouraging new research and technologies while taking into account ethical considerations on behalf of the community.

Peter Sainsbury is Director of Population Health in Sydney South west Area Health Service and an Associate Professor in the School of Public Health. Merrilyn Walton is Associate Professor of Medical Education, Sydney Medical School, and a leading patient-safety academic who works nationally and internationally in the field.

Ian Olver is CEO of the Cancer Council of Australia and a Clinical Professor, Sydney Medical School. Mr John Stubbs is Executive Officer of Cancer Voices Australia and has contributed to government policy on cancer, cancer services and the value of consumer involvement. He was recently appointed an Honorary Associate of Sydney Medical School.

Professor John Horvath has been appointed as chair of the NHMRC’s new Health Care Committee. Its role is to provide NHMRC’s CEO, Professor Warwick Anderson, with advice on applying the results of the best available research to health care in hospitals, surgeries and clinics.

It will provide expert advice on evidence and knowledge transfer to improve healthcare across all domains including primary care and aged care and will draw on NHMRC support for clinical and health services research and findings. It will have a significant role in supporting NHMRC's response to the National Health and Hospitals’ Reform Commission report and in addressing the National Primary Health Care Strategy.

Louise Baur, Professor in Paediatrics and Child Health and director of the Prevention Research Collaboration in the School of Public Health, has been appointed to the Prevention and Community Health Committee. Its role is to advise on issues in community and public health, as well as prevention of illness. It will provide expert advice on promoting and maintaining good health and wellbeing, including public and environmental health, illness prevention, community and health consumer issues, and healthy ageing. It will have a key role in supporting NHMRC's relationship with the proposed National Preventive Health Agency.

Mr Sebastian Rosenberg, deputy CEO of the Mental Health Council of Australia and senior lecturer at the Brain and Mind Research Institute, has also been appointed to the committee.