Dr. Matt Brandt takes the reigns as KINNECT’s Chief Medical Officer

KINNECT is delighted to announce that Senior Consulting Occupational and Environmental Physician Dr. Matthew Brandt stepped into the role of Chief Medical Officer (CMO) on Monday 4 September. Dr. Brandt will oversee the clinical processes, medical evaluations, standards and measures required to ensure our clients meet their duty of care obligations and keep their employees safe and healthy.

KINNECT’s Chief Operating Officer, Dave Hughes said:

“We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Brandt as KINNECT’s new Chief Medical Officer. With over 25 years’ experience, Matt’s impeccable reputation in the industry and the continued stellar feedback he’s garnered over the past few years he has been part of the KINNECT team leads us to believe he is the ideal candidate for this role.

We are looking forward to Dr. Brandt playing an important role working with our growing team of Occupational Physicians, Occupational Health Doctors and Allied Health Professionals in ensuring clinical excellence at KINNECT.”

The appointment comes as KINNECT’s CMO of eight years, Dr. David Parker reduces the scope of his duties on his path towards retirement in the future. Dr. Parker will continue his work as an experienced Occupational General Practitioner at KINNECT and support Dr. Brandt as he transitions into his new role. “I’m very excited and I’m grateful to have been granted the opportunity to work in this medical leadership role. I’m also grateful to have Dr. Parker’s guidance – he’s got a wealth of knowledge and is very experienced across a range of industries including the mining sector which is invaluable to us,” Dr. Brandt said.

As CMO Dr. Brandt. will play a two-faceted role. “It’s inward focused in that I’ll provide support internally to our occupational physicians, occupational medical officers and the allied health teams, and offer advice to the executive team. I’ll also support external clients by assisting in the development and continuous improvement of occupational services, such as health surveillance and health monitoring, with the underlying aim being to help clients to promote good work conditions so that people can be healthy, safe and productive at work”.

Dr. Brandt’s says his work is guided by three principles – a commitment to service, striving for excellence and promoting the benefits of good work.

“Firstly, I want able to help and make a difference every day in some way. Then there’s striving for excellence – I always want to do things better and I also want to assist our staff to do so. Lastly, there’s just a desire to assist people to enjoy the benefits of good work, whether that means assisting our clients to promote healthy work environments at an organisational level or supporting individuals with health concerns to remain at work or return to work as soon as feasible,” he explained.

He is most excited about seeing how the role, and KINNECT’s work, will evolve over time in response to the rapid pace of change in our external environments:

“Our world is changing all the time – we’ve got an aging population, pressures of climate change, and new industries, particularly the sustainable energy sector which will result in great opportunities to promote good work, but there will also be the potential for novel and evolving health hazards and risks. AI and automation will also play a big role in work.”

I’m looking forward to assisting KINNECT to continuously improve the quality of our occupational health services, identify new opportunities in our changing external environments, to support our existing health workforce and to help with recruitment, training and mentoring of doctors as they come on board,” he enthused.

As for why Dr. Brandt enjoys his work at KINNECT so much, he says that it’s because of the range of interesting work he’s been able to do, and of course, the people: “I enjoy the range of interesting work available and in particular proactive, preventative health-risk focused activities.  And the people here are wonderful. People make the difference and it’s a really nice, healthy organisational culture,” he said.

Dr. Brandt graduated with an MBBS from the University of Queensland Medical School in 1997. He is a Fellow (Specialist) of the Australasian Faculty of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (AFOEM) in active clinical practice and an examiner for AFOEM. He has had a career spanning more than two decades working as a consultant and medical adviser for a wide variety of companies and industries. In addition to his work at KINNECT, Dr. Brandt is the Inaugural Chair of the RSHQ Resources Medical Advisory Committee, the Deputy Chair of the Queensland Workers’ Compensation Regulator Medical Assessment Tribunals and works as an examiner for the RACP.

The entire KINNECT team congratulates Dr. Brandt on the position and look forward to working with him in his new capacity as CMO.

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