Curriculum Vitae

Positions, Accreditations and Affiliations

Current Employers

  • MELBOURNE HEALTH,
    ROYAL MELBOURNE HOSPITAL
    Position: Consultant Neuropsychiatrist and Deputy Director

Other Positions

  • EPWORTH HOSPITAL GROUP
    Position: Accredited Visiting Neuropsychiatrist

  • CABRINI HOSPITAL GROUP
    Position: Accredited Visiting Neuropsychiatrist

  • THE MELBOURNE CLINIC
    Position: Accredited Admitting Psychiatrist

Other Accreditations

  • VICTORIA CLINIC

  • ST VINCENTS PRIVATE HOSPITAL

Academic Affiliations

  • DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHIATRY, UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE
    Clinical Professor, Principal Fellow

  • FLOREY INSTITUTE OF NEUROSCIENCE & MENTAL HEALTH
    Professor, Principal Fellow

  • DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND MEDICAL SCIENCES, EDITH COWAN UNIVERSITY
    Adjunct Professor

TRAINING and ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT

Professor Walterfang graduated in medicine from University of Queensland with honours in 1993, and completed his Fellowship of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists in 2000, completing his final year as Neuropsychiatry Registrar at the Royal Melbourne Hospital after completing much of his training at the Princess Alexandra, Mater and Royal Brisbane Hospitals in Brisbane. He is a long-standing member of the Section of Neuropsychiatry, and an accredited member of the Faculty of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry. He is a Member of the American Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry, the American Neuropsychiatric Association, and the British Neuropsychiatric Association. Professor Walterfang completed his PhD in the shape analysis of the corpus callosum in schizophrenia and related major psychiatric illness at the University of Melbourne in 2010. This thesis was awarded both the Dean of Medicine’s Prize and the Vice Chancellor’s prize and medal for PhD thesis excellence in 2011. He was awarded the Royal Melbourne Hospital Research Medal in 2016, and in 2023 was awarded his second research doctorate, a Doctorate of Medical Science (DMedSci) involving the neuroimaging and neuropsychiatric investigation of rare metabolic disorders; in 2022 he was also awarded a post-graduate qualification in Health Leadership and Design with Monash University.

He contributes a chapter on the Neuropsychiatry of Neurometabolic and Neuroendocrine disorders to the world's most respected reference text in psychiatry, Kaplan and Sadock's "Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry", one of only a handful of Australian authors to contribute to this text, and has authored over 200 Medline-indexed scientific papers. He has published in general medical journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, British Medical Journal, Medical Journal of Australia and Blood; psychiatric journals such as Molecular Psychiatry, British Journal of Psychiatry, American Journal of Psychiatry, Schizophrenia Research and Psychiatric Research; neurological journals including Neurology, Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, and Movement Disorders; metabolic journals including the Journal of Inherited and Metabolic Disease, Orphanet Journal of Rare Disease and Molecular Genetics and Metabolism; dementia journals such as Alzheimers & Dementia, Alzheimer’s Disease and Associated Disorders and the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease; and neuroimaging journals including Neuroimage, American Journal of Neuroradiology, Neuroinformatics and Human Brain Mapping. He also serves as an ad-hoc reviewer for a number of top-tier medical journals.  He has been regularly invited for more than 20 years to present at international and industry conferences in the fields of psychiatry, neuropsychiatry, neuroimaging, brain injury, neurology and metabolic disorders as a plenary speaker, stream leader and conference host.

Academic Positions

From 2001-2002 he worked as a consultant psychiatrist at the Adult Mental Health Rehabilitation Unit at Sunshine Hospital, treating patients with poor-outcome psychiatric disorders, and worked as the Academic Fellow at the University of Melbourne Department of Psychiatry. From 2003-2005 he was appointed as Senior Research Fellow at the Mental Health Research Institute, involved in neuroimaging research as part of a Stanley Foundation Centre Grant, and from 2006 has been a research fellow at the Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre. In 2011 he was appointed as an Associate Professor of Neuropsychiatry at the University of Melbourne, and in 2019 a full Professor. He holds an adjunct Professorial Position at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, reflecting his work with colleagues on pre-clinical models of neurological disorders. In 2023 he was made an adjunct Professor at Edith Cowan University.

Expertise in Clinical Neuropsychiatry and Adult General Psychiatry

Since 2001, he has worked as a consultant neuropsychiatrist at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, and is currently Deputy Director of the service. He has developed world-leading expertise in managing comorbid psychiatric and neurological disorders, neurodegenerative disorders, functional neurological disorders and neurometabolic disorders.  He runs the world’s oldest Huntington’s Disease service at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, which recently celebrated its 50th anniversary. He has also been involved in the unit's deep brain stimulation Programme for treatment-resistant obsessive-compulsive disorder, and in the establishment of the Melbourne Young-Onset Dementia service. He manages a large cohort of adult patients with neurometabolic disorders, and is recognised as the world psychiatric authority in this space, having undertaken many landmark studies in brain biomarkers of neurodegenerative disorders. As an expert consultation-liaison psychiatrist, he has considerable expertise at the interface between psychiatry and clinical medicine. At the Epworth Hospital (Richmond), he has been involved for 15 years in the assessment of individuals with acquired brain injury (ABI), as the sole psychiatrist in the ABI Unit, continuing to see these patients for many years at an outpatient level. He is a founding member of Connectivity: Traumatic Brain Injury Australia, and its sole psychiatrist, an MRFF-funded organisation that aims to advocate and promote standardised care of brain injury across Australia. He set up the first Australian private neuropsychiatry service at the Epworth Hospital (Richmond) in Melbourne in 2020, and also set up an Australian-first new private Functional Neurological Disorders day patient service at Epworth Hospital (Camberwell). He works with a world-leading team at Cabrini Hospital (Malvern) managing patients with Parkinsons disease who undergo deep brain stimulation, and has developed significant expertise in the neuropsychiatry of Parkinson’s disease. He has significant expertise in managing patients in short- and long-term rehabilitation settings, particularly those with multiple orthopedic trauma from motor vehicle accidents, and patients in neurological, cardiac and respiratory rehabilitation with co-morbid psychiatric conditions.

An expert in cognition, he has also been involved in the development in a number of clinical tools for use in patients in the areas of direct assessment of cognition and behavioural cognitive measures, and their validation in a variety of medical, neurological and psychiatric settings since 2000. One of these tools, the NUCOG, has been successfully commercialised, translated into multiple languages, and is available for the iPhone and iPad on the Apple App Store. In both public and private settings, he works extensively with clinical neuropsychologists and has more than two decades of understanding the role of clinical neuropsychological assessment in psychiatric practice.

He has worked in a thriving private psychiatric practice at in Richmond since 2001, with a strong interest in the treatment of mood and anxiety disorders, and long-term psychotherapeutic treatment, including survivors of childhood trauma, and post-traumatic stress disorder. In addition to ongoing psychotherapeutic work, he continues to manage complex PTSD, motor vehicle accident multi-trauma, chronic pain, dementia, somatoform disorders and neurological disorders.

He has experience in a range of medicolegal settings, including historical sexual abuse, independent impairment assessments, road accident and acquired brain injury cases, medical negligence, testamentary capacity, personal injury and other matters. He brings to his reporting both clinical and academic rigour, with the aim of providing the most current evidence-based approach to assisting the court and judicial process in determining just outcomes.

EDUCATION & EMPLOYMENT

Education – Undergraduate

  • Graduated Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) with Honours from University of Queensland, 1993.

  • Awarded University of Queensland Dean of Medicine’s Commendation for Academic Excellence 1991, 1992.

Education – Postgraduate

  • Completed Royal Australian and New Zealand specialist training in psychiatry (FRANZCP), 2000.

  • Completed Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD), University of Melbourne, 2010 with no modifications to thesis.

  • Winner of University of Melbourne’s Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in  PhD Thesis, and Dean of Medicine’s Award for PhD Thesis Excellence.

  • Awarded Royal Melbourne Hospital Research Medal, 2016.

  • Graduate Certificate of Executive Leadership (Grad Cert Exec Lead), Monash University, 2023.

  • Completed Doctorate of Medical Science (DMedSci), University of Melbourne, 2023 with no modifications to thesis.

Appointments as Consultant Psychiatrist

  • Appointed Consultant Psychiatrist at Adult Inpatient Unit, Royal Melbourne Hospital, February 2001-February 2002.

  • Appointed Consultant Psychiatrist at Secure Extended Care Unit, Sunshine Hospital, February 2001-February 2003.

  • Appointed Consultant Psychiatrist at Neuropsychiatry Unit, Royal Melbourne Hospital, February 2002 to current.

  • Visiting Neuropsychiatrist, Bendigo Rural Mental Health Service, June 2009-February 2012.

  • Visiting Neuropsychiatrist, Ballarat Health Services, June 2009-June 2012.

  • Academic Fellow, Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, February 2001-February 2003.

  • Senior Research Fellow, Mental Health Research Institute, February 2003-2005.

  • Research Fellow, Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, University of Melbourne, 2003-current.

  • Accredited Admitting Psychiatrist, Melbourne Clinic, March 2001-current.

  • Accredited Visiting Neuropsychiatrist, Epworth Hospitals, January 2010-current.

  • Accredited Visiting Neuropsychiatrist, Cabrini Hospitals, January 2010-current.

  • Accredited Visiting Neuropsychiatrist, St Vincents Private Hospital, January 2018-current.

Registrations & Affiliations

Medical Registration

  • Current full registration in Australia through AHPRA as a medical practitioner, and as specialist (psychiatry).
    Registration: MED 0001175136

  • Current professional/medical indemnity cover with MIPS (Victoria).

Professional Affiliations

Psychiatry

  • Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists: Fellow (FRANZCP) & member of Section of Neuropsychiatry & Faculty of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry.

  • Australian Medical Association (AMA).

  • International Neuropsychiatric Association (INA).

  • Biological Psychiatry Australia (BPA).

  • American Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry (ACLP).

 

Metabolic Medicine

  • Society for the Study of Inborn Errors of Metabolism (SSIEM).

  • Society for Inborn Metabolic Diseases (SIMD).

  • Human Genetics Society of Australasia (HGSA)

  • Australasian Society of Inborn Errors of Metabolism (ASIEM).

Neuropsychiatry

  • American Neuropsychiatric Association (ANPA).

  • British Neuropsychiatric Association (BNPA).

  • International Neuropsychiatric Association (INA).

 

Neurology & Brain Injury

  • Movement Disorders Society (MDS).

  • International Brain Injury Association (IBIA).

 

Medicolegal

  • Australian and New Zealand Association of Psychiatry, Psychology and Law (ANZAPPL).

  • Medicolegal Society of Victoria (MLSV).

publications

As at JANUARY 2023

  • 220 Publications

  • Current H-Index: 51

  • I10 Index: 145

  • Citations:

  • Published (Medline-Indexed) Manuscripts:
    For up to date list, click here.

COLLABORATORS PAST & PRESENT

AUSTRALIAN

  • Professor Ashley Bush, Melbourne Dementia Research Centre, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health – Cellular and animal models of Niemann-Pick type C

  • Professor Ilia Voskoboinik, Killer Cell Laboratory, Peter Macallum Cancer Hospital – Killer cell function in Lysosomal Storage Disorders

  • Professor Peter Van Wijngaarden, Centre for Eye Research Australia – Retinal imaging in neurodegenerative disorders

  • Professor Gin Malhi, Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Sydney – MRI studies in bipolar disorder

  • Associate Professor Larry Abel, Department of Optometry and Vision Sciences, University of Melbourne – Eye movements in neurometabolic disorders

  • Professor David Reutens, Queensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland – Methods of shape analysis in MRI scanning

  • Associate Professor Jeff Looi, Department of Psychiatry, Australian National University – Shape analysis in neuropsychiatric disorders

  • Professor Patrick McGorry, ORYGEN Research Centre, University of Melbourne – MRI studies of first-episode psychosis patients

  • Professor Alison Yung, ORYGEN Research Centre, University of Melbourne – MRI studies of ultra-high risk for psychosis patients

  • Dr Marc Seal & Dr Christopher Adamson, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Royal Children’s Hospital (Melbourne) – advanced imaging analysis in neuropsychiatric disorders

  • A/Prof Nadia Solowij, School of Psychology, University of Woolloongong – MRI shape analysis in substance abuse disorders

  • Professor Adam Vogel, Department of Speech Neuroscience, University of Melbourne – speech and language changes in neurodegenerative disorders

  • Professor Gerard De Jong, Department of Metabolic Medicine, Royal Melbourne Hospital – cognitive and psychiatric aspects of phenylketonuria

  • Dr Ya Hui Hung - preclinical models for diagnosis and treatment of neurometabolic disorders

INTERNATIONAL

  • Professors Michio Suzuki and Tsutomu Takahashi, University of Toyama, Japan – MRI studies in schizophrenia and related disorders

  • Professor Martin Styner, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of North Carolina – Shape analysis of striatum in neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disorders

  • Professor Sophia Frangou, Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, United Kingdom – MRI and genetic studies in bipolar disorder patients and their families

  • Professor Adrian Danek, Ludwig-Maxmillian Universitat, Munich – MRI analysis in chorea-acanthocytosis

  • Professor Ruth Walker, Mt Sinai Medical School, New York – MRI analysis in chorea-acanthocytosis

  • Professor Lars-Olof Wahlund, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences & Society, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm – MRI analysis of frontotemporal and related dementias

  • Professor Christer Nilsson, Department of Psychogeriatrics, Lund University – MRI analysis of progressive supranuclear palsy & frontotemporal dementia

  • Professor Paul Thompson, Laboratory of Neuroimaging, University of Southern California – MRI analysis of frontotemporal and related disorders

  • Professor Marc Patterson, Department of Child Neurology, Mayo Clinic – biology of Niemann Pick type C disease

  • Associate Professor Eileen Lueders, Department of Psychology, University of Auckland – MRI morphometry of neurodegenerative disorders

  • Professor Oliver Bonnot, Department of Child Psychiatry, University of Nantes – neurobiology of psychosis in Niemann-Pick type C disease

Professional Referees available on request. Please get in touch.