Professor Karin Thursky MBBC BSC MD FRACP FAIDH is an infectious diseases physician and clinician researcher with a wealth of experience in advancing antimicrobial stewardship programs. Currently, she leads the Royal Melbourne Hospital Guidance Group , serves as the Director of the National Centre for Antimicrobial Stewardship and Associate Director of Health Services Research and Implementation Science at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, and is a Principal Fellow in two Departments: Medicine and Oncology, at the University of Melbourne. Professor Thursky is nationally and internationally recognised as a leader in AMS and health services research. She founded the Guidance clinical decision support software, now implemented in hospitals across Australia, and co-leads the development and delivery of the National Antimicrobial Prescribing Survey, a cornerstone of the AURA surveillance program. Her work has directly influenced national AMS policies, accreditation standards, and clinical practice, while building workforce capacity across human and animal health through a One Health lens.
Speakers
Howard Florey Oration & Dinner
Professor Christopher (Kit) Fairley Monash University
Plenary & Keynote Speakers
Dr Angela Huttner Division of Infectious Diseases Geneva University Hospitals (HUG) & Faculty Medicine
Professor Christopher Blyth University of Western Australia
Richard joined CARB-X in 2019 following almost 20 years in large pharma Infection R&D teams followed by 4 years at a small antibacterial biotech company where he supported the progression of small molecule compounds from discovery through to late-stage clinical development and registration. He obtained his PhD in molecular microbiology from the University of Adelaide, and prior to joining industry he had two post-doctoral positions in the AMR area, one in Australia at the University of Queensland and one in Canada at the University of Victoria in British Columbia. He currently serves as the Chief Scientist at CARB-X, a global non-profit organization that supports a diverse and innovative pipeline of traditional and non-traditional products to prevent, diagnose, and treat infections caused by drug-resistant bacterial pathogens.
Professor Mark Gilchrist Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust Charing Cross Hospital
Dr Richard Alm Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X), USA
Mark is a Consultant Pharmacist Infectious Diseases within Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and directs the Trust’s antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) programme working with colleagues across the organisation to optimise therapeutics and care. He works closely with healthcare associated / surgical site infection and hospital epidemiological departments. He directs and leads the Trust’s outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy (OPAT) service and is the Division of Medicine and Integrated Care Infection Prevention and Control lead.
Mark is a fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and chairs its expert antimicrobial advisory group. He is a council member of British Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy and co-leads its UK OPAT Initiative. Mark has particular interests in antimicrobial stewardship around improving systems and processes that affect local, national and international AMR. His clinical interests include OPAT, tuberculosis and critical care.
He has delivered many lectures and workshops on AMS both at national and international level and has published around his areas of interest. He was awarded Professor of Practice from Imperial College London in November 2023.
Symposium Speakers
Dr Elaine Cheong The University of Sydney
Dr Erin Connor Program Manager SA Health
Caroline Chen NAPS Senior Project Manager and PhD Fellow, NCAS
Zoy Goff Antimicrobials Stewardship Pharmacist
Professor Krispin Hajkowicz Herston Infectious Diseases Institute
Dr Nadine Hillock University of Adelaide SA Health
Dr Rod James Clinical Director, RMH Guidance Group and Deputy Director, NCAS
Dr Jen Kok New South Wales Health Pathology
Dr Tony Korman Monash University
Amy Legg University of Queensland
Dr Lito Papanicolas SA Pathology Royal Adelaide Hospital
Professor Trisha Peel Monash University
Professor Anton Peleg Monash University
Dr Jason Roberts Centre for Clinical Research, University of Queensland
Dr Philip Selby University of South Australia
Caitlin Selway SA Pathology
Andrew Stewardson Monash University
Professor Karin (Kas) Thursky Director of RMH Guidance Group and NCAS