Health, Truth
and Trust

MC Topher Field

Libertarian Political Commentator, Human Rights activist Director of award-winning documentary “Battleground Melbourne”, Host of the Slow Chat podcast and The Aussie Wire, Author of the upcoming book “Good People Break Bad Laws” www.topherfield.net

Dr Christopher Neil

Dr Christopher Neil has practised medicine for 20 years, specialising in cardiology since 2008. Completing his PhD in Adelaide and undertaking post-doctoral research and a fellowship in the UK, he has been committed to clinical excellence in the care of patients with heart failure. Returning to a specialist consultant post in his hometown of Melbourne, in 2013, he focused on developing improved systems of care for heart failure patients, whilst continuing to research in hospitals, mentor physicians in training and supervise PhD students. His passion, however, has always been for his patients and when he saw their health impacted and their rights infringed, he stood against what he saw as unethical and unjustifiable mandates, resulting in his termination in October 2021. He was a co-founder of AMPS in 2021 and continues as the current President.

Dr Jeyanthi Kunadhasan

Dr Jeyanthi Kunadhasan was a Consultant Anaesthetist at a major regional Victorian public hospital and was in practice for more than 12 years. She has a clinical interest in Patient Blood Management where she spearheaded many initiatives that sustainably brought down the unnecessary transfusion rates in major surgeries, leading to improved patient outcomes and lower cost to the health system.

Jo Nelson

Dr Julian Fidge

Dr Fidge is a rural general practitioner in Australia. He began his working life as a soldier in the Australian Army, leaving the military to finish high school at 22 years old. He then studied pharmacy and worked in community pharmacy from 1987 to 1996. In 1994/95, he worked for CARE Australia in The Congo with Rwandan refugees. On returning to Australia, he decided to study medicine, which he did at the University of Queensland from 1997 to 2000. After completing medicine, he worked in various hospitals before starting general practice training and accepting a commission as a Medical Officer in the Australian Army in 2005. He has worked in South Africa at the Chris Hani Baragwaneth Hospital and in Swaziland at the Good Shepherd Hospital. He deployed on peace-keeping operations as the aeromedical evacuation Medical Officer to East Timor in 2006/7. He now runs a group practice with 8 other doctors in Wangaratta, a large country town in northeast Victoria, and is a part-owner of two pharmacies. He has been awarded the Humanitarian Overseas Service Medal, the Australian Defence Medal, the Australian Service Medal by the Australian Government, and the Timor Leste Solidarity Medal by the President of East Timor. He lives on the family beef cattle farm with his wife and two children near Wangaratta.

Dr Duncan Syme

Dr Duncan Syme graduated from Monash University in 1987 and has been in clinical practice for 34 years, initially in the UK and then later in Australia, he achieved his GP fellowship in 1997. He also has a Diploma in Obstetrics and Gynaecology and a Diploma of practical dermatology. For the past 10 years, he has been working in a large public hospital in their Hospital in the Home program as a consultant. In that role he developed a particular interest in complex wound management, receiving funding to commence a clinical project in which he was the principal investigator of a randomised control trial for a wound healing device. Developing a clinical experiment from scratch provided a good understanding of the ethics approval process for a clinical trial. In addition, he sat on the low-risk ethics committee for the last 2 years reviewing other proposals for clinical studies as well as working for a pharmaceutical company in their pharmacovigilance section monitoring adverse events for clinical trials.