Postal Address
APS Secretariat
c/- DC Conference &Association Management
PO Box 637
North Sydney NSW 2059
Australia
Head Office
Secretariat Office
Suite 103, Level 1
3 West Street
North Sydney NSW 2060
The Australian Pain Society Council comprises representatives from every state and territory.
Ms Trudy Maunsell
Acute Pain ServicePrincess Alexandra HospitalWoolloongabba QLD 4102
Tel: 07 3176 5547Fax: 07 3176 5102
RN RM NUM Cert B Health Management MScMed (Pain Management) Clinical Nurse Consultant
Trudy has a broad range of clinical experience in rural, remote and metropolitan hospitals as a Registered Nurse and Midwife and has been involved in pain management as a Clinical Nurse Consultant for the past 18 years after becoming interested in pain whilst a Nursing Unit Manager of an acute surgical ward in a regional referral hospital.Trudy's interests in pain management include clinical care delivery, the establishment of outcome based key performance indicators for acute pain services and pain management education. Trudy has also conducted several commissioned training programs for nursing staff in Hong Kong and Singapore.
Mrs Joyce McSwan
Gold Coast Primary Health NetworkPersistent Pain Program QLD andPainWISE
Tel: 0412 327 795Fax: 07 3539 9801
BPharm FPS Cert IV TAE
Joyce is a multi-award winning clinical pharmacist and educator within the field of pain management. She is the Clinical Director of the Gold Coast Primary Health Network ‘Turning Pain into Gain’ program and Managing Director of PainWISE. Her contributions in the field of persistent pain has been recognised through awards and collaborative industry partnerships with Griffith University, Bond University, Painaustralia, Australian Pain Society, the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia and the Pain Management Research Institute. She has been recently appointed the Principal Continuing Professional Development Director of the Australian Health Practitioners Advisory Solutions. She was also recently awarded her Fellowship by the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia. Her expertise lies in innovative health pathway design, piloting and implementing models of care within the primary care setting utilising mixed funding models to optimise pain management and chronic disease management.
Mrs Dinah Spratt
Physiotas PhysiotherapyShearwater TAS 7307
Tel: 03 6428 7500Fax: 03 6424 7811
GradDipPhys MScMed (Pain Management)
Dinah moved with her family to Tasmania from the UK in 2006 and has been working in an expanding private physiotherapy practice on the north-west coast since then. She has also worked in an advanced scope role for an orthopaedic spinal surgeon in northern Tasmania for 6 years, assisting in both the diagnosis and management of spinal patients conservatively and pre and post operatively. Dinah has a special interest in the management of spinal and chronic pain conditions, as well as educating both patients and allied health professionals on chronic pain and its biopsychosocial influences. Dinah has completed a MSc in Medicine on Pain Management at the University of Sydney. She gives regular talks entitled ‘Chronic pain from a biopsychosocial perspective’ for patients and is involved in presenting talks to GPs and also to members of her local community on this subject.
Dr Laura Prendergast
Pain ServiceNorthern HealthBroadmeadows VIC 3047
Tel: 03 8345 5166 - work days Monday & ThursdayFax: N/A
B.A., GDip Psych., DPsych (Health)
Dr Laura Prendergast is a Senior Psychologist at the Northern Health Pain Service in Melbourne, Victoria, where she delivers group programs and provides assessment and individual treatment to clients with persistent pain. She also consults on the Transport Accident Commission (TAC) Clinical Panel, reviewing and providing advice for psychologists treating people who have been touched by road trauma. She is passionate about multidisciplinary pain management and enjoys the challenge of improving educational resources for people with pain in her clinical practice. Laura is a strong advocate for Health Psychology and its focus on prevention and population level interventions in addition to targeted clinical work.
Laura served as the Victorian Director on the board of the Australian Pain Society from 2017 to 2022 and was appointed Treasurer in 2022.
Dr Andrew Watson
Calvary HospitalCanberra ACT 2617
Tel: 02 6201 6352Fax: N/A
BHB MBChB FRACGP DRACOG MTMMPH FANZCAAndrew worked in a variety of rural and remote locations as a GP including three years with the RFDS in far north Queensland and a year in northern Canada before undergoing specialty training in Anaesthesia. He is currently the Director of Anaesthesia, Pain and Perioperative Medicine at Calvary Hospital, senior staff specialist in the pain management unit and department of anaesthesia at the Canberra Hospital and a lecturer at the Australian National University Medical School. An interest in behavioural change and community medicine was developed though this period including a degree in public health. Andrew’s biggest interest in pain is in behavioural modification and in transitional pain and he very much likes working in a multidisciplinary clinic with a solid team with wide skills and interests.
Dr Tim Ho
Inner West Pain Centre, RPA Medical CentreNewtown NSW 2042
Tel: 02 9517 1764Fax: 02 9517 1832
MSc MBBS (Hon) FAFRM (RACP) FFPMANZCADr Tim Ho is a rehabilitation and pain specialist. Tim also works in work capacity and addiction medicine. His interests are chronic musculoskeletal pain, neuropathic pain, visceral pain and headache. His research interests are management of co-morbid chronic pain and addiction, return to work program, osseointegration and nursing home resident pain management. Tim is also fluent in Mandarin and Taiwanese.
Adjunct A/Prof Cindy Wall
Clinical Psychology Assessment & ConsultancyFannie Bay NT 0820
Tel: 0488 993 210Fax: 08 6266 3777
BPysch (Hons), MPsych (Clin.), PhD
Cindy is a clinical psychologist and academic in Darwin NT. She has experience in occupational rehabilitation, injury management and pre-surgical psychological assessment. Cindy is currently an Adjunct Associate Professor in clinical psychology at Charles Darwin University and has a small private practice in Darwin. Her interests are broadly in clinical health psychology, particularly working with compensable injury. Her research has explored the influence of personality, justice beliefs, and mental health on rehabilitation from work injury. More recently, she has been extending this focus to understanding psychological factors facilitating optimal patient outcomes post diagnosis, injury, or surgery in chronic pain.
Ms Karalyn Huxhagen
KH Pharmacy ConsultingMackay QLD 4740
Tel: 0418 185 972Fax: 07 4805 6155
BPharm FPS AACPA
Karalyn is a community pharmacist and an accredited consultant pharmacist. Karalyn performs locum services, medication reviews and delivers quality use of medication programs mainly in rural and regional Australia. Karalyn is a consultant to the PainWISE training program as well as many other professional bodies.Karalyn has a strong interest in pain management, asthma and COPD, aged care, wound care, travel medicine, chronic disease programs and the health of aboriginal, Torres Strait and South Sea Islander people. Karalyn is credentialed in Mental Health First aid and she provides immunisation services as a community pharmacist.Karalyn is a prolific writer, reviewer, presenter and consultant for many pharmacy organisations, industry and government bodies and training programs sponsored by manufacturers and health providers.In January 2010 Karalyn was awarded an Australia Day award for services to the health of the Mackay community and in October 2010 she was awarded the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia Pharmacist of the Year award. Karalyn was awarded a fellowship of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia in 2010. In 2015 she was awarded the Quality Use of Medicine in Pain Management award by the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia.
Dr Michelle Harris
Royal Adelaide Hospital andLyell McEwin HospitalAdelaide SA
Tel: Email preferred: michelle.harris2@sa.gov.au Fax: N/A
B.HealthSci MBBS FANZCA FFPMANZCAMichelle completed her medical and anaesthetic training in Melbourne before returning to South Australia to complete her Pain fellowship in 2014, via a Perioperative Medicine Fellowship in Toronto. She currently works as a specialist anaesthetist at the Royal Adelaide and Lyell McEwin Hospitals and is a member of the Acute Pain Service at both sites. Since her fellowship, she has maintained a strong relationship with the Pain Management Unit at Royal Adelaide Hospital and continues to work there in a Consultant capacity.
Ms Bernadette Smith
Psychology Plus (Tas) Pty LtdSouth Burnie TAS 7320
Tel: 03 6431 9959Fax: 03 6431 9950
BA(Hons) GradDipPsychEd GradDipTeachLearnHeatlthProf DipClinHyp(Med) MScMed(Pain Management) MAPS
Graduating from UTAS in 1992 Bernadette spent the next 10 years working as a Psychologist for Community Mental Health Services in Tasmania (Child & Adolescent/Adult Community). Bernadette has also worked for UTAS as honorary clinical lecturer with the School of Psychology and Rural Clinical School at the Cradle Coast Campus.Bernadette moved into private practice (Psychology Plus) in 2003 where she developed a special interest in the treatment of chronic pain and health education. In 2016, Bernadette completed her Master of Science in Medicine (Pain Management) through the University of Sydney. Aside from consulting in private practice Bernadette co-facilitates a federally funded Group Pain Management Program (OPAL) on the North West Coast of Tasmania and has done so for the past 8 years. Bernadette is also co-director of Pain Solutions a multi-disciplinary team working with compensable patients suffering chronic pain. Bernadette is a big supporter of the Pain Revolution; she rode for the first time in 2018 and is currently a mentor for local pain educators through the local pain education program.
Dr Esther Dube
General Physician and Pain Medicine SpecialistAustin HealthHeidelberg VIC 3084
Tel: 03 9989 1676Fax: N/A
MBChB, FRACP, FFPMANZCA, Clin Dip Pall Medicine, MPHTM
Dr Esther Dube is a General Physician and Pain Medicine Specialist working in Melbourne. She did her undergraduate training in Zimbabwe and then undertook her specialist training in the Northern Territory and Victoria. Her pain interests lie in acute pain, peri-operative pain management to improve patient outcomes, chronic pain (particularly in the elderly and medically complex patients) as well as cancer pain. She is passionate about educating other health care professionals about pain.
Esther is keen to contribute to the APS and was appointed VIC State Director in 2022.
Ms Jacintha Bell
Director/Principal Occupational TherapistLifeworks Occupational TherapySubiaco WA 6008
Tel: 0451 178 880Fax: 08 6323 3329
BSc(Occupational Therapy)
Jacintha graduated as an occupational therapist in 2001. She is a member of Occupational Therapy Australia and the World Federation of Occupational Therapy. In her early career, she worked in inpatient, outpatient and community mental health services, and then progressed to working in public and private pain clinics. Jacintha established her own occupational therapy practice in 2014, focusing on mental health, persistent pain and complex/chronic conditions. Jacintha is passionate about enabling people with persistent pain to do the things that are important to them and incorporating participation and meaning into all aspects of service delivery. She is a strong advocate for the inclusion of occupational therapy in multidisciplinary services for people with persistent pain and involved in providing training to health professionals to broaden their skills and abilities in working with people with persistent pain.
A/Prof Anne Burke
Central Adelaide Local Health Network
Royal Adelaide HospitalAdelaide SA 5000
Tel: 08 7074 2835Fax: 08 7074 6247
BA(Hons) MPsych(Clin) DipClinHyp PhD
Anne is the Co-Director, Psychology, Central Adelaide Local Health Network where she runs a large Psychology Department spanning acute, subacute and rehabilitation services. She is also Clinical Associate Professor at The University of Adelaide - where she completed her PhD research - and holds a clinical lectureship at Flinders University. Anne has conducted research in the areas of forensic and clinical health psychology, with her primary research interests being the management of pain and other chronic health conditions, the impact of waiting for services, clinical workforce issues, and health service design and delivery.
Prof Kevin Keay
Department of AnatomyUniversity of SydneySydney NSW 2006
Tel: 02 9351 4132Fax: 02 9351 2817
PhD
Kevin has led the Australian Pain Society Scientific Program Committee (SPC) since April 2017.
Dr Lincoln Tracy
School of Public Health and Preventive MedicineMonash UniversityMelbourne VIC 3004
Tel: 03 9903 0288Fax: N/A
BBiomedSc (Hons) SpecCertCR (Neuro) PhDDr Lincoln Tracy completed his PhD in the School of Psychological Sciences at Monash University in 2017. His doctoral research focused on the psychological and physiological modulation of pain experience, and included testing the effects of intranasal oxytocin on pain in people with chronic neck and shoulder pain. He is currently employed as a Research Fellow in the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University, where he works on the Burns Registry of Australia and New Zealand.
Dr Joanne Harmon
School of Clinical and Health SciencesUniversity of South AustraliaAdelaide SA 5000
Tel: 08 8302 1442Fax: N/A
RN BN (Hons) PhD, BAppSci (Cons Tech) MACNDr Joanne (Jo) Harmon is a registered nurse and academic located at the University of South Australia. She completed her nursing degree in 2011 with honours and then her PhD in 2016, both at the University of Newcastle, NSW. Joanne’s thesis was titled “The assessment and management of pain in older people by nurses in acute care: a focused ethnography”. Her research interests are focused on qualitative research, critical care, acute acre, care of the older person and pain care provision.
Dr Michael Farrell
Retired
Tel: N/AFax: N/A
PhD, MSC, BAppSc (Phy)Dr Michael Farrell trained and worked as a Physiotherapist before starting his research career. Recipient of a NHMRC Neil Hamilton Fairley Fellowship, Michael completed a postdoc in the lab of Richard Gracely at the National Institutes of Health before returning to Melbourne and joining the Howard Florey Institute in 2003. Leader of the Interoception Imaging team at the Florey, Michael was also a C.R. Roper Fellow at the University of Melbourne. He joined the Department of Medical Imaging and Radiation Sciences at Monash University as an Associate Professor in 2014.Michael uses functional brain imaging techniques including positron emission tomography, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and perfusion-fMRI to investigate the human brain control of sensations and regulatory responses that arise from signals inside the body.
Professor Michele Sterling
RECOVER Injury Research CentreUniversity of QueenslandHerston QLD 4029
Tel: 07 3346 4793Fax: N/A
PhD MPhty BPhty Grad Dip Manip Physio FACPMichele sits on the IASP Council, where she provides representation for Australasia at this peak international scientific pain body.
Michele has a long association with the Australian Pain Society having been our Scientific Program Committee (SPC) Chair from March 2013 to April 2017.
Ms Tracy Hallen
DC Conference & Association ManagementNorth Sydney NSW 2060
Tel: 02 9016 4343Fax: N/A
BEcInspired by the work of the Australian Pain Society, Tracy joined the DC Conference & Association Management team, in February 2010. In her role as Executive Officer, Tracy assists the APS to fulfil its strategic goals and enhance membership services.
Ms Kylie Dark
Kylie has a broad range of experience gained from working across various sectors in her career including event management, hospitality management and more recently, medical administration following her return to the workforce after spending time at home managing a busy household of five!