Dr Louis Peachey

Dr Louis Peachey is the 2021 recipient of the prestigious Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine’s (ACRRM) Life Fellowship award. As a Founding Fellow and former College Board member, Dr Peachey is currently a Senior Medical Officer at the Atherton District Hospital in Queensland, where he works as a Rural Generalist Anaesthetist and runs a regular clinic at Lotus Glen Correctional Centre. Dr Peachey is a strong supporter and promoter of rural generalism through his teaching and by example. As a highly respected clinician, Dr Peachey provides outstanding service to the profession as an educator and supervisor while also mentoring and supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander doctors and medical students.

As a Girrimay man from the Djirribaligan language group (Rainforest People) of North Queensland, Dr Peachey is a strong advocate for rural Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health. He was the first Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Fellow of ACRRM and was instrumental in establishing the College’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander members group. Having not only co-written the original ACRRM Cultural Awareness course, Dr Peachey is also one of the founding members of the College’s Advanced Life Support course which he continues to instruct across the country. Dr Peachey’s contribution to rural generalism extends from clinical and teaching excellence to being an outstanding role-model and mentor to generations of medical students, junior doctors, registrars and Fellows.

Dr Christine 'Cris' Cuthbertson

Cris trained at Austin in general surgery, and has worked at Austin and Repatriation Hospital, Bendigo Health and the Northern Hospital, gaining a broad experience of general surgery. During her training, she also completed a PhD in Surgery at the University of Melbourne.

She was registered as a general surgeon in 2014. She completed a Fellowship year at the Northern Hospital in 2014, focusing on Emergency General Surgery and Endocrine Surgery.  In 2015 and 2016, Cris moved to Nepal with her family to work as a volunteer general surgeon in a rural hospital, United Mission to Nepal Tansen Hospital. During this time she managed complex and straightforward general surgical problems, urological and gynaecological surgery. While there she worked particularly to support the education of young Nepali surgeons and GP surgeons.

In 2017, Cris and her family returned to Australia and settled in Bendigo. Cris works in Bendigo in public and private, and does outreach to Echuca Regional Health. Her practice covers broad many aspects of general surgery, but is most focussed on breast, endocrine, head and neck and skin cancer surgery. She also teaches and supervises students at Monash Rural Health. She is completing a Masters in Surgical Education and has a research interest in non-technical skills in surgery. She is currently investigating how empathy is applied in general surgical practice.

Professor Robyn Langham

Prof Robyn Langham is a trained Nephrologist and a respected medical and clinician-researcher, who has completed work in the area of fibrosis in human renal disease, translating basic research findings into drug development opportunities. She is currently the Chief Medical Advisor with the Therapeutic Goods Association (TGA), Chair of the Australia Medical Council's Specialist Education Accreditation Committee and Chair of the Royal Children's Hospital Human Research Ethics Committee. Professor Langham also served as the Head of School of Monash Rural Health for six years between 2016 and 2021.