Clinical Vaccinology Update (CVU) - November 2021

Dr Daryl Cheng
Medical Lead, Melbourne Vaccine Education Centre (MVEC), MCRI

Dr Cheng is a general paediatrician who works at The Royal Children’s Hospital and Monash Children’s Hospital. He is a Senior Research Fellow at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. He has special interests in immunisation, education and health informatics.

A/Prof Nigel Crawford
Director, Melbourne Vaccine Education Centre (MVEC) and Surveillance of Adverse Events Following Vaccination in the Community (SAEFVIC), MCRI
Chair, ATAGI, Immunisation
Senior Medical Advisor, Victorian Department of Health, COVID-19 Vaccine Program

A/ Prof Crawford is a vaccinologist with a special interest in vaccine safety. His research includes COVID-19 in families and children, vaccine safety and surveillance, special risk group’s immunisation, vaccine preventable diseases epidemiology, Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) in children and immunisation policy development.

Adj A/Prof Marion Kainer 
Head of Infectious Diseases, Western Health

Marion Kainer is Adj A/Prof at Health Policy at Vanderbilt University. She obtained her medical degree at the University of Melbourne and Master of Public Health at Monash University.  She is an adult infectious diseases physician and healthcare epidemiologist.  She was an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], in the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion/ Hospital Infections Program.  A/Prof Kainer joined the Tennessee Department of Health in 2003 where she was the director of the Healthcare Associated Infections and Antimicrobial Resistance Program. She was the chair of the Healthcare Associated Infections [HAI] subcommittee of the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists [CSTE].  A/Prof Kainer served as the CSTE liaison to CDC’s Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee [HICPAC], CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network [NHSN] change control board and the Public Policy and Governmental Affairs Committee of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America [SHEA].  A/Prof Kainer led the 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak investigation at the Tennessee Department of Health and was named Tennessean of the Year. She was honored by the Obama White House as a Champion of Change for Prevention and Public Health in 2013.  She was a member of the antimicrobial resistance surveillance taskforce and co-chaired the Council for Outbreak Response: Healthcare-associated Infections and Antimicrobial Resistant Pathogens [CORHA].  She was a member of the antibiotic resistance work group for the President Obama’s Council of Advisors in Science and Technology [PCAST].  She took a lead role in the implementation of the Southeast Regional Laboratory that is part of the Antibiotic Resistance Laboratory Network.  She was awarded the CSTE Pump Handle award in 2019 for outstanding achievement in the field of applied epidemiology. In October 2019 A/Prof Kainer returned to Melbourne, Australia as the Head of Infectious Diseases at Western Health.  She chairs the Western Health infection control committee and the antimicrobial stewardship workgroup.  Since January 2020 she has also taken a leadership role in the preparation for and response to COVID-19, including providing advice to executive leadership. A/Prof Kainer provides oversight as the medical lead for both COVID response and COVID Vaccination at Western Health’s Sunshine hub and associated sub-hubs. She serves as a clinician for the Victorian Specialist Immunization Service, based at Sunshine. A/Prof Kainer also serves as a member of the Victorian COVID-19 Healthcare Worker Infection and Wellbeing Taskforce, and the Infectious Disease Expert Working Group-COVID-19, Safer Care Victoria.

Prof Fiona Russell
Group Leader/Senior Principal Research Fellow, Infection and Immunity, MCRI

Professor Fiona Russell is a paediatrician, epidemiologist and translation researcher. She is Director of the Child and Adolescent Health PhD Program, Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne, and is a member of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Child and Neonatal Health Research and Training; and Group Leader for Asia-Pacific Health research, MCRI. Her research provides evidence for policy decisions regarding immunisation and child health in low- and middle-income countries.

Dr Jeremy Carr 
Infectious Diseases Physician, Monash Health

Jeremy Carr is a Paediatric Infectious Disease Physician at Monash Children’s where he leads the paediatric immunisation and VicSIS clinics. Jeremy joined the Oxford Vaccine Group at the University of Oxford in 2018 as a Research Fellow where he is completing his PhD on a cluster RCT of meningococcal vaccines focussing on herd immunity and microbial genomics.

Prof Jim Buttery 
Head, Health Informatics, Epidemiology and Signal Detection, SAEFVIC, MCRI
Chief Clinical Research Information Officer and Infectious Diseases Consultant, The Royal Children’s Hospital

Prof Buttery is a paediatric infectious diseases physician and vaccinologist. Prof Buttery also serves as a member of the Strategic Priority Group of WHO Global Vaccine Safety Initiative, the Australian Medical Services Advisory Committee, and the TGA Advisory Committee on Vaccines.

A/Prof Sara Barnes 
Associate Professor (adjunct) and Clinical Lead Allergy, Monash Health

A/Prof Sara Barnes is a clinical allergist/immunologist who leads and continues to develop the Allergy service at Monash Health. This has seen the development of a venom service including Jack Jumper Ants as well as a focus on adult vaccine allergies.

Prof Huyen Tran
Professor Huyen Tran, Head, Haemostasis Thrombosis Unit, The Alfred

Prof Tran is a clinical research haematologist who has a strong national and international reputation in the field of thrombosis and haemostasis. He has a strong interest in standardising best practice and has led several important published guidelines in Australia, New Zealand and Asia Pacific regions. He is extremely active in the Thrombosis & Haemostasis Society of Australia and New Zealand (THANZ), where he is the current Chair and Chair of the Clinical Trials Group and co-formed the THANZ Vaccine-Induced Thrombotic Thrombocytopenia Advisory group soon after Australia started the COVID-19 vaccination program. He serves as the haematological expert on Thrombosis Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (TTS), Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation; World Health Organisation, TTS Advisory group (2021); steering committee member of the anticoagulant domain, AustralaSian COVID-19 Trial. Prof Tran’s focus is on clinical research in haematology with particular interests in thrombotic, and bleeding disorders.

Dr Linny Phuong
Immunisation Consultant

Dr Phuong is a Paediatric Infectious Diseases Physician. Linny currently works across many different roles including Immunisation Consultant at SAEFVIC, Senior Medical Lead at the North Eastern Public Health Unit (NEPHU) and as a Paediatric Infectious Diseases Physician at Austin Health and Cabrini. She is an active researcher with the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and University of Melbourne- Department of Paediatrics, in areas including Streptococcus pneumoniae, Group A Streptococcus infections and Kawasaki disease.

Dr Jessica Kaufman
Research fellow, Vaccine Uptake Group, MCRI

Dr Jessica Kaufman is research fellow in the Vaccine Uptake Group at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. Her current research focuses on interventions and policies to increase acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines and improve routine vaccine uptake in the general public, healthcare workers, pregnant women, children with neurodevelopmental disorders, and people of refugee background.

Sarah Pitts
Immunisation Nurse, Monash Health

Sarah is an accredited Nurse Immuniser of 19 years and experienced paediatric Registered Nurse. She has been working with Monash Health as a specialist Immunisation Nurse for the last 10 years and holds the position of a Nurse Immuniser with 2 local councils and FITS private travel clinic at Cabrini Health. Sarah also trains pharmacy immunisers for the Pharmacy Guild of Victoria and is passionate about equitable vaccine access and excellent immunisation practice.

Dr Joshua Osowicki

Paediatric Infectious Diseases Consultant, The Royal Children’s Hospital
Research Officer, Infection and Immunity, MCRI

Dr Josh Osowicki is a clinician-scientist who completed his PhD in the MCRI Tropical Diseases research group where he was supervised by Prof Andrew Steer to establish a human challenge model of Strep A (Streptococcus pyogenes, group A Streptococcus) pharyngitis to accelerate vaccine development against this high priority pathogen.

Karen Bellamy
Immunisation Nurse Practitioner, Monash Health

Karen is an Immunisation Nurse Practitioner specialising in vaccine preventable diseases – paediatric, adult and antenatal at Monash Health. She is also a member of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisations as well as, the Victorian Expert Advisory Group working on the COVID-19 vaccine program. Karen was recently appointed as a specialist advisor with the Vaccine Safety Investigation Group (VSIG) investigating and managing AEFI safety signals in COVID-19 vaccines. In her spare time, Karen works at a local government as a Nurse Immuniser. Prior to her working in the immunisation space, she held the role of Midwife and Maternal Child Health Nurse.

Lynne Addlem 
Immunisation Nurse Practitioner Candidate, The Royal Children’s Hospital

Lynne Addlem has worked at the Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) Melbourne for over 15 years in various nursing roles including many years in the RCH Emergency department. She moved to Immunisation in 2017 and is working toward endorsement as a Nurse Practitioner in this field. Lynne also works in private travel medicine in a community clinic. She has particular interests in vaccine hesitancy, vaccination for those at risk and sedation of the needle phobic patient.​

Dr Angie Berkhout
Paediatric Infectious Diseases Specialist, Microbiology Department, The Royal Children’s Hospital
Clinical Research Fellow and MVEC Immunisation Fellow, MCRI

Dr Angie Berkhout is a Paediatric Infectious Diseases Specialist currently working in the Microbiology Department at the Royal Children’s Hospital. She is a PhD candidate with the University of Queensland and is a MCRI Clinical Research Fellow and has been working with MVEC over the last 6 months.