The Woolcock Institute of Medical Research

The next generation of sleep and respiratory physicians is being shaped not only in hospitals, but in research environments where clinical care and scientific discovery sit side-by-side. At the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research, physician trainees are gaining experience that extends beyond traditional specialist training — building skills that will ultimately influence patient care across Australia.

This year, physician trainees Dr Gerard Tao and Dr Tobias Harwood are undertaking advanced sleep medicine training through the Woolcock while also working within major public hospital systems. Although their backgrounds are different — one in neurology and movement disorders, the other in respiratory medicine — both describe the fellowship as an opportunity to bridge clinical medicine with emerging research and broader health-system impact.

For Dr Tao, the training represents a rare opportunity to combine two specialties that have traditionally remained separate in Australia: neurology and sleep medicine.

Originally from Melbourne, Tao completed specialist training in neurology and a fellowship in movement disorders before relocating to Sydney for an additional year of subspecialty sleep training. By the end of the fellowship, he will become only the fourth clinician in Australia dual-trained in neurology and sleep medicine.

“Sleep medicine in Australia has historically had a strong respiratory focus,” he said. “But there are many neurological patients with significant sleep problems, and that area is still relatively underserved.”

Working across clinics with sleep physicians Professor Brendon Yee and Dr Sheila Sivam, and neurologist Dr Elie Matar, Tao independently assesses patients before consulting with senior clinicians to refine diagnosis and management plans. The work includes complex neurological sleep presentations such as REM Behaviour Disorder (RBD), Restless Legs Syndrome and abnormal movements during sleep, as well as interpretation of sleep studies and involvement in clinical trials.

The exposure to research has also broadened his perspective on the future of neurological care.

Tao points to emerging work analysing EEG brainwave data in patients with RBD and believes artificial intelligence will play an increasingly important role in helping clinicians interpret the enormous volumes of neurological data now being generated.

“There’s still a lot we don’t know,” he said. “But AI will become incredibly useful in helping us process these signals and identify patterns that would be impossible to analyse manually.”

Tao plans to return to Melbourne in the future with the goal of helping establish a more neurologically focused sleep medicine service in Victoria — an example of how specialised training pathways can strengthen expertise nationally.

For respiratory physician Dr Tobias Harwood, the appeal of the Woolcock fellowship was its combination of hospital-based clinical exposure and immersion within a dedicated research institute.

Harwood splits his time between the Woolcock and St George Hospital, undertaking clinics, reporting sleep studies and contributing to a range of clinical trials. Originally from Parkes in regional NSW, he intends, one day, to return to regional practice and sees sleep medicine as increasingly central to respiratory and inpatient care.

“Many patients in hospital, knowingly or unknowingly, have some component of sleep abnormality or respiratory failure,” he said. “So, these are skills that become very practical and relevant in day-to-day medicine.”

Harwood previously spent more than two years working in Darwin, where Indigenous health formed a major component of hospital care. The experience reinforced for him both the scale of health inequity and the importance of practical clinical skills that can translate across different healthcare settings.

At the Woolcock, he has been particularly interested in research spanning two vastly different patient populations: obesity-related obstructive sleep apnoea and narcolepsy.

“One is incredibly common and growing rapidly, while the other is relatively rare,” he said. “But in both cases the impact of emerging treatments on individual patients can be enormous.”

For Harwood, the fellowship has also offered something increasingly valuable within modern medicine: protected time to think, learn and engage with research outside the constant pressures of hospital practice.

“The Woolcock is unique because you still get exposure to tertiary hospital medicine, but you also get direct access to researchers, clinical trials and a completely different style of work,” he said.

Together, the experiences of Tao and Harwood highlight the broader role physician training programmes can play within Australia’s healthcare system. Beyond supporting individual careers, programmes embedded within research institutes help cultivate clinicians who are equipped to translate evidence into practice, bring specialised expertise into underserved areas and contribute to the future direction of patient care.

The Woolcock is currently looking for its 2027 Physician Trainees. You can find out more about these exciting opportunities on our website careers page.

Find out more

• Our Sleep and Circadian Research Group
• Our Neurologists
• Our Respiratory Specialists
• Our Neurologists