Exercise Medicine Advisory Council
Morgan is an Exercise Physiologist with a strong interest in cancer rehabilitation. He completed his accreditation as an Exercise Physiologist in 2005 and started work in clinical rehabilitation at the Centre for Physical Activity in Ageing at the Hampstead Rehabilitation Centre. In 2006 he developed an exercise program specifically for cancer patients to help them manage the various treatment related side effects and in 2008 completed a Churchill Fellowship travelling around the world investigating cancer rehabilitation programs. He is currently working for the Youth Cancer Service SA/NT as an Exercise Physiologist prescribing exercise for young people with cancer and is involved in a number of research projects looking at the benefits of exercise for adolescent and young adults with cancer. His current research interest is looking at the use of robotics rehabilitation in paediatric and adolescent and young adult cancer patients. He has also been an active member of the Clinical Oncology Society of Australia, Exercise and Cancer Group for the past 4 years and has been secretary for the Chad Hancock Cancer Foundation for Young Adults for the past 15 years.
Dr Diane Hanna is a paediatric oncologist for the Children’s Cancer Centre at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne. Dr Hanna is also completing her PhD under the Australian Post-Graduate Award and Cancer Therapeutics for the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute. Dr Hanna is also the medical lead for the Allied Health Services Department at the Royal Children’s Hospital, which includes the physiotherapy team.
Dr David Mizrahi is an Accredited Exercise Physiologist at the University of New South Wales and Sydney Children’s Hospital. His research focuses on physical activity and physical fitness after treatment for childhood cancer as well as exercise during chemotherapy for relapsed ovarian cancer. His PhD involved assessing the acceptability of receiving an exercise physiology consultation among parents and survivors of childhood cancer. His work identifies which survivors are at increased risk of having low fitness and physical activity levels, to identify them early and promote behaviour change to minimise health risks in the clinic. He has presented his research locally and internationally, and has 6 publications. He has ongoing collaborations between clinicians and researchers in Australia and abroad to strengthen the link between institutions to advance the understanding of the field and develop the role of exercise for survivors of childhood cancer.
With 19 years of user experience consulting to Australia’s top companies it’s likely you use a service that Oliver played a part in designing. He is the Director of Design & Innovation at Mobile Experience and his clients have included Qantas, Telstra, Optus, Atlassian, NRMA, ABC, Museum of Contemporary Art, Commonwealth Bank and Westpac. He also loves working with start-ups to help them achieve their dreams, especially in the IoT & wearables space, across health, agriculture and automotive. He is an international conference speaker, mentor, and teaches Interaction Design at Sydney University.
Stephanie completed her Bachelor of Nursing and Health Promotion through Deakin University in 2007. Having always wanted to work in paediatrics she completed her graduate year at the Royal Children’s Hospital and has not looked back. She has 12 years of experience in paediatrics, mainly in the field of oncology with some time spent in the intensive care unit. After completing a Postgraduate Certificate in Paediatric Intensive Care, she is now embarking on completing a Masters of Advanced Nursing Practice to become a nurse practitioner. Stephanie has a passion for improving patient care for children undergoing cancer treatment and is excited to be involved with Little Big Steps.
Nic is a long-time patient advocate & health reform volunteer. She has personally witnessed the value of exercise medicine in her own child, where it was an affordable, evidence based intervention that actively helped to prevent some of the side effects of treatment (muscle wastage, obesity, fatigue, etc) as well as the harmful late term effects (diabetes, mental health challenges, brittle bones etc). Nic firmly believes, and is meaningfully working towards all children and young people diagnosed with cancer having access to personalised exercise medicine as the standard of care upon diagnosis. She has sat on hospital based clinical governance and steering committees, family/patient forums, participated in senate inquiries, attended scores of clinical conferences, and participated in umpteen education events since 2008. Nic is a huge advocate for Patient Centred Care in all aspects of health, from research and clinical trials, right through to bedside translation. She is known to regularly share the adage ‘nothing about us, without us’ in her volunteer work.
Ebonie is a postdoctoral research fellow at La Trobe University and holds an NHMRC fellowship. She completed her PhD in tendon pain, has a Masters degree in Sports Physiotherapy, a Bachelor of Physiotherapy with honours, and a Bachelor of Applied Science. She is a titled Sports Physiotherapist and consults privately as well as at The Victorian Institute of Sport. Her research has been awarded Victorian Fresh Scientist of the year 2015, ASICS SMA Best New Investigator 2004, 2013 & 2014 in Clinical Sports Medicine, best clinical science Pain Adelaide 2013, BJSM young investigator Best Clinical Paper 2014 and the Professor Mollie Holman medal for the best thesis of the faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences Monash University 2015, and the ECR best paper 2015.
Sarah Grimshaw is a physiotherapist with over 10 years experience working in both the acute and community setting. Sarah has worked in paediatrics for the past 7 years and now works as the senior physiotherapist to oncology at the Royal Children’s Hospital. She is currently undertaking her PhD through the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and La Trobe University, investigating novel ways to improve activity levels and reduce sedentary behaviours for children with cancer.
Anne-Maree is an experienced Physiotherapist who has worked for Queensland Health for 40 years with the majority of that time in Paediatrics. She is the Physiotherapist Clinical Lead Oncology and has provided state-wide service provision to children with cancer for over 15 years. She has extensive experience across all areas of oncology leading a team of Physiotherapists that deliver tertiary interventions to paediatric patients across oncology, palliative care, haemophilia, burns and continence domains. Anne-Maree completed a pilot study to measure fatigue and its characteristics in children with Acute lymphoblastic Leukemia undergoing chemotherapy. She is a strong advocate for exercise and optimising function in children with cancer.
Dr Thomas Walwyn is a Senior Paediatric & Adolescent Oncologist at Perth Children’s Hospital and Clinical Senior Lecturer at the University of Western Australia. He leads the Survivorship and Transition clinical and research program, with clinical interests in Neuro-oncology, Hodgkin lymphoma and Histiocytoses. His multi-institutional research team have particular interests in population-based outcome data and interventions aimed at improving quality of survivorship with an established program in exercise interventions at all stages of therapy.
