Associate Professor Amanda Dawson

Professor Dawson, Clinical Dean, CCCS (Central Coast Clinical School, was appointed the inaugural CCCS Surgery Clinical Academic (2004) with a joint fractional appointment to UON and CCLHD. She achieved tenure (2008), CCCS Clinical Dean (2017) and Associate Professor (2019). Amanda is the JMP/SMPH lead for CCCS, which is located in the CCLHD Health and Wellness Precinct, indicative of the partnership between CCLHD and UON, both vitally pivotal to the health and employment of the Central Coast as evidenced by the recent $368 million CCLHD and $72.5 million CCCS upgrades, both equipped with state of the art technology. Officially opened in 2022 by the Honourable Scott Morrison, Prime Minister. CCCS is the JMP key regional site for the MD degree, responsible for 30% of year3-5 medical student clinical placements and more recently 20% of year 1-2 medical students, with doubled student numbers (2018-21) and additional years of the JMP commenced at CCCS - year 3 (2019), year 1(2021) and year 2 (2022). The innovative CCCS is the only JMP clinical site with year 1 and 2 medical students. Medical student clinical placements typically vary from 2-12 weeks. Additional schools of Nursing, Midwifery and Biomedical Sciences also commenced from 2021. CCCS is therefore pivotal to both SMPH and CHMW and the Central Coast future.

An experienced General Surgeon of 23 years standing she completed a four year post-graduate fellowship in upper-gastrointestinal, hepatobiliary, and advanced laparoscopy with dual masters degrees in surgical research (MS UNSW) and epidemiology (Mmed University of Sydney). She contributes to the 25,000 CCLHD operations/year, a clinical load that is increasing due to a rapidly growing community (360,000). CCLHD Emergency Department, third busiest in NSW, has >120,000 admissions/year. As a highly skilled surgeon, she maintains key clinical surgical responsibilities, benchmarked internationally in the top quartile of surgical performance for high quality patient outcomes (American College Surgeons NSQIP). She provided extra service for the NSW Elective Surgery Covid Recovery Plan contributing to the 2000 extra CCLHD operations. Esteemed by her peers, she was elected CCLHD Senior Medical Council Chair and CCLHD Board representative for her proven track record of delivering high quality patient focused care in a complex mix of clinical scenarios and leading multi-disciplinary teams in the busy and ever-challenging surgical environment and demonstrated success in providing solutions and making decisions under pressure. This wealth of experience in healthcare leadership roles and implementing innovative solutions to improve operational efficiency in clinical healthcare delivery has led to further roles with NSW Ministry of Health, and AMC developing policies and protocols and professional frameworks and ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements that foster improved patient outcomes.

ENGAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP

• 2022 University of Newcastle Leadership Excellence Award

• 2021 Inaugural Women in Surgery Leadership Award and Medal - RACS and NSW Government)

Key Leadership Roles:

• Clinical Dean Central Coast Clinical School (CCCS)

• Academic Senate UON - Elected Academic staff member from CHMW board

• Founder and Academic Lead - Near Peer Medical Teaching Central Coast (NPMT)

• Founder and Academic Lead - Surgical Trainee Organisation for Research Central Coast Collaborative (STORCC)

• Chair, Surgical Clinical Scenario Group and the Lead Surgery Examiner, Australian Medical Council

• AMC (Prevocational Standards Committee and the Australasian Specialist College Review Panel )

• National Lead Australia; International Advisory Board University of Birmingham UK - GECKO Trial Collaborative

• National Lead Australia, HIPPO Trial Collaborative

• National Lead Australia, APOLLO Trial Collaborative, Trials and Audits by Medical Students in ANZ (TASMAN)

• National Media Lead Australia, COVIDSURG Week Collaborative

• Prevocational Lead Australia, Clinical Trials Australia and New Zealand (CTANZ)

• Immediate past Chair, Critical Literature Evaluation and Research, Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS)

• Immediate past Chair CCLHD Medical Staff Council and CCLHD board Senior Medical Staff representative

• RACS Skills Education Committee (course accreditation and governance

Professor Dawson has a strong commitment to the quality of the pre-vocational phase of the medical education continuum. Her leadership roles nationally and internationally in medical education and research are examples of her capacity to work collaboratively towards targets, deliver outcomes effectively including making significant contribution to governance and  policy. Her leadership role locally has involved the responsive and thoughtful management of a team of academic and professional staff. In this capacity she has demonstrated an ability to inspire others and build a robust connection with the University’s aspirations. Amanda’s sustained and exceptional performance in leadership were acknowledged by her 2022 leadership awards. Recognised and celebrated as an inspirational leader who contributes to the success of the University of Newcastle, and models excellence in the leadership behaviours identified in the University of Newcastle’s Leadership Framework she was awarded the prestigious 2022 UON Leadership Excellence award, the peak UON leadership award which is  evidence of her performance above the expected level of the best staff at level E. As stated in the 2022 UON Annual Report she also received the Inaugural Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and NSW Government Women in Surgery Leadership award in acknowledgement of her sustained and effective contributions to the AMC, RACS, CCLHD and UON, with over 10 years of experience in senior education leadership roles (assessment, accreditation, research, policy development, curriculum design) impacting medical education across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. The award was established to recognise and honor female surgeons who have demonstrated leadership in the field of surgery.

This portfolio articulates her key achievements aligning with the engagement priorities of the UON strategic plan (2020-25) and tabulates her key engagement activities.

Work Ready Graduates/ Local Ambassadors/Global Citizens - AIMS, NPMT, STORCC

Amanda has a particular talent of logistic and strategic delivery of work ready graduates from CCCS. A consistently high levelof satisfaction is reported via UON end of placement surveys (please refer to CV). Impact is demonstrated by >40% of CCCS students who are employed by CCLHD as first year medical graduates. Her ability to adapt to change was evidenced by the operationalisation of the AIMS program, a novel work integrated learning initiatives which preserved clinical placement capacity during the COVID-19 pandemic. CCCS is the only JMP site to achieve100% medical student enrolment in the AIMS program which has run sustainably for 4 years (>2020). The AIMS program employs final year medical students as paid pre-interns as a COVID-19 surge workforce. Of the NSW sites which adopted the program, CCCS successfully lobbied for more positions than other JMP sites combined. CCCS students found the experience to be invaluable as published in the peak - Medical Journal of Australia. This was evidenced by 2021 Health Education and Training intern preference data where only students who choose CCLHD as their first preference received an intern placement. Pivotal to delivering an outstanding student experience and promoting an academic pathway on the Central Coast are the innovative NPMT, STORCC and experiential interprofessional field experiences as outlined in the education and research sections of the portfolio. The contributions of both STORCC and NPMT to benefit UON were both recognised by UON awardsin 2022 - Clinical Leadership and Engagement Award (STORCC) and the Teaching Excellence Award (NPMT). Past studentsmhave progressed as NPMT leaders, Education HDR candidates and paid academic positions with UON with founders now progressing to fellowship positions and medical education HDR.

Reimagining our Campuses
Infrastructure and capacity. In her capacity as Clinical Dean she is responsible for the managing CCCS staff, teaching facilities and infrastructure and the delivery of student centred JMP program on the Central Coast. As past Chair CCLHD Medical Staff Council and CCLHD Board member, she enabled important links between key players at the CCLHD and the University, with a resulting upgrade of CCLHD conference facilities, increased clinical placements which ensured adequate positions for the overlap period between the Bmed and MD degrees and the COVID-19 pandemic, sustainably doubled placement capacity and expanded staffing levels, together with establishing new student placement hospitals which also involved negotiating additional specialist placements in private hospitals eg neurosurgery (unavailable in the public sector)which sustainably  expanded capacity, in line with UON strategic directions Community Engagement and Equity As a first in school doctor she is committed to equity of educational access. As Clinical Dean she strengthened our local community linkages which have raised the CCCS profile with an engagement strategy featured on the UON JMP admissions webpage. This has included the production of a CCCS orientation video (2018), Ourimbah (>2019) and CCCS (>2023) open day experiences and prospective student seminars for both high school students (>2017) and year 2 medical students (>2020). The seminars pivoted online with the pandemic which expanded the reach for prospective JMP students - 2018 in person (180 attendees) versus online 2021 (435 attendees) and 2023 (384 attendees). This is more than twice the number of first year JMP enrolments. Further engaging with high school students at pivotal decision times in their learning journey she is an invited speaker at careers events such as Breakfast with a Scientist and supports the UNI STEPS portfolio where her NPMT ran a CPR simulation session with chocolate heart prizes. Media engagement is another key community linkage strategy with frequent local newspaper, radio and TV presentations by the CCCS Team. Originally employed by the Photomation Advertising Company she was appointed the National Media lead for the GECKO trial and was interviewed by the Australian Financial Review and the ABC Radio Drive program. Indigenous Health and Education Strongly committed to “closing the gap” she has established opportunities in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health including The Glen placements and a student-led clinic in NAIDOC week. Working together with respected UON elder Aunty Bronwyn and CCCS academic Darren Nolan she has created an authentic welcome to country immersive cultural experiences where we explore bush tucker, natural medicines and visits with Community Elders to sites of cultural significance. This ensured CCCS was the preferred site for Miroma Bunbilla graduates in 2023.

Environmental Sustainability

She initiated the Central Coast Carbon Busters as part of the UON Green Impact - sustainability change and engagement program. This led to national leadership roles evaluating the reduction of the global environmental impact of surgery in the HIPPO (2022) and GECKO (2023) research projects and a British Journal of Surgery (2023). Digital Literacy Data collection for her large scale cohort studies and the NPMT website corporate knowledge retention philosophy (Free open access medical education) increases the digital health literacy of the CCCS medical students and junior doctors. Due to her strategy of scaffolding digital health capability development with this focus on self-directed, workplace learning, she was appointed on the Digital Health Capabilities for the Medical Workforce Group a joint industry body with the AMC and the ADHA Agency which subsequently developed the national Digital Health Framework for implementation into the national education curriculum for all Australian health care students, which aligns with the National Digital Workforce and Education Roadmap (2020).

Asia Pacific Focus and Global Impact

Her engagement nationally and internationally demonstrates significant leadership and service to academic surgery with representation of UON at peak medical education and research organisations particularly the AMC and RACS as outlined in her leadership statement and further expanded in the research and education sections of the portfolio. As RACS CLEAR Research Committee Past Chair ($1 million annual budget), a compulsory epidemiology training course for trainee surgeons in Australia and New Zealand, she redesigned the curriculum and subsequently provided opportunities for trainees to apply epidemiological theory in her active support of collaborative clinical trial networks which train and mentor the next research generation. An esteemed innovator, her trainee led initiatives have changed the paradigm for a global collaborative approach to research as they promote a culture of trial design, conduct, governance and leadership at a formative stage of surgical training and mentors the next generation of surgical researchers. She established the first Australian collaborative in 2015, STORCC which now has 150 local members, and she co-founded the CTANZ an international network providing support for Trainee-Led Networks and Trials in Australasia. Internationally recognised she has subsequently been invited as the national lead for the HIPPO, APOLLO and GECKO trials and she has established over 70 hospital sites in all states and territories of Australia. In 2023 she was appointed a member of the Advisory Board for the NIHR Globalsurgery Unit at the University of Birmingham and is an Academic Lead for TASMAN (Trials and Audits by ANZ Medical Students)

Inspiring People

Amanda mentors her academic team to maximise their leadership and academic potential as demonstrated by their roles in UON governance ( JMP leadership, CHMW Board and Academic Senate). Her team represents 100% of the SMPH elected academicson the UON Academic Senate and 3/27 all elected academic senate members. Further evidenced by the UON, CHMW andSMPH awards achieved by all of her team members in 2022. This instrumental skill as an enabler exemplifies hertransformational / team-focused leadership style.

As a positive female surgical role model, this focus on collaborative, collegial interactions is driving a culture change asdemonstrated by established track record of fostering equity and diversity - in Gosford 42% of general surgeons are women(national average 21.8%), this influence is further evidenced by the gender distribution of non surgical specialists at CCLHD, which s well below the national average. She is a surgical mentor for the RACS trainees and Australasian Surgical Students Society with keynote speaker invitations at their Annual Leadership Conference, Pre-intern conference and Women in Surgery events. She is a fellow of the RACS Women in Surgery Section. She was featured in the book – Celebrating Medical Women In NSW published by the AMA in 2022 for her work in challenging others to make gender equity a priority.

TEACHING AND LEARNING

• 2023 Skills Education Scholarship RACS

• 2022 Early Career Teaching CHMW Excellence Award, NPMT Chair David Medvecsky

• 2019 Skills Education Scholarship RACS and 2018 Educator of Merit of the Year Medal RACS

Education Career Highlights:

• Academic Lead and cofounder Near Peer Medical Teaching Central Coast (NPMT) (https://www.npmteaching.com/)

• 5 Education publications, 2 in press (NPMT systematic review)

• 10 years International Education Conference presentations

• Education research funding $223,854

• Co-Editor Medical Education Textbook: (Australian Medicine in Context: Key presentations) in press

• 1 Reports (inter professional Learning)

• 3 National Medical Education Curriculum Frameworks - Digital Health; Prevocational Training

• Education Governance: CHMW Board, UON Academic Senate, AMC (Assessment Committee, Prevocational Training

Accreditaion, Medical Specialist College Review Group) RACS (SEC)

• Australia Medical Council - lead roles assessment and accreditation of providers of prevocational and specialist doctors

• Royal Australasian College of Surgeons - senior instructor CLEAR, ASSET courses; Chair CLEAR

• National Assessment Research Groups - WBARG, CERG, $60,000 Examiner Decision making project

• Curriculum Design: Year 3 MD JMP, CLEAR course RACS

• Member Academy Surgical Educators, Academy for Collaborative Health Interprofessional Education and Vibrant

A distinguished surgical scholar recognised by the AMC as the lead examiner in surgery, Professor Dawson holds significant positions of leadership in education, including clinical teaching, the CHMW board and the UON academic senate.  She is actively involved in developing educational policy and curriculum areas across all area of medicine as evidenced by her position of co-editor of the textbook, Australian Medicine in Context (in press), and the development of international medical education policy frameworks in digital health and pre-vocational training (2021-22). However she considers her major achievement to be the further development of her near peer and experiential learning programs. The program continues to expand with a committee of 12 prevocational chairs across the different medical disciplines. Recognised by RACS, she awarded the 2022 education scholarship to present her work at the International Skills conference in Italy (2023) and the RACS inaugural Education Sharktank (2023). The JMP education pathway supervision is expanding NPMT across the JMP footprint and and a new Interprofessional NPMT chair will join following the success of the simulated bus crash field exercise (2023).
An active lifelong learner, Amanda was attracted to the University of Newcastle by the student-centred education exemplified by problem based learning. As a facilitator of this learning process she gained valuable insights into harnessing the group intellect and developed real world experiences to enhance their stimulation of life long learning and to enhance students existing conceptual knowledge frameworks. This enriched teacher-student relationship has fostered ongoing mentorships. Application of this educational pedagogy enabled the foundation of her many innovative education programs as presented at key medical education conferences (AMEE, ANZHAPE, ANZ Prevocational Medical Education Forum) and her work was featured at the Inaugural RACS Shark Tank (2023) and publications in key medical education journals (Clinical Teacher). Key factors of inclusion, motivation, quality assurance and innovation are of paramount importance for an effective education pedagogy and Amanda’s education philosophy. Amanda’s enthusiasm for innovation in workplace based healthcare education is demonstrated by her key academic achievements including the development and ongoing facilitation as academic lead of the Central Coast NPMT and STORCC. Such work helps to create a local and sustainable academic pathway for medical students and junior doctors based on the principles of entrepreneurial pedagogy. The collaborative and experiential focus provides unique opportunities for strengthening education participation and leadership skills with high impact outcomes and has established a local academic career development pathway providing equitable access to academic opportunity, It has clearly inspired and empowered participants, with previous students undertaking lead positions in NPMT as junior doctors and then completing MD education research projects and higher degrees in medical education. NPMT has increased local educational capacity. The program has an enviable track record of gender, ethnicity and training level equity and diversity and was invited to present at the recent RASC ASC sharktank celebrating inclusivity in surgical education. The program has been successful in providing students with readily-accessible clinical education sessions in the forms of tutorials, bedside and skills teaching; and has also provided inclusive teaching opportunities for junior doctors in various stages of their training. It provides educators with a variety of opportunities in teaching skills, curriculum development and leadership; which has also been successful in fulfilling college training requirements. The program’s positive benefit on medical education is reflected by its accolades, having been awarded the UON Teaching Excellence Award in 2017 and 2022 and has influenced ongoing research in the medical education space. Tutor engagement consistently exceeds 50% of local JMOs workforce, with many programs being over-subscribed for tutors, and with motivated junior doctors at the helm, NPMT has grown to include a committee of 14 leadership positions. Recognised for these innovations in workplace based education she was invited to join the national education research group WBARG. Experiential education is embedded within clinical medicine with work place based immersion as exemplified by the Assistants in Medicine Program. Extending this concept to active student centred education, Amanda developed the BEACCHES and BRANCHES programs to foster team work and wellbeing and promote the positive aspects of the hidden curriculum for her students by improving social connectedness and subsequently motivated her team to further develop these concepts with the Welcome to Country (D Nolan) VENOM program at the Australian Reptile Park (J Shirley and M Bourke) as featured on NBN news, live streaming of surgery (M Bourke School of Biomedical Sciences) . Incorporating Mayer’s theory of multimedia learning, we discussed anatomy in operative surgery, utilising schematics and radiological investigations (SECTRA workstation) to illustrate key points and topographical relationships (ANZHAPE 2021). Interprofessional education exemplified by the trauma scenario involving a simulated bus crash with both pre and hospital clinicians (H Petal) as presented at the inaugural RACS Surgical Education Sharktank.

Leading curriculum redevelopment, student learning and teaching delivery which are pivotal to delivering an outstanding student experience, Amanda is recognised for her educational scholarship by the AMC, the peak medical education and national accreditation body, and was selected for her excellence in teaching, to undertake the role of national lead clinical examiner in surgery. The JMP Clinical Placement surveys consistently report a high level of student satisfaction with Amanda’s CCCS surgical teaching which consistently outperforms all other JMP sites with an average score of 88% across the 10 domains. Her knowledge of contemporary surgical education theory defines her combination of experiential learning with the acquisition of cognitive and interpersonal skills as it also recognises the dissonant learning styles of surgeons (convergent) and students (assimilating). This stresses the importance of the multifaceted NPMT to enhance engagement across a myriad of learning styles and provides an exceptional student experience. She has applied her scholarship to curriculum design (RACS CLEAR course, JMP MEDI4101 Contexts of Medical Practice and MEDI3101 Engaging in Clinical Practice at AQF Level 7) and is a co-editor of the medical education textbook: Australian Medicine in Context: Key presentations and topics for entry to practice (in print).

Her wealth of professional experience in the area of digital learning, and assessment design, educational quality, open and online education and institutional transformation is recognised in the national and international arena. Setting appropriate standards for the prevocational phase of medical education is important to Amanda. As PREVAC Assessment Lead, she has demonstrated a sound working knowledge by implementing the guidelines and procedures for accreditation with the application of previous knowledge (RACS SEC 2013-18). PREVAC is responsible for monitoring all Australian intern training accreditation authorities, WBA and PESCI providers. These accreditation and governance skills are also applicable to current roles with the UON Academic Senate and CHMW Board. Her prevocational and assessment expertise, led to further roles including developing the Digital Health Framework for Australasian Medical Schools and the new Prevocational Framework and e- portfolio for junior doctors which incorporate key competencies of education and research as exemplified by her CCCS programs. Appointed to the Digital Health Capabilities Medical Workforce Advisory Group {joint advisory project team of the AMC, and the Australian Government Digital Health Agency (ADHA).} as the Assessment expert. This proved prophetically instrumental during the covid-19 pandemic in applying digital platforms for education and assessment and how technology impacts the standards of medical education, training and practice in Australia. This strategic change platform for the continuum of medical education in digital health has implications for curriculum change for all health student undergraduates created a horizon series strategic paper, a digital capability framework for medicine. PREVAC responsibilities include a comprehensive review and subsequent governance of the implementation of the National Framework for Prevocational doctors on behalf of the Australian Health Ministers’ Advisory Council (AHMAC). This work arose from Health Ministers’ 2018 response to the 2015 COAG Review of Medical Intern Training. The Framework was developed for the MBA, sets standards and provides guidance for intern assessment linked to the General registration standard as well as national expectations for intern placements.

Amanda has demonstrated sustained commitment and excellence in assessment roles with the AMC appointed Surgery Discipline Lead and Chair of the Surgery Clinical Scenario Writing Group (>2017), responsible for blueprinting the National surgical exam curriculum, auditing and reviewing the performance of the questions in the exam, co-ordinating the surgical writing group, and supporting the development of new surgical examiners. Her exemplary recorded performance as an examiner is used to train and calibrate other examiners. She played a foundational role in the successful implementation of the new online clinical examination for international medical graduates (2021), a global first as we pivoted during the covid-19 pandemic. Her assessment expertise recognised by an invitation to join CERG and WBARG which brings together subject matter experts to develop the research agenda for national assessment.

RESEARCH AND INNOVATION

• 2022 UON College of Health, Medicine and Well-being Clinical Leadership and Engagement Award (STORCC)

• 2003 Raelene Boyle Scholarship for Cancer Research (RACS) and 1994 D.R. Leslie Research Medal (RACS)

Research Career Highlights:

• 48 peer review publications ( 6 in press); 1 medical education textbook (in press)

• Research Funding: $ 2.006 Million (Global Surgery Unit Research Collaborative Funding: £6million)

• H-index 14, H-5 Index by year (2018-2023) 8; FWCI 5.7

• UON SMPH research performance 35 points in 12 months (level E requires 15 points over 3 years)

• 5 THE LANCET articles (The journal has an Impact Factor of 168·9 (2022 Journal Citation Reports®, Clarivate 2023) and

ranks first among 167 general and internal medicine journals globally, and a Scopus Cite Score of 133·2—ranking second

among 830 general medicine journals)

• Research supervision; Undergraduate Research: 9 JMP QSIH; Postgraduate: Inaugural CCCS MPhil, 3 MD Education

Pathway; 7 FRACS Research projects; PhD reviewer (University of Sydney; University of Adelaide)

• Academic Lead and Co-founder STORCC (150 members; >15000 international collaborators, 128 countries)

• Prevocational Lead and Co-founder Clinical Trials Australia and New Zealand Network (CTANZ)

• Trials: 1 systematic review; 3 RCT; 11 International Collaborative Cohort Trials (3 Australian Lead; 8 Australia Co-Lead)

• Immediate Past Chair - CLEAR RACS course ($1 million annual budget, compulsory research training ANZ surgeons

• Peer Reviewer ANZ Journal of Surgery; British Journal of Surgery young BJS editorial initiative, RACS grants/scholarships panel

• Member Academic Surgery Section RACS. Member Surgical Research Society of Australasia

• UON Academic Dashboard: Benchmarking FWCI against other level D SMPH academics and in comparison with level D

(SMPH, CHMW, UON) and all staff including level E (SMPH, CHMW, UON) and ranked 18th of ALL University of

Newcastle level D academics by research publication volume for last 5 years

• 1st Level D SMPH (2021) FWCI; 2nd Level D CHMW (2021) FWCI

• 5th Level D All Academic staff of ALL UON Colleges (2021)FWCI

• 5th All Academic Staff (including level E) SMPH FWCI

• 10th All Academic Staff (including level E) CHMW FWCI

• 18th All UON Academic Staff (including level E) All UON Colleges FWCI

KEY Current Projects 2023:

• Surgical Trainee Organisation for Research Central Coast Collaborative - inspiring students and junior doctors to incorporate research into their daily practice (https://storcc.com)

• Does participation in collaborative research change surgical culture international survey (CPI)

• GECKO - Global Evaluation of Cholecystectomy, Knowledge and Outcomes (International Advisory Board,

Australian Lead)

• Building on the success of trainee-led collaborative research – what are the next steps? Review Article (in press)

• Near Peer Medical Teaching Central Coast (NPMT) 

• Systematic Review of Near Peer Teaching (in press) - senior author

• How does teaching in a near-peer program influence junior doctors’ perceptions of their clinical ability, professional qualities and attitudes towards medical education - senior author

• Interprofessional research

• Volunteer taster project - medicine lead (in press)

• Inter professional Field Trauma Simulation (presented Surgical Education Shark Tank Adelaide and Clinical Skills Conference (Italy) 2023

• National Education Research

• Clinical Examiner Decision Making Project ($60,000) PI

As an academic surgeon, Professor Dawson is experienced in laboratory, clinical and education research. As Chair CLEAR, the peak research training course for surgeons in Australia and Aoteroa New Zealand her expertise in epidemiology was recognised by RACS. She is a world leader in the area of Trainee-Led Research and Near Peer Teaching. and has gained an international reputation in this emerging field, invited to join the prestigious NIHR Global Surgery Advisory Board at the University of Birmingham with key roles in media engagement, protocol development, international dissemination and leadership in Oceania in the COVIDSurg Week, HIPPO and GECKO trials with subsequent international impacts on global surgery policy and guidelines. She has demonstrated a sustained history of international foundational roles with a developing track record of funding success (>$2 million) and supporting the research of her CCCS team. Benchmarked against UON SMPH peers, she was ranked first in FWCI and has exceeded the 3 year (15 point) expectations for level E research performance in just the last 12 months (SMPH).

Amanda strategically applied the educational theory of an entrepreneurial and experiential pedagogy to develop a research pathway which prioritises providing students and junior doctors with opportunities that most effectively achieve high impact benefits which maximise their potential. Her strong background in Epidemiology (University of Sydney) and Cancer Research (Garvan Institute, UNSW) together with a sustained history of foundational research roles - Australasian Pancreatic Club(2002), NSW Pancreatic Cancer Network (2004), STORCC (2015), CTANZ (2017), have proved instrumental. Whilst CLEAR chair, recognising the importance of an authentic research experience of real world problems for junior doctors and medical students she founded STORCC, the first pre- vocational Trainee-led research group in Australasia. STORCC members develop proficiency in large scale clinical trial research participation, capacity to effectively manage a local research site, and national leadership capability. Designed with a dual purpose, STORCC promotes a culture of trial design and governance at a formative stage of medical training which ultimately produces scientifically literate active clinician researchers and within 2 years of formation completed the first international trial. Amanda’s development of STORCC led to a foundation role - CTANZ which is supported by the RACS Section of Academic Surgery designed to support the development of trainee led trials groups across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.

The impact of STORCC is evidenced by: 150 STORCC Researchers - have completed 12 large scale international trials and each member has at least one publication with key publication in The LANCET. It was featured in several review articles and received a CHMW leadership award (2022). The impact of these publications is significant, the 2021 publication “Timing of surgery following SARS-CoV-2 infection: an international prospective cohort study” in Anaesthesia has the highest ever altmetric score for this journal. This study COVIDSurg week was the largest ever surgical trial with over 140,000 patients from116 countries collected in the month of October 2020 as recognised by the Guinness Book of Records. Gosford was the largest Australasian site for this project. This has led to important information regarding the optimal timing of surgery following SARS- CoV-2 infection. An earlier project, published in The Lancet in 2021 were the results of the Global Surgery 3 Collaborative project. This study demonstrated that global demand for cancer surgery is expected to increase from 9.1 million to 13.8 million procedures over the next 20 years, requiring a huge increase in the workforce including nearly 200,000 additional surgeons and 87,000 anaesthetists around the world. The study demonstrated global inequity with cancer patients in low and lower middle-income countries up to six times more likely to die from complications within 30 days of surgery, compared to those in high-income countries,

Amanda is currently on the University of Birmingham Global Surgery Unit Advisory Board for the international GECKO trial and as the Australian Lead she has recruited 70 Australian hospitals which makes it the largest trainee led trial in Australasia. It appears that the strong sense of camaraderie and teamwork of collaborative research is changing the culture of surgery. This is a current area of research focus and is currently undergoing ethical review.

Evidenced Based Medicine (EBM) Research Education Leadership was demonstrated as CLEAR Chair (2012-20) and Senior Instructor (>2002), responsible for leading the program to deliver EBM Research training to all RACS surgery trainees throughout Australasia - 10 courses, 300 candidates/year, annual budget $1 million. This led to the development of BRANCHHES (Be Research Active and Network Central Coast Hospitals) an effective blended and experiential learning methodology to foster teamwork and EBM education for MD students, junior doctors and their supervisors (>2018). As previously discussed, her key education research projects further examine national student assessment (Examiner Decision Making Project ) and the entrepreneurial methodology in the theory and practice of teaching as evidenced by the award winning Trainee-Led NPMT with international prevocational educational impact, and presentations at peak international medical education conferences - AMEE, ANZPMEF, Italian International Clinical Skills Conference, ANZAHPE, PRINT and the RACS ASC, supported by successful grants. Publications - The Clinical Teacher (journal of the eminent ASME Association) and Australian Journal of Clinical Education.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS:

Amanda’s ability as an intentional leader to leverage strategic insights, clinical expertise, leadership skills and governance experience to promote a high performance team culture, high staff morale and alignment to best practice are evidence of her strategic vision which aligns with the UON strategy of an exceptional student experience that provides work ready graduates to the benefit of both our local region and the global community. She is highly committed to providing opportunities for her students and team to achieve their full potential and is equipped with well-developed interpersonal communication and engagement capabilities, accentuated by exceptional problem solving, critical thinking and decision- making skills to influence change, and continuous improvement and is able to take focused consistent action to achieve her goals.

As a recognised international lead of an emerging collaboration that supports students and junior clinicians in their academic development, the strength of these networks within the health and academic sectors support further opportunities across over 120 countries. Her contributions to date and enthusiasm for innovation in workplace-based healthcare teaching is ideally connected to the priorities to support globally connected and locally focused research and aligns to the CCLHD strategic parameters (2021-25) - leadership, infrastructure, enrichment and collaboration and the UON strategic framework. She is in a strategic position to drive clinical and health service research development. 

The academic pathway she has developed has mentored and nurtured both students and medical staff and has established an appetite for the local development of both education and research opportunities, Highly skilled at logistical and strategic delivery this is a program she is well equipped to deliver with her particular talents of enablement and foundational roles.