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KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Below are the confirmed keynote speakers for Screening 2025. Watch this space as more speakers are confirmed.

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Professor Harry De Koning

Deputy Head and Professor of Public Health & Screening Evaluation, Department of Public Health, Erasmus MC University Medical Centre, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

My major scientific contributions are in the areas of (1) designing, running and evaluating (often large-scale) multidisciplinary population-based randomized controlled screening trials to establish the efficacy of screening, (2) evaluating active (inter-)national screening programs and clinical tests to establish effectiveness and (3) guiding public health policies on screening and primary prevention using predictions of favourable and unfavourable effects and the cost of interventions, based on micro-simulation modelling of the natural history of disease, risk-prediction modelling and cost-effectiveness and cost-utility analyses. I had a shared responsibility for designing the ERSPC trial on prostate cancer screening, which included establishing the screening interval, core age groups, power and monitoring plan (secretary Data Monitoring Committee), and set up and chaired the international committee charged with reviewing the primary outcome of the trial. I am PI of the NELSON lung cancer screening trial and designed the entire trial in all its facets (sole trial with different screening intervals). I was PI of the sole RCT on screening for language disorders in 11,000 toddlers, and am PI of the ROBINSCA trial through an Advanced Researcher Grant (2011), to assess the (cost-) effectiveness of screening for cardiovascular disease, and presently run the 4-in-the-lung-run trial (Horizon2020). We are further responsible for the monitoring and evaluation of the Dutch Breast, Cervical and Colorectal Cancer Screening Program, and presently have HORIZON2020-projects to evaluate breast, cervical and colorectal cancer screening in Europe (coordinator), and evaluate (and implement) vision and hearing screening in Europe (substitute coordinator). We are co-PI in 7 CISNET (NIH/NCI-funded) projects, aimed at modelling and predicting the impact of interventions in breast, prostate, lung, colorectal, esophageal, colorectal and cervical cancer.

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Professor Ruth Etzioni

Professor, Public Health Sciences Division, Fred Hutch Cancer Centre

Dr. Ruth Etzioni is a biostatistician who primarily focuses on cancer screening and early detection. Much of her work is in the area of prostate and breast cancer, where she develops methods for evaluating diagnostic tests; creates mathematical models to reflect the impact of screening tests on the incidence and mortality rates of these cancers; calculates costs and benefits of preventive screening; tracks population trends with regard to screening and related behaviors and works with investigators on trial design and analysis. Dr. Etzioni also researches overdiagnoses associated with certain screening tests — when screening finds cancers that would not cause symptoms or death within a patient’s natural lifetime. She also evaluates novel cancer biomarkers and tracks patterns and outcomes of cancer care. Dr. Etzioni leads the biostatistics core for the National Cancer Institute-funded multicenter Northwest Prostate Cancer Specialized Program of Research Excellence, or SPORE, and she has a longstanding interest in researching, tracking and working to eliminate health disparities.

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Professor Paul Lacaze

Head, Public Health Genomics, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University

Professor Paul Lacaze is a pioneering researcher in public health genomics and population DNA screening. He holds a NHMRC Investigator Leadership grant and Heart Foundation Future Leader Fellowship and is the Cheif Investigator A (CIA) of the landmark DNA Screen national pilot study, offering preventive population DNA screening to 10,000 healthy adults for medically actionable conditions. Lacaze is also CIA of the Australian Genetics and Life Insurance Moratorium: Monitoring the Effectiveness and Response (A-GLIMMER) project. Lacaze leads the genomics research program for the ASPREE study, Australia’s largest randomised trial and genomic cohort of ageing. Lacaze also leads a parallel research stream focused on ethical, legal, social, health-economic and policy aspects of human genomics.

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Professor Garry Jennings AO

Chief Medical Advisor, Heart Foundation

Professor Garry Jennings has a longstanding involvement with the Heart Foundation as the current Chief Medical Officer and Interim CEO. He also works in a part time research and clinical capacity at the Baker Institute and The Alfred Hospital.  He has a distinguished career as a cardiologist in clinical practice and was previously Director of Cardiology at The Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, and Chair of the Division of Medicine. 

Professor Jennings is past President of the Association of Australian Medical Research Institute, the High Blood Pressure Research Council of Australia, the Asia Pacific Society of Hypertension and Head of a WHO Collaborating Centre for Research and Training in Cardiovascular Health.  

His research interests cover the causes, prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases and have received national and international awards.  He has published several books on heart disease for the public and over 600 research publications cited more than 30,000 times. 

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Professor Karen Canfell

Professor of Public Health & NHMRC Leadership Fellow, The University of Sydney

Our team’s work involves supporting policy and practice decision-making for new innovations in cancer control, especially screening and early detection approaches. We have been involved in multiple impact and economic evaluations for WHO and government agencies internationally.

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Dr Dawn Casey

Deputy CEO, National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO)

Dawn Casey is a Tagalaka traditional owner from North Queensland. Dawn joined the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation in 2016 as Deputy CEO.
Dawn served as Director of the National Museum of Australia, Western Australian Museum and Powerhouse Museum. Dawn has held positions as Chair of Indigenous Land Corporation and Indigenous Business Australia, key executive positions in the Public Sector, including: Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and Indigenous Affairs.
Dawn has been awarded the gold Sidney Sax Public Health Medal in 2021, three Honorary Doctorates (QLD Charles Sturt, QLD and Macquarie Universities), Commonwealth Government’s Public Service Medal (PSM), Australian Government’s Centenary Medal, three Australia Day Public Service Medals, the Australian Institute of Architects’ Clem Cummings Award, and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (FAHA).

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Dr Rosemary Wyber

Research Fellow - Cardiovascular Disease, National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Australian National University

A/Prof Rosemary Wyber is a non-Indigenous General Practitioner and researcher focusing on primary care. She leads the Enhancing Chronic Disease Care Team within Yardhura Walani at Australian National University.

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Professor Katy Bell

NHMRC Leadership Fellow; Professor Of Clinical Epidemiology, The University of Sydney

Professor Katy Bell is a clinical epidemiologist and NHMRC Leadership Fellow at the University of Sydney’s School of Public Health. Her research aims to identify sustainable models of health care that benefit health and do not cause harm. She co-leads Wiser Healthcare, a research collaboration aiming to promote high-value care for all Australians. She is a Clinical Discussant for the Medical Services Advisory Committee Evaluation Sub-Committee, assessing new listings for the Medical Benefits Scheme. The quality and impact of her work was recognized by the 2023 NHMRC Elizabeth Blackburn Investigator Grant Awards - Health Services (Leadership).

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Associate Professor Zongyuan Ge

Director Of Aim For Health Lab, Monash University

Associate Professor Zongyuan Ge has wide expertise in AI, Biomedical Engineering, Digital Health, and Medical AI Applications. He is the Founding Director of the Monash Medical AI group and the AI Director of the Monash Augmented Intelligence and Multimodal analytics for Health (AIM) lab, leading over 40+ talented PhD students, 6 research fellows and 6 tenured professors and lecturers. He has worked with clinical institutions such as Monash Health, the Alfred Health and Stanford Health Care the program has attracted grants of over $35M for his work. He is currently the Chief Scientist for the Monash-Airdoc Research Centre, a $3M+ incubator and investment fund, is responsible for developing CFDA, NMPA, TGA, CLASS III approved healthcare monitoring products. He holds 200+ academic publications in top journals such as The Lancet Digital Health, The British Medical Journal, JAMA Neurology, Nature Nanotechnology, and 20 patents. His work has been recognised by many international and national awards, including the 200 Most Qualified Young Researchers in Computer and Mathematics by the Scientific Committee of the Heidelberg Laureate Foundation, IBM Scientific Research Accomplishment Award, NVIDIA AI Fellowship, Agilent Thought Leader Program, the Australian Pattern Recognition Society (APRS) Early Career Researcher Award, “the highest award of artificial intelligence in China”–Wu Wenjun Award for Artificial Intelligence Science and Technology twice in 2019, 2022, and Monash Exceptional Achievement Award. His standing as a top 2% highly cited researcher since 2020 and recognition of his articles in Clarivate Analytics' list of highly cited work reaffirm the impact of his research.

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Dr Lisa Murphy

Chief Executive Officer, Stroke Foundation - Australia

Lisa was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Stroke Foundation in April 2023, and previously held the position as Executive Director Stroke Services and Research.

She has more than 25 years experience in health, both clinically in general and emergency medicine and in anesthesia and intensive care from the UK, and more recently in the non-profit health sector in senior management and executive roles. Prior to joining Stroke Foundation, Lisa held a number of roles at Kidney Health Australia including Interim CEO, leading the peak body for kidney disease.

Lisa is a member of the World Stroke Organization Board and is co-chair of the Stroke Support Organization Committee. She is a member of the Australian Stroke Alliance Board, Co-chair of the Australian Stroke Coalition and member of Australian Chronic Disease Prevention Alliance.

She has published a number of articles on stroke, prevention of chronic conditions, chronic kidney disease and lived experience co-design.

Lisa is a passionate about prevention of chronic conditions, for equity in health, and for lived experience involvement and co-design.

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Dr Natalie Diepenhorst

Lived Experience Advocate, University of Melbourne

Natalie is a colorectal cancer survivor and lived experience advocate. She is passionate about screening and early detection of colorectal cancer in the broader community and collaborates with A/Prof Daniel Buchanan at the University of Melbourne Centre for Cancer Research to investigate genetic and non-genetic risk factors in individuals, particularly those with strong family history of cancer. Natalie is also a member of the VCCC Alliance Cancer Consumer Advisory Committee where she has been involved in strategies to accelerate novel therapeutics for the treatment of cancer helping researchers and clinicians engage with patients to facilitate research translation.

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Dr Dorota Pawlak

Chief Scientific Officer, JRDF and Director, Type 1 Diabetes Clinical Research Network

Dorota Pawlak, PhD is Chief Scientific Officer at JDRF and Director of the Type 1 Diabetes Clinical Research Network. She focuses on developing strategic approaches towards finding cures, treatments and preventing type 1 diabetes.

Dr Pawlak graduated with PhD in diabetes research from the University of Sydney and completed her postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School. She later joined the faculty at Boston Children’s Hospital where she focused on obesity and diabetes research.

Dr Pawlak is a member of JDRF’s Executive Team, previously managed the federally funded Islet Transplantation Program, and for the last 12 years developed and managed the Type 1 Diabetes Clinical Research Network. She is also responsible for international partnerships with world-leading government, non-government, foundation and commercial organisations. Her passion is to drive a positive, collaborative solutions to research question with the sharp lens on impact for the individuals living with type 1 diabetes.

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