Avni Sali Author

Avni Sali, MBBS, PhD, FRACS, FACS, FACNEM is often referred to as the father of Integrative Medicine in Australia. In 1996 he was the Founding Head of the Graduate School of Integrative Medicine at the Swinburne University in Melbourne. In 2009 he established the not-for-profit, charitable National Institute of Integrative Medicine (NIIM), and became its founding Director.  In the past he was also Head of the University of Melbourne Department of Surgery at Heidelberg Hospital.
Dr. Sali donates his time to several positions on medical boards and associations. He is the current President of the International Council of Integrative Medicine (ICIM); past President of the Australasian Integrative Medicine Association (AIMA) and sits on numerous medical and other boards. He is a member of the Joint Working Party of the AIMA & Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) establishing the Integrative Medicine (IM) Network which oversees GP training, continuing professional development, and standards for safe ethical practice in the field of integrative medicine.  He is also a patron and ambassador for several organisations including: The Melbourne Therapy Centre, GVConnect and others.
Dr. Sali’s previous appointments include: Australian and New Zealand Representative of the International Society of Surgery, and Director of Victorian Health Research and Education Committee (VPHREC). Professor Sali was a part of the Federal Government Complementary Health Care Consultative Forum and the National Scientific Advisory Committee in Complementary Medicine. 
As a highly sought after Integrative Medical expert, Dr. Sali regularly contributes to a wide variety of publications, including editorials and articles in Australian and International Medical Journals.  He has authored and co-authored numerous publications, including chapters in two of the world’s leading surgical texts. He is on the editorial board of several medical journals and reviewer of articles for other health related publications.  Recently he co-authored the highly awaited definitive text of integrative medicine ‘A Guide to Evidence-Based Integrative and Complementary Medicine’ published in 2011: Elsevier Australia.  
Dr. Sali is an invited speaker at numerous seminars and workshops both nationally and internationally, each year.  He also volunteers his time to give educational talks on public health in metropolitan and rural communities.   He is a regular contributor of health articles to publications such as The Melbourne Review. His clinical expertise is in the area of treating complex and chronic diseases, particularly cancer.  
Kylie O'Brien, PhD, is the Director of the Inegrative Chinese Medicine Center at the National Institute of Integrative Medicine in Australia. She has a wide range of expertise in Chinese medicine, as a practitioner, consultant and researcher. Prof. O'Brien has distinguished herself in Chinese medicine education, creating the curricula for three of Australia’s Masters degree courses in Chinese medicine (RMIT University and University of Western Sydney), and completed a government-funded feasibility study that led to the establishment of Australia’s first complementary and alternative medicine research centre in the early 2000’s. 
Prof. O'Brien's expertise in teaching and learning more broadly is acknowledged in her invitation over the past six years to be on the ALTC and now Office of Learning and Teaching (OLT) judging panels for teaching and learning citations/awards and in 2015, for teaching and learning grants, and the invitation to be on the Australian government’s Tertiary Education Quality Standards Agency (TEQSA) Expert Panel. Kylie is also an international reviewer for the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) Scotland.