Associate Investigators

RN, Grad Dip Inf Ctrl, MPH, PhD

Dr. Noleen Bennett is an infection control consultant employed at both the NCAS and the Victorian Healthcare-Associated Infection Surveillance System (VICNISS) Coordinating Centre. At NCAS, Noleen is the project officer for the Aged Care National Antimicrobial Prescribing Survey. At VICNISS, she is the coordinator for the Victorian smaller hospital surveillance program. Noleen obtained her doctorate degree in 2011. The title of her thesis was 'The development and evaluation of the Victorian hospital-acquired infection surveillance program for smaller public acute care hospitals'.

Associate Professor Helen Billman-Jacobe lectures on veterinary microbiology at the Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Melbourne. 

BSc (Hons), M App Epid, PhD

Dr. Bull is the director of operations at the Victorian Healthcare-Associated Infection Surveillance System (VICNISS) Coordinating Centre. She is an epidemiologist who has been with VICNISS since it was formed in 2002. Her particular interests include improving the use of antibiotics given as prophylaxis for surgery and development of interventions to reduce post-surgical infections. Ann is interested in the use of information technology to improve management of health information and patient safety. She has published widely in both environmental and medical sciences, and is on the editorial board of Infection, Disease and Health, the journal of the Australasian College for Infection Prevention and Control.

B Pharm, MBA (Health Management), Cert IV TAE

Ms. Evette Buono is the program senior manager of the Knowledge, Evaluation and Research program at the New South Wales Clinical Excellence Commission (NSW CEC), an organisation responsible for leading safety and quality improvement in the NSW public health system. She is a pharmacist with a longstanding interest in infectious diseases and pharmacy education and training. Evette has experience in the community and hospital sector, where she has held positions in clinical, management and educator roles. She completed an MBA (Health Management) in 2010, developing a keen interest in systems improvement and clinical redesign. Evette joined the CEC in 2012, establishing the Quality Use of Antimicrobials in Healthcare program, and represents NSW on the National Antimicrobial Stewardship Network.

Professor Frank Dunshea has had a research career spanning 35 years in farm animal and biomedical research. His area of expertise is in growth physiology, nutrition, and understanding the interactions between the animal and the animal’s environment. He has focused much of his recent research on biomedicine and fuctional foods. 

MBBS, FRACP, MD, MPH

Associate Professor Friedman is an infectious diseases specialist at Barwon Health in Geelong and an associate professor at Deakin University. She received her MD in the area of infection control and hospital-acquired infections. Her main research interests are infections that develop in hospitalised patients, optimal antimicrobial use, and infection prevention for multi-resistant bacteria. She is a member of the NCAS research team supervising research into antimicrobial stewardship in aged care, hospital-in- the-home, and regional and rural areas.

Dr. Schulz is an infectious diseases physician at the Victorian Infectious Diseases Service (VIDS), and has clinical appointments at the Royal Melbourne and Royal Women’s Hospitals. He is a lecturer at the University of Melbourne. He has a particular interest in refugee and immigrant health and a major interest in novel modes of health care delivery. He is involved in the integrated hepatitis service, providing care for those with hepatitis B and C in the community, and conducts outreach clinics at the University of Melbourne clinic in Shepparton, at Rumbalara Aboriginal Health Service in Moroopna, at Cohealth in Footscray and at Gateway Community Health in Wodonga. He developed the VIDS Telehealth program to provide health care to refugees living outside Melbourne. In addition, he implemented the CAReHR clinical and research software in VIDS outpatient clinics, and has commenced a remote antimicrobial stewardship service for Goulburn Valley Hospital in Shepparton, which includes weekly virtual stewardship rounds. As an associate investigator and research supervisor at NCAS, he is researching methods of delivering antimicrobial stewardship to regional hospitals.

Associate Professor Worth is an infectious diseases physician and epidemiologist who is currently overseeing several surveillance programs in his role at the Victorian Healthcare-Associated Infection Surveillance System (VICNISS). His areas of expertise include bloodstream infections, surgical site infection surveillance and multidrug resistant organisms (especially VRE). He is an advisor to the National Health Performance Authority and is a member of the Australian Commission on Quality and Safety in Health Care's hospital infections advisory committee. He is also an expert advisor to the Antimicrobial Use and Resistance in Australia program, and has an active role in the development of surveillance, analytics and reporting for the National Antimicrobial Prescribing Survey.