168¿ª½±¹ÙÍø

BPharm, MBBS, FANZCA, AAGM

At 168¿ª½±¹ÙÍø’s 1993-1999

By the time Dr Julie Lee was in primary school, her heart was set on a career in medicine. Her time at 168¿ª½±¹ÙÍø’s helped foster a love of learning and set the foundations for the long road ahead to achieving her dreams. Her active involvement in sports and athletics during her time at 168¿ª½±¹ÙÍø’s has lead to adopting a love of road cycling and participating in charity bike rides on an annual basis. Aside from her medical career, she was awarded the Australian Guild Award for highest marks in the Pianoforte Proficiency Practical and Theory Examinations in 2001 whilst completing an Associate Diploma of Pianoforte.

Fast forward twenty years and her passion for medicine and commitment to lifelong learning is just as strong. She is now a staff specialist anaesthetist at Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital (RBWH) and a Senior Lecturer at The University of Queensland. She also works as a Visiting Medical Officer at various private hospitals across Brisbane. More recently she expanded her clinical expertise to the field of medical research. Her special research interests include ultrasound-guided regional anaesthesia, airway management, obstetric anaesthesia and perioperative blood management.  She is currently nearing the completion of a Doctorate of Philosophy on rotational thromboelastometry in obstetrics and has just submitted her thesis for review. Through her research work, she has facilitated workshops and published widely on this topic. She has been invited to be a reviewer of research abstracts for local and national medical conferences, course material for nursing education and journal articles for various peer reviewed medical journals.

Dr Lee has been an invited speaker at local, national and international conferences. She is also a working party member of the Queensland Clinical Guidelines for Primary Postpartum Haemorrhage and RBWH Blood Management Committee. Since 2015, she has been awarded over $500,000 in research grants and prizes, including the National Blood Authority Early Career Researcher Grant, CSL Behring Early Career Research Prize, HOW Collaborative HSANZ Clinical Fellowship Award, Winner of the Open Poster Prize at The Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA) ASM 2018 and The Australian Society of Anaesthetists (ASA) Kevin McCaul Prize for the best paper on obstetric anaesthesia. She has been the chief site investigator for multiple international ANZCA CTN trials at the RBWH.

In addition to her research and clinical work, she is the appointed National Chair of the Public Practice Advisory Committee (PPAC) for the ASA and is a member of the ASA COVID-19 Working Group. Her professional committee representation revolves around professional advocacy and facilitating workshops for directors of departments of anaesthesia across Australia.

Despite her various research and clinical commitments, she is also the proud mum of a boisterous little toddler and her achievements to date would not be possible without the enduring support from her parents and husband.