Associate Professor Helen Opdam is the National Medical Director of the Australian Organ and Tissue Authority. She is a Senior Intensive Care Specialist at the Austin Hospital in Melbourne and Director of Warringal Private Hospital Intensive Care Unit.
Helen has been involved in organ donation since 1998, initially in developing an audit to determine the potential for organ donation. She was the inaugural Victorian State Medical Director for Organ and Tissue Donation at the time that the National Reform to boost donation in Australia began in 2009. She is a Council member and president-elect of the International Society for Organ Donation and Procurement. Helen participates on key Australian committees including the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society (ANZICS) Death and Organ Donation Committee and the National Health and Medical Research Council Expert Advisory Group for the development of ethical guidelines for organ transplantation from deceased donors.
She is a regular invited speaker at national and international conferences.