VHSA - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Occupational Therapist / AHTA Accredited Hand Therapist

Dr Will Alexander obtained his medical degree from the University of Adelaide in 2010, and went on to specialize in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. He trained in the major tertiary centres in Victoria, including The Alfred, Peter MacCallum, Royal Melbourne, Royal Children's, and St Vincent's hospitals. He undertook further microsurgery training in Coimbatore, India; and has volunteered his time in both Sri Lanka and Vietnam. Will completed his Hand and Microsurgery fellowship at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne. He holds public appointments as a Consultant Surgeon at The Royal Children's Hospital, St Vincent's Hospital, and Monash Medical Centre. He is a member of the Victorian Hand Surgery Associates (VHSA), and consults in both Fitzroy and the Melbourne CBD. He is a regular visiting surgeon at St Vincent's Private Hospital Kew, as well as Epworth Freemasons (Albert St). Will specialises in adult and paediatric hand surgery, including nerve and microsurgery. He maintains a keen interest in other aspects of Plastic and Reconstructive surgery, in particular skin surgery (cancer management, reconstructive). He is an accredited Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, and a member of the Australian Society of Plastic Surgeons.

Job Titles:

• Occupational Therapist / AHTA Accredited Hand Therapist

Leanne Graham commenced her journey in hand therapy early in her career working with the Victorian Plastic Surgery Unit within the public hospital system before moving into private practice where she has been working for over 20 years. She was the co-convenor of the 2018 Australian Hand Therapy Association national conference in Melbourne and is one of the current State Divisional Representatives for the AHTA, organising education for the State through special interest group meetings and webinars. Leanne completed the Certified Hand Therapist (USA) exam in 2016 and is an Accredited Hand Therapist with the Australian Hand Therapy Association.

Job Titles:

• Occupational Therapist / AHTA Accredited Hand Therapist

Meg Schibli became involved in Hand Therapy soon after graduating as an Occupational Therapist from La Trobe University and has been working in private practice for over 20 years. She has presented at state and national hand therapy conferences and is involved in the Australian Hand Therapy Association mentoring program to support younger therapists. Meg completed the Certified Hand Therapist (USA) exam in 2016 and is an Accredited Hand Therapist with the Australian Hand Therapy Association.

Job Titles:

• Head of the Hand Surgery Unit at St Vincent 's Public Hospital
• Member of the Australian Orthopaedic Association

Mr Anthony Berger graduated medicine from Monash University in 1978 and became a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in Orthopaedic Surgery in 1987. He completed a Hand Fellowship in Louisville, Kentucky USA in 1988 and was then appointed Senior Hand Fellow/Hand Scholar in 1989. He subsequently completed further training in Hand Surgery with Professor John Stanley in Wrightington, UK, in 1990. Currently, Mr Berger is the Head of the Hand Surgery Unit at St Vincent's Public Hospital, Melbourne and a visiting Hand Surgeon at St Vincent's Private Hospital, Fitzroy and Kew, Melbourne. Mr Berger is a member of the Australian Orthopaedic Association, the Australian Hand Surgery Society and the Australian Medical Association and is involved in continuing medical education programmes with the Australian Orthopaedic Association. He is the Immediate Past President of the Australian Hand Surgery Society after serving as President from 2016 - 2018. Mr Berger is currently Secretary General of the Asian Pacific Federation of Societies for Surgery of the Hand. He is frequently invited to speak on Hand Surgery topics at National and International Scientific meetings and also heavily involved in local and overseas teaching.

Damian Ireland graduated honours Monash University in 1968. After interning at Alfred Hospital he completed his specialist orthopaedic training at the Mayo Clinic from 1970 to 1974. This was followed by a Hand Surgery Fellowship with Dr Adrian Flatt at the University of Iowa. He became a member of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons the same year. In 1975 he completed a Fellowship in Care of the Disabled Child at the Oswestry Orthopaedic Hospital, United Kingdom. In the same year, he became an Orthopaedic Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and of the Royal Canadian College of Physicians and Surgeons. From 1975 until 1988, he attended the Alfred Hospital as a Visiting Orthopaedic Consultant and at the Royal Children's Hospital from 1976 until 1986 involved solely with hand problems. In 1995 Mr Ireland joined the Plastic Surgery Unit at St Vincent's Hospital as a Visiting Hand Surgeon until 2006. Mr Ireland's specialty has been hand surgery exclusively from 1980. He initiated the Victorian hand Surgery Associates (VHSA) and commenced its Hand Surgery Fellowship Training Program in 1992. The Associates are a group of independent surgeons working together by invitation and specializing exclusively in problems involving the hand and wrist. Mr Ireland served as President of the Australian Hand Surgery Society from 1990 - 1992 and remains a current member. He is also a Director of the Interplast Surgical Committee.

Job Titles:

• Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons
• FRACS

Mr James Thomas graduated from the University of Melbourne in 1996 and went on to specialise in orthopaedic surgery. After finishing orthopaedic training he completed a Microsurgery Research Fellowship at the Bernard O'Brien Institute of Microsurgery at St Vincent's Hospital, and obtained a Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Melbourne, supervised by Professor Wayne Morrison. For this research he received the Melville Hughes Scholarship from the University of Melbourne in 2003 and an NHMRC Scholarship in 2004. James then completed Hand Surgery Fellowships at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane, Wrightington Hospital in the UK, and the Curtis National Hand Centre in Baltimore, USA. James returned to Melbourne in 2007 and joined the Victorian Hand Surgery Associates. He holds a public appointment as a Consultant Hand Surgeon at St Vincent's Hospital in Melbourne. In private he works at St Vincent's Private Hospital in Fitzroy and Kew, and at Bellbird Private Hospital in Blackburn. James is a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, and a member of the Australian Hand Surgery Society and the Victorian Hand Surgery Society.

Mr Peter Maloney graduated medicine at the University of Queensland in 1997 and chose orthopaedic surgery as his specialty. He completed a Hand Fellowship with the Victorian Hand Surgery Associates in 2006, and with the Sydney Hand Unit in 2007, continuing there as a locum hand surgeon in 2008. Peter was then accepted for a Hand and Peripheral Nerve Fellowship with Professor C. Oberlin in Paris, France from 2008 - 2009. He then returned to Australia in 2009 to open his private practice and join the Victorian Hand Surgery Associates. He now works as a Consultant Hand Surgeon at St Vincent's public hospital, Dandenong Hospital (Monash Health), and as a visiting Hand Surgeon at St Vincent's Private Hospital in Fitzroy and Kew, and at Mulgrave Private Hospital. Peter consults in Bendigo regularly to provide a rural and regional service. Continuing medical education programmes are undertaken through the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, and Peter is actively involved in registrar education. He is a member of the Australian Hand Surgery Society. He is also a Interplast volunteer, travelling to Madang and Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea to take part in hand surgery missions, and is currently a member of the Interplast Clinical Governance Committee.

Mr Stephen Tham graduated medicine at Monash University in 1985 and went on to specialise in orthopaedic surgery. He was accepted for a Microsurgery Fellowship at the Bernard O'Brien Institute of Microsurgery at St Vincent's Public Hospital Melbourne in 1994 and followed this with a Fellowship in Hand Surgery at Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane, Australia in 1995. Mr Tham was accepted for a further Hand Fellowship at Mount Sinai Medical Centre and New York University Medical Centre in the USA in 1996 after which he returned to Melbourne to commence practice as a Specialist Hand Surgeon. He was awarded the Australian Hand Surgery Society Travelling Fellowship in 2008. Mr Tham now works in the Hand Surgery Unit at St Vincent's Public Hospital Melbourne and as a Senior Hand Surgery Consultant at Dandenong Hospital in Victoria while maintaining a busy private practice. He currently operates privately at St Vincent's Private Hospital Fitzroy and Kew, and Mulgrave Private Hospital, Melbourne. He is a current member of the Australian Hand Surgery Society and is a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.

Mr Timothy Bennett graduated medicine at Monash University in 1985 and became a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 1995, specialising in plastic surgery. He was appointed as a Research Fellow at the Bernard O'Brien Institute of Microsurgery from 1996-1998 involving research into peripheral nerve injuries and was awarded a Diploma of Anatomy in 1988. Today, Mr Bennett is the immediate past Director of Plastic, Reconstructive and Hand Surgery at St Vincent's Public Hospital Melbourne and a visiting Hand Surgeon at St Vincent's Private Hospital Fitzroy and Kew, Melbourne, while maintaining memberships with the Australian Society of Plastic Surgeons and the Australian Hand Surgery Society.

Job Titles:

• Physiotherapist / Practitioner in Hand Therapy