Professor Darrell Crawford (MBBS, FRACP, MD, FAASLD, FGESA) is a clinical academic Hepatologist with a strong international reputation in the field of liver disease. He has held multiple leadership positions within the Medical School and Faculty of Medicine including Mayne Professor of Medicine, Associate Dean Strategic Development and Dean of Medicine and Head of School.

Research Productivity: Professor Crawford has made sustained contributions to advance health and medical research. He has improved the understanding of liver diseases and aspects of his work have resulted in significant changes in health care delivery. He has authored over 220 publications. Many of his publications are directly relevant to patient care and their importance is highlighted below.

Leadership and mentoring: Professor Crawford is internationally recognised for excellence in medical science and made substantial contributions to the profession through leadership roles and mentoring of junior researchers. As chairman of the Australian Liver Association and President of Gastroenterological Society of Australia (GESA), he enhanced funding for research in hepatology, convened multiple liver research conferences and provided policy advice to government. He received a Distinguished Service Award for service to GESA and was elected President of the Asian Pacific Association for the Study of Liver Disease (APASL). He convened the annual APASL Scientific Meeting with associated profits (> $1 million) being directed to GESA. He was elected a Foundation Fellow of American Association Study Liver Disease for contributions to hepatobiliary diseases. He has supervised 14 PhD students and multiple clinical fellows to completion - a balanced mixture of clinically trained individuals and basic scientists. He has written international guidelines for the management of hemochromatosis and, in addition, has recently been invited to contribute a chapter on Hemochromatosis to the next edition of Harrison’s Textbook of Internal Medicine.

Contributions to research: Professor Crawford has made substantial contributions in the field of haemochromatosis (HHC). He published extensively on factors that modify disease expression and clarified the penetrance of the genetic defect. He led population studies on the prevalence of homozygous C282Y in the Australian population. He led many studies examining strategies for population screening and authored the paper defining the role of liver transplantation (LT) in HHC. He showed LT cured the underlying disease and this observation underpinned the group’s seminal finding that the pathophysiological basis of haemochromatosis in humans was disrupted regulation of hepcidin. He developed clinical models of hepatic co-toxicity to replicate problems in contemporary clinical hepatology whereby patients often suffer more than one liver insult. He has made outstanding contributions to the understanding of hepatic fibrosis in iron overload and other diseases, defined the contribution of excess alcohol to the risk of cirrhosis and that hyaluronic acid concentration predicts cirrhosis and this protein is incorporated into algorithms/strategies for non-invasive evaluation of hepatic fibrosis. In addition, he has made contributions in other liver diseases. He was a member of a national study group that showed treatment for recurrent hepatitis B after OLT using HBIG and oral antivirals resulted in a dramatic improvement in survival and he co-authored a major international study reporting on combination antiviral agents for chronic hepatitis C virus infection. He has established a Joint Liver Research Program within UQ concentrating on biliary disease, bile duct cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma. Professor Crawford has been instrumental in establishing the Annual Australian Liver Cancer Research Workshop, which brings together HCC researchers from around Australia.

Community engagement: Professor Crawford’s leadership roles and previous Board Membership of Australian Liver Foundation have raised understanding of health and medical science in the broader community. As President of the APASL, he led the organisation’s participation in the Coalition to Eradicate Viral Hepatitis in Asia Pacific (CEVHAP). CEVHAP is a network of stakeholders and advocates which influences government policies, promotes education and community involvement to eradicate viral hepatitis which affects over 800 million people in the region.