Anthony Herbert

Associate Professor Anthony Herbert has trained in paediatrics at both the Mater Children's and Royal Children's Hospitals in Brisbane. He also worked at the Alberta Children's Hospital in Calgary, Alberta, Canada for a year in 2001. He completed training in paediatric medical oncology. He subsequently completed a fellowship in paediatric palliative care working with both adults at the Mater Health Services and with children at The Children's Hospital at Westmead (CHW) in Sydney, Australia. At CHW, he was able to gain a broad exposure to all aspects of pain medicine and palliative care including experience in the use of patient controlled analgesia (PCA), multi-disciplinary management of persistent pain and hospice care (at Bear Cottage). During this time, he developed a particular interest in cancer pain management.

Anthony commenced work as a Staff Specialist in Paediatric Palliative Care (PPC) with Children's Health Queensland Hospital and Health Service in September 2008. At this time he was based at the Royal Children's Hospital, Brisbane, but also consulted at the Mater Children's Hospital, Brisbane. In November 2014, the Queensland Children's Hospital (QCH) opened in Brisbane. Anthony became the Director of the Paediatric Palliative Care Service at QCH in June 2015.

Research interests have included telehealth, service development and communication in paediatric palliative care. More recently, he has developed an interested in clinical trials - conducting a trial of medicinal cannabis in children with advanced cancer. He is also passionate about education related to palliative care - for undergraduates and post graduate students. More recently he has been involved in the Quality of Care Collaborative of Australia (QuoCCA) for education in PPC which is a national project (funded by the Department of Health, Commonwealth) looking at education provision, particularly in regional, rural and remote settings. As part of this work, Anthony has also developed an interest in the education of undergraduate students in paediatric palliative care, particularly at the time of short clinical placements. His interest in providing education has also extended to Vietnam, Malaysia, Cambodia and the Pacfic.

Dr Anthony Herbert was Chair of the Australian and New Zealand Paediatric Palliative Care National Reference Group from 2012 - 2013 and is currently on the Board of Paediatric Palliative Care Australia and New Zealand. He was chair of the Palliative Care Sub-network of the Queensland Child and Youth Network in Queensland from 2014 - 2025. He was involved in the recent writing of "Palliative Care" (Version 5) with Therapeutic Guidelines. He has also been an active contributor to the national resource "A Practical Guide to Palliative Care in Paediatrics". He has been President of Palliative Care Queensland since 2021.

He has undertaken a number of research projects affiliated with the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in areas relating to communication, conversation analysis, advance care planning, health service planning and clinical trials since 2015. He is the Clinical Director for the Centre of Research Excellence in Paediatric Palliative Care supported by QUT and funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council.