Kate Leslie

Kate Leslie was born in 1962 in Melbourne, Australia, the oldest of three daughters of Ian, an agricultural scientist, and Netta, a registered nurse. She grew up in Hawthorn, attending Auburn Primary School and Camberwell High School.

Leslie studied medicine at the University of Melbourne and undertook anaesthesia training in Melbourne and San Francisco, achieving Fellowship of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists in March 1993. After another year in San Francisco, she returned to Melbourne to a full-time specialist staff role at the Royal Melbourne Hospital (RMH). Leslie is now Head of Research in the Department of Anaesthesia and Pain Management at RMH. Her clinical interests include anaesthesia for neurosurgery, colorectal and trauma surgery, and sedation for gastrointestinal endoscopy. She is an Honorary Professorial Fellow in the Anaesthesia Perioperative and Pain Medicine Unit, Melbourne Medical School, and Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, University of Melbourne, and Honorary Adjunct Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Monash University.

Leslie’s involvement in clinical research began after she passed the ANZCA primary examination in 1988. She published several studies as a trainee, under the mentorship of Drs David Crankshaw, Brendan Silbert and Daniel Sessler. It was under Dr Sessler’s guidance at the University of California, San Francisco, she developed interests in thermoregulation, depth of anaesthesia monitoring and awareness.

On return to Australia, Leslie completed a Doctor of Medicine and a Master of Epidemiology. Since 1989, she has published more than 180 peer-reviewed publications, as well as four book chapters. She has made more than 300 invited presentations at international, national and local meetings, and been the Australasian Visitor to the ANZCA Annual Scientific Meeting twice.

She is on the editorial board of Anesthesia and Analgesia, the British Journal of Anaesthesia and Anesthesiology. She is one of the six editors of Miller’s Anesthesia (9th edition), and has won the ASA/Boots Young Investigator Award, the ASA’s Gilbert Troup Medal, the ANZCA Gilbert Brown Prize and the ANZCA Douglas Joseph Professorship.

Leslie first became involved with multi-centre research with the B-Aware trial, a 2,500 patient multi-centre trial on awareness. She was/is also a chief investigator of the ENIGMA-I, ENIGMA-II, POISE-1, POISE-2, POISE-3, Balanced, RELIEF, PADDI, ROCKet and Chewy studies.

Leslie’s involvement with ANZCA began when she was co-opted as the New Fellow on the Victorian Regional Committee in 1994. She served on the VRC until 2002. In that same year, she was elected to Council. Leslie was a Primary Examiner for six years, and Scientific Convenor of the Annual Scientific Meeting held in Melbourne in 2000. During her time on Council she served as Chair of the Communications and Fellowship Affairs, Research, Training Accreditation, Investments, IMGS and Executive Committees; ASM Officer; Honorary Treasurer; and Chair of the Anaesthesia and Pain Medicine Foundation Board, as well as numerous other committees and working groups.

In 2012, she was elected President and served a two year term. During this time she was also a member of the Committee of Presidents of Medical Colleges, and its chair from 2011-13. She is currently a director of the Australian Medical Council and chair of its Specialist Education Accreditation Committee.

Kate Leslie has received many accolades and honours during her career, including the Robert Orton Medal, the Melbourne Health Chairman’s Award, and fellowship of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Research. She was appointed an Officer in the Order of Australia in 2016 and was the first anaesthetist to be honoured with a Doctor of Medical Science (Honoris Causa) by the University of Melbourne.

OTHER AWARDS & HONOURS

• 1989 ASA Boots Young Investigator Award
• 1989 ASA Gilbert Troup Medal
• 1995 ANZCA Gilbert Brown Prize
• 1998 ANZCA Harry Daly Research Award
• 2005 ANZCA Douglas Joseph Professorship
• 2014 Australian Medical Association Woman in Medicine Award
• 2014 ANZCA Robert Orton Medal
• 2015 Fellow, Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences
• 2015 Chairman’s Award, Melbourne Health
• 2016 Officer of the Order of Australia (AO)
• 2017 Doctor of Medical Science (Honoris Causa), University of Melbourne