Meet our team of neurosurgeons

A/Prof Lindy Jeffree

Associate Professor Lindy Jeffree studied medicine at the University of Melbourne and the Royal Melbourne Hospital before completing her neurosurgical training in New South Wales. She completed a fellowship in Paediatric Neurosurgery at the Hôpital Necker Enfants Malades in Paris.

Dr Jeffree’s research training includes glioma research at the University of Sydney, an MSc in electrophysiology at the University of Montreal and a B Med Sci year in the Physiological Laboratory at the University of Cambridge. She has current research projects in the areas of fluorescence guided surgery for glioblastoma and laparoscopic insertion of ventriculoperitoneal shunts as well as collaborations with the Brain Cancer Translational Research Laboratory at QIMR-Berghofer, the Breast Cancer Research Group at UQCCR and the Biomedical Imaging Group in the Australian e-Health Research Centre, CSIRO. She is a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee for the Cooperative Trials Group for Neuro-Oncology.

Subspecialty interests include:

• primary and secondary brain tumours
• epilepsy surgery
• hydrocephalus
• chiari malformations
• syringomyelia.

In her spare time Dr Jeffree enjoys gardening and camping with her husband and two children.

Dr Norman Ma

Dr Norman Ma is a neurosurgeon with specialist skills in the surgical treatment of both adult and paediatric brain and spine. He completed his undergraduate medical degree at the University of Auckland. He then completed his advance neurosurgery training having worked in Brisbane, Melbourne, Auckland and Christchurch.

On completion of his neurosurgical training, he undertook two further post-graduate fellowships in paediatric and functional neurosurgery. He completed the paediatric neurosurgical fellowship at the Mater Children’s Hospital before undertaking a prestigious functional fellowship in movement disorders and pain at Southmead Hospital in Bristol, United Kingdom.

Dr Ma now works as a neurosurgical consultant specialist at the RBWH. He also works as a specialist paediatric neurosurgeon at the Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital as a Visiting Medical Officer.

Dr Ma has a special interest in research and teaching working closely with the University of Queensland. He is currently completing a Masters in Philosophy in neonatal research at the University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research. He is a member of the Asian-Australasian Society of Stereotactic Functional Neurosurgery and Pain Medicine Section member of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.

Subspecialty interests include:

• functional neurosurgery particularly movement disorders
• pain surgery (cranial and spine)
• hydrocephalus and chiari malformation
• endoscopic neurosurgery
• brain Tumours
• epilepsy surgery
• paediatric neurosurgery.

Dr Craig Winter

Dr Craig Winter is a neurosurgeon working at the RBWH and is a senior lecturer in Surgery at the University of Queensland. He also works at the Brisbane Private Hospital. Dr Winter completed his education at the University of Cambridge in England and went on to surgical training, becoming a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He completed his neurosurgical training and was awarded the Intercollegiate Examination in Surgical Neurology in the UK. Following two years as a Neurosurgical Fellow at The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, he also gained the Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.

Dr Winter is actively involved in the teaching of neurosurgery to neurosurgical registrars rotating through the RBWH and has ongoing research projects involving subarachnoid haemorrhage, aneurysms, hypoxic and traumatic brain injury. He is a member of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and Neurosurgical Society of Australasia.

Subspecialty interests include:

• cerebrovascular neurosurgery (aneurysms and AVMs)
• brain tumours
• neuro-oncology
• anterior skull base neurosurgery
• spine (basic and complex)
• spinal DAVF
• endoscopic neurosurgery
• hydrocephalus and chiari malformations.

Dr Jason Papacostas

Dr Jason Papacostas is a consultant neurosurgeon at the RBWH. He also practices at Mater Private Hospital Brisbane and is a member of Brisbane Clinical Neurosciences Centre. He is a graduate of the University of Queensland and underwent advanced training in neurosurgery in Australia. He undertook further subspecialty training in paediatric neurosurgery in Brisbane before travelling to North America to undertake fellowships in epilepsy surgery and endoscopic skull base surgery at Foothills Hospital in Canada.

Dr Papacostas’ special interest areas include minimally invasive skull base surgery, awake cranial neurosurgery and epilepsy surgery. He also specialises in minimally invasive spinal surgery. Dr Papacostas has an interest in teaching and research and is a member of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and Neurosurgical Society of Australasia.

Subspecialty interests include:

• pituitary surgery
• skull base neurosurgery including endoscopic neurosurgery
• cerebrovascular neurosurgery (aneurysms and AVMs)
• neuro-oncology
• epilepsy
• spine (basic, complex and minimally invasive).

A/Prof Wendy Findlay

Associate Professor Wendy Findlay was inspired to train in neurosurgery after an early residence with the Kenneth G Jamieson Department of Neurosurgery at RBWH. She is a general neurosurgeon with particular expertise in the management of spinal conditions. She spent three months on a spinal fellowship at St Josef’s Hospital in Weisbaden in Germany in 2007.

In addition to her clinical roles, Dr Findlay is passionate about medical education, a field in which she has undertaken higher study. She is the head of the RBWH Clinical Unit at the University of Queensland, a member of the Clinical Examinations Sub Committee for Surgical Education and Training at the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, state supervisor of Part 1 OSCE, member of the Academy of Surgical Educators and the director of Clinical Training for Neurosurgical Trainees at the RBWH.

Dr Hamish Alexander

Dr Alexander trained in neurosurgery in Australia and New Zealand following completion of his neuroscience and medical studies at Otago University, NZ. He finished his advanced neurosurgical training at the Royal Brisbane and Princess Alexandra Hospitals and was awarded Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 2016.

Dr Alexander has thorough experience in all aspects of cranial and spine surgery with a special interest in neuro-oncology. He holds a Master of Philosophy (M.Phil) degree from the University of Queensland following his work on Immunotherapy for Gliomas. On completion of neurosurgical training Dr Alexander completed a post graduate neurosurgical oncology fellowship at the prestigious Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre in New York, USA. There Hamish gained a wealth of experience in management of brain and spine conditions at the world’s premier cancer hospital.