The Conference will focus on three major areas of importance to investing in Australia's medical workforce: Increasing Health Workforce Flexibility, Achieving Vertical Integration and Building Training Capacity. The detail of these sessions will be provided over the coming weeks. Background reading material will be provided to delegates in advance of the Conference.

Participants will include representatives from Medical Schools, Junior Medical Officers, Medical Colleges, key medical organisations and Commonwealth, State and Territory Health Departments. 

Keynote Speaker

Professor Sir John Tooke
MA MSc BM BCh DM DSc (Oxon) FRCP FMedSci
Dean, Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry
Universities of Exeter and Plymouth, UK

Professor Sir John Tooke graduated in Medicine from Oxford in 1974 and was a Wellcome Trust Senior Lecturer in Medicine and Physiology and Honorary Consultant Physician at Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School before moving to Exeter in 1987.

Until 1 November 2000 he was Consultant Physician with interests in diabetes, endocrinology and vascular medicine at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital NHS Trust, and Professor of Vascular Medicine at Exeter University. He is an international authority on the complications of diabetes, his research unit being awarded grade 5 in the national Research Assessment Exercises in 1996 and 2001 and winning a Queen’s Anniversary Prize for further and higher education for the University in 1996.

Professor Sir John Tooke is presently Dean of the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry, a joint initiative of the Universities of Exeter and Plymouth. Professor Tooke led the successful bid for the Peninsula Medical School and was appointed Dean in 2000. The School offers an innovative community-wide medical undergraduate programme throughout Devon and Cornwall and is committed to postgraduate education and research excellence. Professor Tooke also led the bid for the Peninsula Dental School (2006), the first new dental school for over 40 years.

Professor Tooke was President of the European Society for Microcirculation from 2000 – 2002 and has chaired the New Medical Schools’ Forum, a sub-committee of The Council of Heads of Medical Schools (CHMS) of which he has been an elected Executive member since 2003. He was elected Chair of CHMS in 2006 (renamed the Medical Schools Council [MSC]). He was a Council member of the Academy of Medical Sciences Council from 2003 - 2006 and Chair of the Academy of Medical Sciences Academic Careers Committee (Clinical) from 2006 - 2007. He was appointed as Chair of the Joint Medical Advisory Committee to the Higher Education Funding Councils in 2005 (now UK Healthcare Education Advisory Committee), and has recently been re-elected extending his responsibilities until 2011. He also Chairs HEFCE’s new blood Clinical Senior Lectureship scheme and is a member of the reconfigured National Institute for Health Research Advisory Board, the Universities UK Health and Social Care Policy Committee, and the NHS Evidence Advisory Board. Professor Tooke was a non-executive board member of the South West Peninsula Strategic Health Authority from 2002 – 2006.

He leads the Research Committee of the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry and has been instrumental in developing IP management and exploitation platforms from which it is hoped economic benefits will flow to the far South West. He Chairs the College Knowledge Transfer Committee as well as the South West Peninsula Clinical Research Collaboration. He also Chairs the Higher Education Regional Development Association (HERDA-SW) Research sub committee.

Professor Tooke’s clinical interests in diabetes and vascular medicine continue as do his research interests in these fields. His current research involves endothelial function and insulin resistance, the pathophysiology of macular oedema and albuminuria, and the effects of haemodynamic factors on endothelial cell biology, as well as health services research in the diabetes field.

Sir John recently led a High Level Group for the Chief Medical Officer on Overcoming Barriers to Clinical Effectiveness and at the beginning of 2007 was invited by the Secretary of State to lead an Independent UK Inquiry into Modernising Medical Careers, the final report for which was published in January 2008. Sir John has recently been invited to join a High Level Group, representing Medicine, under the Chairmanship of Alan Milburn MP to look at Fair Access to the Professions.

Professor Tooke was Knighted in the 2007 New Year’s Honours for Services to Medicine.

Conference Venue

The Conference will be held at the Sofitel Sydney Wentworth, 61-101 Phillip Street, Sydney.

The Sofitel Wentworth is conveniently located in the Sydney CBD, is serviced by multiple bus services and a short walk to Martin Place rail station, Circular Quay rail station and ferry services.

Please do not book accommodation directly with the hotel. If alternate accommodation is required please contact the conference organiser on 02 9211 6299 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Dinner Venue

The Conference Dinner will be held at the Sydney Opera House on Friday 30 October 2009. This is an opportunity to network with peers in a congenial atmosphere at an iconic Sydney venue.

The Conference Dinner is included in the registration fee for all delegates. Please confirm your attendance on the online registration form. There will be no refunds for non attendance.