INVITED SPEAKERS

Keynote Speaker

Professor Suzanne Pitama

About Suzanne Pitama (Ngāti Kahungunu)

Suzanne is a registered educational psychologist. She has extensive experience in Māori health research and health education.

Suzanne is focussed on addressing Māori health inequities through medical education, health research (including mental health and heart health) and through membership on appropriate committees and boards (including the HRC Board and Australian Medical Council).

Suzanne’s PhD focused on the design, implementation and impact of indigenous health curricula within medical schools. Suzanne is the Otago Medical School Hauora Māori faculty representative and is a member of the MBChB curriculum committee and Chairs the Hauora Māori sub-committee.

Suzanne also contributes to the MIHI post-graduate short courses that support the professional development of health professionals in the Hui Process and Meihana Model.

Keynote Speaker

Dr Dujeepa D. Samarasekera

Dujeepa is the Senior Director of Centre for Medical Education (CenMED) at School of Medicine, National University Health System. He also holds the portfolios as Senior Advisor, Centre for Development of Teaching and Learning at National University of Singapore and is a Senior Consultant with the Ministry of Health Singapore. He is a globally recognized leader in Medical and Health Professions Education of 20+ years with demonstrated experience in leading high impact & transformational initiatives. Proven expertise in adult professional learning, leading progressive and sustainable faculty development initiatives leveraging on contemporary technologies to create successful learner experiences. Change catalyst & industry key opinion former who has inspired international collaborations and development of global Communities of Practice. Consistently develops teams, methodologies and strategies through a creative blend of people, technologies and processes to deliver organizational goals maximizing on quality & productivity.

In his current roles, Dujeepa leads the School of Medicine Continuous Quality Improvement team for education and is also a member of the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, Graduate Medical Education Committee, Faculty Assessment Committee, Curriculum Steering Task Force and Curriculum Revision Task Force at the School of Medicine and National University Health System (NUHS). Dujeepa also provides leadership and expertise in programme accreditation; and development of training courses and assessment frameworks for Medical, Nursing, Pharmacy and Allied Health programs. He is the inaugural elected President of College of Clinician Educators at the Academy of Medicine of Singapore, Executive Board member of the World Federation for Medial Education (WFME), Chair of the WFME Risk & Compliance and was elected as the President of the Western Pacific Association of Medical Education in 2018. Dujeepa Has won many accolades such as NUS School of Medicine Special Recognition Award as a Role Model in 2015, Residents Choice Award by NUHS Residency Program from 2015-2021, Value in Action Award Awarded for excellence in innovation by National University Health System (NUHS), Mentoring Innovation and Leadership in Educational Scholarship, awarded for outstanding contribution for global medical education in, 2014, Excellence in Administration which recognizes the ability to bring about improvements to multi-department or school wide processes, resulting in significant savings for the school in 2020, COVID Challenge Award for NUS Medicine (First Prize) given to the teams who have significantly innovated during COVID in 2021 and NUS Virtues Award in 2021 for excellence and dedication by oneself contributing to service under difficult circumstances due to COVID in 2021.

Dujeepa is the Editor-in-Chief of The Asia Pacific Scholar (TAPS) journal and serves on the editorial advisory boards of a number of other international medical education journals, and has published widely in peer-reviewed medical education journals as well as authored books chapters. He is an Honorary Professor and Visiting Faculty at Tzu Chi University of Science and Technology, Taiwan; Semey State Medical University, Kazakhstan; and the University of Maastricht, Netherlands. Dujeepa holds the Fellowships of Academy of Medical Educators UK and Europe and is a fellow of Academy of Medicine Singapore, Academy of Medicine Malaysia and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians Edinburgh.

Plenary Panel: Invited Speakers

MC Dr Rhea Liang

Rhea Liang is a general and breast surgeon on the Gold Coast of Australia and Surgical Lead at Bond University. She has taught since she was a teenager, but only gained her first formal education qualification in her 7^th year as a surgical consultant. The development of the health educator professional identity, and how it interfaces with being a clinician, is one that she therefore navigates and grapples with daily.

Professor Elizabeth Molloy

Liz Molloy is Professor of Work Integrated Learning in the Department of Medical Education at the University of Melbourne and Director of Interprofessional Education and Practice in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences. Liz’s work seeks to better understand how students learn through the clinical workplace, including how they seek and interpret cues within their contexts. Liz worked as a physiotherapist for over a decade, and completed a PhD (2006) on feedback in clinical education. Liz’s research focuses on experiential learning, feedback and assessment, transitions, and interprofessional education and practice. Liz received an inaugural Fellowship of ANZAHPE in 2015, and is Associate Editor of the journals Advances in Health Sciences Education and Focus on Health Professions Education. In 2019 Liz received a Karolinksa Fellowship Prize for Excellence in Research in Medical Education.

Professor Darrell Evans

Darrell Evans is passionate about the transformative power of education and its promise for future generations. Darrell’s academic background is as an anatomist and developmental biologist with over 30 years’ experience in teaching in the anatomical sciences. As an award-winning teacher, Darrell is internationally recognised for advances and creativity in higher education practice and contributions to the student experience. Darrell is an Associate Editor for the Anatomical Sciences Education journal, and his own education research focuses on formative assessment, near-peer teaching and communication skills.

As a former Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) at the University of Newcastle and Pro Vice-Chancellor (Learning and Teaching) at Monash University, Darrell now blends his teaching, research and management expertise as well as his creative flair to provide dynamic approaches to consulting, training and mentoring through his company globalDARBE.

Dr Kenneth Cho

Dr Kenneth Cho is a cardiology registrar passionate about medical education. Kenneth completed his medical degree with Honours at Western Sydney University where he was the recipient of a numerous academic prizes, including the George Chao-Yiang Hu Prize for medical education. During his prevocational training, he was shortlisted for the NSW Junior doctor of the year award, completed an MPhil with the University of Sydney, received the Australian Medical Students’ Association’s National Teaching Award for his contributions to medical education and held several leadership positions including on the St Vincent’s Youth Advisory Board and as a trainee representative for the NSW Physicians in Training Council. He is currently completing his cardiology training with Liverpool and Campbelltown Hospitals in South West Sydney, and is a conjoint associate lecturer with the University of New South Wales and Western Sydney University.

Lizzie Stevenson

Lizzie Stevenson is a 5th year Medical Student through University of Otago, and is currently in her clinical placement years based in Christchurch. Throughout her medical school career she has enjoyed being involved in student executives and advocating for students within the medical education sphere. Her current role is vice president of the Christchurch Medical School Association. She has also enjoyed time spent doing research on Otago Medical School students' experiences of studying while working, and to her delight, her work has recently been accepted for publishing.

Keynote Speaker

Professor Jennifer Cleland

Jennifer Cleland is President’s Chair in Medical Education and Vice Dean (Education), Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University Singapore. Prior to coming to Singapore in January 2020 she was the inaugural holder of the John Simpson Chair of Medical Education Research at the University of Aberdeen, UK and Director of the Scottish Medical Education Research Consortium (2015-2020).

She holds Adjunct or Honorary Professor roles at numerous universities across three continents. She is an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh, and an Associate Fellow of the Faculty of Surgical Trainers, Royal College of Surgeons (Edin). She was the Chair of the Association for Medical Education (ASME) from 2013-2018 and Chair of the Association for Medical Education Europe (AMEE) Research Committee (2014-2018). She is currently a member of AMEE’s Executive Committee. She holds Editorial positions with the journals Medical Education and Advances in Health Sciences Education.

Professor Cleland is known internationally for her research in the areas of student selection and widening access to medicine, performance and assessment, career progression and choices in medicine. Her research is characterized by inter-disciplinarity and methodological flexibility. She has published over 200 academic papers in top ranking journals.

Presentation Title: Research-informed practice or practice-informed research?

How can research inform policy and practice? It takes a lot more than just generating evidence. It’s about tuning into the zeitgeist and working with the key players. In this talk, I will draw on various examples to illustrate how being strategic in one’s partnerships and research focus can lead to both high-quality academic outputs and impactful change.