CLINICAL RESEARCH IN EMERGENCY MEDICINE
Professor Daniel Fatovich, Emergency physician and clinical researcher
Royal Perth Hospital Emergency Department &
Head of the Centre for Clinical Research in Emergency Medicine (CCREM)
Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research &
Clinical Professor, UWA Medical School, Emergency Medicine
University of Western Australia, Western Australia
RESEARCHER PROFILE
Filmed in Perth, Australia | September 2025
Professor Daniel Fatovich is a senior emergency physician and clinical researcher at Royal Perth Hospital Emergency Department (ED), with over 30 years’ experience in the design and conduct of clinical research in Emergency Medicine. He is also Head of the Centre for Clinical Research in Emergency Medicine (CCREM) within the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research.
He is Professor of Emergency Medicine, University of Western Australia; Director of Research for East Metropolitan Health Service (EMHS), providing strategic advice and leadership; Board Member of the Royal Perth Hospital Research Foundation; Chair of the EMHS Research Advisory Committee.
Professor Fatovich was an inaugural executive member of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM) Research Committee (2019-2024) and the Clinical Trials Network (2018-2024) and has received over $33m in competitive grant funding.
In 2020 and 2023, he was Ministerial adviser for the passage of the Guardianship and Administration (Medical Research) Act Western Australia. In 2017-18, he was deputy chair of the WA Methamphetamine Taskforce. He is chief investigator for the Emerging Drugs Network of Australia (EDNA), which he describes as the most fabulous project of his career. This is best exemplified by a famous quote from Victor Hugo: there is nothing so powerful as an idea whose time has come. EDNA is a national toxico-surveillance system for detecting illicit, emerging and novel psychoactive substances, in presentations to sentinel Emergency Departments. In 2024, EDNA won a WA Health Excellence Award for Excellence in Research and Innovation, and the 2024 UWA Vice-Chancellor’s Award in Research Impact and Innovation.
Expertscape ranks him in the top 1% globally for expertise in Emergency Medicine. He loves to challenge doctors to think, and to think differently.
Source: Supplied
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Brain ageing, dementia and psychiatric disorders
Professor Perminder Sachdev graduated from the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, in 1978 and completed his MD in Psychiatry there in 1983. Following time in New Zealand, he relocated to Australia, where he completed psychiatric training and a PhD at UNSW in 1991. His doctoral work examined ethnopsychological concepts in Māori culture. His early research focused on drug-induced movement disorders, including akathisia, tardive dyskinesia and neuroleptic malignant syndrome, while his later work has centred on dementia and pre-dementia syndromes, particularly neuroimaging, biomarkers and risk factors.
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Clinical pathways for acute care in Tasmanian Emergency Departments
Assoc Prof Viet Tran has built Emergency Medicine Research in Tasmania from the ground up, which has culminated in the success of a AUD$3 million Australian Government Medical Research Futures Fund grant looking into the Implementation of Clinical Pathways for Acute Care in Tasmania project. Dr Tran is also the Emergency Medicine Discipline lead within the Tasmanian School of Medicine and has key roles to play within Emergency Medicine training. He feels privileged to be able to teach and mentor across the whole spectrum of becoming a doctor, from watching students grow into junior doctors, senior registrar and as fellow medical specialists.
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Enhancing occupational therapy service provision with military veterans
Prof McKinstry was instrumental in the development of the occupational therapy course at the La Trobe University’s Bendigo campus and also the establishment of the Rural Health School.
Prof McKinstry’s research focus is on health workforce, particularly developing a sustainable rural health workforce through recruitment of rural students for health courses, innovative and flexible delivery of health courses, telehealth and emerging areas of practice for occupational therapists.
