Professor Rawlinson turns the spotlight on preventable cytomegalovirus and shares his thoughts on public health and research in Australia. See the full list of honourees from the health and medical sector.
Virologist Professor William Rawlinson leads the list of health and medical honorees on the King’s Birthday Honours list this year.
Professor Rawlinson has been appointed a Companion of the Order (AC) for eminent service to the medical sciences as a virologist, to clinical research and education, and to national and international public health.
In conversation with HSD, Professor Rawlinson spoke of his continuing passion for the work, his respect for his colleagues, and his desire to encourage others to take it up.
“I enjoy seeing younger people get involved in this and take it up with passion. I enjoy the fact that I know that some of the work that we’ve done, with the people I’m fortunate to work with, has resulted in lives saved.
“It really is a group of people who’ve got your back. It’s a group of people who love what they do,” he told HSD.
Other King’s Birthday Honours coverage:
Professor Rawlinson, a senior medical virologist and director of Virology at South Eastern Sydney and Illawarra Health, is no stranger to the monarch’s birthday honours list, having been appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (OAM) in 2011.
Among many other things, he is the former chair of the COVID-19 Expert Reference Panel, New South Wales Ministry for Health, and of the NSW Health Expert SARS Cov-2 Panel.
“During covid, because we worked in a laboratory, [the team] weren’t seeing patients, they weren’t seeing the sort of outputs, but I kept saying to them, you know, what you do saves lives, and that’s a really good thing to do with your life.
“There is nothing more important to me than doing medicine and, through that, improving people’s lives.”
Professor Rawlinson currently holds so many positions it would fill the page to list them all.
These include director of Serology and Virology Division and Senior Medical Virologist, NSW Health Pathology, founder and director at the Organ and Tissue Donor Screening Laboratory, TGA, director of the NSW State Reference Laboratory for Human Immunodeficiency Viruses, founding member of the Public Health Laboratory Network, DoH, chair of the NSW Blood Borne Virus Advisory Panel, Conjoint Professor at the School of Biomedical Sciences, University of New South Wales, chair of the Biosecurity Sensitive Quality Assurance Program, Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia, and chair of the Measles/Rubella National Verification Committee, World Health Organisation.
Professor Rawlinson finished his MBBS and BSC(Med) at the University of Sydney in 1983 and went on specialise in virology, with a doctorate from the University of Cambridge.
“My PhD was on cytomegalovirus, and I completed that 30 years ago now. And 30 years on, a lot of people still have never heard of cytomegalovirus and the fact that it’s the most common cause of infectious cause of disease in in newly born infants,” he said.
Because of it, one to two children are born with congenital disease every day in Australia, and one to two die every week – something which is largely preventable, he said.
“Thirty years on, we have made some advances, but they’ve been very small. The majority of parents have never heard of it, and it’s a complex medical issue that needs explanation. But we now do have some treatments, we now have some vaccines which are being trialled, they’re not yet commonly available.”
While work was ongoing in basic molecular virology work, it was important not to “wait for the magic bullet, the magic cure”, said Professor Rawlinson.
Through simple public messaging, congenital CMV could be reduced by half, he said, calling out Cerebral Palsy Alliance and CMV Australia for making inroads (“much better than me”, he said) in educating potential parents about simple prevention strategies (“wash with care, kiss with care, don’t share”).
Professor Rawlinson’s experience has taught him that in public health there is a need for “a rational, medical, community basis for our decisions”. Community engagement was essential “because they’re the ones who this is done for, and their involvement in decision making means that they’re more likely to see some of the things that are done, and why they’re done, and how they’re of benefit, and how important they are, and support them, and do them,” he said.
“I think we learned in covid that you make mistakes and you learn from them, and I think that’s really important, being transparent, learning from your mistakes. But we also learned that there’s nothing like investing in research and investing in translational research and investing in health to make the population better, safer. You know, it’s a pretty obvious thing.”
However, it was often politicised, during the pandemic and since, he said.
“There’s a lot of politics about it and I think that it’s important to have a social discourse about this.
“But it is equally important to acknowledge that a scientific and rational basis for what we do, with the support of the community, with engagement with the people affected, is absolutely critical; explaining to people why the science and why the medical things are being done.
“And I think that was done reasonably well. I think that the media during covid did a good job of informing people. And of course there’s been a lot of hindsight bias and revisionism about it,” he said.
There were some positive things happening in support of research in Australia, said Professor Rawlinson – the release of MRFF money, better integration with the NHMRC, and the use of Future Fund money for science. And it was important to mentor and encourage people to get into research, he said.
There was some support for early and late career researchers, though there could be more, he said.
“But that sort of bit between getting your PhD, your first enthusiastic grant, and then before you become a group leader or that kind of five to 10 years, sometimes that’s a really difficult area, and really good people can fall by the wayside or go overseas,” he said.
“People are often needing to go simply because that’s where the money is, that’s where the jobs are, and you can’t do research without money.”
Emeritus Professor Justin Kenardy from the University of Queensland received his AO for distinguished service to clinical psychology, to the understanding of traumatic stress, to governance roles, and to tertiary education.
He is a clinical researcher focused on how children experience and recover from traumatic injuries and hospitalisation, especially after events like car accidents, burns, serious illness, and ICU admissions.
“I’m incredibly proud and honoured. It really is incredible, and I have to pinch myself,” he told HSD.
“Unfortunately children tend to be somewhat overlooked when we’re thinking about mental health, and particularly mental health in the hospital setting. It’s not to say they’re completely overlooked, but they tend to be somewhat less identified, that they’re not what comes first to mind when when people are thinking about it.
“So if my nomination helps to raise awareness about the impacts of trauma in children, and particularly very young children, I think that would be a really great outcome.”
Professor Kenardy said he was most proud of was drawing attention to the psychological and mental health impacts of injury.
Emeritus Professor John Spencer from the University of Adelaide received his AO for distinguished service to dentistry, to public health research and policy development, to oral epidemiology, and to tertiary education.
He has particularly worked in population oral health & access to dental care: He focuses on how everyday life (habits, environment, policy) affects people’s oral health in the many days they are not at the dentist, and on improving access to dental care, especially for those who don’t attend often enough.
“I was surprised,” he told HSD.
“I’ve always considered that I’ve just endeavoured to do my job well, but I agreed to accept it because I think it’s an important acknowledgement for the work that myself and many others have been involved with.
“It highlights the actual area that we’ve worked away at for many years: population oral health and access to dental care.
“The thing that’s most pleasing is not the personal part of the award. Dentistry struggles enough for recognition, but an area like mine, with an interest in non-clinical dentistry rarely gets much recognition, and yet we play a fairly important role in the population’s oral health.
“That’s the part that’s pleased me.”
The full list of health and medical honourees is:
Companion of the Order of Australia (AC)
Professor William Rawlinson AM: For eminent service to the medical sciences as a virologist, to clinical research and education, and to national and international public health.
Officer of the Order of Australia (AO)
The late Professor Katrina Allen: For distinguished service to medical research as a paediatric allergist and gastroenterologist, and to the people and Parliament of Australia.
Professor Michael Berk: For distinguished service to epidemiology, to preventative medicine, to mental health, and to tertiary education.
Professor Timothy Davis: For distinguished service to medicine as a consultant physician, to clinical research into diabetes and infectious diseases, and to tertiary education.
Emeritus Professor Richard Dowell: For distinguished service to audiology, to the development of the cochlear implant for people who are deaf or hard of hearing, and to tertiary education.
Professor Valsamma Eapen: For distinguished service to psychiatry, to child and adolescent mental health, to neurodevelopmental research, and to tertiary education.
Professor Elizabeth Elliott AM: For distinguished service to paediatric medicine, to women’s health, and to medical and social understanding of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.
Professor Jozef Gecz: For distinguished service to human translational genetic science, to genomic research, to child health, and to neurodevelopmental disability.
Emeritus Professor Justin Kenardy: For distinguished service to clinical psychology, to the understanding of traumatic stress, to governance roles, and to tertiary education.
Emeritus Professor Harold McIntyre: For distinguished service to medicine as a clinician, to medical research and education, to policy development, and to allied health administration.
Professor William Morgan: For distinguished service to ophthalmology, to neuro-ophthalmic physiology, to space medicine and health, and to tertiary education.
Emeritus Professor Michael Roberts: For distinguished service to pharmaceutical science and medicine, to the advancement of topical drug delivery, and to clinical toxicology research.
Professor Margaret Schnitzler: For distinguished service to colorectal surgery, to research, to innovative surgical training, and to tertiary education.
Professor Hans Soyer: For distinguished service to dermatology, to the diagnosis of skin cancer, to medical research and development, and to governance roles.
Emeritus Professor Andrew Spencer: For distinguished service to dentistry, to public health research and policy development, to oral epidemiology, and to tertiary education.
Member of the Order of Australia (AM)
Dr Michael Adams: For significant service to Indigenous health and education.
Mr Matthew Ames: For significant service to community health, to engineering, to business administration, and to corporate governance.
Associate Professor David Austin: For significant service to intensive care medicine, to sport, and to education.
Dr Tanja Bohl: For significant service to dermatology as a clinician, and to women’s health.
Dr Kathy Dempsey: For significant service to infection prevention and control, to patient safety, and to clinical governance.
Dr Peter Elliott: For significant service to gastroenterology, and to fundraising for research into inflammatory bowel diseases.
Professor Emeritus David Findlay: For significant service to orthopaedic research, and to the Baptist Church in Australia.
Associate Professor Miron Goldwasser: For significant service to orthopaedic surgery, and to clinical education and training.
Dr Jennifer Harrison: For significant service to youth and children’s psychiatry, and to the arts.
Professor Noel Hayman: For significant service to medicine, particularly to Indigenous health care and medical education.
Associate Professor Anne Howard: For significant service to dermatology as a clinician, teacher, examiner and mentor.
Dr David Joske: For significant service to haematology, and to pioneering the use of integrative oncology.
Professor Ryan Lister: For significant service to biochemistry, to genetic science, and to neuroscience.
Professor Richard Macdonell: For significant service to neurology, to clinical electrophysiology, and to tertiary education.
Dr Helen Mackie: For significant service to rehabilitation medicine, and to research and treatment of lymphoedema.
Professor Colin MacLeod: For significant service to clinical psychology, and to advancing research into emotions.
Professor Warwick Middleton: For significant service to psychiatric medicine, and to research into and treatment of complex traumagenic dissociation.
Dr Andrew Mulcahy: For significant service to medical administration, and to anaesthetics.
Dr Elizabeth Murphy: For significant service to colorectal and general surgery, and to clinical education and training.
Professor John Newton: For significant service to mental health care, and to the psychiatry profession.
Professor John Olynyk: For significant service to the health sciences, and to gastroenterology and hepatology.
Professor Peter Parashos: For significant service to dentistry, particularly endodontology, and to tertiary education.
Professor Konrad Pesudovs: For significant service to optometry and ophthalmology research, and to clinical education and training.
Professor Emeritus Trevor Redgrave: For significant service to physiology and molecular biology research, and to tertiary education.
Professor Sarah Roberts-Thomson: For significant service to pharmaceutical medicine, to academic leadership, and to tertiary education.
Professor Anna Rosamilia: For significant service to urogynaecology through education, mentoring and training.
Ms Bridget Shaw: For significant service to physiotherapy, to clinical training, and to advanced practice leadership.
Professor Michael Solomon: For significant service to gastrointestinal surgery, to surgical outcomes research, and to the community.
Dr Shane Sondergeld: For significant service to rural and remote medicine, to general practice, and to the community.
Associate Professor Michael Steyn: For significant service to anaesthesiology and peri-operative medicine, and to health leadership.
Professor Andrew Stripp: For significant service to medical administration through executive and governance roles.
Professor Robert Thomas OAM: For significant service to surgical oncology, to patient-centred cancer care, and to system reform.
Professor Bernard Tuch: For significant service to endocrinology, and to medical research.
Professor Balasubramaniam Venkatesh: For significant service to critical and intensive care medicine, to infection control, and to tertiary education.
Mrs Kathryn Vines: For significant service to community health through cancer support.
Emeritus Professor Stephen Zubrick: For significant service to medical science and research, particularly in children’s and youth development.
Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM)
Dr Andrew Beattie: For service to the community of Coffs Harbour.
Dr Constantine Berbatis: For service to the community of Perth.
Dr Imad Berro: For service to the Arabic community of New South Wales.
The late Mr Keiran Booth: For service to community health through a range of organisations.
Dr Fiona Boyd: For service to general and palliative care medicine.
Mrs Silvia Brown: For service to nursing.
Mrs Tamara Cavenett: For service to psychology.
Dr Thomas Condon: For service to dentistry, and to the community of Southern Downs.
Dr Wesley Cormick: For service to ultrasound and general practice medicine.
Dr Luke Coyle: For service to haematology.
Dr Dov Degen: For service to medicine, and to mental health support.
Dr Kenneth Facer: For service to medicine as a general practitioner.
Professor Suran Fernando: For service to medicine in the field of immunology.
Ms Christine Fox: For service to health administration, and to the community.
Dr Dilipkumar Gahankari: For service to plastic and reconstructive surgery.
Associate Professor Alan Gale: For service to cardiothoracic surgery, and to the community.
Dr Jon Garaftdyk: For service to the community through cancer support groups.
Dr Roger Hampson: For service to medicine as a pathologist.
Dr Timothy Harpur: For service to the community of the Northern Beaches.
Mrs Dawn Hay: For service to the community through a range of roles.
Mrs Genevieve Hebart: For service to the community of the Barossa, and to nursing.
Dr Peter Henderson: For service to obstetrics and gynaecology.
Dr Peter Hill: For service to dentistry.
Ms Laura Hogan: For service to people with disability.
Dr Noemi Horvath: For service to haematology.
Mr Silvio Iadarola: For service to the Italian community of South Australia.
Dr Paul Jenkins: For service to medicine as a paediatrician.
Mrs Shannon Keen: For service to Locked-in Syndrome research.
Mr Alex Laslowski: For service to medical science, and to anatomical pathology.
Mr Nicholas Logan: For service to the pharmacy profession.
Ms Mary-Jane Lynch: For service to rural and remote nursing.
Dr Ross MacPherson: For service to medicine as an anaesthetist.
Dr Gabor Major: For service to rheumatology.
Dr William McAuliffe: For service to interventional neuroradiology.
Mrs Catherine O’Leary: For service to the community through a range of roles.
The late Dr Roger Peters RFD: For service to community health, particularly as a psychologist.
Associate Professor Christopher Pokorny: For service to community health.
Ms Joanne Riley: For service to the suicide prevention advocacy.
Dr Helen Roxburgh: For service to general practice, particularly in the areas of women’s health.
Mr Daniel Ryan: For service to community health.
Mrs Maureen Simpfendorfer: For service to nursing.
Mrs Margaret Small: For service to nursing.
Dr Andrea Smith: For service to community health.
Dr Wayne Spring: For service to medicine as a general consultant physician.
Dr Sean Stevens: For service to general practice medicine.
Dr Paul Valent: For service to the Jewish community.
Dr Christopher Verco RFD: For service to medicine as an obstetrician.
Dr Abhishek Verma: For service to medicine, and to medical administration.
Dr Lachlan Warren: For service to dermatology.
Dr Mark Williams: For service to tertiary education.
Dr Ann Wollner: For service to the Jewish community.