Executive Committee -

Executive Committee (EC)

Professor Rachelle Buchbinder AO (Chair)

Professor Ian Harris AM

Professor Chris Maher

Ms Ornella Clavisi

Professor Sally Green

Professor Haxby Abbott

Dr Bethan Richards

Professor Rana Hinman

Dr Sam Whittle

Giovanni Ferreira

Stephanie Filbay

Professor Rachelle Buchbinder AO (Chair)

Director, Monash Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Cabrini Hospital; Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Monash University; and Coordinating Editor, Cochrane Musculoskeletal Group. Rachelle Buchbinder is a rheumatologist/clinical epidemiologist and NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow. She has published the results of 17 randomised controlled trials, many in high impact journals including NEJM, JAMA, BMJ and Ann Rheum Dis. Seven of these were NHMRC-funded and another two NHMRC-funded trials are underway. She has published 42 Cochrane systematic reviews and another 16 are in progress. Her research also extends to development of new outcome measures and core sets of outcomes for clinical trials to facilitate pooling and comparison of data across trials.

Professor Ian Harris AM

Orthopaedic Surgeon, University of NSW. Professor Ian Harris is Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at UNSW. He maintains a clinical orthopaedic practice and directs a research unit based at Liverpool, in Sydney’s south west. His research activities include registries, clinical trials, systematic reviews and methodological studies in the fields of surgical outcomes, trauma (fractures), joint replacement surgery and rehabilitation after surgery. His aims are to improve the evidence base for orthopaedic surgery and to better align clinical practice with that evidence base.

Professor Chris Maher

Director, Institute for Musculoskeletal Health Sydney, Sydney Local Health District; Professor, Sydney School of Public Health, The University of Sydney. Professor Maher leads a research group focusing on the promotion of musculoskeletal health and physical activity across the lifespan. Prof Maher’s research evaluates the management of back pain and he has published 16+ clinical trials in leading journals such as NEJM, Lancet, Ann Intern Med. He is an NHMRC Principal Research Fellow, Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences and a Fellow of the Australian College of Physiotherapy. He has over 585 publications, $45 Million in research funding and 34 PhD completions. He is on the editorial board of the Cochrane Back and Neck group and Executive Committee for ANZMUSC Clinical Trials Network. Prof Maher is an investigator on the Wiser Healthcare Collaboration.

Ms Ornella Clavisi

Research & Knowledge Manager, MOVE muscle bone and joint health, Victoria Ornella Clavisi is the Chair of the ANZMUSC consumer advisory group and is currently the Research and Knowledge Manager at MOVE muscle, bone & joint health, a consumer organisation representing people with musculoskeletal conditions. In her role Ornella manages MOVE’s research program which funds researchers through project grants and scholarships as well as fostering consumer involvement in all aspects of research. She has previously worked for the National Trauma Research Institute as program manager working on large scale knowledge translation trials in traumatic brain injury and managing an Evidence Service for the Victorian Transport Accident Commission and WorkSafe Victoria; as the Research Manager of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA) Trials Group; and the Monash Institute of Health Services Research developing evidence based reviews for the Medicare Benefits Advisory Committee and Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee.

Professor Sally Green

Professorial Fellow, Co-Director Cochrane Australia, Graduate Research Coordinator, Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University Professor Sally Green is Co-Director of Cochrane Australia and a Professorial Fellow and Graduate Research Co-ordinator in the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University. She holds a PhD in Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine from Monash University and clinical qualifications in Physiotherapy. In addition to her leadership positions in Cochrane, Sally has several competitively funded research projects in knowledge translation, aiming to improve health outcomes by investigating the best ways to inform clinical practice and policy with synthesised research evidence. She is a member of NHMRC’s Synthesis and Translation of Research Evidence (STORE) advisory committee and co-chairs Cochrane’s Knowledge Translation Advisory Group.

Professor Haxby Abbott

Research Professor & Director, Centre for Musculoskeletal Outcomes Research, University of Otago Medical School, Department of Surgical Sciences Professor Haxby Abbott is a clinical epidemiologist based in the Orthopaedic Surgery section of the Dunedin School of Medicine Department of Surgical Sciences, at the University of Otago. He is the Director of CMOR – the Centre for Musculoskeletal Outcomes Research (Te Pokapū Rangahau Hauora Wheua), a multi-campus University of Otago research network. Haxby’s Management of Osteoarthritis (MOA Maimoatanga Kaikōiwi) research programme at the University of Otago has produced world-class research including clinical trials, outcomes research and cost-effectiveness modelling, and has implemented new health delivery models for people with hip and knee osteoarthritis. Professor Abbott is a former Editor in Chief of the Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy (JOSPT) and the New Zealand Journal of Physiotherapy.

Dr Bethan Richards

Staff Specialist Rheumatologist and Head of Rheumatology at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney. Dr Bethan Richards is a Staff Specialist Rheumatologist and Head of the Department of Rheumatology at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney, Australia. She is also Deputy Director of the Institute for Musculoskeletal Health, Sydney Local Health District and Senior lecturer, University of Sydney. Dr Richards is completing her PHD in pain management in inflammatory arthritis, has a CCPU (Musculoskeletal US), Masters in both Clinical Epidemiology and Sports Medicine, and has been an OMERACT arthroplasty and ultrasound fellow. She is the Rheumatology Series Editor, Medicine Today, Director of the RPA BPTOK Wellbeing Program, Chair of Executive STARS (SLHD Targeted Activity and Reporting System) Committee and Rheumatology representative on the N.S.W Agency for Clinical Innovation’s Unwarranted Clinical Variation Taskforce. Dr Richards is currently an investigator on >10 randomised controlled trials, including an NHMRC-funded trial, and has published 4 Cochrane Systematic reviews with another two in progress. Her interest areas include clinical epidemiology, inflammatory arthritis, big data and analytics, musculoskeletal ultrasound, pain management, soft tissue injury, outcome measurement, low value care, doctor wellbeing and medical education.

Professor Rana Hinman

ARC Future Fellow, Centre for Health, Exercise & Sports Medicine, Department of Physiotherapy, University of Melbourne, Victoria Rana is a physiotherapist, Professor and Australian Research Council Future Fellow at the University of Melbourne. Her research focuses on musculoskeletal health, primarily osteoarthritis of the knee and hip joints. A major area of her research is the development and/or evaluation of non-drug non-surgical treatment strategies for osteoarthritis, in particular exercise and biomechanical interventions such as orthoses, footwear and gait modification. Her clinical trials have been published in leading medical journals, including JAMA, BMJ and Ann Int Med. Rana’s research is increasingly focused on strategies to support positive behavior change in people with chronic musculoskeletal conditions, particularly adherence to exercise, as well as the evaluation and implementation of remote models of service delivery using the telephone and/or internet. Rana has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers and has received over $17 million in grant funding. She is an Editorial Board Member of Journal of Physiotherapy.

Dr Sam Whittle

Rheumatologist and clinical epidemiologist, Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Adelaide. Dr Samuel Whittle is also a Senior Lecturer at the University of Adelaide. His research interests include fibromyalgia syndrome, chronic pain in inflammatory arthritis, spondyloarthritis and gout. He is currently involved in an NHMRC-funded trial investigating therapies for lateral epicondylitits, has 4 published Cochrane reviews (with another 3 in progress) and has been published in several top rheumatology and general medicine journals including JAMA, Arthritis & Rheumatism, Rheumatology and Annals of Internal Medicine.