Our anaesthetists
Our anaesthetists are members of the Australian Society of Anaesthetists and fellows of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists. They are active participants in the College’s continuing professional development program.
Dr James Koziol
MBBS FANZCA
Dr James Koziol is a specialist anaesthetist and a founding member of Victoria Parade Anaesthetic Services. He has subspecialty interests in
paediatric and cardiac anaesthesia, and regularly cares for both children and adults having ear, nose and throat surgery, neurosurgery, cardiac surgery and eye surgery.
James is a consultant anaesthetist at the Royal Children's Hospital and works privately at St Vincent's
Private, Epworth Freemasons and Cabrini, among other Melbourne hospitals. He chairs the paediatric anaesthesia group at St Vincent's Private Hospital.
James completed his medical degree at the University
of Melbourne and trained in anaesthesia at St Vincent's Hospital, followed by fellowships in paediatric anaesthesia at the Royal Children's Hospital and the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada. He holds a Master of Clinical Ultrasound from the University of Melbourne and teaches cardiovascular physiology to anaesthetists in training.
Dr Damian Simpson
MBChB BSc(Hons) FANZCA
Damian is a specialist anaesthetist working across both public and private practice in Victoria. He has a subspecialty interest in paediatric anaesthesia and provides anaesthetic services across a broad range of specialties, including ENT, dental surgery and orthopaedics.
Damian graduated from the University of Auckland Medical School in 2002 and commenced anaesthetic training in 2004. He completed a fellowship in paediatric anaesthesia at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto in 2009 and was admitted as a Fellow of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists in 2010.
Following fellowship, Damian spent approximately 14 years working in both public and private practice in Auckland, New Zealand. He moved to Melbourne in 2023, initially taking up public appointments at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne and Ballarat Base Hospital. He has since continued his public practice at Ballarat Base Hospital alongside a broad private anaesthetic practice in Melbourne and regional Victoria.
Dr Mark Suss
MBBS FANZCA GDipClinEpi PGDipEcho
Mark is a specialist anaesthetist practising in Melbourne. Mark has a public hospital post at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital and a private practice with special interests in eye, ear, nose and throat surgery and gynaecology. Mark is a past state Chair of the Australian Society of Anaesthetists.
Mark studied medicine at the University of Melbourne, was a medical resident at the Alfred Hospital and undertook specialist anaesthetic training at Southern Health and at the Mercy Hospital for Women. He completed his training with a fellowship at the Royal Melbourne Hospital in 2008, focusing on cardiac anaesthesia and the use of ultrasound in anaesthesia.
Dr Will Watson
BMBS FRCA FANZCA
Will completed his initial postgraduate training in the South West of England, before moving over to Melbourne to work in Emergency Medicine for 2 years.
He relocated to Glasgow to pursue anaesthetic training, including subspecialty training in Intensive Care, and anaesthesia for ENT procedures. He completed this training in 2019, before returning to Melbourne to work at St Vincent’s as a regional anaesthesia fellow for a year.
He moved back to the UK during the COVID pandemic to work as a consultant in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care medicine, before being appointed as a full-time staff anaesthetist at St Vincent's Hospital in January 2022. He is currently the lead anaesthetist for Orthopaedics and Regional Anaesthesia (blocking nerves to help with pain after surgery).
He is heavily involved in teaching trainees, and was named Department Teacher of the Year for 2022. He also holds an appointment at Melbourne University as a clinical lecturer, and is currently undertaking several research projects at St Vincent's. Away from work he is a very amateur triathlete, soccer player and father to two young children.
Dr Adam Skinner
BSc (Hons) MB ChB MRCP (UK) FRCA FANZCA MMed (Periop) DipClinHyp
Adam is an adult and paediatric anaesthetist; he has worked as a full time specialist at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne since 2007. His subspecialist interests include anaesthesia for congenital heart disease, paediatric liver transplantation and neuroanaesthesia. He works at many private hospitals with interests including anaesthesia for adult and paediatric orthopaedics, general surgery, neurosurgery, urology, plastic surgery, dental and Ear, Nose and Throat surgery.
Adam qualified as a doctor at the University of Bristol, UK in 1994, before completing his Royal College of Physician’s exams (MRCP) in adult general medicine. He gained his certificate in specialist anaesthesia training in 2004.
He is the course convenor for the primary FANZCA course, which prepares trainee anaesthetists for their postgraduate professional exams. He has been the external examiner for the Malaysian final specialist Masters in anaesthesia and intensive care. In addition to being an adult Advanced Life Support instructor, he is regularly a director, instructor and coach for the Advanced Paediatric Life Support courses throughout Australia.
He regularly teaches the multidisciplinary management of critical incidents using high-fidelity simulated scenarios. He also has a Masters degree in Perioperative Medicine from Monash University. As well as being a paediatric cardiac anaesthetist he is also clinical lead for liver transplant anaesthesia at the Royal Children’s Hospital. Adam has a significant interest in anxiety reduction before anaesthesia. He has a diploma in clinical hypnosis to help reduce perioperative stress. Adam is an honorary clinical lecturer at Melbourne University.
Dr Sarah Frayne
BSc MBChB FANZCA
Sarah is a specialist anaesthetist working in Melbourne. She completed her medical degree at the University of Auckland, in New Zealand, and moved to Melbourne during her anaesthetics training. She completed fellowships at Monash Health, The Royal Melbourne Hospital and The Royal Women’s Hospital.
Sarah has a public appointment at Werribee Mercy Hospital. She has a special interest in obstetric anaesthesia and other interests include orthopaedic, breast, plastic and gynaecological surgery.
Alongside anaesthesia Sarah is currently working towards a Fellowship in Pain Medicine with fellowship positions at Barbara Walker Centre for Pain Medicine, Alfred Hospital and Precision Brain Spine & Pain.
Dr Christine Vien
MBBS FANZCA GAICD
Christine is a full-time staff anaesthetist at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne. She completed fellowships in Regional Anaesthesia at St Vincent’s Hospital and Paediatric Anaesthesia at the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne. She continues to work in Paediatric Anaesthesia in private practice.
Christine also has a strong interest in medical management, having served on and chaired a number of committees at tertiary hospitals, focusing on the welfare and training of junior doctors.
She was the New Fellows Councillor on the ANZCA Council in 2018-2020 and is currently the deputy director of the Department of Anaesthesia at St Vincent's at the Park Public Hospital.
Dr David Morgan
MBBS FANZCA MMed (Periop)
David is a specialist anaesthetist whose practice includes paediatric, adult and obstetric patients. His interests include dental, ENT, general, gynaecological and upper GI obesity surgery. He has been an anaesthetist at the Royal Women’s Hospital for 19 years. He also works in multiple private hospitals throughout Melbourne.
David graduated from medical school at the University of Queensland in 1990. His anaesthetic training began in 1996 in Tasmania, followed by advanced training in Victoria. He gained his specialist qualification in 2002 in Melbourne.
David has completed a masters of perioperative medicine in 2017. He also has an interest in crisis management in anaesthesia, and will be completing the Emergency Management in Anaesthetic Crises instructors course in April. He also has an interest in anaesthetic audit with participation in twice-yearly hospital anaesthetic audit.
Dr Rachel McLennan
MBBS FANZCA
Dr Rachel McLennan is a Specialist Anaesthetist and Fellow of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA), working across public and private hospitals in Melbourne.
Rachel completed her specialist anaesthetic training at Prince of Wales Hospital and Sydney Children’s Hospital and worked as a specialist anaesthetist in Sydney for several years before moving to Melbourne in 2020.
She has experience caring for both adults and children across a wide range of surgical procedures, with particular interests in paediatric anaesthesia, ENT, plastic surgery, orthopaedics and dental procedures.
Rachel has also worked internationally, providing anaesthetic care to both adults and children in the Philippines and Solomon Islands. She spent several years working as a retrieval doctor with CareFlight/Sydney HEMS, providing critical care to patients in emergency and challenging environments.