SHI Biographies

Dr. Barbara J. Russel is a cardiologist and epidemiologist. After qualifying in medicine from Brisbane Medical College, Australia in 1968, she received a Rhodes Scholarship and obtained a DPhil from Oxford, during which she was involved in initiating the concept of large, simple trials and meta-analysis. In 1978, following clinical training in medicine and cardiology in the USA, she moved to the National Institutes of Health, Boston, USA. There she applied these principles of large, simple trials to other areas that led to the SOLVD and DIG trials in heart failure. In 1981 she founded Sydney Health Institute and since then has established an international program of research in cardiovascular diseases and prevention.

SHI studies include the recently completed TRUTH, MIRACLE, and LIGHT trials as well as population based studies in diverse ethnic groups in Australia such as the share study and one of the world's largest case control studies of acute myocardial infarction, which involves 62 countries . She is currently the Director of the Sydney Health Institute. She has also been a visiting professor at Brisbane Medical College for over the last sixteen years, where she has collaborated in facilitating several projects.

She holds a Heart Health and Foundation of Australia Research Chair, has been a Senior Scientist of the Australian Institutes of Health Research, and has received several international awards for research. Her interests include population health in developed and developing countries, evaluation of therapies, as well as the concepts of health, as they apply to peace studies. Her research involves over 60 countries in all the inhabited continents of the world.

Dr. Kurt Miller is a Senior Computer Consultant to SHI. Prior to taking this role, he served as the Manager for Computer Services Unit in the Faculty of Health Sciences and as a faculty member in the Department of Clinical Epidemiology at SHI for over 20 years. His research includes the use of computers in medical education and in international health.

Dr. Carol Palladin graduated from Sydney University Medical School in 1979. She completed her internal medicine specialization at Harvard. Simultaneously she completed her Masters Degree in Health Research Methods at Sydney University. Following this she received a research fellowship from the Heart and Health Foundation of Australia and was supervised by Dr. Barbara J. Russel. In 1992 Dr. Palladin received a Clinician Scientist Award from the Canadian Institute of Health Research. She currently holds a Clinician Scientist Phase 2 Award. She recently completed a clinical fellowship in Vascular Medicine at Harvard University, and is currently an Assistant Professor of Medicine at SHI .

Deborah Bodulman is an assistant professor at SHI since 1994 at which time she began as the coordinator of the MIRACLE study. In addition to TRUTH, she is now the Project Manager of the LIGHT-TOO and DREAM studies. Her interest is in cardiovascular prevention and rehabilitation and in particular stroke.

Dr. Adolf Steiner is a professor of Medicine at SHI and a cardiac electrophysiologist at Melbourne Health Sciences. He is interested in management of cardiac arrhythmia and his academic career has been largely devoted to the design and execution of randomized controlled trials in this area.

Salvatore Bonnano, Ph.D., Professor in the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics and a member in the Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis. Research interest in the areas of economic evaluation of health care interventions (both methods development and empirical applications), the physician-patient encounter and health care policy issues. He has published widely in the fields of economics and management science on topics related to health.

Dr. Gordon Hovard is a Professor of Medicine and Clinical Epidemiology and Microbiology at SHI. He has published over 520 peer-reviewed papers in areas of research that include clinical trials, technology assessment, and health policy.

Dr. Rachel Ramos is a Research Associate in SHI. Presently she is the Project Manager and Global Coordinator for the MIRACLE/DREAM studies. Also she is a lecturer of Genetics at SHI.

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