SWB National Executive Committee

SWB's teams of instructors are made up of volunteer specialists from our ever-growing international database. The seminars are co-ordinated by our National Executive Committee, comprising of the following members:

Dr Paul Anderson

Dr Paul Anderson is a consultant surgeon currently domiciled in Adelaide South Australia. His undergraduate medical education was at the University of Cape Town/Groote Schuur hospital, (where Professor Christian Barnard undertook the first heart transplant in 1967).

Dr Anderson completed his internship in his home country of New Zealand before being admitted to the Australasian surgical training programme. During this period he was accredited as a fellow with the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh, and then shortly afterwards admitted as a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.

Dr David Birks

David Birks FRACS, FRCSC, FRCSEd., MHPE graduated from the University of Melbourne in 1968 with his MBBS and obtained his Master of Health Professional Education from Monash University in 2008. He underook general surgery training in Vancouver, Canada between 1970 and 1975, and was admitted to FRACS in 1977. He worked as a General Surgeon in Latrobe Valley, in rural Victoria, Australia between 1977 and 2009, was Chair of the Rural Surgical Training Program, RACS 1997 – 2003, was Supervisor of the RACS General Surgical Training at Latrobe Regional Hospital 1993 – 2007, RACS Instructor Surgical Teachers Course, CCrISP (Care of the Critically Ill Surgical Patient), and EMST (our equivalent of ATLS), has been a tutor of Monash Medical medical students – PBL, MiniCEX, anatomy, bedside teaching and clinical skills, as well as the Convener of Surgical Education – Annual Scientific Congress, RACS and HK College of Surgeons 2008 and a Senior Lecturer at Monash University Rural Health since 1992.

Dr Kate Drummond

Dr Kate Drummond graduated from the University of Sydney in 1988 and trained in Neurosurgery at Westmead and Royal North Shore Hospitals in Sydney and the Austin and Repatriation Hospital and the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne. She furthered her training with both clinical and research fellowships in Neuro-oncology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard University in Boston, MA, USA. She has also undertaken basic science research in Neuro-oncology at The Royal Melbourne Hospital and was awarded an MD from the University of Melbourne for this work in 2008. She is currently appointed as a Neurosurgeon at The Royal Melbourne Hospital and Senior Lecturer at the University of Melbourne. Her chief research interest is in the invasion of malignant gliomas. Her main clinical interest is Neuro-oncology. She is the chair of the Neuro-oncology Committee of the Victorian Cooperative Oncology Group for the Cancer Council Victoria and is involved with a number of community groups advocating for patients with brain tumours and their families. She is the Domain Coordinator for Cancer at the University of Melbourne. She is Co-Editor of the Journal of Clinical Neuroscience. She has also been a long-standing member of the RACS Women in Surgery Committee and has researched and subsequently implemented the mentoring program for basic surgical trainees. She is Director of Junior Surgical Training at The Royal Melbourne Hospital.

Dr Katherine Edyvane

Dr Katherine Edyvane is a broadly trained General Surgeon, who has a strong interest in surgical teaching in the developing world and resource poor environments.  Katherine has just finished a 2 year full-time attachment to the Dili National Hospital, East Timor (a program of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and AusAid funded), where she was consultant surgeon, advisor and teacher/supervisor to surgical trainees.   She also holds a PhD in medical research from the Flinders University of South Australia, has published widely and has more than 20 years of teaching experience, in a variety of clinical and academic roles.

Professor Jegan Krishnan

Professor Jegan Krishnan commenced at Flinders Medical Centre as the Lecturer in Orthopaedic Surgery in 1993 following a two-year period overseas as a visiting Orthopaedic Surgeon.

He progressed to being Senior Clinical Director of Orthopaedic Surgery in 1995 and was appointed as an Associate Professor in 1995. Professor Krishnan was appointed to the inaugural Chair in Orthopaedic Surgery, Flinders University in May 2001.

A major research interest is in the design of a prototype metacarpophalangeal finger joint for the rheumatoid hand. He was awarded his PhD in this topic, conferred in April 1999, from the Flinders University School of Science and Engineering. This project is being supported by an NHMRC grant and clinical trials are under way.

Professor Krishnan has also had major involvement in orthopaedic education and training. He has established several Orthopaedic Fellowship Training Exchanges with developing nations in the Asia Pacific region. The Department has trained over 100 surgeons from the Asia Pacific region.

Professor Suren Krishnan

Professor Suren Krishnan is  a graduate of the University of Adelaide Medical School and an Otolaryngologist, Head and Neck Surgeon trained in the Adelaide Training Program. He received his fellowship in Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery from the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 1993 and was a Fellow at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, United Kingdom in 1994. On his return from Oxford he was appointed Consultant Surgeon at The Royal Adelaide Hospital in Adelaide, South Australia and in private practice. He is currently Chairman of the Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. He is an active participant in academic activities and is Clinical Associate Professor of Surgery at the University of Adelaide. He is an examiner in Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery for the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and is the current Chairman of the Head and Neck subcommittee of the Australian Society of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery and was President of the Australian and New Zealand Head and Neck Society in 2007. Mr. Krishnan was awarded a medal in the Order of Australia in the Queen’s Birthday.