Dr Bethan Richards

Dr Bethan Richards is a Staff Specialist in Rheumatology, Epidemiologist and Head of the Department of Rheumatology at Royal Prince Alfred (RPA) Hospital in Sydney, Australia. She is also Deputy Director of the Institute for Musculoskeletal Health, Sydney Local Health District and Senior Clinical Lecturer with the School of Medicine, University of Sydney. In 2019, she was appointed as Australia's first Chief Medical Wellness Officer and Director of the new Sydney Local Health District MDOK Centre.

Dr Richards completed her PhD in pain management in inflammatory arthritis, which led to the development of national and international evidence-based guidelines. She also has a Masters in both Clinical Epidemiology and Sports Medicine, a CCPU in musculoskeletal ultrasound, Director of the Sydney Local Health District MDOK Staff Well. 

Dr Richards' diverse research interest areas include inflammatory arthritis, back pain, low value care, pain management, soft tissue injury, polymyalgia rheumatica, musculoskeletal ultrasound, clinician wellbeing, outcome measurement, and medical education.

Professor Jane Bleasel

Professor Jane Bleasel is a Senior Staff Specialist in Rheumatology at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Director of the Sydney Medical Program and Director of Academic Education in the Sydney Medical School at the University of Sydney.

She obtained her PhD in the Genetics of Osteoarthritis from the University of Sydney and has a Master of Health Professional Education from Monash University. Professor Bleasel has a long-standing passion for clinical teaching and supervision across the whole spectrum from medical students to specialist physician trainees. She established a mentor program for advanced trainees in rheumatology and led accreditation for Royal Australian College of Physicians (RACP) in rheumatology from 2014-2017. She is a member of the Senior Examining Panel for the RACP. 

Her clinical and research interests include connective tissue diseases associated with interstitial lung disease, teaching methods for large and small groups of learners and programmatic assessment. She is committed to providing specialist services to rural centres and runs regular clinics in the central west of NSW.

Dr Angela Fu

Dr Angela Fu is a Staff Specialist in Rheumatology at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. She has been involved in clinical trials of gout, systemic sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis. Dr Fu is currently involved in studies of systemic sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis.

Professor Inam Haq

Professor Inam Haq is a Staff Specialist in Rheumatology at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Staff Cardiologist at the Children's Hospital Westmead, and Associate Dean (Education) in the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney. He was previously Director of the Undergraduate Medical Program at Brighton and Sussex Medical School in the UK and Associate Director Education for leading charity Arthritis Research UK. Professor Haq's research is in healthcare education, use of technology, novel ways of teaching and learning, gender equity in medical education and careers.

Clinical Associate Professor Neil McGill

Clinical Associate Professor Neil McGill is a Visiting Medical Officer in Rheumatology at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. He has a long-term interest in crystal-induced arthritis, especially gout. He was the inaugural Chair (in 1997) of the RCPA Synovial Fluid Quality Assurance Program and continues in that role. The program provides quality assurance and teaching of synovial fluid examination for crystals to laboratories throughout Australia and further afield. Distribution of synovial fluid samples, yearly teaching videos sent by hyperlink, workshops (in person and now via teleconference), and advice on interpretation of difficult fluids are included in the program. In the last three years, he supervised Dr Pavic's work on preservation of synovial fluid cellular morphology, and collaborated with Prof Anthony Keech and his team on the effect of fenofibrate on serum urate concentration and incidence of gout. The relevance of his work is reflected by the inclusion of two of his publications in the 2020 American College of Rheumatology Guideline for the Management of Gout. 

He continues clinical and research work utilising nailfold capillaroscopy, now in conjunction with Dr Matthew Parker. Prof McGill's current research also includes assessment of urate-lowering drug therapies, especially those with a role in diabetes and lipid control. Both the synovial fluid crystals and nailfold capillaroscopy work were aided by a major upgrade in photographic and computer equipment such that the laboratory, although compact, now has world-class facilities for assessment and education. 

Dr Christopher Needs

Dr Christopher Needs is a Senior Staff Specialist in Rheumatology at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital where he is the medical lead for the Acute Back Pain, Osteoporosis refracture Prevention programme and Osteoarthritis multi-disciplinary programs. Dr Needs is also Co-Chair of the NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation Muscular Skeletal Network.

Dr Needs' research includes monitoring the outcomes from the acute back pain clinic; refining the elements of the Osteoarthritis Chronic Care Program; Contributing to the development of an electronic finding tool for osteoporotic fractures in conjunction with eHealth; and implementation of MSK value-based healthcare initiatives. In collaboration with the Institute of Musculoskeletal Health, Dr Needs is also participating in research investigating the treatment of acute low back pain in emergency departments.

Dr Matthew Parker

Dr Matthew Parker is a Staff Specialist in Rheumatology at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and Clinical Lecturer at the University of Sydney.

Dr Parker has enrolled in a PhD and was awarded a scholarship from the Lung Foundation Australia and the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand to support this work. With colleagues across Australia, he is in the advanced stages of establishing a national research database and biobank in idiopathic inflammatory myopathies.

He continues to pursue research interests that compliment his clinical expertise in idiopathic inflammatory myopathies and related connective tissue diseases. He has a particular focus on improving accurate early diagnosis as well as in the pulmonary manifestations of these conditions. He is involved in multiple commercial and investigator-initiated clinical trials, and an international collaborative initiative to establish consensus classification criteria for antisynthetase syndrome.

Dr Michael Spies

Dr Michael Spies is a Staff Specialist in Rheumatology at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital as well as Clinical Superintendent of Medicine of the RPA Basic Physician Training Network. He has a special interest in medical education and professional development of junior medical staff. He is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He has published original, investigator-initiated research and presented at national and international conferences. He is currently undertaking research in association with Prof Neil McGill into methods of synovial fluid preparation and analysis. In addition to his work in Rheumatology, he is currently undertaking projects to improve medical handover, physician wellbeing, recognition of teaching services and improving vertically integrated learning.

Professor Peter Youssef

Professor Peter Youssef is a Senior Staff Specialist in Rheumatology at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and Clinical Professor of Rheumatology at the University of Sydney. 

Professor Youssef became a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians in 1993 and completed his PhD in 1997 at the Flinders University of South Australia. Since 2007, he has been the rheumatology subeditor of the Internal Medicine Journal and Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of Arthritis Australia. He has been the Chair of the Scientific Committee of the Australian Scleroderma Interest Group and the Scientific Programs Committee of the Australia Rheumatology Association. He is currently on the board of the OPAL group, is a member of the European Synovitis Study Group, and serves on multiple pharmaceutical advisory boards. Professor Youssef continues to supervise PhD and Masters students, teach rheumatology across the spectrum from medical students to advanced trainees, and is an examiner for the College of Physicians.

His major interests are in rheumatoid arthritis (particularly the causes of damage and the role of targeted therapies) and systemic sclerosis, particularly screening for pulmonary hypertension and the role of autologous stem cell transplants. He is currently involved in studies of rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, systemic sclerosis, ankylosing spondylitis and myositis.