Three senior clinical research fellows have been appointed as part of an exciting initiative between the University of Sydney and NSLHD to drive activity and build crucial research capability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The group includes audiologist Dr Jacob Pogson, cardiologist Dr Avedis Ekmejian, and physiotherapist Dr Sally Wootton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Northern Sydney (Arabanoo) Precinct, Academic Director Professor James Elliott said the initiative builds a better research culture, while boosting collaboration and strengthening the alliance between NSLHD and the University of Sydney.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBy working together, we can build trust and deliver research that truly impacts patient care. We are so proud to support this program,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr Jacob Pogson<\/strong> is a neuro-otology clinician-scientist at Royal North Shore Hospital and the Kolling Institute, with over 15 years\u2019 experience in vestibular neurosciences and audiology syndromes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said a multisensory system is naturally multidisciplinary, and the fellowship will allow him to work with neurogeneticists, neuroscientists, and bioinformaticians in the Kolling’s Meniere’s Disease Neuroscience Laboratory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s an exciting time for neuro-otology and especially in Meniere’s Disease, because genetic work over the past 15\u201320 years is revolutionising our understanding of genes and the immune system within the inner ear,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis scientific work is starting to influence clinical management, but there is still so much that we don’t understand, which will be necessary to implement better diagnostic criteria and personalised medicine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis fellowship will provide me with invaluable protected time from full-time clinical duties for current projects, as well as medium to longer term scientific goals.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr Avedis Ekmejian<\/strong> is an interventional cardiologist and clinician-scientist at Royal North Shore Hospital and the Kolling Institute. His research focuses on coronary disease, intravascular imaging, and computational modelling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI have always tried to improve the prognostic utility of the tools we use in cardiology, and this takes dedicated research, from the benchtop all the way to clinical trials,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI believe it is becoming increasingly important to collaborate to strengthen the power of your research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis fellowship has come at a pivotal time for me, as I transition to the next stage of my research career. With the experience I have gained, I now feel ready to lead trials, supervise junior researchers, and make a real change in cardiology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis unique collaboration between NSLHD and the University of Sydney provides the mentorship opportunities, resources, and camaraderie to ensure you have the support you need to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr Sally Wootton<\/strong> is a specialist physiotherapist who leads pulmonary rehabilitation programs across five sites. Her work focuses on digital rehabilitation models and pre-operative exercise programs for lung cancer patients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She said it\u2019s really hard to run successful research whilst in a clinical role as you’re always getting pulled in different directions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m currently involved in two clinical trials: implementing a digital model of care in clinical practice and implementing a pre-operative exercise training program for people waiting for lung surgery,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe fellowship role will allow me to spend dedicated time on both projects to ensure successful completion, whilst also giving me time to plan the next steps and apply for larger grant opportunities to scale and spread our work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Funding for the roles has been jointly provided by the University of Sydney and NSLHD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4884,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"research-group-tax":[],"primary-research-area":[],"class_list":["post-4871","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Drs-Jacob-Pogson-Avedis-Akmejian-Sally-Wootton-with-Professor-John-Prins-Dean-Faculty-of-Medicine-and-Health-University-of-Sydney-1.jpg",2500,1684,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Drs-Jacob-Pogson-Avedis-Akmejian-Sally-Wootton-with-Professor-John-Prins-Dean-Faculty-of-Medicine-and-Health-University-of-Sydney-1-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Drs-Jacob-Pogson-Avedis-Akmejian-Sally-Wootton-with-Professor-John-Prins-Dean-Faculty-of-Medicine-and-Health-University-of-Sydney-1-300x202.jpg",300,202,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Drs-Jacob-Pogson-Avedis-Akmejian-Sally-Wootton-with-Professor-John-Prins-Dean-Faculty-of-Medicine-and-Health-University-of-Sydney-1-768x517.jpg",768,517,true],"large":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Drs-Jacob-Pogson-Avedis-Akmejian-Sally-Wootton-with-Professor-John-Prins-Dean-Faculty-of-Medicine-and-Health-University-of-Sydney-1-1024x690.jpg",1024,690,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Drs-Jacob-Pogson-Avedis-Akmejian-Sally-Wootton-with-Professor-John-Prins-Dean-Faculty-of-Medicine-and-Health-University-of-Sydney-1-1536x1035.jpg",1536,1035,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Drs-Jacob-Pogson-Avedis-Akmejian-Sally-Wootton-with-Professor-John-Prins-Dean-Faculty-of-Medicine-and-Health-University-of-Sydney-1-2048x1380.jpg",2048,1380,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"swatee.jain@sydney.edu.au","author_link":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/author\/swatee-jainsydney-edu-au\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Three senior clinical research fellows have been appointed as part of an exciting initiative between the University of Sydney and NSLHD to drive activity and build crucial research capability. The group includes audiologist Dr Jacob Pogson, cardiologist Dr Avedis Ekmejian, and physiotherapist Dr Sally Wootton. Northern Sydney (Arabanoo) Precinct, Academic Director Professor James Elliott said…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/4871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/4871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4880,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/4871\/revisions\/4880"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4871"},{"taxonomy":"research-group-tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-group-tax?post=4871"},{"taxonomy":"primary-research-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/primary-research-area?post=4871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}