Speed skater and motivational speaker Steven Bradbury created history in Salt Lake City when he became the first Australian to win a Winter Olympic Gold Medal. His remarkable and unlikely victory was achieved after a spectacular final-lap spill took out his four rivals. Bradbury threw his arms up in disbelief and smiled as he crossed the finish line.

His career as an Olympic athlete was driven by determination and most importantly a will to succeed.  Some people have described Steven’s victory as lucky.  Winning Olympic gold took a lot more than just luck.  The same as in business, strategy and planning were key ingredients in that success.

With the same passion he showed on the ice, Steven has continued his success as a motivational speaker and a businessman.

His shares his message that, just like in sports, business is about showing up every day and giving it your best. When your moment to shine comes, will you be in position, and prepared to 'DO A BRADBURY'? As well as being entertained and inspired you will be left with a lasting impression that much of the prize is in the journey and that success takes passion, persistence and teamwork.

Presentation details: Steven Bradbury will be presenting on Teamwork, persistence, goal setting and passion on Friday 22 April from 0930-1030.

Peter Hogg qualified as a diagnostic radiographer in 1984 and then he qualified in nuclear medicine in 1986. From 1990 he worked in a university as lecturer and researcher. His academic roles have included MSc Nuclear Medicine Programme Leader (19 years), Head of Department (5 years) and he has taught across a range of graduate and higher graduate topics. For many years he has been advisor to the [UK] College of Radiographers for several topics, for three years he was Consultant Advisor to the American Society of Radiologic Technologists for problem based learning and advanced radiography practice and for five years he was an Honorary Consultant Radiographer in nuclear medicine. He was Editor in Chief of Radiography for five years. He has chaired many national, European and Euro-American committees.

Peter is Professor of Radiography at the University of Salford, UK and Visiting Researcher at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. Currently, at the University of Salford, he supervises radiography, computing and physics BSc / MSc student projects, he is Research Dean for Health Sciences and he is Lead for the Diagnostic Imaging Research Programme. This Research Programme comprises clinical and academic staff, as well as 22 PhD students. It has two foci – mammography and dose/image quality optimisation and lesion detection performance. Peter is Associate Editor of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology and recently he has been Guest Editor for two other journals. He has first or co-authored approximately 600 conference and journal papers. He is a Fellow of the [UK] College of Radiographers.

His hobbies normally involve physical activity, including snowboarding, long distance cycling, motor biking and DIY. He is married to Dianne and they have two children.

Read our interview with Peter here.

Session details: Prof Peter Hogg will be presenting in the MI Breast Imaging session on Friday 22 April from 1400-1430 & in the Fellowship Session on Sunday 24 April from 1100-1130.

Dr Laura Dawson is a Full Professor at the Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Toronto. She completed medical school and radiation oncology residency training at the University of Toronto, and completed a fellowship in high-precision radiation therapy at the University of Michigan, where she stayed on as a faculty member until 2003. 

Since then, she has been a clinician-scientist and practising radiation oncologist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto. She is an internationally recognised leader in hepatobiliary and liver metastases radiation therapy, in the use of stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) for oligometastases, and in the translation of advanced radiation technologies to the clinic. She is principal investigator of several clinical trials, including RTOG1112 which is the first phase III study of SBRT for hepatocellular carcinoma.

Dr Dawson is a member of the NIH-funded hepatobiliary taskforce and the NRG gastrointestinal cancer steering committee. She has published over 100 scientific papers.  A recipient of an ASCO career development award, Dr Dawson's subsequent research has been funded by the NIH, CIHR, NCIC CTG, and the Canadian Cancer Society. 

Reader our interview with Dr Dawson here.

Session details: Dr Dawson will be presenting in the RT SBRT 1 session on Friday 22 April from 1545-1615 & the RT SBRT II session on Saturday 23 April from 1030-1100.

Dr Victoria Brazil is an emergency physician and medical educator.

She works at the Gold Coast, Australia - in the Emergency Department of the Gold Coast Health Service, and at Bond University Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine where she is the Director of the clinical simulation program.

Victoria’s main interests are in connecting education with patient care - through healthcare simulation, technology enabled learning, faculty development activities, and talking at conferences.

She is an enthusiast in the social media and FOAMed world (@SocraticEM), and a keen runner.    

Read our interview with Victoria here.

Session details: Dr Brazil will be presenting in the MI Innovation session onSaturday 23 April from 1305-1345.

Associate Professor Frank Gaillard graduated from the University of Melbourne medical school in 1998. He trained as a radiologist at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, where he eventually returned as a consultant neuroradiologist after completing two years of neuroradiology fellowship training, and living and working in Canada.

In addition to his work as an academic neuroradiologist, with active research interests in neurodegenerative diseases, imaging of CNS tumours and computer aided MRI interpretation, he is also the founder and editor in chief of Radiopaedia.org, the largest collaborative online radiology resource.

Read our interview with Frank here.

Session details: Associate Professor Frank Gaillard will be presenting in the MI Innovation session on Saturday 23 April from 1030-1115. 

Amanda Bolderston RTT, MSc, FCAMRT is a radiation therapist, researcher and educator.

Her current role is the Provincial Professional Practice and Academic Leader at the British Columbia Cancer Agency in Canada. She trained and worked in the UK then worked in Holland and Ontario in a variety of clinical, educational and leadership positions. She is the Associate Editor for Qualitative Research for the Canadian Journal of Medical Imaging and Radiological Sciences, and publishes and presents regularly. She has been involved in developing advanced practice (AP) roles for radiation therapists in Canada for over ten years and is working on a national certification process for AP with the Canadian Association of Medical Radiation Technologists (CAMRT). Amanda became a Fellow of the CAMRT in 2006 and is the Immediate Past President.

Amanda is a keen tweeter (@AmandaBoldersto) and one of the founders of #MedRadJClub - the monthly online journal club for medical radiation science professionals. She is currently working on a doctorate in education at the University of British Columbia. Her research examines how sexual identity shapes radiation therapy professional relationships. Amanda’s talk discusses working with gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered patients and how radiographers can provide care to this marginalised population in a culturally competent way.

Read our interview with Amanda here.

Session details: Amanda Bolderston will be presenting in MI & RT Quality session on Friday22 April from 1600-1630. 

Denise is a founder IAFR member and  has served on the IAFR committee since 2005. She qualified as a radiographer in New Zealand in 1995 and  completed a Pg Cert in Forensic Radiography at Teesside University. Recently returned to Australia after 13 years in Europe, Denise is currently an endovascular graft planner with Cook Medical. Her experience in forensic radiography encompasses postmortem radiography/angiography, drug trafficking investigations, emergency mortuaries, non accidental injury, mass fatality preparedness planning and the London bombings.

Session details: Denise Elliott will be presenting in the MI Challenges of Today session on Saturday 23 April from 0830-0900. 

Lindsay Batty-Smith PgDip

Team Member International Association of Forensic Radiographers

IAFR is an association of professionals involved in, or with an interest in, the provision of medical imaging in support of forensic investigations. Lindsay was a committee member of the IAFR for over 5 years and has been a team member for over 10 years. When in the UK she has regularly been part of the provision and facilitation of training and education in the radiographic forensic field.

Her radiographic background specialising in Trauma, Emergency, Orthopaedic, Paediatric, NAI and dental radiography in the acute setting at Kings College Hospital London has well placed her for the undertaking of forensic tasks. She has extensive experience of forensic examinations in NHS settings as well as coordinating major incident procedures. She is EMERGO trained.

She has been part of the DVI team for Operation Bracknell (Tsunami) and Operation Theseus (London bombings) providing radiographic support.  She gained invaluable experience of working in the intense multi disciplinary environment to enable victim identification. Lindsay has been involved with a NEMA (National Emergency Mortuary Arrangements) exercise and Operation Actorioni, an exercise with the Met Police at Fulham Mortuary.

She is also an area team member for the UKFRRT (United Kingdom Forensic Radiography Response Team).

Having moved to Auckland in 2014 Lindsay is keen to make the work of IAFR known to our Antipodean colleagues.

Session details: Lindsay Batty-Smith will be presenting in MI Challenges of Today session on Saturday 23 April from 0830-0900. 

Dr Jane Turner MBBS, PhD, FRANZCP is a consultation-liaison psychiatrist who has worked for 25 years in Oncology. She has been extensively involved in the development of clinical practice guidelines, including psychosocial clinical practice guidelines, and has experience in communication skills training for health professionals from a range of clinical disciplines. She is currently engaged in research evaluating a structured intervention for fear of cancer recurrence in women with breast cancer, and is leading a trial of a nurse-delivered survivorship intervention for patients who have completed treatment for head and neck cancer. She has previously developed and evaluated an educational intervention which enhanced the knowledge and skills of oncology nurses to provide information and support for parents with advanced cancer about talking with their children.

Session details: Dr Jane Turner will be presenting in the MI & RT Breast cancer session Friday 22 April from 1130-1200. 

Dr Paula Sivyer (MBBS. FRANZCR.) graduated medicine from the University of Queensland in 1976, going on initially to work in general practice. She took a training place with Royal Australian & New Zealand College of Radiologists and completed her Fellowship in 1993. She established the first specialised women’s imaging service in Brisbane while working for Queensland X‐Ray at Sunnybank and trained a team of specialist sonographers and radiographers in comprehensive breast imaging and intervention. In 1998, Dr Sivyer established Diagnostic Imaging for Women, now difw, the first standalone specialised private women’s imaging and intervention practice in Brisbane. Imaging services expanded to include CT, plain x‐ray and bone densitometry in the following years. Following over 10 years success at difw Astor Tce, she opened a satellite unit at the St Andrew’s War Memorial Hospital in Spring Hill, for all aspects of breast imaging including: initial assessment, workup, medicolegal and second opinions, pre‐surgical localisation and specimen imaging.

Dr Sivyer’s passion for imaging excellence is matched by her commitment to learning as her specialty advances. She has been responsible for bringing numerous technologies and techniques to Australia, including digital mammography (Astor Tce – 2007 – first in Australia), 10 year comparatordigital imaging archive (Astor Tce – 2004 – first in Australia), CT salpingography for tubal patency assessment (Astor Tce – 2011 – first in Australia) and 3D mammography (Hologic Dimensions‘Genius’), which debuted in Australia at the St Andrew’s practice in 2010. Dr Sivyer has three children, two dogs and a passion for cooking when she has a spare weekend. She has diagnosed more <1cm invasive breast cancers than she likes to think about, but is thankful that so many of her long‐term breast imaging patients have had such good outcomes. She enjoys telling all her patients that she intends to grow very old with them.

Session details: Dr Paula Sivyer will be presenting in the MI & RT Breast Cancer session on Friday 22 April from 1100-1130. 

Dr Thomas Lloyd - Staff Specialist Radiologist, Princess Alexandra Hospital. VMO Radiologist Breastscreen Queensland – Nominated Radiologist for BSQ Toowoomba Service.

Areas of interest include Breast, MSK, Body Imaging. Active in teaching and research.

Research interests include:

Investigation of DWI in treatment response for bone and soft tissue tumours.

Recipient Princess Alexandra Hospital (PAH) Research Foundation Breast Cancer Project Grant and
Translational Research Institute (TRI) Spore Grant investigating aspects of breast disease.

Session details: Dr Thomas Lloyd will be presenting in the MI & RT Breast cancer session on Friday 22 April from 1200-1230.  

Janet Hope, RN, Grad Dip Health Education, Cert IV Training & Assessment, is director of the Australasian Bariatric Innovations Group, AusBIG. Previously, she managed a Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism Unit in a large hospital, where she was inspired to make changes regarding the physical management of the obese and set up AusBIG in 2003. Janet is committed to addressing the challenges and discrimination around the care of the obese in all health sectors.

Session details: Janet Hope will be presenting in the MI Patient Care session on Saturday 23 April from 1545-1630. 

Associate Professor Georgia Halkett is based at Curtin University. The main areas of her research have been RT/ROMP workforce, patient and carer psychosocial support and education, palliative care, radiation proctitis and role of GPs.  She has also supervised a number of AIR members performing research for higher degrees.  Georgia will be further developing the topic and discussing the role that Australian university staff can take in the promotion of clinical research, the support mechanisms available for clinical staff performing research towards higher degrees.

Session details: Associate Professor Georgia Halkett will be presenting in the Fellowship session: Growing a Research Culture in MRS on Sunday 24 April from 1130-1200. 

Dr Robin Hart - Rob qualified as a radiographer from Curtin University of Technology in 1995.  After five years' experience at Royal Perth Hospital he completed doctoral studies at the University of Western Australia.  Following a year of postdoctoral training at the University of Dundee in Scotland, he returned to Australia where he has held several academic, research and commercial positions.  Rob is an advisor to the Medical Informatics and Health Care Systems branch of NASA’s Johnson Space Centre in Houston, as well as supporting medical imaging capabilities for the Australian Antarctic Division.  He co-ordinates the angiographic and interventional radiology services at Royal Perth Hospital and holds Clinical Associate Professorships at Monash University, Edith Cowan University and the University of Western Australia. He is the WA director on the Board of the Australian Institute of Radiography; in his spare time he builds and flies aircraft and has a particular passion for aerobatics.

Session details: Dr Robin Hart will be presenting in the MI Angiography/Interventional session on Saturday 23 April from 1530-1545.

Dominic Kennedy was involved in a bike accident in September 2013 from which he received a reasonably serious head injury. This talk outlines the accident and how he has recovered since. Prognostically the initial diagnosis was poor. He has imaged himself at various intervals to see  the changes in his brain and to see what this means in terms of his recovery.

Session details: Dominic Kennedy will be presenting in the My story as a patient: 2nd chance session on Sunday 24 April from 1100-1145. 

Captain Sarah Patterson is a radiographer and sonographer in the Australian Regular Army based at Gallipoli Barracks in Brisbane. Captain Patterson has been in the Army since 2011 and has recently returned from an operational deployment with the ANZAC Role 2 Hospital in Iraq.

Session details: Captain Sarah Patterson will be presenting in the Honouring our ANZACS - military experiences for MI and RT session on Sunday 24 April from 1400-1430. 

Major Hall, has served 24 years in the New Zealand Defence Force in various health roles. During his career, he has been deployed numerous times to areas of conflict and or war.

Session details: Major Hall will be presenting in the Honouring our ANZACS - military experiences for MI and RT session on Sunday 24 April from 1330-1400.