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Experts

Healthed work with a team of general practitioners and medical professionals to ensure the highest quality education​

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Expert panel – Dr Sonia Davison, Dr Sara Whitburn, facilitated by Dr Jane Elliott AM

Dr Jane Elliott AM has been a general practitioner in Adelaide for many years, with a special career interest in women’s health, including menopause and premature menopause. She is a clinical senior lecturer in the Discipline of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Adelaide and teaches medical students and GPs. She has been an investigator in clinical research trials in many areas of women’s health including menopause, contraception, osteoporosis and low libido. She currently consults at AWARE Women’s Health. Jane is a Past President of the Australasian Menopause Society and is a member of Healthy Bones Australia National Consumer and Community Advisory Committee.

Dr Sonia Davison MBBS FRACP PhD, is an Endocrinologist with a special interest in Women’s Health, and has worked in this field for over 20 years. She is a Clinical Fellow at Jean Hailes for Women’s Health and has worked at the Women’s Health Research Program, Monash University, Victoria, Australia. Sonia is in private practice at the Melbourne Endocrine Clinic, Malvern, and at Jean Hailes for Women’s Health. Her PhD and postdoctoral research examined hormones in women, including measurement of androgens and their relationships with age, mood, sexual function and cognition. Sonia is Past President of the Australasian Menopause Society and former editor of its newsletter, ‘Changes’. She is a current Board member of the Asia Pacific Menopause Federation. Sonia has published widely in the field of women’s health, and has presented at women’s health conferences, scientific meetings, podcasts, webinars, and community seminars. She has frequently been invited to appear in the media, including the TV show, “The Truth about Menopause”, featuring Myf Warhurst.

Dr Sara Whitburn (she/her) is the Medical Director at Sexual Health Victoria. She has a Fellowship of the Royal Australian College of General Practice, has Diplomas in Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Family Planning. Sara specialises in genital health, menopause, and IUD insertion training. Sara is excited about enabling healthcare professionals to deliver great sexual and reproductive healthcare.

Dr Mei Cheah, Dr Scott Pearce

Dr Mei Cheah and Dr Scott Pearce are highly experienced fertility specialists, advanced laparoscopic surgeons. They’re also two of the four co-founders of Create Fertility, a doctor-led fertility clinic in Melbourne. With a shared commitment to personalised care, they bring decades of expertise in fertility, IVF, endometriosis and women’s health.

Dr Mei Cheah is a passionate advocate for women’s reproductive rights and an award-winning leader in STEM.

Dr Scott Pearce is an AGES-accredited surgical trainer.

Together, they provide compassionate, continuity-driven care and are dedicated to educating and empowering patients and peers across the fertility and reproductive journey.

Dr Kunal Verma

Kunal is Australia’s first dual-accredited clinical geneticist and cardiologist. He works in both the public and private sector and sees patients from around Australia with inherited heart conditions including Ehlers-Danlos and other connective tissue disorders. He is the clinical lead of the cardiac genetics service at Alfred Health and the Victorian Heart Hospital. Dr Verma is a member of the CTDNA Scientific and Medical Advisory Committee.

Dr Haider Najjar, Dr Tom Manley

Dr Haider Najjar and Dr Tom Manley are two of the four co-founders of Create Fertility, a doctor-led fertility clinic in Melbourne. Both are leading fertility surgeons with extensive experience in advanced laparoscopic techniques.

Dr Haider Najjar pioneered single incision laparoscopic surgery (SILS) in Australia and is internationally recognised for his expertise in endometriosis and fibroid surgery.

Dr Tom Manley is one of the few specialists who offers both advanced fertility surgery and ongoing pregnancy care, supporting patients from pre-conception through to birth.

Together, they combine innovation, compassion and personalised care to help patients achieve their reproductive and family-building goals.

Dr Nicole Edge

Dr Nicole Edge is an Obstetrician Gynaecologist with a Masters in Reproductive Medicine who current works at Repromed, the Women’s & Children’s Hospital and Calvary. She provides a full range of obstetric services, general gynaecology and oncofertility. She also conducts specialist clinics in recurrent pregnancy loss and paediatric & adolescent gynaecology. Her other areas of interest include endometriosis, asherman’s syndrome and management of ceasearean section niche. Nicole has worked for many years in both tertiary and regional locations. She is involved in teaching at all levels through the University of Adelaide, RANZCOG and her work at WCH.

Darlingtina Esiaka

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Behavioral Science and the Center for Health Equity Transformation at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine. Also, I am an affiliate faculty at the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging and Markey Cancer Center, University of Kentucky. My research primarily focuses on the early detection of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) in Black people. I aim to identify progression and conversion to ADRD prior to the manifestation of behavioral symptoms. Additionally, I investigate psychosocial factors influencing late-stage cancer diagnoses and survivorship within this demographic. My work has garnered support from public and private funders, including the National Institute on Aging (NIA), the New Jersey Health Foundation, the Michigan Center for Contextual Factors in Alzheimer’s Disease, and the Alzheimer’s Association. Beyond my research, I founded Black in Gerontology and Geriatrics, an organization dedicated to addressing systemic inequities in aging research, education, and practice. I hold certifications as a Public Health Professional and a Professional Gerontologist. My scholarly contributions include peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and an edited volume released in 2024. My research and service have been recognized by multiple awards, notably the Kathleen McCluskey-Fawcett Woman Mentoring Women Award from the Emily Taylor Center for Women & Gender Equity and the Gerontological Society of America’s Career Development and Junior Investigator Diversity Fellow Award. I actively participate in several professional organizations, including chairing the internationalization committee for the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues.

Tiarna Lee

Tiarna is a fourth year PhD student at the School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences. Her research focuses on evaluating fairness and biases in Artificial Intelligence (AI) used for cardiac imaging. In her work, she has found that models trained with imbalanced datasets have a worse performance on underrepresented subjects, often minority ethnicities and females. She is currently aiming to find the sources of these biases so that she can then find a method to address and mitigate them.

Dr Virginia Baird

Dr Virginia Baird commenced General Practice training and was awarded Fellowship of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (FRACGP) in November 2016. She holds the FPAA National Certificate in Reproductive and Sexual Health for Doctors and has worked part-time at Family Planning Tasmania since 2017, with a particular focus on Youth Health.
She has also been engaged as a casual educator with General Practice Training Tasmania and the University of Tasmania, delivering education in Sexual and Reproductive Health. In November 2020, she began working as a surgical assistant on a casual/part-time basis, assisting breast surgeons fortnightly, and providing support to various obstetricians, gynaecologists, and, on occasion, general and colorectal surgeons.
In early 2023, Dr Virginia Baird commenced training toward Fellowship of the Australasian Society of Breast Physicians (ASBP). She currently works part-time at BreastScreen Tasmania, contributing to assessment and results clinics while developing expertise in interpreting mammograms and breast ultrasounds. In June 2023, she was appointed as a General Practitioner with a Special Interest (GPSI) in the Breast Clinic at the Royal Hobart Hospital.
Since March 2024, she has also been consulting as a Menopause and Breast Clinician in North Hobart. She is passionate about integrating menopause and breast cancer care, with a particular focus on non-hormonal management of vasomotor symptoms such as hot flushes and night sweats. She is committed to improving access to evidence-based menopause care and supporting women who have struggled to find the help they need.

Prof Peter Cistulli

Peter Cistulli holds the ResMed Chair in Sleep Medicine at the University of Sydney, where he leads the Sleep Research Theme within the multidisciplinary Charles Perkins Centre. He heads the Discipline of Sleep Medicine within the Faculty of Medicine and Health. He is also Director of the Centre for Sleep Health & Research in the Department of Respiratory and Sleep Medicine at Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney.

He is an active clinician researcher with 28 years experience in in the fields of respiratory and sleep medicine. His thematic research has focussed on the pathophysiology of Sleep-disordered Breathing, and novel approaches to therapy. He pioneered the use of oral appliance therapy as an alternative to CPAP treatment for sleep apnoea. His research has been predominantly funded by the NHMRC of Australia, and he has achieved in excess of $20M in competitive funding.

He has an extensive publication record, and has received international awards for his academic contributions to the sleep field. His interdisciplinary research program involves numerous national and international collaborations. He is a former President of the Australasian Sleep Association and a former board member of the Sleep Health Foundation.

Aya Mousa

Aya Mousa is a Senior Research Fellow at the Monash Centre for Health Research & Implementation, Monash University. She holds a PhD in Clinical Epidemiology and leads research into cardiometabolic disorders in women, with a focus on pregnancy-related conditions and how these impact health outcomes for mothers and children.

Prof Ben W. Mol

Ben Mol works at the Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology at Monash University. He aims to develop evidence on the effectiveness of all medical interventions in women’s health, preferably through large collaborations in randomised clinical trials, to provide insight on the available evidence tailored to the individual patient for both patients and doctors. To achieve this, international collaboration through coordination of research agendas for clinical and basic research, and the establishment of guidelines is essential. The group aims to involve young people, create large datasets and initiate international collaboration. His professional adagium is “A day without randomisation is a day without progress”.

Dr James Muecke

Broad expertise in medical research, education, and project management, coupled with writing, photography, music and film production, marketing and social entrepreneurship, to help bring medical projects to life.

Dr James Muecke has worked as a visiting medical consultant for over twenty years at the Royal Adelaide and Women’s & Children’s Hospitals and in his own private practice in Adelaide.

Following his medical internship in 1988, James lived and worked as a doctor in Africa and subsequently as an eye surgeon in the Middle East, battling malaria, wild animals, rebel soldiers, and insurgent groups. He founded Sight For All in 2008, turning his passion and boundless energy into a fight against blindness in the Aboriginal and mainstream communities of Australia and some of the poorest countries of the world.

For his humanitarian efforts, James was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia in 2012. In 2015 he was EY’s Social Entrepreneur of the Year for Australia, and in 2019 received a Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Adelaide. James was awarded Australian of the Year for 2020.

James is a passionate, enthusiastic and at times confronting keynote speaker, drawing on over 30 years of medical experience working in some of the poorest countries in the world.

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