Ian Harris MBBS, FRACS(Orth), FAOrthA, MMed (Clin Epid), PhD
Professor Harris is the Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at the South West Sydney Clinical School of the University of New South Wales and the Director of Orthopaedic Surgery at Liverpool Hospital in southwest Sydney.
He also holds visiting appointments at St George Hospital, Sutherland Hospital and St George Private Hospital. He is a medical graduate of the University of New South Wales and completed his orthopaedic surgical training with the Australian Orthopaedic Association in 1995, when he was awarded Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.
He underwent further training in orthopaedic surgery in the Klinikum rechts der Isar in Munich, and completed a 12 month Orthopaedic Trauma Fellowship at the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Centre in Baltimore, Maryland. He holds a Master of Medicine in Clinical Epidemiology and a PhD in Surgery, both from the University of Sydney. He is a member of the Orthopaedic Trauma Association and the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.
Professor Harris’s research interests include surgical outcomes (such as predictors of general health, surgical success, and patient satisfaction), epidemiology, medicalisation, and research methodology.
Professor Harris has published extensively and lectures nationally and internationally on orthopaedics and evidence based medicine.
Justine Naylor
Justine graduated from The University of Sydney in 1987 with a Degree in Physiotherapy. She completed a PhD in Applied Physiology with the same university in 2002.
She has worked in the orthopaedic field as a researcher since 2003, and is currently a Senior Research Fellow within WORC. Her research interests include monitoring, measuring and optimising outcomes after knee and hip replacement surgery, and the identification of best models of care in orthopaedics.
Natalie Baljak
Natalie is the project officer for the NSW workers’ compensation Spine Surgery Audit that is looking at the costs, rates and outcomes of spine surgery performed under workers compensation.
After an orthopaedic elective term in the United Kingdom and residency training at St. George hospital in Sydney, Sam decided to pursue a career in academic orthopaedic surgery, and moved to WORC. Since then he has been involved in a number of research projects evaluating clinical outcomes after orthopaedic surgery.
To further his skills in muscoluskeletal clinical research, Sam completed a Master of Sports Medicine from UNSW in 2008, and a Master of Public Health in 2009, also from UNSW. Sam is currently completing a PhD which he has (somewhat dramatically) titled "iQueST": Investigating the Quality of Surgical Trials. His research is assessing the scientific quality of the evidence base used in surgical practice, andthe extent to which different forms of bias influence study conclusions.Sam was awarded two fellowships for his doctoral thesis: the Sir Roy McCaughey Research Fellowship from the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS), and a Postgraduate Medical Research Fellowship from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). Sam is actively involved in the teaching of UNSW students, and is also a faculty member of the Critical Literature Evaluation and Research (CLEAR) course, run by the RACS.
In his free time Sam loves to dine out, travel, hike around our local national parks, play competitive tennis, as well as some (very amateur) kickboxing. He hopes to one day complete his orthopaedic training and return to serve the people of south west Sydney.
Arezoo Vafa
Arezoo has been employed as project officer for the NHMRC funded multicentre trial, CROSSFIRE: a randomised and observational study of two common treatment for wrist fractures in older patients: surgical plating, and manipulation and plastering
Lynette McEvoy
Lynette McEvoy is the Clinical Nurse Consultant (CNC) for the Orthopaedic Department at Liverpool Hospital.
Lynette has 20 years nursing experience, in aged care and orthopaedic specialities. She has fulfilled clinical, educational and consultant roles during this time. Her qualifications include Diploma in Health Science (Nursing) and a Graduate Certificate in Orthopaedic Nursing and she is also a lecturer for post graduate course work for the NSW College of Nursing since 2001.
As the Orthopaedic CNC, Lynette’s role is to provide clinical advice as an expert nursing clinician including consultancy and education; to patients, carers and a range of health professionals within the specialty of orthopaedics. She facilitates the ongoing review and development of clinical practice within her specialty by evaluating care management through utilising, participating and initiating quality improvement activities and research.
Tamara Gommermann
Tamara started at Liverpool Hospital in 1994 working in various departments such as the library, Aged Care Unit and Aged Care Assessment Team before settling down to be the secretary for the Orthopaedic Department in 1998.
Her position involves managing Professor Harris’ clinical practice and she is responsible for the day to day running of the orthopaedic department. She has expertise in administrative and organisational matters pertaining to running a clinical department as well as a thriving research department. She also has skills in business administration and does administrative work for the Whitlam Orthopaedic Research Centre in addition to her full time work at the hospital.
