Policy Development and Planning Division
Review of Traditional Chinese Medicine
First Appointments : Chinese Medicine Registration Board of Victoria
The Victorian Minister for Health, the Hon John Thwaites, announced the first appointments of members of the
Chinese Medicine Registration Board of Victoria (CMRBVic) on 14th December 2000. Victoria is the
first jurisdiction outside of China to adopt a comprehensive regulatory regime for Chinese medicine.
Members of the inaugural Chinese Medicine Registration Board of Victoria are:
Prof Vivian Lin (lay member and President)
Professor Lin is Professor of Public Health at La Trobe University, and was Deputy Chair of the Victorian Ministerial Advisory Committee on Traditional Chinese Medicine. She is an advisor to the World Bank and World Health Organisation and speaks Mandarin.
Ms Genevieve Howse (lay member and Deputy President)
Ms Howse is a barrister and adjunct senior lecturer in public health law at La Trobe University. She was the legal member of the Chiropractors Registration Board from June 1997 to June 2000.
Dr Charlie (Changli) Xue (practitioner member)
Dr Xue is a senior lecturer and head of the Chinese Medicine Unit at RMIT University, and a private practitioner. He has experience in Chinese medicine administration, education and research. He speaks Mandarin, Cantonese and Chao Zhou.
Prof T Chiang Lin (practitioner member)
Professor Lin is the managing director of the company, Naturewise, and a private practitioner. He headed the delegation to the Department of Health that led to the decision to review of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Victoria. He speaks Vietnamese, Mandarin and Cantonese.
Ms Shelley Beer (practitioner member)
Ms Beer is co-ordinator and senior lecturer with the Chinese herbal medicine course at Victoria University and a private practitioner. She has a background in Chinese medicine research, practice and administration.
Prof Samuel Zheng (practitioner member)
Professor Zheng is principal of the College of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Melbourne and a private practitioner. He has qualifications in both Western and Chinese medicine. He speaks Mandarin and Japanese.
Ms Glenys Savage (practitioner member)
Ms Savage is Vice Principal and senior lecturer at the Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine Australia and a private practitioner. She speaks Mandarin.
Mr Brian May (practitioner member)
Mr May is a lecturer at Victoria University and a private practitioner. He has a background in standard setting particularly for prescribing and the prescription of herbal medicine and speaks Japanese.
David Halstead (lawyer member)
Mr Halstead is a consultant and a retired partner with the law firm Maurice Blackburn Cashman. He was also a councillor with the Fitzroy Council for three years.
Five members of the Board have been appointed until 30 June 2003 and four members have been appointed until 30 June 2002. This will enable a staggered reappointment process so that the Board can maintain some continuity of experience as membership changes.
Panel to Assist the Board
Given the scale of the tasks facing the new Board, a panel of members has been appointed by Governor in Council on advice of the Minister for Health. The role of the panel will be to assist the Board on sub-committees and to be available for appointment by the Board to hearing panels as required. Panel members appointed are:
Dr Bing-Zhong Chen
Dr Chen is Associate Professor in Chinese Medicine at the University of Hong Kong. He is former head of the Chinese Medicine Unit at RMIT and is in private practice in Melbourne.
Ms Sally Griffin
Ms Griffin is a lawyer with experience in administrative law. She also has an interest in Chinese medicine and is currently a TCM student.
Prof Jerry Zhang
Professor Zhang is a lecturer at RMIT University and a private practitioner. He has considerable experience in Chinese herbal pharmacology.
Dr Phillipa Rothfield
Dr Rothfield is a lecturer at La Trobe University with a background in health, medicine, science and ethics. She has an interest in Chinese medicine and has written and presented on the complexities of applying western scientific research methodology to the testing of Chinese medicine.
Ms Ying Chen
Ms Chen is a research fellow at Monash University. She has a Masters of Public Health and a Masters of Health Sciences and was formerly employed by the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine in China. She is a doctoral student at La Trobe University.
Ms Jocelyn Bennett
Ms Bennett established the Australian Complementary Health Association and the complementary health magazine Diversity. She has written extensively on consumer issues in complementary medicine and represented consumers on various government bodies including the Victorian Ministerial Advisory Committee on Traditional Chinese Medicine and the Commonwealth Traditional Medicines Advisory Committee.
Mr Lindsay Ford
Mr Ford is a lawyer with extensive experience in administrative and constitutional law as well as national competition policy.
Chinese Medicine Registration Board of Victoria - Update
First Meeting of the CMRBVic
The Board held its first meeting in late December 2000 and has prioritised tasks and formed a number of sub-committees
to carry out the substantial work it faces to establish registration of the Chinese medicine profession in Victoria.
The work includes:
- to establish the Register of Chinese Medicine and a process to determine which existing practitioners will be granted registration under the section 94 grand-parenting provisions;
- to establish a process to assess and recognize qualifications of overseas trained practitioners;
- to establish a course accreditation process and determine which Australian and overseas training courses meet the board's standards for registration of their graduates;
- to establish procedures for dealing with other health practitioner registration boards where practitioners hold dual qualifications;
- to advise the Victorian Minister for Health on the list of herbs that need to be included in a new Schedule I of the Poisons list of the Drugs Poisons and Controlled Substances Act to create a mechanism to control prescribing and dispensing.
CMRBVic Subcommittees established
The Chinese Medicine Registration Board has established the following subcommittees to develop policies and procedures:
- Administration, Finance & Communications
- Registration, Standards & Course Accreditation
- Complaints and Hearings
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