Meet the panel presenters for the Community and Business Health Reform Roundtable and the author of the discussion paper Revitalising Health Reform: Time to Act, Dr Sharon Willcox.

Peter Brooks
Karen Carey
Robert Fitzgerald
Lyn Roberts
Michael Armitage
Noreen Dowd
Norman Swan
Sharon Willcox
Brian Oldenburg


Professor Peter Brooks
Professor Peter Brooks is currently Executive Dean of Health Sciences at the University of Queensland.  He has held previous posts as Professor of Medicine at St. Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney ( University of New South Wales ) and was the Foundation Professor of Rheumatology at the Royal North Shore Hospital and the University of Sydney .  He completed his medical training at Monash University in Melbourne and then studied rheumatology under Professor Watson Buchanan in Glasgow .
Professor Brooks is a rheumatologist with a major research interest in the treatment and epidemiology of rheumatic diseases.  He is a recognised international expert in this area.  He has a major interest in medical research, in particular, the linking of basic and clinical research and in internationalisation and the development of postgraduate activities.  He has published widely in the treatment and outcomes in arthritis and in psychological aspects of rheumatic diseases and medical education. 
Professor Brooks is a rheumatologist with a major research interest in the treatment and epidemiology of rheumatic diseases.He is a recognised international expert in this area.He has a major interest in medical research, in particular, the linking of basic and clinical research and in internationalisation and the development of postgraduate activities.He has published widely in the treatment and outcomes in arthritis and in psychological aspects of rheumatic diseases and medical education. Professor Brooks sits on a number of Boards including:  Council of Queensland Institute for Medical Research, Advisory Committee (arthritis and musculoskeletal disease) to the National Health Priority Action Council, Mater Medical Research Institute, Board of CONROD, and the Executive Steering Committee of the Bone and Joint Decade.

Karen Carey
Karen is a Senior Consumer Representative for the Consumers Health Forum of Australia. Karen has been involved in many expert working groups as Chairperson around assessing patients needs and improving the provision of information to all patients in the WA public hospitals.  Karen is immediate past Chairperson of the Health Consumers Health Council of WA and has been part of the expert working group in the National Service Improvement Framework (NSIF) for Heart Stroke and Vascular Health.
Karen has been a Consumer Representative on many working groups including the National Health Priority Areas Council, the National Chronic Disease Strategy Working Group, and the Policy Advisory Group which provides recommendations to the Federal Minister for Health in relation to issues arising from new legislation regulating prosthesis and devices and funding by the private health industry.

Mr Robert Fitzgerald AM
Robert Fitzgerald was appointed as a full-time Commissioner at the Productivity Commission in 2004.  He had previously been an Associate Commissioner on the Commission's inquiry into Australian Gambling Industries in 1999.  Currently Robert is the Presiding Commissioner on a number of inquiries including Australia's Consumer Policy Framework.  He was also the Commissioner on the Health Workforce study and Consumer Product study.  He is the convenor of the Indigenous Disadvantage Working Group of the Steering Committee for the Review of Government Service Provision which produces the Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage Report.
Robert has a diverse background and extensive experience in commerce, law, public policy and community services.  Prior to being appointed to the Commission, Robert was the Community and Disability Services Commissioner and Deputy Ombudsman in NSW and previously Commissioner for Community Services.
His involvement in public policy has been extensive and includes serving as a member of the National Competition Council for five years (1999-2003). Robert holds degrees in commerce and law from the University of NSW.  He was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 1994 and was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Australian Catholic University in 2001.

Dr Lyn Roberts
Dr Lyn Roberts has extensive experience with Boards of Management as well as
comprehensive business and organisational management skills.  Dr Roberts has been with the National Heart Foundation since 1988 and has been CEO since 2001.
Previously Dr Roberts had responsibility for the development and implementation of national cardiovascular health programs within Australia.  Dr Roberts has been extensively involved with cancer prevention programs in particular is regarded as an expert on tobacco control matters. She is recognised as a public health leader in Australia.
Dr Roberts is a member (and chairs) a number of expert advisory committees for the government and non-government sector.  She has given several key note addresses at national and international conferences.
Dr Roberts has over 40 publications in peer reviewed journals along with authorship of a number of reports prepared for the Commonwealth and State Health Departments.  Dr Roberts has qualifications including a PhD in medical sociology, a BA (Hons) and a Diploma in Applied Science (Chemistry).
In 1997, Dr Roberts was awarded an Order of Australia (AM) for service to the community and to health, particularly in the fields of health promotion, cancer prevention awareness and lifestyle education.

Hon Dr Michael Armitage
Dr Armitage is the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Health Insurance Association, the peak body representing health funds in Australia.
Dr Armitage was a Member of the South Australian Parliament from 1989 to 2002, and a Minister from 1993 - 2002. In particular, he held the Health portfolio from 1993 to 1997.
Before entering Parliament, Dr Armitage was in private practice after serving as Paediatric Registrar in Adelaide Children’s Hospital and as a House Surgeon for Invercargill New Zealand.
Since leaving Parliament, he was involved in the Super Computer industry, as the Director – Sciences (ANZ) for Silicon Graphics (SGI) before joining the Australian Health Insurance Association as CEO in November 2005.

Ms Noreen Dowd
Noreen Dowd is a Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers where she leads the Victorian Health Practice.  Areas of focus for the practice include policy and program evaluation/review, clinical service redesign and financial turnaround.
Prior to PwC, Noreen worked in Government, both in Australia and the UK.  She has over 13 years experience of working in health where she has held a number of senior management positions.  Her experience spans many program areas from acute hospitals, sub-acute, ambulance and community services.

Dr Norman Swan
Host of the Health Report, on ABC Radio National, Dr Norman Swan, is a multi-award winning broadcaster and journalist.
One of the first medically qualified journalists in Australia, Dr Swan was born in Scotland, graduated in medicine from the University of Aberdeen and later obtained his postgraduate qualifications in Paediatrics. Joining the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 1982, Dr Swan has won numerous awards for his journalism and broadcasting. 
Dr Swan was named Australian Radio Producer of the Year in 1984 and was awarded a Gold Citation in the United Nations Media Peace Prizes for his radio work. He has won three Walkley National Awards for Australian journalism and 's top prize for Science Journalism, the Michael Daly Award, twice. 
A famous example of Dr Swan's work is his much publicised and controversial investigative program on scientific fraud and the well-known gynaecologist Dr William McBride. The program exposed fraudulent research, sending shock waves throughout the medical world and led to Dr William McBride being de-registered. It earned Dr Swan the 1988 Australian Writers' Guild Award for best documentary and a Gold Walkley. 
In 2004 he was awarded the Medal of the Australian Academy of Science, an honour that had only been given three times and the Royal College of Physicians of Glasgow made him a Fellow. 
In addition to the Health Report, Dr Swan appears on local ABC radio. He also presents the popular “Health Minutes” on ABC NewsRadio each week and edits his own newsletter, The Choice Health Reader, which is published in partnership with the Australian Consumers Association. 
On television, Dr Swan has hosted ABC Television's science program, Quantum, and been a guest reporter on Catalyst and Four Corners . He hosted Health Dimensions on ABC Television, and created, wrote and narrated a four part series on disease and civilisation, “Invisible Enemies”, made for Channel 4(UK) and SBS Television. This has been shown in twenty seven countries. He also co-wrote and narrated “The Opposite Sex”, a four part series for ABC Television.
Norman Swan is known outside . He has been the Australian correspondent for the Journal of the American Medical Association and the British Medical Journal and consulted for the World Health Organisation in Geneva on global priorities in health research.

Dr Sharon Willcox
Dr Sharon Willcox is the Director of Health Policy Solutions, an independent health consulting company established in 2005.  Sharon has over 25 years experience working in health public policy in government and the community sector.  She has had senior roles in the Victorian, New South Wales and Australian government health departments.  This has included taking a leading role in negotiating for Victoria the 1998-2003 and 2003-2008 Australian Health Care Agreements for funding public hospitals, improving public reporting on health system performance, and reforming health system governance, regulation, service planning, consumer participation and funding model development.
Sharon has also worked in the on health policy and financing issues, as a Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy in 1999-2000 and as a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Health Program Studies at Harvard University in 1992-93.  Her qualifications include a Doctor of Public Health (with her thesis examining the effectiveness of private health insurance regulation) and a Master of Administration.

Prof Brian Oldenburg
Brian Oldenburg (BSc (Hons); MPsych; PhD) has been recently appointed in the role of Chair of International Public Health, Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Monash University.  He is the immediate past Professor of Public Health, School of Public Health, Queensland University of Technology (QUT).  Brian is also the Regional Director of the Asia-Pacific Academic Consortium of Public Health (APACPH). His research focus spans the social/behavioural sciences and public health, with the major focus being on health policy, global health and the primary and secondary prevention of non-communicable diseases and associated social and behavioural risk factors across the life-course.  This includes many intervention trials conducted in health care settings, work organisations, schools and other community settings over more than 20 years. His current research interests also include; socio-economic health inequalities, social disadvantage and research with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations, as well as, a broader interest in translational and policy-relevant research.  He is also a senior research collaborator on public health intervention trials currently underway in both Australia and internationally. His research productivity is evidenced by over 300 publications, more than half of which are in peer-reviewed publications.  He has also co-authored many important book chapters as well as national reports examining aspects of Australian health trends, health policy, socio-economic determinants of health and building capacity in the Australian public health workforce.