Staff

Director

  • Professor Elizabeth Elliott

    Professor Elizabeth Elliott

    AM, MBBS, MD, FRACP, FRCPCH, FRCP

    Professor in the Discipline of Paediatrics and Child Health at the University of Sydney and a consultant paediatrician at The Children's Hospital at Westmead. Professor Elliott founded the APSU in 1993 and has been the Director of the Unit since then. Awarded Member of the Order of Australia in June 2008 for academic services to paediatrics and child health, research, education and the establishment of the Australian Paediatric Surveillance Unit.

Assistant Director

  • Dr Yvonne Zurynski

    Dr Yvonne Zurynski

    BAppSc, MAppSc, PhD

    Dr Yvonne Zurynski is the Assistant Director of the APSU and takes on the responsibility of the day to day management of the APSU. Dr Zurynski is also involved in the assessment and development of new studies in the APSU and in developing strategic links for the APSU. She has approximately 15 years experience in medical research, both as a researcher and research manager. Her experience has encompassed different fields of research ranging from trauma and neurology to primary health and public health research.

Office Coordinator

  • Karen Pattinson

    Karen Pattinson

    Karen Pattinson supports the APSU Assistant Director and Director. Karen assists with content updates on the APSU database, which has over 1300 active members. Karen is also responsible for the mailing out of the APSU yellow report cards through post and email services, tracking of the APSU financial budgets, as well as other administrative tasks.

Administrative Officer

  • Ingrid Charters

    Ingrid Charters

    Ingrid Charters supports the APSU Office Coordinator in the running of the APSU. Ingrid assists with content updates on the APSU database,which has over 1300 active members,as well as other key administrative tasks.

Data Manager

  • Nicole McKay

    Nicole McKay

    B Sc, BAppSc (HIM)

    Nicole McKay is responsible for the day-to-day maintenance of the APSU national database, updating website content and is actively involved in developing databases for specific surveillance studies undertaken by the APSU. A key responsibility is to liaise with over 1300 paediatricians throughout Australia who contribute to the database, to liaise with surveillance study investigators and to ensure all study materials are up to date.

Publications Project Officer

  • Sarah Srikanthan

    Sarah Srikanthan

    B AppSc, PGDipHealMgt

    Sarah is the publications project officer. Originally employed to research and write the APSU's 15 Year Celebratory publication, her role of late has been varied. Currently she is looking at ICD coding for APSU conditions under study and is assisting the database manager on updating content on the website.

Research Fellow

  • Dr David Lester-Smith

    Dr David Lester-Smith

    BMedSci (Hons), BM BS, DCH, MRCP (UK), MRCPCH (UK), FRACP, MPH.

    Dr David Lester-Smith is a part-time locum staff specialist in General Medicine and Academic Medical Fellow in the Discipline of Paediatrics and Child Health at the Children's Hospital at Westmead (CHW), through which he works part-time as a research fellow for the APSU. His recent work has included an audit of influenza admissions to CHW, influenza complications notified to APSU during 2007 and an update of the National Perinatal Surveillance Unit newborn anomaly definitions.

  • Dr Greta Ridley

    Ph D, BSc (Hons.)

    Greta joined the APSU to manage the production of the APSU Biannual Research Report. Her direct duties include: editing of APSU study investigator reports, calculation of incidence rates, data analysis of APSU performance indicators, compilation of APSU publications and formatting and editing of the final document.

Research Officer

  • Dr Elizabeth Peadon

    Dr Elizabeth Peadon

    MBBS MPH FRACP

    Elizabeth Peadon is a NHMRC PhD scholar working on projects relating to Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.

Research Assistant

  • Nicola Benwell

    MBBS, PhD, BSc (Neuroscience)

    Nicola Benwell is assisting Professor Elizabeth Elliott on various Fetal Alcohol Syndrome projects

Trial Coordinator

  • Leanne Vidler

    RN, DipAppSc (Nursing), Paeds. Cert.

    Leanne joined the APSU in July as the new coordinator for the Paediatric Active Enhanced Diseases Surveillance Pilot study for the Australian Paediatric Surveillance Unit and the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance of Vaccine preventable Diseases. Leanne has over 20 years experience in paediatric nursing in a variety of positions both in Australia and overseas. Her responsibilities include identifying and recruiting patients into the study at a local level as well as coordinating the study in the other major paediatric hospitals in Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne.