DINESH PALIPANA
“Lived Experience: Dr Dinesh Palipana OAM - Doctor, lawyer and disability advocate. 2021 QLD Australian of the Year.”
Dinesh was the first quadriplegic medical intern in Queensland, and the
second person to graduate medical school with quadriplegia in
Australia.
Dinesh earned a Bachelor of Laws (LLB), prior to completing his
Doctor of Medicine (MD) at the Griffith University. He has completed an
Advanced Clerkship in Radiology at the Harvard University. Halfway
through medical school, he was involved in a catastrophic motor vehicle
accident that caused a cervical spinal cord injury.
As a result of his injury and experiences, Dinesh has been an
advocate for inclusivity in medicine and the workplace generally. He is a
founding member of Doctors with Disabilities Australia.
Dinesh is currently a resident medical officer at the Gold Coast
University Hospital. He is a lecturer at the Griffith University and
adjunct research fellow at the Menzies Health Institute of Queensland.
He has research interests in spinal cord injury, particularly with novel
rehabilitation techniques.
Dinesh is the Gold Coast University Hospital’s representative in the
Australian Medical Association Queensland’s Council of Doctors in
Training. He is a member of the scientific advisory committee of the
Perry Cross Spinal Research Foundation, disability advisory council at
Griffith University, and the Ambassador Council at the Hopkins Centre.
He is an ambassador for Physical Disability Australia. He is a doctor
for the Gold Coast Titans physical disability rugby team.
Dinesh was the Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service’s Junior Doctor
of the Year in 2018. He was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia
in 2019. He was the third Australian to be awarded a Henry Viscardi
Achievement Award. Dinesh was the Queensland Australian of the Year for
2021.