Opportunities for health consumers and community members
Dr Manoj Saxena
Manoj continues to practise as an Intensive Care Physician and is based part-time at St. George Public Hospital in Sydney, playing a key role in the intensive care research program with Professor John Myburgh.
His postgraduate qualifications include Fellowship of both the Royal College of Physicians in the United Kingdom and Australia and Fellowship of the College of Intensive Care Medicine.
Research interests include large scale clinical observational and randomised trials. Further specific areas of research interest include the role of fever in severe infections and acute brain injury, Intensive Care Unit Acquired Weakness and Early Mobility, and Outcome Evaluation in Critical Care Medicine research.
A/Prof Naomi Hammond
Associate Professor Naomi Hammond is the Critical Care Program Head at The George Institute for Global Health. She also works part-time as the Intensive Care Clinical Research Manager at Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, Australia. Naomi holds several other appointments including NHMRC Emerging Leader Fellow; Conjoint Associate Professor at the Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales; an Editorial Board Member for Australian Critical Care Journal; Chair of the Australian Critical Care Nurses Research Advisory Panel; and Senior Research Fellow with the Australian Sepsis Network.
Naomi is a clinical nurse researcher and has led a program of sepsis research through international collaborations including facilitating 4 clinical trials in COVID-19 in India. She leads the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society Point Prevalence program. She has also undertaken international point prevalence studies including a large epidemiological study of patients with sepsis in Indian ICUs. Called the SIPS (Sepsis in India Prevalence) study, it has provided vital insights into changing epidemiology with different sepsis definitions, bacteriology, and antimicrobial resistance patterns.
Naomi’s main research interests include fluid resuscitation, sepsis, fever management, knowledge translation and implementation research, health economics, and long-term outcomes post-critical illness. Naomi has experience supervising and mentoring medical trainees, nursing staff, PhD, Masters and medical students in both the clinical and academic environment.
Additional to Naomi’s academic portfolio, she also has extensive clinical trials operational management experience including finance, regulatory processes, personnel, project and program management in a clinical and NGO environment.
Frances Bass
Frances Bass works part-time at The George Institute for Global Health as a Senior Project Manager in the Critical Care Program. She also works at Royal North Shore Hospital as an Intensive Care Clinical Research Manager.
Frances is a Registered Nurse having completed a Bachelor of Nursing, Graduate Certificate in Critical Care, and Masters of Science (Research). She has extensive experience in the management of critical care clinical trials operations including, investigator-initiated, collaborative group and commercially sponsored trials.
Frances sits on a number of scientific management committees. She is Secretary for the Australian College of Critical Care Nurses (ACCCN) NSW/ACT Branch Management Committee and a member on the ACCCN Research Advisory Committee. She is also a reviewer and committee member of the Northern Sydney Local Health District, Human Research Ethics Committee.
Dr Serena Knowles
Dr Serena Knowles is the Program Manager for the Critical Care Program at The George Institute for Global Health. Serena supports the Program Head and Program Lead in managing all aspects of the Critical Care program, including operational activities, business administration, management of grant applications and program strategy and development.
Serena is a nurse researcher, with over 15 years of clinical critical care experience and over 14 years of research experience. Serena completed her PhD in 2016 investigating the use of an evidence-based implementation strategy to effect clinician behaviour change and to improve clinical practice in the area of bowel management within the intensive care unit. Prior to working at TGI, she worked as a Research Coordinator for ICU and neurology trials. Since working at TGI, she has worked in numerous roles, including Clinical Research Associate, Project Manager, and Operations Lead. She is the current Co-Convener for the Point Prevalence Program, a collaboration between TGI and the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society.
Serena has an interest in process evaluation and implementation science.
Anna Tippett
Anna is working as an Associate Project Manager working on the STARS (stroke) and STEPCARE (cardiac arrest) studies. Since joining The George Institute in 2019 she has worked as a Senior Clinical Research Associate on various studies, both in Critical Care as well as other medical fields. Prior to her employment at The George Institute, Anna was a Clinical Trials and Research Coordinator for the Intensive Care Units at Western Health, Victoria. Anna has also worked as a Clinical Research Associate for Orion Clinical Services (CRO) and as a Research Coordinator for the Gastroenterology Department at Box Hill Hospital. She also has a Bachelor of Biomedical Science with Honors from the University of South Australia, a Postgraduate Diploma in Forensic Science from La Trobe University and a Postgraduate Certificate in Business Administration from Swinburne University.