Keynote Speakers

Professor Geert Crombez

Professor Crombez is Professor of Health Psychology at the Ghent University, Gent, Belgium and Head of the Department of Experimental-Clinical and Health Psychology. He is actively involved in sports, experimental and applied research related to clinical psychology (anxiety and phobia) and health psychology (pain). His main interests in pain research are pain-related fear, attention to pain, and problem-solving.

Dr Rollin Gallagher

Dr Gallagher is a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and of Anesthesiology and Critical Care, Director for Pain Policy Research and Primary Care, at Penn Pain Medicine Center, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, USA and Director of Pain Management at the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Dr Gallagher is a pioneer in the field of pain medicine, wrestling with the phenomenological, biopsychosocial, and neurological components of chronic pain that make it a formidable public health challenge.

 

Professor Jürgen Sandkühler

Professor Sandkühler has been Head of the Centre for Brain Research at the University of Vienna since 2007. With his team he examines the neuronal causes of chronic pain, mechanism-oriented methods of pain therapy and procedures for preventing pain. Professor Sandkühler has received many scientific prizes and speaks regularly at scientific and clinical congresses throughout the world.

 

Dr Katja Wiech

Dr Wiech is a senior scientist at the Oxford Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain (University of Oxford, UK). Her main interest is to develop an understanding of brain systems involved in the modulation of pain by beliefs people hold about pain and their ability to cope with it. 

Dr Elena Bagley

Dr Bagley trained as a pharmacist and then returned to do a PhD in neuropharmacology at the University of Sydney, where she was awarded a C.J. Martin Fellowship and travelled to the Vollum Institute in the USA for the first half and then returned to the Pain Management Research Institute for the Australian component. In 2011 Dr Bagley was appointed as a senior lecturer in Pharmacology at the University of Sydney. Dr Bagley’s laboratory focuses on how synapse function or dysfunction contributes to pathophysiological processes, such as persistent pain, drug addiction or anxiety.

Dr Philip Bolton

Dr Bolton received his PhD (Neuroscience) from the University of New South Wales in 1990 and then held a postdoctoral appointment in neurophysiology at the Rockefeller University (NY, USA), before taking up an academic appointment at the University of Newcastle in 1993. Dr Bolton is a senior investigator in the Pain and Sensory Dysfunction Group at the University of Newcastle's Priority Research Centre for Translational Neuroscience and Mental Health. He was a member of the review team regarding Acute Neck Pain for the 2003 Australian Acute Musculoskeletal Pain Guidelines Group.

Dr David Butler

Dr Butler's base degree is physiotherapy. He also has degrees in manipulative therapy and a doctorate in the area of changing the way people think about pain. Based in Adelaide and a senior lecturer at the University of South Australia, Dr Butler is head of the Neuro Orthopaedic Institute, a world wide organisation providing 200 seminars per year on modern neuroscience backed rehabilitation. He is the author of five textbooks including co-authorship of Explain Pain, a book for patients. His professional interests include translating and taking the brain plasticity revolution to health professionals and the public.

Dr Meredith Craigie

Dr Craigie is a specialist pain medicine physician who works in the Royal Adelaide Hospital Pain Management Unit as well as Flinders Medical Centre Department of Anaesthesia and Pain Management where she heads a Paediatric Pain Management Clinic and is a Clinical Senior Lecturer at Flinders University. Dr Craigie is on the Board of the Faculty of Pain Medicine, is chair for the FPM Examinations Committee and Paediatric Pain Working Party, is a member of the FPM Education Committee and the Curriculum Revision Sub-committee and examines for the ANZCA Final Examination. Her interests include paediatric anaesthesia and pain medicine, acute pain medicine and medical education.

Dr Richard Halliwell

Dr Halliwell is Head of the Acute Pain Service and Deputy Director of Anaesthesia, and Head of Research Department of Anaesthesia at Westmead Hospital in Sydney. He is also the Clinical Senior Lecturer, Discipline of Anaesthesia, Sydney Medical School, at the University of Sydney. Dr Halliwell’s clinical interests include Acute pain, Cancer pain, Palliative care, and his research interests include Clinical trials, Postoperative morbidity and mortality. Dr Halliwell has involvement in the following groups: Executive Member, Acute Pain Special Interest Group, ANZCA; Executive Member, Clinical Trials Group, ANZCA; Chair, Safe Use of Medicines Committee, Westmead Hospital; Member of the Advisory Committee on Prescription Medicines (ACPM), Therapeutic Goods Administration, Federal Department of Health; Member of the Therapeutic Guidelines – Analgesia; and, Contributor, "Acute Pain Management. Scientific Evidence." 3rd edition. 2010.

Dr Mark Hutchinson

Dr Hutchinson completed a BSc majoring in Pharmacology, Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Adelaide (1998). He continued his studies in Pharmacology with honours (1999) and PhD (2004) examining opioid metabolism and opioid immunomodulation, respectively. In 2004 he was awarded the FreshScience prize for communication of science in the media.  He moved to Boulder, Colorado in 2005 to undertake Postdoctoral training in the world leading research group of Prof Linda Watkins in the Center for Neuroscience at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Here he pioneered with Prof Watkins the research which has lead to the discovery of novel drugs activity at innate immune receptors. Moreover, his research has led to the implication of the brain immune cells in the action of drugs of dependence and the negative side effects of pain killers. Dr Hutchinson was awarded an NHMRC CJ Martin Fellowship in 2007. He returned to Adelaide in 2009 to continue his research in the Discipline of Pharmacology, University of Adelaide. In 2011 he was awarded an Australian Research Council Fellowship for research into sex differences in pain and drug response. 

Professor Janet Keast

Professor Keast graduated with a BSc (Hons) from the University of Adelaide and PhD from Flinders University. After post doctoral training at the University of Pittsburgh, she held an academic position at the University of Queensland for 10 years, followed by an NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship at the University of NSW then the University of Sydney, where she was also Director of Basic Research at the Pain Management Research Institute, Royal North Shore Hospital. In February 2012 Professor Keast was appointed to the Chair of Anatomy and Neuroscience at the University of Melbourne. Her interest in the neurobiology of pain is focused on pelvic visceral pain and spinal cord injury pain, especially in the context of plasticity of sensory and spinal neurons, as well as the actions of sex steroids and neurotrophic factors. She is also recognised internationally in the area of autonomic neuroscience, especially the neural regulation of urogenital organs and the impact of injury on these nerves.

Professor Justin Kenardy

Professor Kenardy works in the broad area of behavioural medicine and clinical health psychology, with particular interests in anxiety and post-traumatic stress in relation to physical illness or injury. He has obtained two NIH and several NHMRC and ARC grants to study, and he also works on e-mental health and holds an NHMRC Grant to develop and evaluate internet interventions. Professor Kenardy was also awarded the Ian Campbell Prize for his contribution to clinical psychology is Australia. Justin Kenardy is currently Deputy Director of the Centre of National Research on Disability and Rehabilitation Medicine. He has published over 150 articles, books and book chapters.

Professor Geoff Mitchell

Geoff Mitchell is Professor of General Practice and Palliative Care at the University of Queensland, and Head of the MBBS program at Ipswich. His main research interest is in the role of General Practitioners in palliative care, cancer in general, and complex conditions. Professor Mitchell's current research includes interventions to improve outcomes for caregivers with advanced cancer, health services research in palliative care and primary care, and single patient trials. As of July 2012 he has published 124 peer-reviewed papers and 27 book chapters, and he has been a CI on over $13m of research funding.   Professor Mitchell maintains a clinical general practice in Ipswich, Queensland.

Professor Paul Rolan

Professor Rolan is a clinical pharmacologist who has largely worked in drug development in the United Kingdom. Since 2005 he has returned to the University of Adelaide as Professor of Clinical Pharmacology where his principal research focus is on the prevention and treatment of chronic pain. His principal clinical focus is on management of problematic headache.

Professor Louise Sharpe

Professor Sharpe is Professor of Clinical Psychology and Director of Clinical Research in the School of Psychology, The University of Sydney. She did her BA (Hons) and Masters in Psychology at The University of Sydney and completed her PhD at The University of London. Professor Sharpe has published a number of randomised controlled trials of psychological interventions in pain patients and patients with rheumatoid arthritis and has held numerous NHMRC and ARC grants in the area of pain. She has a particular interest in the role of attentional processes in the development, maintenance and management of pain.

Associate Professor Philip Siddall

Philip Siddall is Director of the Pain Clinic at Greenwich Hospital, HammondCare, and Associate Professor of Pain Medicine at the University of Sydney. He has been working clinically in the field of pain management for over 25 years with previous appointments at Royal Prince Alfred and Royal North Shore Hospitals. A/Prof Siddall is involved in graduate and postgraduate teaching at the University of Sydney and he is currently Chair of the IASP Education Initiatives Working Group, and he has a PhD in pain physiology and leads a research program primarily focussed on the mechanisms and management of pain following spinal cord injury.