TEM Connect ’26 · Mission Beach Resort
The program
A full day of pre-hospital, emergency department and research talks from across the far north — followed by drinks and dinner as the sun goes down.
Dr Tatum Bond
Dr Tatum Bond
Emergency Specialist & DEMT, Cairns Base Hospital
A proud Ngajanji woman living and working on Girrumay Wallaburra Yindinji land, Tatum is a full-time Emergency Specialist and DEMT at Cairns Base Hospital, and a casual Retrieval MO with Cairns RFDS. A long-serving member of ACEM’s Reconciliation Action Plan Steering Group, she mentors First Nations doctors and hopes to see more Indigenous FACEMs through training.
Dr John Waterfield
Dr John Waterfield
Emergency Physician, Townsville University Hospital
Originally from Gloucester in the UK, John graduated from the University of Birmingham Medical School before emigrating to Australia in 2014. He completed his Emergency Medicine Fellowship in 2022 and now splits his time as a Staff Specialist at Townsville University Hospital and a Pre-hospital and Retrieval Specialist with LifeFlight Retrieval Medicine. He has also served as an expedition medical officer for Intrepid Travel across their 2024 and 2025 seasons. Outside medicine, he’s often found on the golf course, or hiking with his wife and their two dogs, Dave and Tilly.
Dr Shannon Baso
Dr Shannon Baso
FACEM & Clinical Toxicology Fellow, Cairns Hospital / NSW Poisons Information Centre
Shannon is a FACEM and Clinical Toxicology Fellow at Cairns Hospital and the NSW Poisons Information Centre. Firmly team Snake — bring her a live one, not a dead one, or she will judge you — she’s considerably less keen on team Spider, and grateful FNQ has no funnel-webs to test that theory. Toxicology in retrieval medicine brings her the most extreme risk-versus-benefit calls in emergency medicine: low population risk, but intensely personal and emotionally charged, especially when the public sees antivenom as the guaranteed cure to a snake that, in their mind, absolutely wants them dead.
Dr Sarah Fairhall
Dr Sarah Fairhall
Rural Generalist, Allergy & Paediatrics, Cairns Hospital
Sarah is a Rural Generalist with a special interest in allergy and paediatrics, working across paediatric and adult allergy services at Cairns Hospital. She’s focused on making allergy medicine practical, evidence-based and accessible — for patients and parents as well as clinicians working outside specialist settings. An enthusiastic educator and self-described infodumper, she enjoys turning the confusing corners of allergy into useful, real-world clinical takeaways.
Dr Adam Holyoak
Dr Adam Holyoak
Critical Care Specialist, Townsville University Hospital
Adam works in a variety of roles across North Queensland — as a critical care specialist at Townsville University Hospital, in pre-hospital and retrieval medicine for LifeFlight, and as a Rural Generalist and Rural Generalist Anaesthetist in the Torres Strait. His research interests centre on toxinology, coagulation and trauma, and he’s passionate about equitable care regardless of location.
Dr Stephen Whebell
Dr Stephen Whebell
Intensivist & ICU ECMO Lead, Townsville University Hospital
A North Queensland local and JCU graduate, Steve completed an ECMO and severe respiratory failure fellowship in London in 2020 — excellent timing professionally, poor timing in every other respect. His true passion is mechanical ventilation and high-frequency waveform analysis, a topic he promises not to talk about.
Dr Colin Banks
Dr Colin Banks
ED Physician, Townsville University Hospital
Colin is an ED physician at Townsville University Hospital, drawn into research by the frustration of watching countless unnecessary CTPAs turn up clinically unimportant PEs. His answer: get serious about safely minimising imaging — hence the ongoing obsession with the D-dimer threshold.
Dr Colin Banks
Dr Colin Banks
ED Physician, Townsville University Hospital
Colin is an ED physician at Townsville University Hospital, drawn into research by the frustration of watching countless unnecessary CTPAs turn up clinically unimportant PEs. His answer: get serious about safely minimising imaging — hence the ongoing obsession with the D-dimer threshold.
Dr Amanda McConnell
Dr Amanda McConnell
Emergency Physician, Cairns & Founder, TEM Connect
Amanda is an Emergency Physician in Cairns and the founder of TEM Connect. She has research and clinical interests in trauma, infectious diseases, regional and remote medicine and clinical forensics. Outside work, she’s usually planning the next hike, lifting something at the gym, hunting for the perfect mid-century house, or pretending life is under control with good coffee and loud music.
Dr Katrina Starmer
Dr Katrina Starmer
FACEM FACRRM, Cairns Hospital & Royal Flying Doctor Service
Katrina is a dual fellow in Emergency and Rural and Remote medicine. She works at Cairns Hospital and for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Her work involves the Powerful Pictures Study, which seeks to improve the current models of care used to detect underlying heart disease in First Nations Peoples.
Dr Colin Banks
Dr Colin Banks
ED Physician, Townsville University Hospital
Colin is an ED physician at Townsville University Hospital, drawn into research by the frustration of watching countless unnecessary CTPAs turn up clinically unimportant PEs. His answer: get serious about safely minimising imaging — hence the ongoing obsession with the D-dimer threshold.
Dr Amy Neilson
Dr Amy Neilson
Senior Rural Generalist & Senior Lecturer, Medical Education, JCU
Amy is a Senior Rural Generalist with Advanced Specialised Training in Emergency Medicine, and an academic, writer and speaker. Recently moved to Cairns as Senior Lecturer in Medical Education at JCU, she continues on the EM consultant roster at Tamworth Rural Referral Hospital. Since 2014 she’s worked extensively in medical humanitarian aid across disease outbreak and conflict settings — including Sierra Leone, Syria, South Sudan, Gaza and Sudan — and maintains an ongoing relationship with a clinic in northern Uganda. She’s also no stranger to FNQ, having worked in Mount Isa, Doomadgee, Mornington Island and Bamaga.
Meet a few of the speakers
More bios and headshots are being added as they come in — check back closer to the day.
Dr Tatum Bond
Emergency Specialist & DEMT, Cairns Base Hospital
A proud Ngajanji woman living and working on Girrumay Wallaburra Yindinji land, Tatum is a full-time Emergency Specialist and DEMT at Cairns Base Hospital, and a casual Retrieval MO with Cairns RFDS. A long-serving member of ACEM’s Reconciliation Action Plan Steering Group, she mentors First Nations doctors and hopes to see more Indigenous FACEMs through training.
Dr John Waterfield
Emergency Physician, Townsville University Hospital
Originally from Gloucester in the UK, John graduated from the University of Birmingham Medical School before emigrating to Australia in 2014. He completed his Emergency Medicine Fellowship in 2022 and now splits his time as a Staff Specialist at Townsville University Hospital and a Pre-hospital and Retrieval Specialist with LifeFlight Retrieval Medicine. He has also served as an expedition medical officer for Intrepid Travel across their 2024 and 2025 seasons. Outside medicine, he’s often found on the golf course, or hiking with his wife and their two dogs, Dave and Tilly.
Dr Shannon Baso
FACEM & Clinical Toxicology Fellow, Cairns Hospital / NSW Poisons Information Centre
Shannon is a FACEM and Clinical Toxicology Fellow at Cairns Hospital and the NSW Poisons Information Centre. Firmly team Snake — bring her a live one, not a dead one, or she will judge you — she’s considerably less keen on team Spider, and grateful FNQ has no funnel-webs to test that theory. Toxicology in retrieval medicine brings her the most extreme risk-versus-benefit calls in emergency medicine: low population risk, but intensely personal and emotionally charged, especially when the public sees antivenom as the guaranteed cure to a snake that, in their mind, absolutely wants them dead.
Dr Sarah Fairhall
Rural Generalist, Allergy & Paediatrics, Cairns Hospital
Sarah is a Rural Generalist with a special interest in allergy and paediatrics, working across paediatric and adult allergy services at Cairns Hospital. She’s focused on making allergy medicine practical, evidence-based and accessible — for patients and parents as well as clinicians working outside specialist settings. An enthusiastic educator and self-described infodumper, she enjoys turning the confusing corners of allergy into useful, real-world clinical takeaways.
Dr Adam Holyoak
Critical Care Specialist, Townsville University Hospital
Adam works in a variety of roles across North Queensland — as a critical care specialist at Townsville University Hospital, in pre-hospital and retrieval medicine for LifeFlight, and as a Rural Generalist and Rural Generalist Anaesthetist in the Torres Strait. His research interests centre on toxinology, coagulation and trauma, and he’s passionate about equitable care regardless of location.
Dr Stephen Whebell
Intensivist & ICU ECMO Lead, Townsville University Hospital
A North Queensland local and JCU graduate, Steve completed an ECMO and severe respiratory failure fellowship in London in 2020 — excellent timing professionally, poor timing in every other respect. His true passion is mechanical ventilation and high-frequency waveform analysis, a topic he promises not to talk about.
Dr Colin Banks
ED Physician, Townsville University Hospital
Colin is an ED physician at Townsville University Hospital, drawn into research by the frustration of watching countless unnecessary CTPAs turn up clinically unimportant PEs. His answer: get serious about safely minimising imaging — hence the ongoing obsession with the D-dimer threshold.
Dr Amanda McConnell
Emergency Physician, Cairns & Founder, TEM Connect
Amanda is an Emergency Physician in Cairns and the founder of TEM Connect. She has research and clinical interests in trauma, infectious diseases, regional and remote medicine and clinical forensics. Outside work, she’s usually planning the next hike, lifting something at the gym, hunting for the perfect mid-century house, or pretending life is under control with good coffee and loud music.
Dr Katrina Starmer
FACEM FACRRM, Cairns Hospital & Royal Flying Doctor Service
Katrina is a dual fellow in Emergency and Rural and Remote medicine. She works at Cairns Hospital and for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Her work involves the Powerful Pictures Study, which seeks to improve the current models of care used to detect underlying heart disease in First Nations Peoples.
Dr Amy Neilson
Senior Rural Generalist & Senior Lecturer, Medical Education, JCU
Amy is a Senior Rural Generalist with Advanced Specialised Training in Emergency Medicine, and an academic, writer and speaker. Recently moved to Cairns as Senior Lecturer in Medical Education at JCU, she continues on the EM consultant roster at Tamworth Rural Referral Hospital. Since 2014 she’s worked extensively in medical humanitarian aid across disease outbreak and conflict settings — including Sierra Leone, Syria, South Sudan, Gaza and Sudan — and maintains an ongoing relationship with a clinic in northern Uganda. She’s also no stranger to FNQ, having worked in Mount Isa, Doomadgee, Mornington Island and Bamaga.