Meet Your SOMANZ Council

SOMANZ President Claire McLintock is a graduate of Edinburgh University Medical School and moved to Auckland, New Zealand in 1990.  She trained as a clinical and laboratory haematologist, she has been a physician in the Risk Maternal Fetal Medicine Clinic, National Women’s Hospital since 2001 and recently was appointed as Senior Lecturer in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Her main areas of interest include thrombotic complications of pregnancy, adverse pregnancy outcomes and management of post partum haemorrhage but she deals with all aspects of Obstetric Medicine – and finds it challenging and rewarding work!
SOMANZ Secretary/Treasurer Lawrie McMahon is Director of Nephrology and Obstetric Medical Services for the Western Health Service in Melbourne, and an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Melbourne. He has helped organize and develop the Obstetric Medicine Interest Group in Melbourne which comprises multiple specialties and meets 3 times a year. He is engaged in active clinical and laboratory research as well as maintaining a strong clinical load.
Peter Muller Duke University Medical Centre trained Maternal-Fetal Medicine sub-specialist. His current appointments are Senior Consultant in Obstetrics, Division of Perinatal Medicine and Co-Director of Women's Imaging at the Women's and Children's Hospital, Adelaide, South Australia as well as Clinical Lecturer at the University of Adelaide. His clinical and research interests include hypertensive disease in pregnancy, fetal surveillance in women with medical complications in pregnancy, and prenatal diagnosis. His particular interests are in reviewing a combination of early maternal serum analytes in the prediction of adverse pregnancy outcome.
Peter Moore graduated from Otago University in 1973. He has undertaken training in obstetric medicine, and research into immunological aspects of pregnancy and pre-eclampsia with Chris Redman in Oxford 1980 –1982. His current appointments are as Obstetric Physician, Christchurch Women’s Hospital, General Physician Christchurch Hospital, and Diabetes Physician as well as Clinical Director in the Department of Endocrinology, Christchurch Hospital. His areas of particular interest are pre-eclampsia and diabetes in pregnancy.
David Ellwood is a Maternal-Fetal Medicine sub-specialist, based at The Canberra Hospital in the ACT. He is also Professor of Obstetrics & Gynaecology at the Australian National University Medical School, and Associate Dean of the Canberra Clinical School. He is the current President of PSANZ and on the Board of Women’s Hospital’s Australasia (WHA). His clinical and research interests include risk management, preterm delivery, medical disorders in pregnancy and postnatal health.
Anne Barden is a research scientist in the School of Medicine & Pharmacology (Royal Perth Hospital Unit) at the University of Western Australia. She has published articles relating to the role of endothelin, prostacyclin, cellular activation and lipids and lipid peroxidation in the pathogenesis of pre-eclampsia collaborating with Lawrie Beilin, Con Michael, and Barry Walters. She has a strong interest in the long term cardiovascular outcome of women who had pre-eclamptic pregnancies.
Stephen Gatt is Area Chair in Anaesthesia& Perioperative Medicine for the South East Illawarra Area Health Service, Director of Anaesthesia for Prince of Wales Hospital & Head of Division of Anaesthesia & Intensive Care at Prince of Wales and Sydney Children’s Hospitals. He is conjoint Associate Professor of Anaesthesia at the University of New South Wales. He is the President of the Obstetric Anaesthesia Society of Asia and Oceania (OASAO) and the President of the Federation of Maltese Abroad. He has a research interest in the clinical use of regional anaesthesia and invasive monitoring in severe preeclampsia.
Barry Walters
Immediate Past President Gus Dekker (Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, University of Adelaide) has a long-standing research interest in the pathogenesis, prevention and management of preeclampsia, with a particular focus on genetic and immunological factors. Gus is responsible for the 'Southern Hemisphere' part of the SCOPE (SCreening for Obstetrical and Perinatal Endpoints) program - a major global study aimed at finding robust clinically useful predictors for the 3 major pregnancy complications; preeclampsia, IUGR and preterm birth.
Suzie Neylon is the Executive Officer for SOMANZ and as many of you will know managed the Secretariats for ASSHP and OMGA for over a decade via the offices housed at the RACP in Sydney. Suzie joined the RACP in 1993 with a background in nursing, travel, advertising, promotions and public relations. She has a Bachelor of Science from the University of New England, Armidale then completed her honours under the supervision of Professors Eileen Gallery and Jonathan Morris at the Kolling Institute of Medical Research, Sydney. Her laboratory based research was on the localisation of cells expressing nuclear factor kappa B in the human placental bed in normal pregnancy and pregnancies complicated by preeclampsia.