Keynote Speakers
Prof Brian Dolan
Director, Health Service 360
Professor Brian Dolan
Brian Dolan is a dual-qualified nurse whose clinical background is in emergency and mental health nursing and has worked as an Executive Director and also Clinical Director of several emergency departments. He is the author/editor of seven books on emergency care, education and leadership. His ‘Clinician’s Survival Guide to ward leadership and management’ was published by Elsevier in August 2024, and he is working on a book on addressing deconditioning provisionally title ‘EndPJParalysis TODAY’ and which will be published in 2025.
He originated the global social movements #Last1000Days, to value patients’ time, and #EndPJparalysis, to encourage patients to get up, dressed and moving to reduce their risk of deconditioning while in hospital. He is the first nurse to become Honorary President of AGILE – the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy network for physios working with older people and holds Full and Honorary Professorships at Coventry University, Bond University, SE Queensland, and Salford University, Manchester.
Brian was voted one of the 20 most influential people in the 70-year history of the UK’s National Health Service in 2018 and in the Queen’s 2019 New Year’s Honours List, and was awarded an OBE in the ‘For Services to Nursing and Emergency Care’.
Dr Jun Sasaki
Founder and Chairman, Yushoukai Medical Corporation
Dr Jun Sasaki
Graduated from Tsukuba University (1998).
General Practitioner and Gastroenterologist in Mitsui Memorial Hospital (1998-2003) Certified physician of the Japanese Society of Internal Medicine (2003).
CEO at Yushoukai Medical Corp, the largest group of home care clinics (24 clinics, 170 doctors, 9,000 home care patients) in Japan.
Expert Member, Regulatory Reform Promotion Council, Cabinet Office Board Member, Ageing Asia Innovation Forum
Asia-Pacific Eldercare Innovation Awards, Best Home Care Operator, Best Innovation Implementation 2 category: grand prize winner, 2016
Forbes Wellness Awards in the Publicness category: grand prize winner, 2017
Asia-Pacific Eldercare Innovation Awards Best improvement in Health Outcomes category: grand prize winner,2017/global influencer, 2018
Winner of the 2nd Nippon Management Foundation Award (Clinic Category), The Nippon Management Foundation, 2021
Awarded the 2nd Iwasa Prize for SDGs Japan Scholarship by the Iwasa Foundation for Education and Culture (medical care category), 2023
Asia-Pacific Eldercare Innovation Awards: Super Ageing Japan Outstanding Entrepreneur of the year, 2023
Prof Myra Bluebond-Langner
Professor of Palliative Care for Children and Young People (Emeritus) at University College London
Professor Myra Bluebond-Langner
Session proudly supported by
Myra Bluebond-Langner is Professor of Palliative Care for Children and Young People (Emeritus) at University College London, Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health. Appointed to UCL as Professor and True Colours Chair of Palliative Care for Children and Young People she served as the academic lead for the Louis Dundas Centre for Children’s Palliative Care - an academic and clinical partnership involving the Institute of Child Health and Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children.
She is also Board of Governors’ Professor of Anthropology (Emerita) and founder and former director of the Rutgers University Center for Children and Childhood Studies. While at Rutgers University she founded the RU Center for Children and Childhood Studies and was the founding editor of the Rutgers University Press Book Series in Childhood Studies (2000-2016).
She currently serves on the International Advisory Board for the Paediatric Palliative Care Centre for Research Excellence at QUT Health, Queensland Australia and is a member of the Paediatric Palliative Care Innovation and Discovery Lab at Massachusetts General Hospital-Harvard University.
Trained as an anthropologist her work has been driven by a desire to improve the lives of seriously ill children, young people and their families and to contribute to our understanding of children and childhoods more broadly. This commitment has led to a program of research and writing on the experiences of seriously ill children and their families over the course of the illness trajectory on topics ranging from ill children and their siblings understanding of illness and death to ways in which they and families endeavor to control the intrusion illness makes into their lives as they deal with physical, social, emotional aspects of living with a life limiting condition and life threatening illness.
To this end her research portfolio includes studies of: prognostic disclosure and decision making for children with high risk brain tumors, parents approaches to advance care planning, identification and management of breakthrough pain, clinicians attitudes and understanding of palliative care and implications for referral as well as research leading onto development of outcome measures in paediatric palliative care, identification and reduction of medication error in care in the community and improvement in conduct of consultations involving children with life limiting conditions and life threatening illnesses and their parents.
Best known for her books The Private Worlds of Dying Children and In the Shadow of Illness: Parents and Siblings of the Chronically Ill Child (Princeton University Press), she has published articles in journals in anthropology, psychology, childhood studies, oncology and palliative care. Her work has informed clinical guidance as well as policy in areas of communication with seriously ill children, research ethics, and end of life care.
She is the recipient of numerous grants including National Science Foundation (US), National Endowment for the Humanities (US), Department of Health England and The Health Foundation (UK) as well as several awards most notably Margaret Mead Award from the American Anthropological Association and society for Applied Anthropology and Honorary Fellow in The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.
Kate Reed
Director, ACT Health
Kate Reed
Kate Reed is a Palliative Care Nurse Practitioner with over 14 years’ experience in the ACT community across the outpatient, home based, residential aged care and acute care settings. She is currently in a Director role at ACT Health with the Voluntary Assisted Dying Implementation Taskforce and is completing her Masters of Law (International Law) at ANU while volunteering time to develop a palliative care service in Honiara, Solomon Islands.
Kate’s key interest and experience is the provision of equitable models of care to increase access to essential palliative care services, medication and expert clinician’s focusing on palliative care as part of universal health care delivery in Australia and the Oceanic region.
Christopher Hall
Director and CEO, Grief Australia
Christopher Hall
For the past 29 years Christopher Hall has held the position of Director and Chief Executive Officer of Grief Australia. He is a psychologist specialising in grief and bereavement. Christopher was elected President of the Association for Death Education and Counselling in 2015. In 2007, he was elected to the Board of Directors of the International Work Group on Dying, Death and Bereavement and served as chair from 2010-2013 and as the Secretary/Treasurer since 2010. The Association for Death Education and Counselling in 2018 awarded him the ADEC Service Award for his commitment to the field and advancing the study of dying, death and bereavement.
Christopher is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, a Fellow of the International Work Group on Death, Dying and Bereavement, an Honorary Fellow of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Melbourne and an Industry Fellow of the Faculty of Education at Monash University. He serves as the Editor of the journal Grief Matters: The Australian Journal of Grief and Bereavement and is a former Associate Editor of Death Studies. Since 2010, Christopher has been a member of the Coronial Council of Victoria. In the 2024 King’s Birthday Honours Christopher was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia, (AM) for significant service to psychology, particularly to grief and bereavement.
A/Prof Graham Grove
Consultant physician and medical director, SPaRTa
Associate Professor Graham Grove
Associate Professor Graham Grove
MBBS Hons, FRACP, FAChPM, BTh
Associate Professor Graham Grove is a consultant physician in palliative medicine in Gold Health Coast and the Medical Director of QLD’s regional and rural palliative care SPaRTa service and been involved in SPaRTa’s formation and strategic direction since its inception in late 2019. He undertook medical school and physician’s training in Adelaide. Following this he completed a theology bachelor and ministry accreditation whilst concurrently undertaking advanced training in palliative medicine, both part-time. He subsequently has worked as a consultant in Adelaide, the UK and now works for Gold Coast Health in Queensland. His interests include point-of-care ultrasound, radiology in palliative care, cancer pain interventions, prognostication and end-of-life and medical ethics.
A/Prof Ghauri Aggarwal
Senior Staff Specialist, Concord Centre for Palliative Care & Chair of APHN
Associate Professor Ghauri Aggarwal
Senior
Staff Specialist, Concord Centre for Palliative Care
Deputy Clinical Director Cancer Services and Palliative Care SLHD
Clinical Associate Professor, University of Sydney
Chair, Sydney Institute of Palliative Medicine (SIPM)
Chair, Asia Pacific Hospice and Palliative Care Network (APHN)
A/Prof Aggarwal has been the Head of the Palliative Care Department at Concord Hospital since 1996 to 2024 and is currently the Deputy Clinical Director Cancer Services and Palliative Care SLHD. Her practice includes hospital consultancy, ambulatory and inpatient care in palliative medicine within the district wide Sydney Palliative Care Service, SLHD. She has been involved for a number of years in the strategic development of Palliative Care in New South Wales and is the chair of the Executive of the Sydney Institute of Palliative Medicine establishing a statewide (NSW), palliative care registrar training network. Her interests include undergraduate and postgraduate education in palliative care and ethics and end of life decision making. Currently she is involved in capacity building, teaching and development of Palliative Care in the Asia-Pacific region and has taken up as Chair of APHN in 2024.
Prof Dorothy Keefe
CEO, Cancer Australia
Professor Dorothy Keefe PSM
Professor Dorothy Keefe is the CEO of Cancer Australia, Australia’s national cancer agency. Prior to this she was a medical oncologist at the Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH), and Professor of Cancer Medicine at the University of Adelaide. Her long-term research interest has been Supportive Care in Cancer, with a particular focus on gastrointestinal toxicity of cancer therapy. She has a strong interest in health reform, career development and mentoring. She is committed to patient-centred care, reducing unnecessary variation in cancer outcomes, and to improving outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people affected by cancer. During her tenure as CEO, she has led the enquiry into Lung Cancer Screening, resulting in the setting up of a national lung cancer screening program, and the development of the first national Australian Cancer Plan which she is now responsible for implementing.
Andrea Kelly
Interim First Nations Aged Care Commissioner
Andrea Kelly
Andrea Kelly is a proud Warumungu and Larrakia woman with over 33 years of dedicated service in the Australia Public Service. Her career has been distinguished by her commitment to advancing the rights of First Nations peoples through influential roles, including her position as Deputy Chief Executive Officer at Reconciliation Australia. Notably, she played a pivotal role in establishing the Territories Stolen Generations Redress Scheme, a landmark initiative addressing historical injustices faced by Indigenous communities.
Currently serving as the Interim First Nations Aged Care Commissioner, Andrea Kelly leads efforts to advocate for culturally safe aged care services for First Nations communities across Australia. Andrea’s extensive experience and deep cultural insights drive her ongoing work to influence public policy and achieve meaningful change for First Nations peoples.
Dr Joanna Hikaka
Co-director for the Centre for Co-Created Ageing Research (CCREATE-AGE), University of Auckland
Dr Joanna Hikaka
Dr Joanna Hikaka (Ngāruahine) is a co-director for the Centre for Co-Created Ageing Research (CCREATE-AGE) at the University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand. A registered pharmacist with over 20 years in clinical practice, her clinical and research work focuses on older people and Māori health spanning primary, secondary and aged residential care settings. Joanna’s current research focuses on exploring Māori experiences and expectations of aged care in the residential and community settings and equitable health service development and delivery. She holds a number of regional and national governance and advisory roles.
Patricia Sparrow
Chief Executive Officer, COTA
Patricia Sparrow
Patricia has devoted most of her 40-year career to the issues affecting Australia’s over-50s and has for years advocated passionately to create a brighter, more inclusive future for older Australians.
That career has intersected with the areas of community, disability, aged care, health and advocacy across multiple roles with Aged and Community Services Australia, at Vision 2020, in the government sector and with COTA Australia. In all those roles, Patricia has been unwavering in her passion for advancing the interests of older Australians.
At COTA Australia, Patricia is working to build a better and fairer future for older people. She aspires to help create a society that better values and welcomes the contribution of older people.
She also wants to see a society where older people are listened to and have greater agency over their future and their affairs, rather than being patronised, spoken down to or having their views dismissed, simply because they are older.
In short, Patricia’s hope is to see an Australia where age is simply a number.
Kathryn Hooper
Kathryn Hooper
Kathryn is a proud Worimi, Kubbi Kubbi and Poruma Island Descendant working as a Nurse Practitioner in a QLD statewide palliative care project. Kathryn has postgraduate qualifications in palliative care, chronic disease, rural remote practice and primary care. Kathryn is currently studying a postgraduate diploma in Nursing Leadership and is completing her Masters of Philosophy Thesis Titled ‘Social and Emotional Korumba (connectedness) at end of life for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. Kathryn has worked in acute, community, remote and urban settings across the country.
Prof Em. Luc Deliens
Professor Emeritus Luc Deliens
Luc Deliens, MA Sociology, PhD in Health Sciences, is Professor of Palliative Care Research at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel & Ghent University, and adjunct professor at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Brisbane, Australia. He is the Founding Director of the multidisciplinary and multi-professional End-of-Life Care Research Group in Belgium (www.endoflifecare.be), with over 70 staff people, one of the largest research groups in Europe in the domain of palliative care and end-of-life studies, including on public health palliative care and compassionate communities. He published over 600 papers in peer-reviewed journals and over 50 book chapters, and successfully supervised over 70 PhDs in palliative care or end-of-life decision-making. As researcher, he is involved in many EU funded international collaborative research projects.
Internationally, he is President of Public Health Palliative Care International (PHPCI) and co-chaired for many years the European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC) Reference Group on Public Health & Palliative Care. He is Associate Editor of Palliative Care and Social Practice and Editorial Board member of several journals, e.g. the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management and Palliative Medicine. In Belgium, he is one of few social scientists member of the prestigious Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium.
Deepak Biswal
Deepak Biswal
Deepak Biswal is the Founder and CEO of CareMonitor, a cloud-based platform for hospital-at-home, virtual care, and remote patient monitoring. CareMonitor won the Australian Digital Health Agency Innovation Award. The platform is used across a range of care settings, including palliative care, to support coordinated care delivery. Before founding CareMonitor, Deepak held leadership roles at major corporations such as Commonwealth Bank and Deloitte. He was also the Head of Strategy for Philips in Asia Pacific, where he led corporate strategy and business transformation projects at the group level.
Evelyn Anisi
Evelyn Anisi
Evelyn has worked as a Registered Nurse at the National Referral Hospital, Emergency Department for 19 years and is currently a Nurse Instructor. With 19 years of dedicated service as a nurse, Evelyn has encountered numerous patients facing end of life illnesses. These experiences have opened her eyes to the critical need for compassionate Palliative Care in the Solomon Islands. Recently Evelyn participated in an oncology workshop held at the National Referral Hospital and facilitated by the Canberra Oncology team that deepened her understanding of Palliative Care principles and practices. These experiences ignited Evelyn’s passion to enhance the Palliative Care system in her community, ensuring that patients and their families receive the support and dignity they deserve during challenging times. Evelyn is committed to advocating for improved Palliative Care services and education and is aiming to make a meaningful difference in the lives of those in need.
Professor Michael Kidd
Professor Michael Kidd
Professor Kidd is a highly respected medical leader known for his significant contributions to public health and primary health care, in Australia and internationally.
He has extensive experience as a general practitioner, primary care researcher, educator and academic and has served as president of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) and the World Organization of Family Doctors.
Most recently, Professor Kidd has been the Professor of Global Primary Care and Future Health Systems at the University of Oxford, and Director of the International Centre for Future Health Systems at the University of New South Wales.
Professor Kidd served as Deputy Chief Medical Officer and Principal Medical Advisor with the Department of Health and Aged Care during the COVID-19 pandemic making a significant contribution to the national primary care response.
Ian Maddocks Guest Lecture
Priyanka Vandersman
Senior Research Fellow, ELDAC
Priyanka Vandersman
Priyanka is a Registered Nurse and digital health technology researcher. She is a Senior Research Fellow at the Research Centre for Palliative Care, Death and Dying [RePaDD], and works with the End of Life Directions in Aged Care [ELDAC] Project's Flinders University team. Her work focuses on building the capability of the Australian aged care sector in providing quality end of life care using novel approaches.
2025 Oceanic Palliative Care Conference (25OPCC)
Proudly brought to you by Palliative Care Australia.
Appointed Conference Organisers: Iceberg Events | PO Box 1179, Milton QLD | Phone 07 3876 4988
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We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land which the 25OPCC Conference will be held. We pay our respects to the Elders, past and present, for they hold the memories, traditions, the culture and hopes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across the state of Queensland and Australia.