The Children’s Tumour Foundation of Australia has established a Neurofibromatosis Medical Advisory Panel to provide professional guidance and advice on the medical and scientific aspects of the information services provided by CTF as well as any research grants made by CTF.
Medical advisory panel
A/Prof Jonathan Payne DPsych
Chair of the Medical Advisory Panel | Co-Group Leader, Brain and Mind, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute
A/Prof Payne brings to the Medical Advisory Panel over 15 years of clinical and research experience in understanding how genetic conditions like NF1 impact on brain development, behaviour and learning.
A/Prof Jonathan Payne is co-group leader of the Brain and Mind Research Group at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, a senior clinical neuropsychologist at the NF1 Clinic Royal Children’s Hospital, and Honorary Principal Fellow in the Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne. His research aims to increase understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms underlying complex neurodevelopmental disorders by studying the cognitive, behavioural and neurobiological phenotypes that arise in genetic syndromes, such as NF1.
Prof Kate Drummond MBBS MD FRACS
Director of Neurosurgery, The Royal Melbourne Hospital
Professor Drummond’s research and clinical interests are in the biology and management of brain tumours, and she is a strong advocate of diversity in neurosurgery. She has published over 150 peer-reviewed papers, received more than $21.5million in research funding, is the current Chair of the Education Committee of the Asian Australasian Society of Neurosurgeons and the 2nd Vice President (AASNS) for the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies.
She is Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Clinical Neuroscience and on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Neurosurgery. In 2019 she was awarded Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for services to medicine, particularly in neuro-oncology and community health.
Kate joined the Medical Advisory Committee because, since establishing the Neurofibromatosis Clinic at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, she realised how important collaboration and advocacy is to improve the care of complex patients with significant healthcare needs.
Dr Geoff McCowage
Children’s Hospital at Westmead
Dr McCowage is a Senior Paediatric Oncologist at the Children’s Hospital Westmead, is CEO of Australasian Children’s Cancer Trials and is the lead clinician for the first Australian-led clinical trial of the MEK Inhibitor drug, Trametinib.
Dr Tim Hassall MBBS FRACP(Paed, Med Onc)
Senior Staff Specialist in Paediatric Oncology, Queensland Children's Hospital
Dr Hassall is the Clinical Lead of the CHQ HHS Neuro-Oncology and Retinoblastoma Services at CHQ HHS. He is also the Clinical Leader of the Centre for Child and Adolescent Brain Cancer Research Centre based at Centre for Children’s Health Research which is a collaborative group of IMB UQ, Diamantina Institute UQ, IHBI QUT and QIMR Berghofer. He is a past National Treasurer of the Australian and New Zealand Children’s Haematology and Oncology Group and the past Chair of the CHQ Medical Staff Association. He is a member of the ANZCHOG CNS subcommittee.
Dr Katrina Morris
Neurologist, Concord Repatriation General Hospital
Dr Morris is an Australian Neurologist trained in Sydney prior to being awarded the ANZAN fellowship at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. Her neuro-oncology fellowship and research into the outcomes of the UK NF2 population responses to Bevacizumab led to PhD awarded in 2017. She has been a VMO neurologist in the NF clinic at Royal North Shore Department of Clinical Genetics since 2016 and is also a Staff Specialist Neurologist coordinating the neuromuscular clinic at Concord Repatriation General Hospital. Her focus is on providing the best possible multidisciplinary care for people with NF and schwannomatosis.
Dr Colin Derrick MBBcH, FCPaeds (SA), FRACP
Consultant Paediatrician, Perth Children's Hospital
Dr Derrick is a senior consultant at Perth Children’s Hospital and a developmental paediatrician in the Child Development Services of WA. He moved to Australia 17 years ago and has been head of department at two general hospitals for a period of 10 years.
He’s fulfilled other administrative roles such as lead for the 4-hour rule. He also commenced a multidisciplinary Rasopathy clinic in 2017 and has in excess of 100 patients.
The clinic is aimed at standardised, holistic and multidisciplinary care for patients. Dr Derrick has also been involved in the rare undiagnosed disease program and the more recently established Rare Care Centre program.
Colin joined the MAP because he believes in aligning care and working collaboratively so that patients receive equitable care, regardless of where they live.
A/Prof Mimi Berman BSCI HONS, MBBS, PHD, FRACP
Head, Department of Clinical Genetics, Royal North Shore Hospital
A/Prof Mimi Berman is the Head of the Clinical Genetics Department at Royal North Shore Hospital.
Her special interest is in the care of adults and children with NF1, NF2, and Schwannomatosis. She has a PhD in Neurogenetics in the area of muscle performance and metabolism. A/Prof Berman is the Co-Chair of the ACI Clinical Genetics network, the current president of the Australasian Association of Clinical Geneticists (AACG) and was the Medical Advisor to the Children’s Tumour Foundation of Australia for over 10 years.