ASIEQ Conference 2024 – Presenters

ASIEQ Conference 2024 – Gaining Momentum and Leading the Way

10 and 11 June 2024

Sofitel Brisbane, 249 Turbot Street, Brisbane

Jenan Abdulwahed – Medex Pharmacist Group

Idea to impact, case studies in optimising medications: Click here to download this presentation

Jenan, a highly skilled clinical pharmacist with over 9 years of experience,  possesses a keen eye for detail. This meticulous approach allows her to effectively navigate the complexities of medication management. As co-founder of Medex Pharmacist Group, a trusted partner for major insurers, she leads a team of experts who tackle medication roadblocks in claims and recovery for injured individuals. Her expertise spans across various claims systems, including Workers’ Compensation, CTP, Life Insurance, and DVA schemes.

Esra Alzamily – Medex Pharmacist Group

Idea to impact, case studies in optimising medications: Click here to download this presentation

Esra is a highly experienced consultant pharmacist with over 13 years of experience. As co-founder of Medex Pharmacist Group, a leading provider of independent medication management services, she has played a pivotal role in transforming the company from its inception into a nationwide force. Medex now delivers contracts with major insurers and has established itself as a trusted partner in assisting injured workers and relevant stakeholders. Esra’s expertise in independent medication reviews ensures optimal outcomes for all parties involved by unravelling the potential impact of medications on claims and recovery.

Matt Bannan – Head of Stakeholder Engagement, WorkCover Queensland

WorkCover Queensland Update: 2024 Conference presentation not available

Matt has over 17 years’ experience at WorkCover providing exceptional customer experience and delivering successful outcomes for workers and employers through best practice claims and injury management principles. He leads a team with a collective purpose of creating trusted stakeholder engagement across WorkCover’s ecosystem including First Nations communities, large corporate and Government employers, unions and industry associations and medical, hospital and allied health providers.

Dr David Brentnall – Axis

Early intervention: with limited team resources, why data driven targeted care is the future: Click here to download this presentation​

Dr David Brentnall is the Managing Director at Axis. David has a Masters in Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy and became a Specialist Physiotherapist and Fellow of the Australian College of Physiotherapy in 2007.  He is also an Associate Lecturer with the Australian Catholic University.  David has provided expert clinical treatment as part of more than 10 multicentre randomised controlled trials.  He provides independent clinical reviews for complex compensable cases and is an expert witness to the court.

Dr Chris Cunneen – OccPhyz Consulting

Gaining Momentum in Medicine: The Role of AI in Health Care: Click here to download this presentation 

Dr. Cunneen is a Consultant Medical Specialist in Occupational and Environmental Medicine, with a career dedicated to enhancing worker health and safety standards in both corporate and government sectors. Dr. Cunneen’s performs over 1000 independent medical assessments per year, in addition to seeing private patients. He provides his expert medical opinions that have significantly influenced policies and practices in the corporate and government sectors. He is frequently sought after to provide medical opinions for the Australian Courts, Tribunal Units, and legal professions. Dr. Cunneen’s contributions to the medical field have been widely recognised with an Order of Australia Medal in 2018 for his services to medicine. As Founding Director of the Australasian College of Independent Medical Evaluators in 2021, he provides education and training in Permanent Impairment Assessments using the AMA Guides across all editions.  He is highly regarded for his expertise in Permanent Impairment Assessments, utilizing the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment 4th, 5th, and 6th Editions. As an Australian member of the International Board of Advisors of the AMA Guides 6th Edition, Dr. Cunneen advises various jurisdictions, ensuring the highest standards of medical evaluation. Dr. Cunneen is an examiner for the RACGP and the RACP/AFOEM. He serves as a mentor and supervisor for new and evolving OEM Registrars in Queensland. Dr. Cunneen aka Colonel Cunneen has served with the Australian Defence Force (ADF) as a Medical Officer for 35+ years. Dr. Cunneen believes in supporting his local and wider communities with work as a volunteer medical officer with St John Ambulance QLD for 30+ years.

Suzanne D’Andrea – Vocational Redirection

Future proofing careers: 2024 Conference presentation not available

A Career Specialist offering tailored return to work and job-seeking services, Suzi is passionate about empowering people to discover and achieve their career goals. With a people-centred approach, she delivers employment planning to a diverse clientele, including Worker’s Compensation, Insurance, Disability Services, and Veterans. Suzi’s expertise lies in providing personalised support and guidance to individuals navigating career transitions, ensuring they are equipped with the necessary skills and resources to thrive in their chosen path. She is dedicated to fostering a supportive and inclusive environment where clients feel empowered to take control of their professional futures and achieve sustainable success.

Camille Davey (Wilson) – Grow Together Now

Moments that matter: 2024 Conference presentation not available

Camille is a leading expert in workplace mental health. With over ten years’ experience working across human resources and consulting teams, Camille works with organisations in designing and implementing workplace mental health programs across various industries. Camille’s passion for mental health programs stems from her own lived experience of mental health issues, a passion that she has continued through academia, with a Bachelor in Psychology, Graduate Diplomas in Neuroscience and Psychology, and most recently, completing a Masters of Clinical Psychology. Camille is the current Chair of the SIRA Recover at Work Reference Group and is recognised as a LinkedIn Top Voice for Mental Health.

Trent Forno – Minter Ellison

The AAA future of workers comp – Ambition, Action and AI: 2024 Conference presentation not available

Trent Forno, is a Partner in Brisbane’s MinterEllison Workplace Division.  He has significant experience in all areas of employment law in both the public and private sectors and is regarded for his technical skills and commercial acumen. Trent practises in a variety of industry sectors, including education, retail, energy and resources, banking and finance, government, manufacturing and construction.

Janene Hillhouse – Executive Director, Workers’ Compensation Regulatory Services

WCRS Update: 2024 Conference presentation not available

Janene has over 20 years experience delivering policy and regulatory outcomes across workers’ compensation, work health and safety and electrical safety.  Janene has responsibility for developing and providing strategic advice on workers’ compensation policy and legislation as well as overseeing the regulatory functions of Queensland’s Workers’ Compensation Regulator.  This includes overseeing the review and appeal of insurer decisions, the licencing, performance monitoring and compliance of the scheme’s self-insurer’s, the Medical Assessment Tribunal and workers’ compensation prosecutions.

Dr Helena Hurst – Resile

Trauma Informed Care in the Workplace: Click here to download this presentation

Dr Helena Hurst is a Senior Occupational and Environmental Registrar at Resile. Dr Hurst graduated from the University of Aberdeen in 2014 with a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery and moved to Australia in 2017. Working primarily in emergency and intensive care for the first few years, she then moved into occupational and environmental medicine in 2020 and became a registrar for occupational and environmental medicine and is now in late stage of her fellowship training. Dr Hurst has a special interest in managing complex cases in the workplace including mental health. She values effective and clear communication and approaches all aspects of her role with a focus on facilitating outcomes for all key stakeholders. Dr Hurst has an empathetic approach to her clinical work which covers a broad spectrum of occupational and medical cases. She has a focus on assisting workplaces to manage hazards and provide an environment that optimises worker’s health outcomes and maximises productivity.

Alycia Jeffrey – Finity

The cost of psychological injuries: 2024 Conference presentation not available

Alycia is a Senior Consultant at Finity specialising in self-insurance and corporate risks over the last 10 years. Alycia is the lead actuary for many of Finity’s self-insured clients, providing regulatory support, actuarial valuations and self-insurance feasibility assessments. Alycia strives to make her actuarial advice easy to understand and actionable. As well as having a special interest in psychological injury claims from a workers’ compensation perspective, Alycia is also an Accredited Crisis Supporter at Lifeline Australia.

Dr Azhar Khan – Phoenix Occupational Medicine / Lime Medicolegal

Future proofing: why the fundamentals in occupational medicine still matter: Click here to download this presentation

Dr. Azhar Khan is an Occupational and Environmental Physician with over 10 years’ experience, spanning clinical occupational medicine and medicolegal practice. In addition to his Fellowship, Dr Khan is a Medical Review Officer and CASA Designated Aviation Medical Examiner. Dr. Khan is also multilingual, fluently communicating in English, French, Urdu, and Turkish. Working across schemes including NSW WorkCover as an Injury Management Consultant, the Motor Accident Authority (NSW) and for WorkCover Queensland, Dr Khan brings a unique perspective to the functioning of various systems and the impact on the people who must navigate them. Dr Khan has a particular interest in managing chronic pain and associated mental health issues in the workplace, promoting a holistic approach to employee well-being. He is passionate about bringing the benefits of occupational medicine to workers and organisations through conference presentations, webinars and simply – good work.

Steve Langley – Aon

Navigating Risk & Optimising Excess of Loss Management (Re-insurance): Click here to download this presentation

Steve is a national workers’ compensation specialist, with 15 years’ experience across the insurer, employer and broking environments. Steve leads the workers’ compensation self-insurance team within Aon and has supported a number of organisations to transition to self-insurance, whilst acting as a strategic advisor to existing self-insurers, with a particular focus on program optimisation and alternative risk transfer solutions. The Aon team proudly represent approximately 50% of Queensland self-insurers, encompassing excess of loss insurance activities, regulator engagement and designing frameworks to achieve best practice and continuous improvement across licensees’ programs.

Coroner Don MacKenzie – Coroners Court of Queensland, Brisbane Courthouse

The Coroners Court of Queensland: An overview for Workers Compensation Practitioners: 2024 Conference presentation not available

Coroner Don MacKenzie has worked within the Criminal Justice System for over 30 years, commencing as a law clerk in the Public Defenders Office in 1990. He holds a Master of Laws, a Bachelor of Arts and a Graduate Diploma of Military Justice. He was admitted as a Barrister in 1993, spending 5 years working for the Legal Aid Office and 14 years at the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (Qld), rising to the positions of Senior Crown Prosecutor then Consultant Crown Prosecutor. In 2008, Don MacKenzie joined the Private Bar, practising almost exclusively in the area of criminal law as a member of More Chambers in Brisbane. Mr MacKenzie estimates that he has prosecuted or defended something like 1000 jury trials (including dozens of murder trials), has appeared on hundreds of Court of Appeal matters and as sole counsel in the High Court of Australia. He is also an officer in the Royal Australian Navy with the Defence Force Legal Service and held the statutory appointment as the Chairman, Public Records Review Committee of Queensland before his appointment as a Magistrate in 2017 and Coroner in 2019. He is also a Conduct Commissioner with Queensland Cricket. He has regularly appeared as a guest lecturer on criminal law and evidence for the Queensland Law Society and at the University of Queensland and he is the senior editor of the Thomson’s loose-leaf publication Summary Offences Queensland. Coroner Mackenzie has written thousands of coronial findings over the last five years.  He has particular expertise in work homicide, health and safety, suicide and road traffic deaths.

Chris Murphy – Cooper Grace Ward Lawyers

Injury statistics and legal decisions: Click here to download this presentation

Chris is a Special Counsel in the Insurance team at Cooper Grace Ward Lawyers. Chris is a Queensland Law Society Accredited Specialist in personal injury law and member of the Accident Compensation Committee. He has worked, exclusively, in insurance law for over 20 years. Over the course of his career, he has acted for both plaintiffs and defendants and secured numerous favourable trial results including for self-insurers. Outside the law, Chris enjoys playing over-aged football and marathon running.

Dr L. Sanjay Nandam – Australia Telehealth

Why everyone has ADHD and an update on prescription psychedelics: Click here to download this presentation

Dr L. Sanjay Nandam is a Consultant Psychiatrist and Director of Australia Telehealth.  He has extensive experience in the Workers Compensation space having been a member of the QCOMP General Medical Assessment Tribunal since 2016, and on the WorkCover Queensland IME Panel since 2009. He has completed over 2800 IME reports specialising in workplace injury and return to work.  He works across all levels of Workers Compensation as the treating specialist, the IME and at the MAT.  Dr Nandam also specialises in telehealth appointments, having conducted over 11,600 appointments over the past 10 years.

Dr Dinesh Palipana – OAM, Doctor, Laywer, Disability Advocate, Researcher

Keynote Speaker: 2024 Conference presentation not available

Dr Dinesh Palipana OAM was the first quadriplegic medical intern in Queensland and the second person to graduate medical school with quadriplegia in Australia. Dinesh is a doctor, lawyer, disability advocate, and researcher. Halfway through medical school, he was involved in a motor vehicle accident that caused a cervical spinal cord injury. As a result of his injury and experiences, Dinesh has been an advocate for inclusion. He is a founding member of Doctors with Disabilities Australia. Dinesh works in the emergency department at the Gold Coast University Hospital. He has completed an Advanced Clerkship in Radiology at the Harvard University and is a senior lecturer at the Griffith University and adjunct research fellow at the Menzies Health Institute of Queensland. He is a research fellow at the Jamieson Trauma Institute. Dinesh is a researcher in spinal cord injury. He is a doctor for the Gold Coast Titans physical disability rugby team. Dinesh is a senior advisor to the Disability Royal Commission. He is an ambassador to the Human Rights Commission’s Includeability program. He was a 2021 International Day of People with Disability ambassador. Dinesh was the Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service’s Junior Doctor of the Year in 2018. He was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2019. He was the third Australian to be awarded a Henry Viscardi Achievement Award. He was the 2021 Griffith University Young Alumnus of the Year. He is the author of Stronger, how losing everything set me free, published in 2022. Dr Dinesh Palipana OAM is the 2021 Queensland Australian of the Year. In 2023, Dinesh joined the advisory board of healthylife where he uses his experience and skills to provide expert health information and advocate for the health of Australians, and became a John Monash Scholar.

Vanessa Rowley – Aon

Navigating Risk & Optimising Excess of Loss Management (Re-insurance): Click here to download this presentation

Vanessa has a proven record for delivering results in the workers’ compensation industry, through providing practical workers’ compensation solutions that are good for people and good for business. Vanessa has broad experience working across various team environments within self-insured operations, claim agents, risk consulting and employer environments. Vanessa is well versed in people leadership, portfolio performance, strategic planning, internal and external stakeholder relationships, licence management, regulator engagement, governance and compliance. Vanessa is passionate about building capability and driving positive outcomes for businesses and individuals.

Ben Sheat – Reality Health

Unlocking rehabilitation and recovery – we need change: Click here to download this presentation

A Physiotherapist by background, Ben also has a Master of Management (Personal Injury) and extensive history working in the workers’ compensation industry in Australia with leadership roles in major Australian insurers, TPAs and corporates. He joined Reality Health in 2022. The business evolved from discoveries in modern pain science and follows guidelines from around the world that stipulate a management approach to modern pain that trains the body and the brain. Their goal is to empower Healthcare Professionals with powerful tools that enable their clients to start recovering from chronic pain through the combination of proven science, immersive education and management.

Dr Jodie Siganto – Privacy 108

Privacy is not dead but it is changing… some tips on how to cope: Click here to download this presentation​

Jodie Siganto is one of Australia’s leading privacy and cyber security experts. A qualified lawyer with over 30 years experience, Jodie advises government departments, Australian businesses and international organisations on matters related to privacy and information system security. Over her career, she has held in-house legal counsel roles with Tandem Computers, Unisys Asia and Dell. She co-founded data networking and security firm Bridge Point Communications and more recently Privacy108 Consulting.

Andrew Smith – Haylo People

Unpacking the Secrets of Talent Attraction: Harnessing Workforce Drivers within Workers Compensation for Maximum Hiring Impact: 2024 Conference presentation not available

Andrew has over ten years of experience in recruitment across Insurance and Personal Injury, supporting businesses through periods of significant growth, change, and strategic direction. He has worked across the workers compensation industry nationally supporting claims agents, self insurers and employers with recruitment across case management through to executive leadership roles.

Mark Wiemers – Barry Nilsson

The AAA future of workers comp – Ambition, Action and AI: 2024 Conference presentation not available

Mark Wiemers is a principal in Barry Nilsson’s Insurance & Health team. Mark has represented employers in Queensland since 2002, and currently acts for seven self-insured entities within the scheme. He is passionate about innovative practices, such as early resolutions beneficial to all parties and focuses on helping employers achieve sustainable outcomes in claims management. His approach is to obtain, through collaboration, an understanding of the client’s objectives and tailoring advice on each matter to achieve an outcome in line with those objectives. Mark’s experience includes representing and advising in relation to all aspects of statutory and common law workers’ compensation claims, managing dust diseases claims in Queensland and interstate, pursuing recovery actions in respect of lump sum compensation paid under the Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003 (Qld) and handling property damage and public liability claims on behalf of insurers and corporates under the Personal Injuries Proceedings Act 2002 (Qld). Mark has a longstanding relationship with ASIEQ in providing educational seminars and events for employers and stakeholders within the scheme. Mark has been listed as a Recommended Workers’ Compensation Lawyer (defendant) and Recommended Dust Diseases Lawyer (defendant) in Doyles Guide.

Jess Wilson – Speaker, Functional Nutritionist, Gut and Hormone Practitioner

Keynote Speaker: Click here to download Jess’ 2024 Conference presentation

Jess Wilson is a world-renowned Speaker, Functional Nutritionist and Gut and Hormone Practitioner. This is her story. “I believe the reason I was put on this planet is to inspire people to live a big, healthy, joyful life.” Ever since I was little, I’ve been great at two things: doing hard stuff, and inspiring others. What I didn’t realise is that these two things would eventually become my destiny. When my children were born I was faced with the hardest challenge of my life. They were sick – very sick – and at the hands of the medical system I found myself in a four year long fight for their health that would very nearly break them (and me). In the darkest of hours, with a fire of determination burning in my belly and my ever present there’s-always-a-way attitude, I turned to the healing power of food to help us, and our world started to turn around. I learned that the human body is capable of incredible things. I learned that taking responsibility for your health was the most powerful choice you could ever make. I learned that we are not invincible. That we do break. But that we can fix ourselves too. I learned that leading with love and following your heart meant learning to love yourself, too. And that on the other side of the struggle is a big, healthy, joyful life.

Dr Mary Wyatt

Transforming trajectories – enhancing care in work injury management: Click here to download this presentation

Mary is an occupational physician who is active in policy development and research through AFOEM and other organisations. Her interest is in getting research into practice. Decades of work in injury management has included running an early intervention case management approach across several medium to large employers. Other work has included IMEs, running RTWMatters.org (a non-profit seeking to share evidence-based practices that support better RTW), research on RTW, teaching via Monash University, work as a treating practitioner, conducting a state-based review of return to work for a regulator and advisory work for various insurers / regulators. Mary is the lead Fellow in AFOEM / RACP’s most recent Health Benefits of Good Work policy development – It pays to care: Bringing evidence-informed practice to work injury schemes helps workers and their workplaces. An imperative for change and call to action.

Partnership

To see our Partners, click here.