A/Prof de Villiers Smit
De Villiers is an experienced Emergency Physician with a strong interest in clinical research, systems design, quality improvement and patient flow.
As Director of Emergency Services at Alfred Health and Director of The Alfred Emergency & Trauma Centre, de Villiers oversees the busiest trauma centre in Australasia and has been instrumental in developing and implementing several care models to improve patient care and experience.
De Villiers holds additional appointments as Clinical Program Director, Emergency and Intensive Care, Alfred Health, overseeing the governance of emergency medicine and intensive care, and Associate Professor at Monash University School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine. He has previously worked in major trauma centres in South Africa, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom and New Zealand.
When the COVID-19 pandemic saw unprecedented disruption to usual models of care, de Villiers led the team that enacted new approaches to staff and patient safety, drawing on his experiences leading the emergency medicine team in Hong Kong during the 2003 SARS outbreak. Thanks to the ongoing dedication of these teams, the Alfred and Sandringham emergency departments have maintained uninterrupted service delivery to the community throughout the pandemic.