CENTRE FOR HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH
Staff
Professor George Rubin, Director
MBBS, FRACP, FAFPHM, FACE, FACPM
George Rubin has extensive experience in epidemiologic and clinical research, public health policy and practice and health system surveillance
After training in internal medicine, he worked for nine years at the United States Centres for Disease Control, where he conducted epidemiological research. George then worked for 2 years with the Ford Foundation in Bangladesh in maternal and child health service and research development before returning to Australia in late 1988.
As Director of Epidemiology and then Chief Health Officer of the NSW Health Department, he led clinical policy, disease prevention, health promotion, mental health and research and development efforts. He was instrumental in establishing the NSW public health infrastructure, development and training program and the NSW Health Outcomes Program, designed to involve health providers and consumers to set health objectives, implement best health care practices and evaluate results.
Professor Rubin now heads the newly established Australian Institute for Effective Healthcare , an organisation dedicated to the dissemination of information and the implementation of best practice health services. In 1998 he was appointed as Professor of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of Sydney at Westmead. The department there is charged with identifying and implementing effective health service models in Sydney's west.
He serves on the NHMRC Health Advisory Committee and is Chair of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation.
Email: grubin@med.usyd.med.edu.au
Mr Bill Schofield, Deputy Director
W. N. (Bill) Schofield is a developmental psychologist and biostatistician who worked from 1982 to 1996 at the Cambridge University Department of Experimental Psychology. While in Cambridge he was also consultant statistician for the Neuroscience Research Laboratories of the international drug company Merck, Sharp and Dohme. Prior to that he was a Research Fellow at the Open University where he reviewed the research literature and advised the United Kingdom Department of Education and Science on methods of assessing personal and social development. Earlier he was a founder member of the University of London's Thomas Coram Research Unit, a Social Science Research Council Centre of Excellence for health and services policy research.
He has authored and co-authored many publications reporting research on physical and mental growth, morbidity and malnutrition and has worked on Dutch Government projects in Jamaica and elsewhere. He is author of the WHO/FAO/ United Nations University equations for the prediction of basal metabolic rate used by hospitals and health agencies worldwide. He has taught statistics; biometrics; epidemiology; research methodology; cognitive psychology; developmental psychology. His most recent publications were for the NSW Cancer Council and the NSW Health Department (student drug use) and he continues to collaborate in neuroscience publications.
Mr Gamini Weerakkody, IT Manager
B.Sc, GradDipComp, M.Comp(IT) MACS
Gamini Weerakkody is the I.T. Manager of the Department of Public Health & Community Medicine at Westmead. He administers the IT infrastructure of the department, including a NetWare Ethernet LAN, Software support, User support and IT related business functions. He has worked in the IT industry over 15 years. He has received a postgraduate training in Systems Engineering under the Japanese government scholarship programme in Tokyo. He has worked as a systems engineer (manufacturing & production control) in large scale mainframe environmemts at Teitsu/NEC Engineering Company in Tokyo, Japan. H e is a Certified NetWare Engineer(CNE) and a Member of Australian Computer Society(MACS).
His areas of interest include: Computer Supported Collaborative Work(CSCW) in healthcare, Quality of Service(QoS) improvement, Cooperative Network Management Methodologies
Administrative Staff
Ms Lorna Thomas, Administration Officer
Lorna Thomas is a key administrator working with research staff and managing university teaching schedules and timetables. She liases with both students and tutors. She co-ordinates Epinet Seminars and Journal club. Her 15 years experience in the department has prepared her for solving problems big and small.
Email: lorna@cmed.wsahs.nsw.gov.au
