Dr Dinesh Palipana
Dinesh's presentation will address why medicine needs to embrace workflow innovation and technology. He draws upon his work in the Emergency Department (ED) at the Gold Coast University Hospital, as a doctor for the Gold Coast Titans physical disability rugby team, and as a spinal cord injury researcher, co-leading the BioSpine research team
Dinesh was born in Sri Lanka, moving to Australia at age ten during the civil war. Dinesh was the first quadriplegic medical intern in Queensland, and is now a doctor, lawyer, disability advocate, senior lecturer (Griffith University) and assistant professor (Bond University).
Dinesh has completed a Bachelor of Laws at the Queensland University of Technology, a Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice at the College of Law, Emergency Medicine Certificate at the Australasian College of Emergency Medicine, and Doctor of Medicine and Griffith University. He is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors under a Disability Leadership Scholarship.
Dinesh was a senior advisor to the Disability Royal Commission and an ambassador to the Human Rights Commission’s Include ability program. He is a founding member of Doctors with Disabilities Australia.
Dinesh also serves as an advisory board member to Healthy Life, a Woolworths company, and is an independent non-executive director of George Steuart & Co, one of the oldest companies in the world and oldest in Sri Lanka. Dinesh is a non-executive director of the Housing Hub, started by the Summer Foundation. He is also a John Monash Scholar.
Dinesh was the Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service’s Junior Doctor of the Year in 2018. He was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2019. He was the third Australian to be awarded a Henry Viscardi Achievement Award. He was the 2021 Griffith University Young Alumnus of the Year. Dinesh was the Queensland Australian of the Year for 2021. In 2022, Dinesh was listed as number 33 in the Courier Mail’s top 100 power list for Queensland’s most influential in health and wellbeing. His autobiography, Stronger, was published by Pan Macmillan in 2022.
