Dr Jeff Ayton GP : MBBS MPH&TM FACRRM FRACGP FACTM AFFTM DRANZCOG DA (UK) Jeff served as ACRRM President from 2009-2011 and is the Chair of ACRRM’s national Telehealth Advisory Committee. He holds board membership for General Practice Training Tasmania and is the Australian delegate to Scientific Committee of Antarctic Research Life Sciences Scientific Group. He commenced with the Australian Antarctic Division as Chief Medical Officer in 2002 with responsibility for the Australian Antarctic Program medical support and human biology and medicine research. In 1992, Jeff wintered at Casey Station, Antarctica, as a remote area general practitioner. He has subsequently gained varied experience in other rural and remote medical practices as a procedural general practitioner obstetrician and anaesthetist including Lorne Victoria, Norfolk Island, and remote mine sites in Papua New Guinea.

Dr Dale Ford, General Practitioner - MBBS FRACGP FACRRM. Dr Ford has had many other roles which have led to him being able to influence policy and advocate for the needs of rural patients and doctors. Currently these include - Being a Principal Clinical Advisor for the Improvement Foundation Australia. This has been called the Australian Primary Care Collaboratives (APCC). Previously Chair of Southern GP Training (regional GP training provider). On the Board of Great South Coast Medicare Local. He has many other roles in Health Quality Improvement and has a number of peer reviewed journal articles published, and has presented on Quality Improvement in Health throughout Australia and overseas Designated Aviation Medical Examiner.

Dr Anthony Lembke, General Practitioner, MBBS, FACRRM, FRACGP, Dip RANZCOG, FAICD. Tony is a Clinical Advisor and Chair of Faculty for the Improvement Foundation and Clinical Director of the Australian Primary Care Collaborative Program. This is a national program that has improved health outcomes by facilitating proactive and systematic care in general practice, and by increasing accessibility to primary care services. He is also executive director of the Australian Centre for the Medical Home and the Person Centred Care Collaboration.

Dr Anthony Lembke, General Practitioner, MBBS, FACRRM, FRACGP, Dip RANZCOG, FAICD. Tony is a Clinical Advisor and Chair of Faculty for the Improvement Foundation and Clinical Director of the Australian Primary Care Collaborative Program. This is a national program that has improved health outcomes by facilitating proactive and systematic care in general practice, and by increasing accessibility to primary care services. He is also executive director of the Australian Centre for the Medical Home and the Person Centred Care Collaboration.

Professor Dennis Pashen joined the Queenstown General Practice in 2015 with 40 years’ experience working within rural and remote practice. This has included procedural practice in Ingham, the North Queensland Clinical School of the University of Queensland, Foundation Director of the Mt Isa Centre for Rural and Remote Health, Director of Medical Services in South Burnett and Rural Darling Downs Health and Hospital Services with responsibility for 18 rural hospitals. In 2014 Dennis moved to Southern Tasmania and spent the year providing Locum services throughout Australia in emergency medicine, obstetrics and general practice. Dennis is a former President of the ACRRM and currently Past President of RDAA and RDAT. He sits on the Assessment Committee and Board of Examiners and was the Chair of the Post Fellowship Committee of ACRRM. In the past he has been the College Censor of ACRRM, and an Examiner on a number of their Assessment Panels. He has been a Medical Educator and Supervisor since 1979. From 1997-2010 he was Director of the Mt Isa Centre for Rural and Remote Health, James Cook University. He currently supervises and teaches GP Registrars in the Remote Vocational Training Program and was a founding Board Member of that organisation. Dennis is passionate about rural and remove health services across Australia and has been active in working towards improving access to health care for rural communities.

Associate Professor Chris Pearce has been active in health informatics for many years. A practicing clinician, he still works in general practice, anaesthetics and emergency medicine in suburban Melbourne. His interest in Health Informatics developed when working as a rural GP, and observed the difficulties in GPs integrating computers into their workflow in the 1990’s. A/Prof Pearce has extensively researched computers in healthcare, with a focus on the interactions and useability. He was awarded a PhD in 2007 with what was then the largest video based study of computer use in primary care consultations. He is an invited speaker both here and overseas, and the author of over 60 academic articles. He was the clinical design lead for the MyHR, Australia’s national shared health record. As co-sponsor of the MAGNET database, his role as director of research with Outcome Health is to work with Monash university on data quality and use of Australia’s largest repository of general practice data. He is a current president of the Australasian College of Health Informatics, chairs the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine’s digital health committee and has served on many federal and state government advisory committees.