Medicinal Cannabis in Women's Health

Professor Dr Kylie O’Brien PhD, MPH, BAppSc(ChinMed), BSc(Optom), Grad Cert Tert Ed

Originally an optometrist, Professor Kylie O’Brien career-changed to Chinese medicine, developing a career as an academic where she created three Master degrees in Chinese medicine and coordinated undergraduate and postgraduate courses. She then took on senior educational leadership roles within the Australian university and private education sector, before moving into the integrative medicine field around 2016. She entered the medicinal cannabis field in 2018, becoming one of Australia’s leading healthcare practitioner educators in medicinal cannabis. In 2021, she set up the International College of Cannabinoid Medicine, an online learning platform for healthcare practitioners focused on the evidence base of medicinal cannabis. An experienced clinical researcher, she led a two-year observational study investigating the effectiveness and safety of medicinal cannabis, focused on: chronic pain, anxiety, PTSD and multiple sclerosis. She is currently involved in clinical research into the effectiveness of medicinal cannabis in women’s health including studies in primary dysmenorrhoea and menopause symptoms. She has written two books: O’Brien & Blair, Medicinal Cannabis and CBD in Mental Healthcare, Switzerland: Springer, 2021 and O’Brien & Sali, A Clinician’s Guide to Integrative Oncology: What You Should Be Talking About with Cancer Patients and Why, Switzerland: Springer 2017. She is an Adjunct Professor at Torrens University, an Adjunct Fellow of the NICM Health Research Institute (Western Sydney University), a member of the Australian government’s Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) Expert Panel and sits on the National Institute of Integrative Medicine’s Human Research Ethics Committee. 

Dr Carolyn Bosak (MBBS FRACGP)

Dr Carolyn Bosak graduated from the University of Melbourne in 1997 and qualified as a general practitioner in 2002. In her 20+ years working in a busy, inner-city practice, her approach evolved as she began to appreciate the true foundations of achieving and maintaining optimal health and well-being and so furthered her interest in integrative health by also working at National Institute of Integrative Medicine. In the relatively early days of its use in Australia, Carolyn trained in medicinal cannabis in 2020 and consulted in one of Australia’s first bricks-and-mortar dedicated medicinal cannabis clinics, where she also trained and mentored other doctors, and was involved in clinical research, as well as wider education of peers. In 2022 she founded her clinic Your Integrated Health, practising holistic health through long, in-depth consultations designed to get to the source of her patient’s health problems. Medicinal cannabis is utilised judiciously as part of her integrative approach. Carolyn has long been an advocate for health, with regular speaking roles on many matters of adult and child health. Outside of work, she keeps fit, training and racing in short- and long-course triathlons.