Paul Aylin, Imperial College London
Paul is a Clinical Reader in Epidemiology and Public Health; he is assistant director of the Dr Foster Unit. He trained in Public Health Medicine and spent three years at the Office for National Statistics as a Medical Statistician before coming to Imperial in 1997. He became a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine in 2001. His current research focuses on exploring variations in process and outcome indicators using routinely collected administrative data. Previous research included: weekend hospital mortality; time to operation for fracture neck of femur; the investigation into patient mortality at general practice level for the Shipman Inquiry; the use of Hospital Episode Statistics data to examine paediatric cardiac surgery at Bristol; research into respiratory admissions surrounding industrial installations using HES data; examining links between excess winter mortality, housing condition and deprivation using routine mortality and census data; He has been an expert witness to both the Bristol and the Shipman Inquiry.

Andy Bond, Chief Architect NeHTA
Andy Bond is Chief Architect at the National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA). He has driven the interoperability agenda at NEHTA for several years covering business, information, and technical aspects of system design and interconnectivity. Prior to NEHTA, Andy was Chief Scientist at the Distributed Systems Technology Centre (DSTC) responsible for research strategy, engagement, and market transition.Andy has worked in distributed systems for over 20 years including research, development, and commercialisation. Special areas of interest include middleware, enterprise architecture, and interoperability. His work has included interoperability frameworks, large scale national and international architectures, and various novel distributed systems innovations.

Prof Richard Cotton, Human Variome Project
Richard Cotton AM BAgSc., Ph.D, D.Sc. (Melbourne) initiated the Mutation Research Centre, now renamed the Genomic Disorders Research Centre, in January, 1996 (www.genomic.unimelb.edu.au). He has always been interested in the biochemical genetics of human disease and has recently focussed on mutation. In June 2005, he was admitted as a Member of the Order of Australia for service to science through genetic research, particularly through the development of technologies to detect gene mutations that underlie birth defects or cause disease and through efforts to document findings. mutations that underlie birth defects or cause disease and through efforts to document findings. In June 2006, he convened a Meeting, co-sponsored by WHO, which initiated the Human Variome Project (www.humanvariomeproject.org). This project aims to collect worldwide genetic variation and its associated phenotype affecting human health.
Watch Richard's amazing presentation at TEDx Sydney - The Human Variome Project HERE

Paul Madden, DoHA
Paul Madden was appointed to the position of Deputy Secretary and Chief Information and Knowledge Officer (CIKO) with the Department of Health and Ageing in December 2010. This role includes the developing of visions, strategies and implementation plans for information, knowledge, technology, performance and records management. These must meet current operational requirements, provide the support needed to implement the various health reform initiatives. Paul is also providing strategic guidance and advice in relation to technical aspects for the various health reform developments to ensure they deliver on their agreed outcomes.

David Rowlands, Direkt Consulting
David Rowlands is Managing Director of Direkt Consulting, a management consulting company specialising in e-health; health information; standards; and health service performance improvement in the Asia-Pacific region. David has over 25 years experience in the health sector, and a track record in health system improvement through informatics. He has led data governance efforts at organisational, state and national levels, most recently advising on information quality improvement for Singapore's national electronic health record.

Timothy Smith, Human Variome Project
Timothy Smith is the Communications Officer for the Coordinating Office for the Human Variome Project. He studied biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Melbourne before starting his PhD and also works with the Human Variome Project Australian Node at Melbourne University’s Pathology Departmen Timothy D. Smith is the Communications Officer for Human Variome Project International Ltd., the Coordinating Office for the Human Variome Project. He studied biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Melbourne before starting his PhD which looks at how the process of genetic variation database curation is conducted and investigates novel methods for supporting that process through the application of different technologies. He is the author of the VariVis software program for genetic data visualisation. Timothy is also the Laboratory Liaison Officer for the Human Variome Project Australian Node, a project—based within the Department of Pathology at the University of Melbourne—to provide a mechanism for diagnostic labs and clinicians to share information on genetic variations discovered in Australian patients.

David Thatcher
David Thatcher is a leader in Accenture's Technology practice based in Brisbane, he has over 15 years' experience in large scale implementation. Originally from the UK, David joined Accenture in 2001, since then he has held key technology and architecture roles on a number of large, complex projects ranging from Energy and Mining to Health and Public Service. During this time he has tackled a range of data and technology issues including those relating to information security and governance. For the last year David has been an integral part of Accenture's PCEHR implementation team, he is the Accenture lead architect and responsible for the security of the solution.

Diane Watson
Dr Diane Watson is Chief Executive of the Bureau of Health Information and has a strong track record in the provision of publicly available reports and information on health care to inform clinicians and the community. Dr Watson is a member of the board of Australia’s newly established National Health Performance Authority and will serve as its Acting Chief Executive from February to May 2012. Prior to arriving in Australia in 2009, Dr Watson worked at the Health Council of Canada which was established by the Prime Minister and Premiers to monitor and report to Canadians on the performance of their health care system. She has held senior scientist and management positions at the Centre for Health Services and Policy Research, the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Dr Watson has also created health system performance reports with the Canadian Institute for Health Information and Statistics Canada. In 2005, she was a Harkness Fellow in the International Health Policy Program with the Commonwealth Fund.