About us

Our team of world-renowned researchers and dedicated support personnel are passionate about creating a strong evidence base that underpins high-quality healthcare provision for Australians. We house the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence for the Australia and New Zealand Musculoskeletal Clinical Trials Network, manage the Australian Rheumatology Association Database and serve as editorial base for Cochrane Musculoskeletal and Australasian Satellite of Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care. We also contribute to Wiser Healthcare and the Partnership Centre for Health System Sustainability.

Recent achievements

Our Director, Professor Rachelle Buchbinder, led an international group of authors in a ground-breaking series of papers on low back pain in The Lancet in 2018. The series contrasts the immense personal and global burden of low back pain with the harm caused to millions of people by wasteful and ineffective or dangerous treatments. Rachelle’s work in this space aims to reverse this trend.

The Australian & New Zealand Musculoskeletal (ANZMUSC) Clinical Trials Network was awarded an NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence grant and the ANZMUSC CRE was officially launched by the Hon. Greg Hunt MP, Federal Minister for Health on 22 March 2018 at the Cabrini Institute. The event was officiated by Dr Michael Walsh, CEO of Cabrini Health. Speakers included Professor Marc Parlange, Provost and Senior Vice-President of Monash University, Dr Andrew Black, Director of Research Development and Collaboration at The University of Sydney, and Professor Rachelle Buchbinder, Chair of the ANZMUSC Executive Committee.

Our team

Director

Professor Rachelle Buchbinder AO, Director and NHMRC Investigator Fellow, Chair Australia & New Zealand Musculoskeletal (ANZMUSC) Clinical Trial Network, Coordinating Editor Cochrane Musculoskeletal and Cochrane Back and Neck

Deputy Director

Associate Professor Denise O’Connor, Deputy Director and NHMRC Translating Research into Practice (TRIP) Fellow, Director of Australasian Satellite of Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care (EPOC), Editor Cochrane EPOC and Musculoskeletal

Deputy Director

Professor Ilana Ackerman, Deputy Director and Victorian Health and Medical Research Fellow

Staff

  • Dr Jodie Avery, Project Manager, National Living Guidelines for juvenile idiopathic arthritis
  • Ms Vibhasha Chand, Data Manager, Australian Rheumatology Association Database (ARAD)
  • Dr Sheila Cyril, Assistant Managing Editor, Cochrane Musculoskeletal
  • Dr Sean Docking, Research Fellow, NHMRC Wiser Healthcare and NHMRC ANZMUSC Clinical Trial Network Centre Research Excellence (CRE)
  • Mr Ashley Fletcher, Project Officer, ARAD & NHMRC Wiser Healthcare
  • Dr Jon Foo, Research Fellow, Knee arthroscopy decision aid and Value in care optimising surveillance colonoscopy (VIC-COL)
  • Dr Vanessa Glennon, Project Manager, National Living Guidelines for pharmacologic management of inflammatory arthritis
  • Ms Alexandra Gorelik, Biostatistician
  • Dr Romi Haas, Research Fellow, NHMRC Wiser Healthcare
  • Ms Jia Xi (JC) Han, Research Assistant and Assistant Managing Editor, Cochrane EPOC
  • Dr Renea Johnston, Managing Editor, Cochrane Musculoskeletal
  • Dr Corey Joseph, Research Fellow, VIC-COL
  • Dr Liesl Nicol, Research Fellow, NHMRC Partnership Centre for Health System Sustainability (PCHSS)
  • Dr Polina Putrik, Research Fellow, NHMRC PCHSS
  • Ms Helen Ramsay, Executive Officer, NHMRC ANZMUSC Clinical Trial Network CRE
  • Dr William Renton, Research Fellow, Australian Living Guidelines for juvenile idiopathic arthritis
  • Dr Tom Rozbroj, Research Fellow, NHMRC Wiser Healthcare
  • Dr Joachim Tan, Research Fellow, Australian Living Guidelines for juvenile idiopathic arthritis
  • Dr Jason Wallis, Research Fellow, NHMRC Wiser Healthcare and PCHSS
  • Dr Sam Whittle, Practitioner Fellow, NHMRC ANZMUSC Clinical Trial Network CRE
  • Ms Elizabeth Wolff, Administrative Assistant

Students

  • Ms Caitlin Farmer, PhD (Monash University 2017–)
  • Mr Bayden McKenzie, PhD (Monash University, 2020–)
  • Ms Gayanika Senarath, PhD (Monash University, 2019–)
  • Ms Pramila Rai, PhD (Monash University, 2020–)
  • Ms Liana Cahill, PhD (La Trobe University, 2016–)

Supervision of future PhD or Honours students

We consider expressions of interest for PhD or Honours student supervision aligned with our research interests, especially Wiser Healthcare, Health System Sustainability and ANZMUSC Clinical Trials Network.

Please contact jhan@cabrini.com.au for more information.