Speakers

Professor Josep Roca, MD, PhD

Josep Roca is Director of the Lung Function Unit at the Hospital Clinic (Barcelona), Professor of Medicine at the University of Barcelona and Coordinator of the ICT program on chronic patient management at the Hospital Clínic. The author of 170 original articles in peer-reviewed journals; editor of three books and author of several book chapters and revisions, Prof. Roca has broad interests in respiratory medicine, from gas exchange and development of predicted values, to muscle function and rehabilitation in COPD. He is currently leading a multidisciplinary team working on research and development projects addressing different aspects of chronic diseases, including NEXES and Biobridge. NEXES is an European Union project (2008-2011) aiming to validate and promote adoption of innovative services for chronic patients supported by information and communication technologies (ICT). Biobridge (Genomics and chronic disease phenotypes: modelling and simulation tools for clinicians, 2007-2009) aims to identify disease phenotypes with poor prognosis in prevalent chronic conditions such as COPD, cardiac failure and diabetes.

Invited speakers

Dr Debbie Burton, PhD, CRFS
	Dr Debbie Burton is Associate Head of School of Biomedical Sciences at Charles Sturt University and President of ANZSRS. Debbie developed the graduate entry programs in respiratory science, asthma and clinical neurophysiology at Charles Sturt University. Her academic pursuits are in the disciplines of anatomy, physiology and clinical measurement. Debbie's research activity focuses detection and monitoring of respiratory disease in the primary care setting via spirometry measurement and mechanisms to increase accessibility to quality spirometry measurement in rural Australia.
A/Professor Peter Catcheside, PhD, CRFS
	Peter Catcheside leads the physiology research program at the Adelaide Institute for Sleep Health. He is a Visiting Research Fellow in the Discipline of Physiology at the University of Adelaide, and an Associate Professor in the School of Medicine at Flinders University. He has a background in respiratory function measurement and exercise physiology, from positions held in the Department of Thoracic Medicine at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, the University of Adelaide Exercise Laboratory where he complete his PhD, and as a senior medical scientist in Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine at the Women.s and Children.s Hospital in Adelaide. He moved to the Repatriation General Hospital in 1997 where his position has evolved to a more senior scientific role supporting the physiology and clinical research and training programs of the Adelaide Institute for Sleep Health. His research interests span respiratory/sleep physiology, with a particular focus on pathophysiological mechanisms underlying obstructive sleep apnoea. Related interests include respiratory control stability, respiratory load sensations, cardio-respiratory responses to brief arousal from sleep, and hypoxic suppression of respiratory sensations and reflexes.
Professor Anne Chang, PhD, MD
	Graduated from University of Melbourne and trained as a paediatric respiratory and sleep physician. Currently Head of the Child health division at the Menzies School of Health in Darwin and a senior consultant in Paediatric Respiratory Medicine at the Royal Children's Hospital, Brisbane. Research background includes more than 150 peer reviewed journal papers and book chapters. Has clinical and research interests in topics on cough, bronchiectasis, indigenous health, asthma and evidence based medicine in children. Has been providing a clinical service to some communities in Central Australian and Torres Straits for 7-10 years.
A/Professor Alan J Crockett, PSM
	A/Professor Alan J Crockett recently retired from the position of Chief Medical Scientist, Respiratory Unit at Flinders Medical Centre after a career in Respiratory Medicine spanning 41 years. Alan currently holds a fractional-time position of Associate Professor, Director, Primary Care Respiratory Research Unit within the Discipline of General Practice, the University of Adelaide. Alan was elected Fellow of the Australian Institute of Science Technology in 1976. More recently, he was awarded Life Membership and elected a Fellow of the Australian and New Zealand Society for Respiratory Science and awarded the status of Emeritus Member of the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand for his contribution to respiratory medicine. He was awarded a Public Service Medal for "outstanding contribution to community health" in the Order of Australia Awards for Australia Day 2003.
A/Professor Alan James, PhD, MD
	Associate Professor Alan James is a consultant respiratory physician at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and at Hollywood Private Hospital. His research involves the investigation of airway narrowing in asthma and COPD, currently focusing on the stereological measurement of hyperplasia and hypertrophy of airway smooth muscle and the use of bronchial biopsy to study airway remodeling. His other area of research includes the investigation of genetic and environmental risk factors for respiratory disease in populations including the Busselton Health Studies and the characterisation of respiratory disease in remote indigenous communities. A/Prof James trained in respiratory medicine in Western Australia prior to taking up a position as a Canadian Research Fellow in Vancouver to study airway mechanics in asthma, the subject of his MD. He has established an independent research laboratory in the West Australian Sleep Disorders Research Institute and currently holds adjunct appointments for teaching and research at the University of Western Australia and the Notre Dame University in Perth. He has published over 100 journal articles, book chapters and editorials.
A/Professor David Johns, PhD, CRFS
	A/Professor David Johns is a Principal Research Fellow at the Menzies Research Institute (Hobart) and Associate Professor in the School of Medicine, University of Tasmania. David is a respiratory physiologist with a particular interest in research and undergraduate and postgraduate teaching. His research interests include the physiological consequences of airway modelling, assessment of alveolar-capillary function, and the application of lung function tests in both the research and clinical setting. He has published original research papers, books, chapters and multimedia CD-ROMs.
A/Professor Graham Hall, PhD, CRFS
	A/Professor Graham Hall obtained his PhD in respiratory physiology from the University of Western Australia in 2000 after which he worked with Prof. Urs Frey at the University Children's Hospital in Bern, Switzerland. He returned to Australia in late 2001 and continued his research in infant and pre-school respiratory physiology. In 2003 he was appointed Senior Respiratory Scientist of the Respiratory Function Laboratory at Princess Margaret Hospital for Children. Dr Hall leads a research group investigating paediatric clinical respiratory physiology and recent research has focussed on the introduction of tests of respiratory function for clinical use in young children and the development of fitness to fly testing in infants. Outside of work Graham teaches his own children the joys of swimming and fishing.
A/Professor Peter Morris
Jeff Pretto BAppSc, GDBI, CRFS
	Jeff has been involved in clinical respiratory and sleep physiology for nearly 30 years with a long-standing interest in the improvement of respiratory investigative techniques. He has been an active member of the ANZSRS since its inception in the early 1980s. In the role of Scientific Director, Jeff heads up the scientific and technical activities of the Department of Respiratory & Sleep Medicine at the John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle, NSW. Outside the laboratory he is a keen road cyclist, often lamenting the fact that knowledge of anaerobic physiology does not make up for lack of anaerobic physiology.
Professor Roger Seymour, PhD
	Roger Seymour obtained a PhD at the University of California, Los Angeles and currently holds a personal chair in Environmental Biology at the University of Adelaide, where he teaches environmental physiology. He has worked on all groups of vertebrates, a few invertebrates and plants, and he has made significant contributions in the fields of respiratory and cardiovascular physiology, energetics, temperature regulation, osmotic balance, diving physiology, developmental physiology, haemodynamics, paleobiology and pollination biology. His recent work concerns respiratory physiology of air-breathing fish, temperature regulation in heat-producing flowers and blood pressure regulation in dinosaurs. He has approximately 170 publications in these fields. At the University of Adelaide, he was awarded a Doctor of Science degree in 1999 and a Personal Chair in 2001. In 2006, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Germany awarded him the highly prestigious Research Prize for his lifetime work.
Dr Andrew Thornton, PhD, CRFS
	Dr Andrew Thornton began his working life with a Ph.D degree in 1973 in photochemistry and radiation chemistry which took him overseas for several years until a sea change saw him gain a position in Respiratory Physiology in 1981. Since that time he has been chief scientist and manager of the Lung Function Laboratory and the Sleep Disorders Laboratory in the Department of Thoracic Medicine at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. Andrew's interests over the years have been in mechanisms and treatment of obstructive sleep apnoea, use of information technology in clinical practice and exercise physiology in elite athletes (as an observer, not a participant). More recently he has been involved in issues of measurement reliability and inter-laboratory standardisation in the laboratory diagnosis of sleep disorders. He is also interested in issues of quality, standards, accreditation and ethics in laboratory medicine.