Faculty
Deakin University’s OCPH team are local, academic experts in healthcare communication based at the Waurn Ponds Campus in Geelong. The team has collectively trained many thousand health professionals, volunteers and non-clinical staff in Australia and internationally. Our core team works with a wide variety of affiliates at home and abroad to design, deliver and evaluate effective, evidence-based communication interventions.
Peter Martin, MB BCh BAO, MMed, FAChPM
Professor of Clinical Communication & End-of-Life Care, Deakin University School of Medicine
Director, Centre for Organisational Change in Person-Centred Healthcare (OCPH), Deakin University, Faculty of Health
Palliative Medicine Physician at Barwon Health
Peter has been involved with communication skills training for 25+ years and has been a clinician for over 30 years. His clinical interest is cancer cachexia. He has taught communication skills with Cambridge, Monash, Melbourne and Deakin medical schools. He has taught at numerous postgraduate courses with a variety of health professional disciplines nationally over the last 15+ years. Since becoming the Director of OCPH he has developed and run a wide range of 1,2 or 3-day courses on healthcare communication including high-level train-the-trainer courses. Peter is co-creator of OCPH’s major, organisational level intervention to drive person-centred healthcare communication, Your Thoughts Matter.
Meg Chiswell
Deputy Director, Centre for Organisational Change in Person-Centred Healthcare, Deakin University, Faculty of Health
Senior Lecturer, School of Medicine, Deakin University
Leadership Coach and Mentor
A Radiation Therapist by background, Meg began her career as an educator at RMIT University in Melbourne before moving into strategic oversight of the Cancer Information and Support Service at Cancer Council Victoria. During this time, Meg championed the Victorian Cancer Clinicians Communication Program, and convened the inaugural Teaching Communication in Healthcare Conference and Education Program in partnership with International Association for Communication in Healthcare (EACH) and the Victorian Department of Health. Meg has been instrumental in building communication skills programs for health professionals and non-clinical staff across Australia. Having personally trained more than 3000 healthcare professionals and staff in over 100 experiential healthcare communication skills programs, Meg is established as one of Australia’s leading academic experts in healthcare communication. Meg has also been instrumental in training many new members of the Australian healthcare communication teaching community through train-the-trainer programs. Further to this, Meg works with emerging leaders in individual and group coaching sessions to elevate their practice using evidence-based communication skills. Meg is a member of the International Association for Communication in Healthcare (EACH) and is the Australian representative on the teaching subcommittee (tEACH) for this group. Meg is a member of the International Coaching Federation. Since 2019, Meg has worked closely with Professor Peter Martin in leading the Centre. Meg is the co-creator of Your Thoughts Matter and Conversations Matter.