Conference speakers
We are pleased to announce the 2025 AHTA Conference speakers!
Keynote speaker
Sarah Mee
An experienced hand therapist and OT with over 30 years of experience, initially specialising in burns and plastics and then exclusively in hand therapy in the UK. From 2000 has worked at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital Wrist and Hand Unit, London and the last 15 years as Consultant Hand Therapist; running first contact practitioner diagnostic triage clinics, requesting and interpreting imaging and booking for surgery for acquired hand/wrist conditions and acute hand trauma. Hand Therapy treatment for complex acquired and traumatic orthopaedic and plastics wrist and hand injuries and congenital conditions. Sarah runs a team of 19 generic OT/Physio hand therapists with 3 other Advanced Clinical Practitioners in hand therapy.
Sarah has been active in the British Association of Hand Therapy as Chair of the Education Committee, is an Accredited Hand Therapist (BAHT) and recently received the Natalie Barr Award for substantial contributions to hand therapy.
She has taught in Hand Therapy since 1990 and is a Partner in N.E.S Hand Therapy Training LLP, lecturing nationally and internationally at congress, on Masters, post grad, accredited and local courses. She is the therapy lead for the BSSH 5-year development of the LION sustainable Hand Unit in Malawi, Africa.
Invited speakers
Dr Brooke Coombes
Dr Brooke Coombes is a Musculoskeletal Physiotherapist, with expertise in rehabilitation of musculoskeletal pain, ranking 4th worldwide for elbow tendinopathy on Expertscape. She is a postdoctoral research fellow within the Centre for Innovation in Pain and Health Research (CIPHeR). She holds a graduate certificate in University Learning and Teaching and has developed and taught curricula in Physiotherapy, within the areas of musculoskeletal pain and chronic disease. Using a biopsychosocial framework and diverse research methodologies from mechanisms to implementation, Coombes’ research is addressing the personal, economic and societal impact of chronic pain. Evidence of her expertise includes 4 recent consensus statements in tendinopathy (311 citations) and highly cited work published in JAMA (287 citations) and Lancet (672 citations) demonstrating long harms of corticosteroid injection for elbow tendinopathy. Using patient reported measures and quantitative sensory testing, Dr Coombes has studied the mechanisms for persistence neck pain, elbow pain and wrist pain, including the role of descending pain modulatory systems and the efficacy of manual therapy and exercise treatments. Her research has also explored eHealth interventions to increase reach and uptake of evidence-based treatments. Her current postdoctoral research is to develop and test a tool to identify the predominant mechanism for a patient’s pain (in collaboration with the International Association for the Study of Pain Terminology Task Force). This innovative tool is intended to assist clinicians and researchers to match treatment to the predominant driver(s) of a person’s pain experience. Coombes has published 64 papers (2569 citations), including 21 papers in the last 5 years), two international textbooks (Grieve’s Modern Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy) and independent coursework (Academy of Orthopaedic Physical Therapy). Coombes has received postdoctoral fellowship ($278K), project ($55K) and infrastructure ($350K) funding.
Associate Professor David Graham
Associate Professor David Graham is an Australian trained Orthopaedic surgeon who specialises in hand, wrist and microsurgery working at Gold Coast University Hospital, Queensland Children’s Hospital and at the Mudgeeraba Hand Clinic.
A/Prof Graham graduated from the University of Queensland (UQ) with a Bachelor of Physiotherapy with honours and went on to complete a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery at UQ. After working as a junior doctor in Brisbane and the Gold Coast, Dr Graham subsequently completed his advanced training in Orthopaedic Surgery in NSW. Following Orthopaedic training, Dr Graham completed the Hand, Wrist and Microsurgery fellowship at the Royal North Shore Hospital / The Children’s Hospital at Westmead in Sydney, and international hand fellowships including Ganga Hospital (Coimbatore, India) and the University of California Irvine/ Shriners Hospital Los Angeles / Children’s Hospital of Orange County (USA). Dr Graham was awarded the Post Fellowship Education and Training (PFET) Hand qualification by the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 2017.
Prior to moving to Queensland, Dr Graham worked as a consultant hand surgeon at the Sydney Hospital and South Western Sydney Hand Units (Fairfield Hospital).
Dr Graham has a strong interest in teaching and research, and holds academic title with the University of Queensland, Griffith University and Bond University and has been awarded the title of Associate Professor due to his commitment to research and teaching. Dr Graham has over 90 peer reviewed published research papers in Orthopaedic and Hand surgery and presents at local, national and international hand surgery conferences.
Dr Graham was selected for the prestigious 2018 Australian Hand Surgery Society (AHSS), American Society for Surgery of the Hand (ASSH) travelling hand fellowship, visiting the Mayo Clinic Rochester MN, Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) New York NY, Curtis Hand Centre Baltimore MD, Rothman Institute, Philadelphia PA. Dr Graham was again selected in 2023 for the combined AHSS/BSSH travelling fellowship, visiting Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, University College London, Morrison Hospital Swansea, Royal Glasgow Infirmary, Livingston Hospital and the Royal Hospital for Children, Glasgow.
Dr Graham regularly volunteers on hand surgery outreach missions, with the aim of providing quality health care to all, and to provide teaching to local surgeons and surgical trainees. These include trips to Nepal, Cambodia, Fiji, and the Solomon Islands..
Andrew McKenzie
Andrew is a Principal at Maurice Blackburn lawyers and has been listed by the prestigious Doyle's Guide as a lawyer of note. He has spent over 30 years working in plaintiff law firms, including over 28 years as a qualified lawyer. He practices exclusively in civil law and has appeared on behalf of his clients in just about every court and tribunal in Queensland.
He works closely with peak allied health organisations AHTA, APA, OTA, AASW and ESSA on legal advice, education and policy.
He has also been an advocate for vulnerable road users, resulting in him appearing on their behalf before the Queensland Parliamentary Enquiry into Cycling in 2013. In May 2018, he authored submissions to the National Quadbike Taskforce with the ACCC. In 2021 he authored submissions on the Driverless Car Enquiry with the ACCC. He is the Queensland face of Maurice Blackburn’s Sorry Mate I Didn’t See You (SMIDSY) campaign for motorcycle safety.
Professor Evonne Miller
She is the inaugural Queensland Health Research Chair in Healthcare Design, based at Clinical Excellence Queensland’s Healthcare Improvement Unit where she engages with consumers, clinicians, and community to collaboratively co-design creative solutions to improve healthcare.
Evonne is a recognised international thought leader in design for health, with expertise in design thinking, participatory co-design, co-production, futures thinking, and qualitative arts-based research and knowledge translation. To ensure lived experience informs and improves health service delivery, she works in close partnership with different populations: older people in residential aged care, people in prison, people and families with disabilities, chronic health conditions, and at end of life. Evonne has authored / co-authored 140+ academic publications, including 5 books (2 edited) - with her most recent documenting the experience of integrating designers into healthcare, How Designers are Transforming (Springer, 2024).
Dr Dinesh Palipana OAM
Dinesh was the first quadriplegic medical intern in Queensland. Dinesh is a doctor, lawyer, disability advocate, and researcher. While in medical school, he was involved in a car accident that caused a spinal cord injury. Dinesh’s family left Sri Lanka during the war, when he was 10 years old.
Dinesh has completed a Bachelor of Laws at the Queensland University of Technology, a Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice at the College of Law, Emergency Medicine Certificate at the Australasian College of Emergency Medicine, and Doctor of Medicine and Griffith University. He is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors under a Disability Leadership Scholarship.
Dinesh works in the emergency department at the Gold Coast University Hospital. He is a researcher and senior lecturer at the Griffith University and assistant professor at Bond University. Dinesh is a researcher in spinal cord injury, co-leading the BioSpine research team.
He is a doctor for the Gold Coast Titans physical disability rugby team. Dinesh was a senior advisor to the Disability Royal Commission. He is an ambassador to the Human Rights Commission’s Includeability program. He is a founding member of Doctors with Disabilities Australia. He is an advisory board member to HealthyLife, a Woolworths company. Dinesh is a John Monash Scholar. He is an independent non-executive director of George Steuart & Co, one of the oldest companies in the world and oldest in Sri Lanka. Dinesh is a non-executive director of the Housing Hub, started by the Summer Foundation.
Dinesh was the Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service’s Junior Doctor of the Year in 2018. He was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2019. He was the third Australian to be awarded a Henry Viscardi Achievement Award. He was the 2021 Griffith University Young Alumnus of the Year. Dinesh was the Queensland Australian of the Year for 2021. In 2022, Dinesh was listed as number 33 in the Courier Mail’s top 100 power list for Queensland’s most influential in health and wellbeing. His autobiography, Stronger, was published by Pan Macmillan in 2022.
Angela Thynne
Angela Thynne is an occupational therapist with over 30 years of experience in the management of scarring and oedema following traumatic injuries, burns and surgery. She has run her private practice in scarring and oedema for over 20 years and has extensive experience in treating both adults and children with scarring and oedema. Her experience has been within both the private and public sectors, including clinical practice, research, teaching and training. Angela is a credentialed private practitioner to the Professor Stuart Pegg Adult Burns Centre at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital. She is a lymphoedema trained therapist and uses her background in lymphoedema and acute injury to holistically manage scarring and oedema. A clinical lecturer in scar and oedema management at the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Queensland, Angela is also the co-coordinator of the Burns Rehabilitation Course of the Australian and New Zealand Burn Association.
Dr Thuy Tran
Dr Thuy Tran (Perth, Western Australia, Lecturer and Hand Therapy Clinician)
Thuy (“Twee”) Tran has over 14 years of clinical hand therapy experience, but recently made the move to academia and research. She coordinates and teaches the foundations of hand therapy and evidence informed practice units at Edith Cowan University, Perth WA. She is an active early career researcher, and her interests include occupation-based hand therapy, women’s health and community health. Thuy's PhD comprised of a mixed methods study design, including both qualitative and quantitative approaches which looked at a holistic approach to managing lateral elbow tendinopathy. Thuy has successfully supervised honours students to completion and has been invited to present at various professional development sessions over the years to occupational therapists, physiotherapists and medical practitioners. She has published in peer-reviewed international and national journals, is a reviewer for international hand therapy journals and is currently a member of the Australian Hand Therapy Association Research committee and Low Ethics Research committee at Edith Cowan University.