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Acknowledgement
The Women's and Children's Hospital is located on the traditional lands for the Kaurna people, and we respect their spiritual relationship with their Country. We also acknowledge that the Kaurna people are the custodians of the Adelaide region, and that their cultural and heritage beliefs are still as important to the living Kaurna people today.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that this website may contain images, voices and names of people who have passed away.

Children's Anaesthesia Consultants

Consultant information

The following specialist medical staff work in the Department of Paediatric Anaesthesia:

Dr Marion Andrew

Details not currently available.

Dr David Barker

Dr David Barker is the Deputy Unit Head of the Department of Paediatric Anaesthesia and has an interest in communication at all levels.

Dr Toby Branson

Dr Toby Branson graduated from the University of Adelaide Medical School in 1986. Following time as a resident medical officer at the (then) Adelaide Children’s Hospital and Queen Victoria Hospital (Diploma of Obstetrics) he started his anaesthetics career in Winchester (England) receiving the U.K. Diploma of Anaesthetics in 1990. After returning to Australia, he completed his training in Adelaide and was awarded Fellowship of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists in 1997.

Since that time he has worked continuously as a specialist anaesthetist in both public and private practice. He is particularly interested in anaesthesia for children and has been a Visiting Medical Specialist at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital (Paediatric Anaesthesia) since 1998.

He is married to Jenny, a paediatric dentist and has 2 adult daughters who are also both health professionals.

Outside of medicine, his interests include travel, golf and he is a keen supporter of the Adelaide Crows.

Dr Brenda Cassidy

Dr Brenda Cassidy undertook her specialist anaesthesia training in Adelaide before working as a Senior Registrar in Paediatric Anaesthesia at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital. She completed a Fellowship in Pain Medicine at the Royal Adelaide Hospital and is a Fellow of both the Australian New Zealand College of Anaesthetists and the Faculty of Pain Medicine of the Australian New Zealand College of Anaesthetists.

Dr Cassidy has worked as a Consultant Anaesthetist and Pain Medicine Specialist at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital since 2004. Since 2012, she has worked as a Pain Medicine Specialist in the Pain Management Unit at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. Dr Cassidy has previously worked as a Specialist Anaesthetist at the Launceston General Hospital, Flinders Medical Centre and in private practice with Adelaide Anaesthetic Services. She has worked as a locum Specialist Anaesthetist and Pain Medicine Specialist at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Brisbane.

Her special interests include regional anaesthesia and analgesia, paediatric acute and chronic pain, safety in paediatric anaesthesia and sedation and the effect of childhood pain experience on adult behaviour and function.

Dr Cassidy has been an Editor of Australasian Anaesthesia since 2014 and has been involved in obstetric and paediatric pain management research, quality assurance activities and guideline development at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital. In 2003 she received the Postgraduate Prize from the South Australian Medical Women’s Society.

Dr David Costi

Dr David Costi graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery with Honours from Flinders University of South Australia in 1995 and was awarded the University Medal. He completed specialist anaesthetic training through the South Australian Northern Territory Rotational Anaesthetic Scheme and was awarded Fellowship of the Australian New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (FANZCA) in 2004. Dr Costi completed a Paediatric Anaesthesia Fellowship at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Adelaide.

He has worked as a full time Staff Specialist Paediatric Anaesthetist at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital since 2004 (except for 2007 when he worked as a Staff Specialist Paediatric Anaesthetist at Starship Children’s Hospital, Auckland, New Zealand).

His clinical interests include neonatal, craniofacial and thoracic anaesthesia. Dr Costi has a keen interest in paediatric anaesthesia research and in teaching of anaesthesia trainees. He is a clinical senior lecturer at the University of Adelaide, Discipline of Acute Care Medicine. Research interests include emergence agitation, craniofacial anaesthesia, and anaesthesia and the developing brain. His research on emergence agitation won first prize for best abstract at the Euroanaesthesia 2015 meeting in Berlin, Germany.

He is a member of the Society for Paediatric Anaesthesia in New Zealand and Australia (SPANZA) and is on the SPANZA Research Committee. He was scientific convenor for the annual SPANZA meeting in 2016. He is a reviewer for a number medical journals including Paediatric Anaesthesia.

Dr Allan Cyna

Details not currently available.

Dr Yasmin Endlich

Dr Yasmin Endlich studied medicine at the University of Human Medicine in Vienna, Austria. She completed her internship and basic anaesthetic training at Herz-Jesu Hospital in Vienna. She then moved to Adelaide, where she completed her specialist anaesthetic training becoming a Fellow of the Australian New Zealand College of Anaesthetists in 2014. She completed a 14-month fellowship in paediatric anaesthesia at the Women's and Children's Hospital in Adelaide.

Dr Endlich holds a Diploma in Child Health from the University of Sydney and a Masters in Perioperative Medicine at Monash University in Melbourne. She is currently enrolled in a PhD program at the University of Adelaide.

Dr Endlich has been working at the Women's and Children's Hospital since 2013 and as a consultant anaesthetist at the Royal Adelaide Hospital since 2016. She is a Staff Specialist with Adelaide Anaesthetic Services.

Her special interests include anaesthesia for ENT, head/neck surgery and trauma patients in the paediatric and adult population. She also has a keen interest in ultrasound-guided regional anaesthesia, perioperative medicine and real-world anaesthesia, which takes her to Papua New Guinea annually. She is an executive member of the Australian and New Zealand Tripartite Anaesthetic Data Committee and involved in multiple safety and quality projects.

Dr Endlich is interested in teaching and education and has been involved in multiple national and international workshops and lectures. She also has an interest in anaesthetic risk management and incident analysis and has published in national and international professional anaesthetic journals.

She regularly provides teaching sessions for nursing staff, junior and senior doctors and various anaesthetic departments.

She is the Australian and New Zealand Airway Management Special Interest Group's current chair and the current Australian wide Airway Lead. She is the ANZCA Global Development Committee's deputy chair and the Pacific Online Learning and Education Committee chair.

Dr Cormac Fahy

Qualifications

  • MB BCh BAO, University College Dublin
  • Fellow of the College of Anaesthetists RCSI
  • Fellow of the Australian New Zealand College of Anaesthetists
  • Diploma of Perioperative Echocardiography, University of Melbourne
  • Diploma in Clinical Hypnosis, Australian Society of Hypnotherapy

Training

  • School of Medicine, University College Dublin, Ireland
  • Southern Regional Anaesthesia Training Scheme, Cork, Ireland
  • Senior Registrar/ Clinical Fellow in Paediatric Anaesthesia, Cardiothoracic
  • Anaesthesia and Intensive Care. Mater Hospital Dublin, National Children's
  • Hospital, Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children, Dublin, Ireland
  • Clinical Associate in Pediatric Anesthesiology , Duke University Medical Centre, North Carolina, USA.

Interests

  • Paediatric and Neonatal Anaesthesia
  • Cardiac Anaesthesia and anaesthesia for congenital heart disease
  • Thoracic anaesthesia
  • Anaesthesia for craniofacial, maxillofacial and ENT surgery
  • Neurosurgical anaesthesia
  • Clinical hypnotherapy and perioperative anxiety
  • Clinical Audit

Appointments

  • Senior Clinical Lecturer in Acute Care Medicine, University of Adelaide (current)
  • Specialist Anaesthetist, Flinders Medical Centre (2003-2009)
  • Pediatric Anesthesiologist, Duke University Medical Centre (2003)
Dr Smrithi George

Details not currently available.

Dr Chui Mei Hew

Details not currently available.

Dr Rob Laing

Dr Rob Laing graduated from Flinders University in 1985 with a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery. He completed a Diploma of Obstetrics from the Royal Australian College of Obstetrics and Gynaecologists and a Diploma of Anaesthetics in the United Kingdom prior to undertaking his specialist anaesthesia training in Australia. He was awarded Fellowship of the Australian New Zealand College of Anaesthetists in 1995 and completed his training with a Fellowship in Paediatric Anaesthesia at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital. He completed a Diploma of Clinical Hypnosis in 2017.

Dr Laing worked as a Specialist Anaesthetist Visiting Medical Officer in both Obstetrics and Paediatrics at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital from 1996 until 2008 when he became a full-time Staff Specialist in the Department of Paediatric Anaesthesia. He was Deputy Director of the Department of Paediatric Anaesthesia between 2010 and 2015. His current clinical interests are in peri-operative communication and the use of imaginative techniques in the management of procedural anxiety and acute pain. He has a broad range of clinical interests.

He is the co-chair of the EPIC interest group (https://www.spanza.org.au/epic/)

EPIC provides resources for anaesthetists, paediatric health professionals and families to use communication and imaginative techniques to improve their health interactions.

Dr Laing is a Clinical Senior Lecturer at the University of Adelaide. He is a member of the Society for Paediatric Anaesthesia in New Zealand and Australia and the South Australian Society for Hypnosis.

Dr Philippa Lane

Dr Philippa Lane graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery from the University of Adelaide in 2004. She completed her specialist anaesthetic training through the South Australian Northern Territory Rotational Anaesthetic Scheme and was awarded Fellowship of the Australian New Zealand College of Anaesthetists in 2014. Dr Lane completed Paediatric Anaesthesia Fellowships at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Adelaide and the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne.

Dr Lane has worked as a Staff Specialist Paediatric Anaesthetist at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital since 2017.

Her clinical interests include anaesthesia for neonatal, spinal, thoracic and general surgery. Dr Lane has an interest in improving vascular access in children and is the chair of the WCHN SAMI Vascular Access Service Governing Group. She has completed the Comprehensive Instructor Workshop at the Centre for Medical Simulation in Boston and is the Department of Paediatric Anaesthesia simulation lead, running multidisciplinary simulation sessions for the WCH perioperative team.

Dr Lane was awarded the Allan Kerr Grant Award in 2006 for Outstanding General Trainee.

She is a member of the Australian Society of Anaesthetists and is on the Executive of the Society for Paediatric Anaesthesia in New Zealand and Australia.

Dr Scott Ma

Dr Scott Ma is a specialist anaesthetist with an interest in paediatric anaesthesia and medical leadership. His clinical interests include thoracic anaesthesia, neuroanaesthesia and acute pain.

He is currently appointed as a Senior Consultant in the Department of Children's Anaesthesia at the Women's and Children's Hospital, Adelaide. He has previously held an appointment as a Consultant Anaesthetist at the Flinders Medical Centre, where he was the Paediatric Anaesthesia Specialised Study Unit Supervisor for anaesthesia trainees.

Dr Ma graduated with a Bachelor of Medical Science and a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery from Flinders University. He is a Fellow of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists after completing his training in Adelaide and Melbourne. He has completed a fellowship in paediatric anaesthesia and pain management at the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne. Dr Ma also holds an Associate Fellowship with the Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators.

Dr Ma is a member of the Australian Society of Anaesthetists, Society for Paediatric Anaesthesia in New Zealand and Australia, Australian Medical Association, and the South Australian Salaried Medical Officers Association. He was appointed to the State Advisory Panel for MDA National in 2013. He is the New Fellow Councillor for the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists; and he sits on its Professional Affairs Executive Committee, Emerging Investigators Subcommittee, Trainee Bursary Evaluation Subcommittee and Regional Committee for South Australia/Northern Territory.

He has the full academic status of Lecturer in the School of Medicine by Flinders University. He is an instructor for Advanced Paediatric Life Support Australia and is a Graduate Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Dr Todd Maddock

Details not currently available.

Dr Nicholas Marks

Dr Nicholas Marks graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery from the University of Otago in 2000. He completed a Diploma in Children’s Health through University of Auckland in 2003. His specialist anaesthetic training was completed in New Zealand and he was awarded Fellowship of the Australian New Zealand College of Anaesthetists in 2010. Dr Marks completed Paediatric Anaesthesia Fellowships at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Adelaide and the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne.

Dr Marks has worked as a Staff Specialist Paediatric Anaesthetist at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital since 2014. He also works in private practice with Stace Anaesthetists.

Dr Marks is the convenor of the SANTRATS Part II course. He is also on a number of hospital committees at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital and St Andrews Hospital.

He is a member of the Australian Society of Anaesthetists and the Society of Paediatric Anaesthetists of New Zealand and Australia.

Dr Rowan Ousley

Dr Rowan Ousley completed a Bachelor of Science at the University of Adelaide before graduating with a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery from Flinders University. After undertaking anaesthetic specialist training in the South Australian Northern Territory Rotational Scheme and a Provisional Fellowship in Paediatric Anaesthesia at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital, she was awarded Fellowship of the Australian New Zealand College of Anaesthetists. She also holds a Diploma in Clinical Hypnosis from the Australian Society of Hypnotherapy.

Dr Ousley has worked as a Staff Specialist at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital since 2012, where she is the Supervisor of Training for the Department of Paediatric Anaesthesia. She also is a Visiting Medical Specialist at Calvary North Adelaide Hospital.

Her paediatric subspecialty areas of interest include Ear, Nose and Throat Surgery, Neonatal Surgery, Neurosurgery and General Surgery as well as singing songs in theatre!

Dr Ousley was the recipient of the Jane Preston Memorial Prizein Obstetrics and Gynaecology and was during her training was awarded the Best Formal Project Presentation at the Registrars Scientific Meeting in 2012.

Dr Andrew Wallace

Dr Andrew Wallace joined the Children’s Anaesthesia department in 2010 for a paediatric anaesthetic fellowship and accepted a role as a specialist paediatric anaesthetist in 2013. Andrew gained extensive experience and training in anaesthesia across South Africa, the United Kingdom, Isle of Man and Australia, receiving his fellowship in Anaesthesia and specialist recognition in 2013.

His clinical areas of interest include anaesthesia for neonatal, craniofacial, spinal and neurosurgery. Dr Wallace has a keen interest in regional anaesthesia and difficult airway management as well as anaesthesia in the developing world. He also completed a Diploma in Hypnotherapy in 2018.

He currently holds appointments at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital and The Royal Adelaide Hospital and is associated with Stace Anaesthetists in the private sector. He is a member of the Society for Paediatric Anaesthesia in New Zealand and Australia (SPANZA) and the Australian Society of Anaesthetists.

Dr Michael Whitehead

Michael’s experience is in a wide range of clinical practice but he has a particular interest in Paediatric Anaesthesia. In addition a significant portion of his case load consists of anaesthesia for Eye, Ear Nose and Throat, Breast/Endocrine and Plastic surgery.

Dr Nicole Wylie

Qualifications

  • Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS Adelaide)
  • Fellowship of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (FANZCA)
  • Masters of Perioperative Medicine (MMed. Monash)
  • Postgraduate Certificate in Clinical Ultrasound (Melbourne)

Training

  • South Australian and Northern Territory Anaesthetic Training Scheme (SANTRAS)
  • 12-month Fellowship in Paediatric Anaesthesia/Paediatric Intensive Care at Mater Children’s Hospital and The Lady Cilento Hospital (now Brisbane Children’s Hospital) in 2014

Interests

  • Paediatric and neonatal anaesthesia
  • Anaesthesia for congenital heart disease
  • Anaesthesia for general and urological paediatric surgery
  • Anaesthesia for paediatric ENT surgery

Dr. Wylie holds the title of Clinical Lecturer with the University of Adelaide. Her particular research interests include local anaesthetic agents in paediatrics, and anaesthetic pharmacokinetics. She is involved in Anaesthetic teaching and training activities, is the author of several clinical guidelines, and contributes to the SA Formulary Committee. She has worked at the Women's and Children's Hospital as a Paediatric Anaesthetist since 2015.

Dr David Zoanetti

Dr David Zoanetti graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery from the University of Adelaide in 1996. He completed his specialist anaesthetic training through the South Australian Northern Territory Rotational Anaesthetic Scheme and was awarded Fellowship of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists in 2003.

Dr Zoanetti has worked as a part-time Staff Specialist Paediatric Anaesthetist at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital since 2003, combining this with a busy mixed adult and paediatric anaesthesia practice in the private sector. In addition, he spent two years as a retrieval consultant with MedSTAR Kids, South Australia’s statewide neonatal and paediatric retrieval service.

David maintains his skills in all subspecialty areas of paediatric anaesthesia and pain management, but he has particular clinical interests in craniofacial anaesthesia, neuroanaesthesia, and retrieval medicine. He is an examiner for the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists.