Invited new zealand Speakers
Nariman Ahmadi
Dr Nari Ahmadi is a urological surgeon who practices in Sydney, Australia. Following completion of his training in Australia, he completed a 2 year fellowship at university of South California in robotic Uro-oncology. His areas of expertise are in minimally invasive surgery for urological cancers as well as reconstruction surgery.
Danny Bedingfield
President, Prostate Cancer Foundation of New Zealand
Danny was diagnosed with prostate cancer at the age of 37, just nine months after his father lost his five year battle with advanced prostate cancer. He has been an advocate for younger men to get tested and has been part of multiple media campaigns during Blue September to try and raise awareness around the benefits of regular PSA testing.
Danny is the support coordinator for the Porirua area and attends many events in the greater Wellington region. Danny is a digital native and very keen to help the Foundation move forward into the 21st century and utilise online tools to promote our message.
Danny is a Regional Facilitator with Cyclone Computer Company Ltd, is a Microsoft Certified Trainer, Google Educator and Adobe Educator. He lives in Titahi Bay with his wife and daughter and occupies his downtime with snorkeling, kayaking and spending time with his family. Danny is also a keen photographer and videographer and loves combining his passion for travelling and the outdoors with filming and making movies.
Max Bloomfield
Dr Max Bloomfield is an infectious diseases physician and clinical microbiologist with an interest in epidemiology, data-driven medical practice, and optimising antibiotic use to best serve the patients of today and tomorrow.
Max gained his medical degree from the University of Otago, and holds higher degrees from Cambridge University and Queen Mary University of London.
Rona Carroll (she/her)
Dr Rona Carroll (she/her) is a GP working in transgender healthcare and a senior lecturer at the University of Otago Wellington. Rona has led the writing of national guidelines for gender affirming healthcare and is a member of the executive committee of the Professional Association for Transgender Health Aotearoa (PATHA). She regularly provides education to general practice about gender affirming hormone prescribing.
Synopsis: Rona's presentation will cover some background information about gender incongruence, gender affirming healthcare and a brief overview of gender affirming hormone therapy.
Vincent Chan
Vincent is a New Zealand trained Urologist specialising in Andrology, prosthetics, male infertility and microsurgery. Born and raised in West Auckland, he attended The University of Auckland School of Medicine and completed the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons advanced training in Urology.
Mel Caruso
Mel is a Prostate Cancer Specialist Nurse at Eastern Health in Melbourne Victoria. Her work involves coordinating care of men living with prostate cancer, providing support to men and their families at diagnosis, during treatment and beyond. She has also recently joined the Prostate Cancer foundation as the clinical lead of the nursing service.Mel has been nursing for 20 years in a variety of clinical settings including outpatients, day surgery, elective surgical, and education.Mel’s qualifications include a Bachelor of Nursing, Bachelor of Applied Science- Health Promotion, Prostate Nursing Care, and Cert IV Workplace Training and Assessment. Her professional interests include education and awareness of Men's Health and survivorship issues. Her professional associations are:• Australian and New Zealand Urological Nurses Society (ANZUNS)- President 2024-2026
• ANZUNS Vic-Tas section Committee member and past chair
• Australian and New Zealand Urogenital and Prostate Cancer Trials (ANZUP)- Member
Stephen Child
Dr Stephen Child, Chief Medical Officer, provides clinical oversight and is responsible for health technology assessment at Southern Cross Health Society. A Canadian-trained General Physician with a respiratory interest, he continues weekly private clinics and is a consultant with the Department of General Medicine at Auckland DHB.
Stephen is a member of the Medical Council of New Zealand and previous roles have included Chair of the New Zealand Medical Association, DHB National Workforce Strategy Group member, the Minister of Health’s Medical Training Board member, Northern Clinical Training Network Board member, and Health Workforce New Zealand Clinical Advisor.
A recipient of the NZMA 2018 Fellowship award, Stephen continues to make an impact in the health sector. He is particularly committed to exploring the relationship between public and private healthcare with an interest in how technology will continue to change the delivery and practice of medicine.
Liz Childs
Liz has been a pelvic health physiotherapist in Wellington for 25 years. She has extensive experience in both the public and private sectors, and completed her postgraduate training in pelvic floor physiotherapy at the University of Melbourne. She now runs a busy pelvic health clinic, employing five other pelvic health physios.
Liz is on the National Executive of Continence New Zealand, she presents regularly at conferences and is a clinical lecturer at the University of Otago, teaching 5th year medical students. She also lectures at Victoria University, to the midwifery students.
Liz is passionate about her work, treating all genders, and she has a particular interest in prevention of pelvic floor problems. She regularly participates in online learning, and recently co-wrote a pregnancy guidebook which is now available free of charge to all pregnant and postnatal people in New Zealand.
Anne-Marie Frew
I have worked in Diabetes for nearly 20 years and carry the portfolio role for Diabetes in Maori. I am attached to several practices that have a high proportion of Maori and run a fortnightly clinic at Kokiri Marae designed to capture Maori who are not engaging with their General Practice for diabetes care, with the aim of assisting them to improve their diabetes, while also promoting GPs as seat of primary care. I take all referrals that come into Diabetes Service that come from several local General Practices with a high proportion of Maori. I have a passion for teaching and have helped set up a course for whanau living with diabetes that is delivered in a kaupapa Maori framework and is designed to increase health literacy regarding diabetes management skills.
In my spare time I am an Italophile, having lived in Italy and speak fluent Italian. I love spending time with family, including two grandsons who live locally. I have a 2 lovely miniature wirehair dachshunds and regularly attend Dog Shows with them. I’m in the process of setting up a breeding programme, as there are currently no breeders of this wonderful breed in New Zealand.
Cheryl Goodyer
Kaitohutohu Matua Māori – Principal Advisor
Māori
In her Māori leadership role with the Council, Cheryl (Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Ranginui) is responsible for overseeing the implementation of our Te Tiriti o Waitangi policy statement and framework. She works alongside Executive Leadership Team colleagues to lead the Council’s commitments, responsibilities and obligations under Te Tiriti o Waitangi. This includes providing strategic and operational advice on key iwi and Māori relationships, critical equity issues for Māori and regulatory matters to improve health outcomes for Māori.
Previously, Cheryl has worked in the health sector for 30 years, training as a Medical Laboratory Technologist specialising in Anatomic Pathology and holding Mortuary management roles for 10+ years.
More recently, she has held senior management roles with the CCDHB Māori Health Development Group responsible for leading the expansion, and ongoing development, of Whānau Care Services into a multi-disciplinary team, including specialty clinical nurses. Cheryl also established the Research Advisory Group-Māori and was a long-standing member of the CCDHB Clinical Ethics Advisory Group.
Cheryl is an accomplished Māori health leader with extensive professional and clinical leadership experience. She has worked across multiple services to implement a range of strategic and operational approaches including designing and delivering patient/whānau-focused services; system-wide workforce development for Māori and all staff to support the provision of culturally safe healthcare; and integrating continuous quality improvement and risk management systems to enhance health services for Māori.
Gwen Grimsby
Gwen Grimsby is a pediatric urologist at Phoenix Children’s in Arizona, USA, where she started a Transition Clinic for young adults with congenital urologic conditions. An Assistant Professor of Urology at Mayo Clinic with over 50 peer reviewed publications, she is the chair of the Society of Women in Urology Task Force on Parenting Resources and serves on the AUA DEI Committee.
Chris Hawke
Auckland
Bringing the best of what’s old and combining it with cutting edge technology, whether it’s Monoskiing or doing a Robotic Freyer’s prostatectomy.
Veruschka Hines
Veruschka is a Continence CNS working within Community Health Services for Capital Coast Health, Te Whatu Ora, in Wellington NZ. Veruschka is passionate about getting best possible patient outcomes, despite challenges health care workers are facing in today’s current working climate.
Veruschka's presentation is about how community health services improved our practice for TROC patients by taking “one small step for man and one giant leap for mankind”.
Kathy Holloway
Associate Professor Kathy Holloway is the Director of the School of Nursing, Midwifery, and Health Practice at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington.
Kathy has held multiple senior nursing leadership roles over the last two decades and is the current tau iwi co-chair of the National Nursing Leadership group. This is the peak nursing body in New Zealand representing senior leaders from across the nursing sectors of policy, regulation, employment, professional bodies and education working to progress their commitment to equity through the development of a sustainable nursing workforce.
Kathy served as a Board member for the College of Nurses for eight years and is a current College Fellow. She previously served as a ministerial appointment on the Nursing Council of New Zealand for seven years. A registered nurse originally educated at Wellington Polytechnic, Kathy worked as a specialist nurse overseas and completed her doctorate in 2011 at University of Technology Sydney. Through her research and national leadership roles Kathy is involved in clarifying the potential of nursing expertise to improve the patient experience and inform workforce planning models.
Jove (Joe) Horton
Jove (Joe) Horton is a transgender man, employed by Te Whatu Ora/ Health New Zealand as the Gender Surgery Health Navigator for the Gender Affirming (genital) Surgical Service. He was previously employed by the Auckland DHB’s Auckland Sexual Health Service (which provides gender affirming healthcare across the Auckland metro region) as the Transgender Health Key Worker.
His unique experiences working at the coal face of gender affirming care and acting as the interface to support the surgeon, community and the service itself as well as between various multi-disciplinary teams and specialists provide him with an invaluable insight and perspective.
Jove has a passion for using every available opportunity for education, with the goal of improving provider knowledge and confidence in gender affirming healthcare delivery throughout Aotearoa NZ, enabling all people and their whānau to flourish and thrive, with accepting families and communities, full self-determination over themselves, free from disrespect and discrimination.
Jove is a member of the Professional Association of Transgender Health Aotearoa (PATHA), World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) and has served as a founding member of the PATHA Policy and Advocacy Committee for the past five years. Jove was a founding member of the PATHA Education Committee, co-presenting the PATHA Foundation Basics Workshop at the PATHA Training Day and Symposium 2021. More recently Jove was one of the co-authors on PATHA’s Vision for transgender healthcare under the current health reforms, published 28th April 2023 in the NZ Medical Journal.
Douglas Iupati
Doug is a radiation oncologist working in Wellington Hospital. His special interest is in prostate cancer and brachytherapy.
Ashleigh Johnson
Ashleigh is a Urology Clinical Nurse Specialist for Te Whatu Ora, Waitaha Canterbury. Working from both the rural Ashburton hospital campus under the outpatient’s umbrella and the Christchurch hospital campus with a focus on inpatient care and staff education. She has worked in urology since graduating in 2017, and was appointed her first CNS role in 2021.
Ashleigh is passionate about supporting patients and whanau through their health care journey with a particular interest in Urological Cancer care. Ashleigh’s qualifications include a Bachelor of Nursing and Post Graduate Certificate in Health Sciences.
Han Kim
Dr Han Kim completed his radiation oncology training at Auckland City Hospital and pursued his fellowship at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto, Canada. He is an established radiation physician with experience in SABR/SBRT and specialises in genitourinary, breast, head and neck, and skin cancers. Dr Kim currently works as a senior clinical lecturer for Otago Medical School and chairs the Head and Neck Cancer multidisciplinary meeting in Wellington Hospital.
Shueh Lim
Giovanni Losco
Giovanni is an adult and paediatric urologist from Christchurch, New Zealand. He completed fellowship training in paediatric urology at Birmingham Children’s Hospital and gained extensive experience in reconstructive urology, female urology, pelvic organ prolapse, mesh complications, urethroplasty and urological care of spinal injuries while working at the London Spinal Cord Injury Centre, Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital and the Institute of Urology, University College Hospital, London. Prior to that, he worked at Concord Repatriation General Hospital in Sydney where he focussed on bladder dysfunction with a particular interest in male and female incontinence as well as mesh removal surgery.
In 2018 he was awarded a Travelling Fellowship where he spent time in the USA operating with world-leading surgeons in erectile dysfunction: Dean Knoll (Nashville, Tennessee) and Brian Christine (Birmingham, Alabama). Before leaving New Zealand, Giovanni undertook his post-graduate training in Christchurch, Wellington and Palmerston North.
Alongside maintaining an interest in general urology in both adults and children, Giovanni holds a number of leadership positions: National Co-lead, New Zealand Female Pelvic Mesh Service; Clinical Director of Urology, Te Whatu Ora Waitaha Canterbury; Chair, NZ Urology Clinical Directors’ Group; Director, Urology Associates; Trustee, Canterbury Urology Research Trust; Clinical Senior Lecturer, University of Otago, Christchurch; Examiner in Urology, Royal Australasian College of Surgeons; Prevocational Educational Supervisor, Medical Council of New Zealand; Clinical Lead for Urology, Te Whatu Ora South Canterbury; Consultant Urologist, Burwood Spinal Unit; and sits on a number of ACC and Ministry of Health committees concerning reducing harm from surgical mesh.
Andy Malcolm
Andy has worked in Nelson since 1999 as a consultant urologist. Cancer has always fascinated him. But with the advent of robotic prostatectomy allowed him to pivot towards education as my main focus.
Andy gained a Masters in surgical education in 2019, and was part of the team the redesigned the urology curriculum.
George Martin
Dr. Martin completed his residency
training at Mayo Clinic Arizona and his fellowship with Jim Duthie at the
Royal Melbourne Hospital.
George has an active
minimally invasive surgical practice and is the GU head of urologic
oncology at Parkview Medical Center in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Prof Helen O'Connell
Professor O'Connell completed training in Urology in Australia in 1994 as the first female Urological Surgeon. She then did formal Fellowship training in the US in 1994-5 in the management including surgery of all problems affecting function of the lower urinary tract in men and women.
In 2023 she became the President of the Urological Society of Australia and New Zealand.
Susan Rae
Susan was born and bred in Invercargill but has called Auckland home for over 25 years.
She has spent almost her entire career working in Women’s Health, the longest period of which was with women and couples experiencing early pregnancy loss and molar pregnancy. During this period of her career, she completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Nursing Leadership and Management and a Master of Health Practice in Nursing.
She spent several years prior to, and the COVID pandemic managing a Urology booking and scheduling team. The pressure of managing ministry expectations versus the reality of providing clinically appropriate elective surgical care, as well as COVID and COVID recovery, made this role the most stressful part of her career. She stayed longer than she should have because she knew the NZFPMS was coming, and she wanted to be a part of it.
Susan was the first CNS employed in the Northern Centre when the service opened in April 2023. The last year has been exciting, incredibly challenging and a really steep learning curve.
Susan is passionate about nursing. She believes that while nursing can be incredibly complex, at its core it’s about making a difference to someone during a difficult time in their lives. She feels profoundly privileged to be part of a service that was set up to help make a meaningful difference to the lives of women who have experienced harm from pelvic surgical mesh procedures.
Holly Stewart
Holly Stewart holds an MSc in Psychology from the University of Otago. She has experience facilitating Cognitive Stimulation Therapy groups at Alzheimer’s Otago. Previously, she worked as a Pastoral Support Teaching Fellow at the University. Holly is currently a Surgical Mesh Navigator at the New Zealand Female Pelvic Mesh Service in the Southern Hub.
Homi Zargar
Associate Professor Homayoun (Homi) Zargar is a urological surgeon with fellowship training in uro-oncology and advanced laparoscopic and robotic surgery. Originally from Iran, Homi is a New Zealand trained urologist practicing in Melbourne, Australia since July 2015.
Homi is a strong advocate of patient centered care and places emphasis on forming quality therapeutic relationships with patients. Homi provides comprehensive care for all urological cancers. He also treats general urological conditions including kidney stones, benign prostate enlargement, investigation of elevated PSA and blood in the urine.
Homi is a consultant urologist at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and an Associate Professor at the department of surgery at the University of Melbourne. He also has private hospital appointment at Epworth Richmond and Western private hospital.
Homi also offers a range of office urological procedures. Homi consults at the Kew Urology (Kew), Western Urology (Maribyrnong), Epworth Richmond, Holmesglen Hospital and at Williamsons Road in Doncaster.
Amir Zarrabi
Amir qualified as Urologist in 2009. He has spent time at international institutions in the USA and Europe, including Harvard Medical School, Boston Children’s Hospital, The Cleveland Clinic, Cornell University Hospital in New York and the Asklepios Hospital in Germany. He has held senior Academic Urology positions internationally.
Amir developed a passion for male infertility and -microsurgery early on in his career and has dedicated more than a decade to training, clinical practice and research in this field, including a PhD under Prof Thinus Kruger.
He was part of the surgical team who performed the world’s first successful penis transplant in 2014 and pioneered male infertility microsurgery in South Africa where he was responsible for the first live birth following micro-TESE in a man with non-obstructive azoospermia.
Though his passion is male infertility and -microsurgery, Amir manages the full spectrum of adult Urological conditions in his practices in Dunedin, Queenstown and Auckland.
He has authored numerous articles in international journals, co-authored book chapters and has presented his research at various international conferences over the last 15 years. He’s been an invited speaker at international conferences and invited surgeon at international workshops featuring male infertility microsurgery.
In his free time Amir enjoys the challenges of ultra-distance running and competitive swimming. He has completed the full Ironman triathlon a number of times, as well as numerous ultramarathons, and is a social surfer and -golfer.
More speakers to be announced!