A/Prof Timothy Haydon (Director)
After a training degustation of medicine, intensive care and anaesthesia Tim straddled the realms of cardiac anaesthesia and intensive care in equal doses until COVID saw him settle in ICU. Particular clinical interests remain perioperative critical care, cardiovascular physiology, supports and ultrasound. He is a former St V’s CICM SOT and continues to enjoy education and supervision, focusing now on echocardiography and ethics.
Tim is the Director of St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne ICU and a Clinical Associate Professor with the University of Melbourne’s Department of Critical Care. He has a strong interest in bioethics and has completed a Master of Bioethics through Sydney University. After fostering formal ethics education for ICU staff he is helping to build a Clinical Ethics Service at St V’s to support clinicians making complex decisions and facilitate broader ethics awareness through education and research. He highly values
collaboration and has a keen interest in the impact inter-professional interactions have on clinical decision-making and patient outcomes.
Beyond the hospital, Tim has active research interests in the always controversial experiment of parenting, along with the health benefits of homemade yeast products and very small scale farming.
Dr Patricia Hurune (Deputy Director)
Dr Yvette O'Brien (Deputy Director)
Yvette is an ICU Consultant at St Vincent’s Hospital. She was admitted to fellowship of the College of Intensive Care Medicine in 2017 after beginning life as a physician trainee, before realising that she did not like outpatient clinics and preferred being amongst the action at MET calls.
She very much enjoys working in ICU and hopes to share that enthusiasm through medical education and mentoring, helping to coordinate delivering ICU education, including being the current chair of the Victorian Intensive Care Education Network, teaching students and trainees of all levels and instructing on a number of courses such as ALS and Bronchoscopy.
Her clinical interests include respiratory critical care, end of life, communication and organ donation and transplantation, as well as being involved in numerous audit and quality projects to improve clinical care of her patients including the Choosing Wisely movement.
In her spare time she enjoys pilates, is on a dancefloor near you, is an enthusiastic participant in karaoke and is awaiting her big break as lead singer in a band.
A/Prof Antony Tobin
Antony is an ex-deputy director of ICU at St Vincent’s and current Chief Medical Officer of the hospital. He completed training in respiratory and sleep medicine before training in intensive care medicines St Vincent’s. On gaining his ICU fellowship he practised intensive care, respiratory and general medicine in both the public and private sectors. He subsequently worked for 2 years as an Intensivist in a government hospital in Hong Kong, his time there coinciding with the outbreak of SARS. In 2003 he took up a full-time position at St Vincent’s working in intensive care and respiratory medicine, moving to full time intensive care work with his appointment as the deputy director. His interests include mechanical ventilation, tracheostomy management and clinical outcome analysis.
In 2017 he was appointed Head of Medicine at St Vincent’s Hospital, a role encompassing responsibilities for clinician engagement, strategic planning and clinical process improvement. He chairs a number of quality and planning committees within the hospital and has post graduate qualifications in epidemiology and health management.
Antony prefers a life devoid of the internal combustion engine, keeping his work, sleep and play within walking distance. He does however occasionally venture outside Melbourne’s golden mile to forage or to partake in international travel. He enjoys eating, drinking and cooking and runs regularly to enjoy more of the same. Whilst intensive care medicine is a serious business he believes humour at work is essential and enjoys rounds seasoned with idioms, witticisms and pithy sayings.
Dr Bernadette Hickey
Bernadette graduated last century from Monash University and completed training in Thoracic Medicine and Intensive Care to achieve the FRACP in 1993. A troubled and unproductive laboratory PhD project came to an end with the offer of a consultant position in the ITU at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. Next stop was the delights of Houston Texas and a clinical fellowship at the University of Texas teaching Hospitals. Then followed a summer at the Harvard School of Public Health before returning home to SVHM as an Intensivist in late 1997.
Over the years Bernadette has been involved in a wide range of the organisation’s activities and committees. Her efforts are currently focused around end of life, clinical ethics and Organ and Tissue donation. Bernadette is a member of the FRACP National examiners panel.
Away from work Bernadette is an acknowledged lamington expert and alpine skier, with declining competence but continuing enthusiasm.
Dr Barry Dixon
Barry is a senior Intensivist who’s clinical acumen is only rivalled by his quick wit. Barry completed his MBBS in Sydney before obtaining his FRACP and FCICM qualifications.
His clinical interests include ECMO, ARDS and improving support post attempted suicide. He is a strong supporter of good end of life care. Barry has varied research interests including the application of nebulised heparin, pulse oximetry and various aspects of cardiac surgery.
Dr Steven Musca
Steve grew up and studied in Perth, before completing ICU training at The Alfred in Melbourne. He joined the StV team in 2019.
He has a passion for using technology and innovation to improve patient, family and caregiver experiences and outcomes. Projects range from quality improvement (choosing wisely) initiatives to technology and education aids. He also has a keen interest in extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) techniques and is Director of the StV ECMO programme which consumes a lot of his time.
Steve is an easy-going but stoic patient advocate and dislikes medical hierarchies as everyone should be treated with respect and given the opportunity to contribute. He believes a fun and collaborative work environment is paramount to optimal outcomes.
Steve enjoys watching the West Coast Eagles win and playing tennis. He has a slight obsession with wellness and enjoys finding emerging ways integrative medicine can assist in living longer and healthier lives.
Dr Alastair Brown
Alastair was born in the United Kingdom where he undertook his undergraduate medical degree and anaesthetic training. He moved to Melbourne in 2016 to explore opportunities in critical care research at the Austin Hospital and quickly came to call Melbourne his new home.
Alastair has become a passionate clinician researcher and works closely with the fantastic research team at St Vincent’s to support and lead multi-site research projects, supervise trainee and student research projects and run the ICU research education program. He is undertaking a PhD through Monash University to understand and prevent the complications of Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO). He has additional clinical and research interests in airway management, acute kidney injury and health services research.
Outside of work Alastair is a father of two young boys who keep him very busy and enjoys participating in a variety of endurance sporting events.
Dr Ken Sakurai
Born and raised in Melbourne, Ken completed his graduate medical training at the University of Melbourne, St Vincent’s Clinical School, after a brief stint at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute for Medical Research and the University of Oslo.
On the road to specialisation in intensive care medicine, he has trained and worked in a dozen critical care departments, large and small, across 2800km of Australia’s Eastern Coastline. Having thus witnessed the disparate needs of patients in Australia and the inequalities of healthcare, he has returned to St Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne, an institution that takes pride in looking after those in need from all walks of life.
A founding member of CICMWrecks, Ken is a passionate clinician educator and a current supervisor of training for the College of Intensive Care Medicine. He strives to support the junior doctors in the ICU as they care for our sickest patients and balance their busy work and life.
In his spare time, he can be found at the park spraining never-heard-of-before muscle groups kicking a soccer ball, and, as a seasoned traveller in his past life, he is very keen to hear about your experiences here and abroad!
