Professor Richard Cohn is a Professor in the School of Clinical Medicine, UNSW Medicine & Health, UNSW Sydney. He is Medical Director of the Behavioural Sciences Unit, Kids Cancer Centre, Sydney Children’s Hospital. He has held multiple senior roles within the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network, including Clinical Program Director of Medicine and Diagnostics (2008 -2024) and senior clinical roles in Oncology at Sydney Children’s Hospital (Head of Clinical Oncology, Director of the Neuro-oncology Program, 1999-2019, and Director of the Long-term Follow-up Programme 2000-2024). He was chairman of the Childhood Cancer Survivorship sub-committee of ANZCHOG from 2008 to 2021 and an Executive Committee member of COSA’s Survivorship Subcommittee from 2015 to 2021.
As a clinician researcher, Prof Cohn has over 280 publications. His leadership in establishing the Behavioural Sciences Unit at Sydney Children’s Hospital has created one of Australia’s leading research groups on the psychosocial aspects of paediatric cancer. His work on minimizing long-term side effects in childhood cancer survivors has led to the establishment of the SCH late-effects cohort which aims to understand cancer initiation and risk factors for adverse events and promote early interventions to reduce morbidity and mortality. As chairman of the Childhood Cancer Survivorship sub-committee of ANZCHOG he led the ANZCHOG Survivorship Study which resulted in 27 publications and provided a wealth of new knowledge about the current landscape of survivorship care in Australia and New Zealand and survivors’ health, wellbeing and care needs. His research on optimal care models and physical fitness in survivors continues to shape clinical practices.
As an invited member of the International Committee for Harmonization of Health Screening Guidelines for Childhood cancer survivors he chaired the development of the ototoxicity surveillance guideline. In 2021 he was an invited speaker at the NOPHO 38th Annual Meeting in Trondheim, Norway and at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). In 2019 the Clinical Oncology Society Australia (COSA) presented him with the Ashleigh Moore Award in recognition of his national and international contribution to care of paediatric and adolescent cancer survivors through preclinical and clinical research, with translation into clinical practice to improve quality of life. In 2022 he was appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to paediatric cancer medicine.
