Meet the team

The Endocrinology and Diabetes Service at PCH is comprised of a specialist multidisciplinary team that provides care to all children in Western Australia.

The clinical team consists of specialist endocrinologists, diabetes nurse educators, specialist nurses, dietitians, social worker and psychologists.

Leadership team

		Professor Liz Davis Head of Department, Endocrinology and Diabetes Head of Chronic and Severe Diseases Research Focus Area; Clinical Lead, Diabetes and Obesity Research Professor Elizabeth Davis, MBBS, FRACP, PhD is a paediatric endocrinologist and Australian clinical researcher in paediatric diabetes. Professor Davis is the Head of the Department of Endocrinology and Diabetes at Perth Children’s Hospital, a State-wide service responsible for the care of all children with diabetes and endocrine disorders in Western Australia. Professor Davis co-directs the Children’s Diabetes Centre at Telethon Kids Institute, an integrated Clinical and Research centre. Her particular research interest is clinical research which improves the lives of children with diabetes. She is a past president of the professional society, Australasian Paediatric Endocrine Group. Professor Davis is also a Clinical Professor at the University of Western Australia.

		Dr Jacqueline Curran BSc, MBChB, FRACP Head of Service, Healthy Weight Service Dr Curran is a paediatric endocrinologist and research fellow at Perth Children's Hospital and a senior lecturer in paediatrics at Notre Dame University. Dr Curran studied pre-clinical medicine at The University of St Andrews, Scotland and undertook her clinical studies through Manchester University, England. She trained in paediatrics at The Women's and Children's Hospital Adelaide and Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH), Perth. In addition to her paediatric endocrinology training at PMH, she has undertaken a fellowship in type 2 diabetes in indigenous youth at the Health Sciences Centre, Winnipeg, Canada. Dr Curran is currently undertaking a PhD at the University of Western Australia, studying the effect of a novel treatment for weight loss in obese adolescents.

		Dr Craig Taplin Honorary Research Associate Head of Service, Diabetes Dr Craig Taplin studied medicine at the University of NSW and trained in paediatrics and paediatric endocrinology at The Children’s Hospital, Westmead in Sydney, before completing a clinical and research fellowship at The Children’s Hospital, Colorado and The Barbara Davis Centre for Childhood Diabetes in Colorado. After 10 years in academic paediatrics at The University of Washington and a staff paediatric endocrinologist at Seattle Children’s Hospital, he returned to Australia and Perth Children’s Hospital where he is now the Clinical Lead for Diabetes and an Investigator at Telethon Kids Institute. His interests include diabetes technology and the impact of exercise on glycaemic control.

		Clinical Associate Professor Aris Siafarikas MD/Dr.med., FRACP Head of Service, Endocrinology Clinical A/Professor Aris Siafarikas is a Consultant Paediatric Endocrinologist at Perth Children’s Hospital (PCH) with European and Australian specialist qualifications. Dr Siafarikas is a collaborative clinician researcher, who specialises in bone and mineral metabolism. He holds adjunct positions with the University of Western Australia (UWA) and Telethon Kids Institute and also is a Clinical Professor at the University of Notre Dame Australia (UNDA) and Edith Cowan University (ECU). Dr Siafarikas is a co-founding member and clinical lead of the Western Australian Bone Research Collaboration (WABRC): a cross-institutional and multidisciplinary team of researchers and clinicians investigating bone health over the life span. His main research areas and interests are Prevention of Osteoporosis, Exercise and Bone Health, Growth and Paediatric Medicine.

Consultants

		Professor Tim Jones Consultant Endocrinologist, Director of Research, Child and Adolescent Health Service; Co-Director, Children’s Diabetes Centre (Telethon Kids Institute) Areas of research expertise: Diabetes Mellitus, youth, hypoglycaemia, metabolism As well as Co-Director of Children’s Diabetes Centre at Telethon Kids, Professor Jones is a Clinical Professor at The University of Western Australia and Director of Research at Child and Adolescent Health Service. Professor Jones received his paediatric training in Australia and the UK and his post-doctoral training at Yale University, USA. Professor Jones is internationally recognised for clinical investigation in childhood diabetes, in particular in hypoglycaemia and diabetes treatments and technologies; and leads a research team based at the Telethon Kids Institute and Perth Children’s Hospital.
		Dr Mary Abraham MBBS, DCH, MD Paediatrics, FRACP, PhD Dr Abraham is a clinician trained in paediatrics from Mumbai, India. She did her paediatric endocrinology training in Perth and is now a consultant in the department. She is a clinical researcher with the Children’s Diabetes Centre at TKI and leads the technology research theme. She is an academic and also holds an adjunct lecturer position with the University of Western Australia. She completed her PhD from UWA in the prevention of hypoglycaemia with technology in type 1 diabetes. She has been involved with multicentre technology trials in type 1 diabetes and conducted various in-clinic and home studies.
		Professor Cathy Choong Consultant Endocrinologist Dr Choong is a consultant Paediatric Endocrinologist at Perth Children’s Hospital and Clinical Professor in the Division of Paediatrics, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Western Australia. She has been a previous President of the Australasian Endocrine Group and served as the Chair of the APEG Subcommittee evaluating the outcome of Growth Hormone Therapy in Australian Children (Ozgrow). She was a previous member of the Council of the Endocrine Society of Australia. She is a member of the Growth Hormone Research Society Executive Committee and has participated in a number of international perspectives on growth hormone therapy. Dr Choong is the lead endocrinologist for the Childhood Cancer Survivorship Programme at Perth Children’s Hospital. Her research includes investigation of the aetiology and effects of treatment of paediatric endocrine patients with conditions affecting growth and adrenal function; and endocrine and metabolic outcomes of cancer therapy in survivors. Currently, she has a specific interest in hypothalamic and pituitary endocrinopathy. This stems from her clinical work managing patients following treatment of intracranial lesions including medulloblastoma and Craniopharyngioma and individuals with Prader Willi Syndrome. She enjoys national and international collaborations with paediatric endocrinologists and other clinicians in both clinical and research initiatives. She has been the Chair of the Scientific Advisory and Safety Committee of the Child and Adolescent Human Research Ethics Committee/Institutional Review Board since 2006. She is currently the President of the Paediatric and Child Health Division of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and in this role is involved in advocacy for improvement in child and adolescent health in Australasia with a specific focus on development of sustainable practices in health systems to mitigate the environmental effects of climate change on the wellbeing of children.
		Dr Fiona Frazer Director Postgraduate Medical Education and Paediatric Endocrinologist
		Dr Rae-Chi Huang Associate Professor, Honorary Research Fellow, MBBS, FRACP, PhD, DCH A/Professor Huang is a paediatric physician and leading clinical researcher in early antecedents of cardiometabolic disease. Her work investigates pathogenesis of cardiovascular and related metabolic disease, with emphasis on their origins in pregnancy and early childhood. She completed her PhD in 2010, investigating the role of early life precursors on adolescent cardio-metabolic risk.  She holds an associate professorship at Edith Cowan University.  She currently leads the Australian arm of the EU “Early-life stressors and LifeCycle health” and led the NHMRC project "A two generation population study of obesity epigenetics". Dr Huang's research focuses on understanding the early origins of human disease particularly in reference to obesity and related cardiovascular risk factors. A/Professor Huang has had financial support in the role of chief investigator from the NHMRC since 2011 amounting to over $3.5 million to date.  She has worked as a paediatric consultant in the paediatric obesity clinic in the department of Endocrinology at Princess Margaret Hospital, now Perth Children’s Hospital, since 2010.
		Dr Kiranjit Joshi MBBS, DCH, MD, FRACP Dr Kiranjit Joshi did her bachelors medical degree followed by a residency in Paediatrics in India. She did her Endocrinology training in Australia and is a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of physicians for Paediatric Endocrinology and General Paediatrics. S he has more than twenty years of experience of working with children. She is currently working as a consultant Paediatric Endocrinologist at Perth Children’s Hospital and provides outpatients service at Fiona Stanley Hospital. She is a supervisor of training for junior medical doctors. She provides service in all areas of Endocrinology and diabetes. Her areas of interest are bone and mineral metabolism and exercise and musculoskeletal health. She is involved in clinical research in children with various bone conditions. Her main interest in research is osteoporosis in children. She is pursuing her PhD with UWA in Osteogenesis imperfecta in children.
		Dr Glynis Price Consultant Endocrinologist
		Dr Vinutha Shetty MBBS, DCH, DNB, MD, FRACP, PhD, Paediatric endocrinologist Dr Vinutha Shetty is an Endocrinology consultant at Perth Children’s Hospital, researcher at TKI and Senior Lecturer at UWA. She leads the adolescent diabetes service within the Endocrinology Department and is passionate about holistic care in medical practice. Her interests are in integrative health focusing on creating ecological solutions for the complex health challenges to promote personal, environmental, economic and societal health. Dr Shetty has a strong passion in reducing the carbon footprint in the health care sector and is actively involved in CAHS Earth Ambassadors Network. She leads the exercise research theme at the Children’s Diabetes Centre, a clinical research team based at PCH and the Telethon Kids Institute. Being spiritual and active in scientific research, her other goal is to integrate science and spirituality and ultimately to create a conscious planet.
Image coming soon		Dr Uma Ganti Paediatric Endocrinologist Dr Ganti is a Paediatric Endocrinologist who obtained her qualifications in Australia and India. She is passionate about delivering the best possible health care for children and adolescents in all aspects of Paediatric Diabetes and Endocrinology.

Fellows

		Dr Fran Gehrmann Fellow			Dr Kate Lomax Fellow
		Dr Mercedes Burnside Fellow			Dr Radhika James Fellow
		Dr Sarah Black Fellow

Nurses

		Adele Connor Clinical Nurse Diabetes Nurse Educator			Alison Roberts Clinical Research Nurse
		Annette Hart Nurse Practitioner			Annie Farinosi Clinical Nurse
		Anupam Sharma Clinical Nurse Diabetes Educator			Beth Wright Clinical Nurse
		Corelle Heeger Clinical Nurse			Daina Coenen Clinical Nurse Consultant
		Emma Pearmain Clinical Nurse Specialist			Jayasree Subi Clinical Nurse
		Julie Dart Clinical Research Nurse			Kath Irwine Acting Clinical Nurse Specialist
		Katherine Nell Clinical Nurse Diabetes Educator			Katie Nash Clinical Nurse
		Kelly West Clinical Nurse Consultant			Lara Downie Clinical Nurse Diabetes Educator
		Lauren Haddow Clinical Nurse / Diabetes Educator			Louise Lappage Clinical Nurse
		Lynn Last Registered Nurse			Mark Shah Nurse Practitioner
		Mary Mitchell Clinical Nurse Specialist Endocrinology			Naomi Paget Clinical Nurse Consultant
		Niru Paramalingam Clinical Research Nurse			Nola Harrington Clinical Nurse Diabetes Educator
		Rachel Romans Clinical Nurse Consultant			Shay Furlonger Registered Nurse
		Sonia Johnson Liaison Nurse			Sonia Mani Xavier Clinical Nurse

Dietitians

		Aimee Ergovic Dietitian			Barb Keating Dietitian
		Bec Flavel Senior Dietitian			Catherine Jones Dietitian
		Claudia Coombes Dietitian			Katherine Singh Dietitian

Psychology

Joanna White
Senior Clinical Psychologist

Social Workers

		Jasmina Brkich Senior Social Worker			Kelly O'Mara Senior Social Worker
		Kirsty Browne-Cooper Senior Social Worker			Stella Rose Senior Social Worker

Admin and Clerical Coordination

		Jane Makin Data Manager			Justine Chatterton Outpatient Clinic Clerk
		Katrina Ellis Project Officer			Lyndsey Price Coordinator