The School of Nursing and Midwifery congratulates Dr Vanessa McDonald who has been awarded the best COPD oral presentation at the prestigious 2012 Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand (TSANZ) annual conference.

Vanessa received this award in addition to the highly regarded TSANZ Doctor Janet Elder International Travel Grant, to the value of $2,500 to attend an international conference of her choice. This was awarded on the basis of scientific merit for her abstract titled "The Longitudinal Determinants Of Decline In Obstructive Airways Disease" submitted to the 2012 annual scientific meeting.

Vanessa's presentation "The Longitudinal Determinants Of Decline In Obstructive Airways Disease" builds on her research programme in respiratory medicine that focuses on the management of obstructive airway diseases including asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and cystic fibrosis (CF).

Doctor Vanessa McDonald is a senior lecturer in the School of Nursing and Midwifery and holds a Conjoint Senior Lecturer appointment in the School of Medicine and Public Health. She is a practicing clinician as a respiratory clinical nurse consultant in the Department of Respiratory and Sleep Medicine at John Hunter Hospital. Vanessa is a post doctoral researcher in the HMRI's VIVA programme and the Priority Research Centre for Asthma and Respiratory Disease.