HIMAA National Conference 2010

Keynote Speakers

Prof Philip Davies
Philip Davies was appointed as Professor of Health Systems and Policy in the School of
Population Health at the University of Queensland in 2009. Prior to taking up his current
position he worked for 6½ years as a Deputy Secretary in the Australian (Federal) Government
Department of Health and Aging where he was responsible for several key areas of health policy
as well as corporate management of the Department.  In a health sector career spanning more
than 30 years, Professor Davies has also been a Deputy Director-General in the New Zealand
Ministry of Health, a Senior Health Economist with the World Health Organization in Geneva and
spent 14 years as a specialist health care management consultant with Coopers & Lybrand 
(now PriceWaterhouseCoopers) in the UK and New Zealand. He became a partner in the New Zealand
firm in 1995. Professor Davies has worked in several developed and developing countries. 
He holds a first-class honours degree in Mathematics, a masters in Management Science & 
Operational Research and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors

Dr Emil Djakic 
A graduate of the University of Tasmania, Dr Djakic is a full-time GP and practice principal 
and owner in Ulverstone, Tasmania. He has previously served as chair of the North West 
Tasmanian Division of General Practice and on the board of the Tasmanian General Practice 
Divisions. In recent times Dr Djakic was one of the first GPs to take part in the NT interventions 
child health checks. Dr Djakic’s practice is fully computerised since 2000 and he is an advocate
for ehealth and GP computing usage.






 

Dr Mukesh Haikerwal
Dr Haikerwal is a past Commissioner with the National Health & Hospitals Reform Commission 
and is a General Medical Practitioner in Melbourne's Western Suburbs, where he has practised 
for over 17 years. Dr Haikerwal was the 19th National President of the Australian Medical 
Association in 2007 following 2 years as National vice president and 2 years as 
Victorian State President.

Dr Haikerwal is currently Clinical Lead with the National eHealth Transition Authority (NeHTA)
appraising the clinical health professional community of the benefits of the vital role of IT in
healthcare. Internationally, he is Chair of the World Medical Association Finance and Planning
Committee.







Dr Fadwa Al-Yaman
Dr Al-Yaman currently heads the Social and Indigenous Group at the Australian Institute of Health
and Welfare.  The Social and Indigenous Group was established in 2008 to strengthen the Institute's
capacity to produce statistics, analysis and information on health and welfare issues across the life
span of all Australians including children and young people. Within this life-span perspective, a significant focus of the Group's work program is to provide evidence to support policies for 
Indigenous Australians and other groups including children and families who receive child protection services and young people in the justice system and the health of prisoners.

In 2008, Dr Al-Yaman was awarded the public service medal for outstanding public service in
improving the accuracy and reliability of the data on Indigenous Australians contained in information collections for health, housing and community services. Fadwa Al-Yaman holds a PhD in Immunology from the John Curtin School of Medical Research and a Master of Population Studies from the demography program at the Research School of Social Studies at ANU








Mr Peter Fleming
Peter Fleming was appointed Chief Executive Officer of NeHTA in September 2008 to lead 
the development of Australia's National e-health agenda. Mr Fleming comes to NeHTA 
following a successful tenure as the General Manager Technology, Business Integration, 
for the National Australia Bank. 

Mr Fleming started his career at Coles-Myer before moving to Colonial Group for seven years 
and rising to chief information officer. At  Colonial, Mr Fleming was involved in installing a new 
banking system for the State Bank of NSW. He then joined the Mayne Group in 2002 as Chief
Information Officer where he was responsible for information technology initiatives across the 
group, including the evaluation of emerging technologies to support Mayne's businesses 
internationally. Mr Fleming has also previously worked as Cheif Information Officer at 
Vodafone Australia and held other senior IT roles.








Dr Diane Watson
Dr Watson is Chief Executive of the NSW Bureau of Health Information and has a strong
track record in the provision of publicly available reports and information on health care
to inform clinicians and the community. Prior to arriving in Australia in 2009, Dr Watson
worked at the Health Council of Canada which was established by the Prime Minister and 
Premiers to monitor and report to Canadians on the performance of their health care
system. 

Dr Watson has held senior scientist and management positions at the Centre for Health Services
and Policy Research at the University of British Columbia, the Manitoba Centre for Health
Policy and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Dr Watson has also created health system performance reports with the Canadian Institute for Health Information and Statistics
Canada.







 

Dr David Filby 
Dr Filby is currently an Executive Consultant to SA Health and to the Australian Health
Ministers Advisory Council. Until February 2010 he was the Executive Director, Policy and
Intergovernment Relations with SA Health. In that position he was responsible for strategic planning
and policy development; intergovernment relations; and health intelligence.
Dr Filby is the Chair of the National Health Information Standards and Statistics Committee 
(NHISSC), a subcommittee of the National eHealth and Information Principal Committee (NEHIPC). 
NIHSSC is responsible for providing the NEHIPC with strategic advice on national health 
information needs and priorities.









Mark Cormack
Mr Cormack was appointed to the position of Chief Executive Officer, Health Workforce Australia 
in December 2009. Prior to this, Mr Cormack was ACT Health Chief Executive from November 2006.
In addition, Mr Cormack has held a number of senior management positions within public healthcare
organisations including the NSW Ambulance Service, Norther Rivers Area Health Service and ACT
Health. These positions covered Policy and Planning, Clinical Operations and Corporate Services. 








Professor Chris Baggoley
Professor Baggoley was appointed as Chief Executive of the Australian Commission on Safety and
Quality in Health Care on 21 December 2007. Prior to this appointment he was Chief Medical Officer
and Executive Director of Public Health and Clinical Coordination in the South Australian Department
of Health.

His other medical positions were Professor/Director of Emergency Medicine at Royal Adelaide Hospital, Executive Director, Medical Services and Director of Emergency Services at ACHA Health SA
and Director of Emergency Medicine at Flinders Medical Centre in Adelaide.

Professor Baggoley's other key roles in health have been President of the Australasian College for 
Emergency Medicine, Chair of the Committee of Presidents of Medical Colleges, and Chair of the 
Board of the National Institute of Clinical Studies.







Professor Kathy Eagar 
Professor Eager is Director of the Centre for Health Service Development (CHSD) at the University 
of Wollongong Australia. Kathy has over thirty years experience in the health and community 
care systems, during which she had divided her time between being a clinician, a senior manager 
and  a health academic. She has authored over 350 papers on management, quality, outcomes, 
information systems and funding of the Australia and New Zealand health and community care systems. The CHSD has a team of over 40 researchers covering 18 disciplines and manages both 
the Australasian Rehabilitation Outcomes Centre (AROC) and the Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration (PCOC).








Dr Tim Smyth
Dr Smyth took up his appointment as Deputy Director-General, Health System Quality, Performance and Innovation Division on 3 November 2008, returning to the Department after a break of 8½ years.

Tim has degrees in Medicine, Law and Business Administration. He has over 20 years' 
experience across the NSW health system, having worked as a doctor, Director of Medical Services,
hospital manager and Area Chief Executive. Tim was appointed CEO of the Hunter Area Health 
Service in August 1991 and came to back Sydney in July 1997 to take up the position of Deputy
Director-General, Policy Division with the Department of Health.

He was then "head-hunted" by a major law firm, leaving in April 2000 to become a Partner with DLA Phillips Fox Lawyers, working in commercial and corporate law with a client base concentrated in the
health and government sectors.

Tim has a long-held professional interest in clinical services design, safety and health information management - key functions of the Health System Quality, Performance and Innovation Division.