James Best

James Best has been a GP for almost 30 years, recently based on the South Coast.

In 2015, he and his 15 year old son Sam, who has autism, embarked on a six month backpacking journey around Africa, on a purposeful exposure to uncertainty and chaos in order to improve Sam’s life skills. This intervention was studied by Griffith University and was the subject of his book, Sam’s Best Shot: A Father and Son's Life-Changing Journey through Autism, Adolescence and Africa. The remarkable adventure was also featured on Australian Story in 2017. 

James Best has been a GP medical educator, training GP registrars for over 20 years, and is a past recipient of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners’ GP Supervisor of the Year. He has a specific interest in paediatrics, particularly paediatric disability, and is the Chair of the Child and Young Person Group, which includes 3000 GPs with a paediatric specific interest, within the RACGP.  
 

Nicholas Talley

Distinguished Laureate Professor Nicholas J. Talley AC is a gastroenterologist and public health physician, researcher and educator.

Chair of Doctors for the Environment Australia, he is also Past President of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians where he became very active in advocating about the serious health impacts of climate change, and promoting adaptation and mitigation by the health system and the community. Nick continued this work when Editor-in-Chief of the Medical Journal of Australia, from 2015 to 2023.

He is currently the Director of the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Digestive Health at the University of Newcastle, and is the co-author of Talley and O’Connor’s Clinical Examination and Examination Medicine.

Johanna Westbrook

Johanna Westbrook is Professor of Health Informatics and Patient Safety at the Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Macquarie University. She is internationally recognised for her research measuring the effects of digital technologies in health care. She investigates questions about if and how technologies support safer and more efficient health care, and how to identify and address the new problems that these systems create. Reducing medication errors, the most frequent cause of preventable harm to patients, is a particular focus of her research. In addition to large trials evaluating technologies such as electronic health record systems, she has developed innovative observational methods to capture how health professionals deliver care, including measuring the impact of interruptions and multi-tasking on their work and errors. Johanna also undertakes research in the aged care sector and presented to the Aged Care Royal Commission how digital systems can contribute to improving care quality. 

Johanna has received several research awards including the Health Services Researcher of the year award (2022) from Research Australia; and the Elizabeth Blackburn Investigator Award from the National Health and Medical Research Council (2019). She has published over 600 research papers and is regularly asked to present at national and international events. 

Mary Moran

Dr Mary Moran has over 25 years experience in health policy and practice, including 15 years specialising in policy for neglected diseases of the developing world.  In 2004, Mary founded the research group that became Policy Cures at the London School of Economics & Political Science, later transferring it to Australia. 

Prior to forming the group, she was an emergency medicine doctor; a diplomat and policy analyst with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade; Director of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) Access to Essential Medicines Campaign in Australia; and a Europe-based policy advocate with MSF on issues relating to access to medicines for neglected patients. Mary has acted as an expert adviser to the World Health Organisation, European Commission, European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership, Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI), OECD and the Wellcome Trust.