Founder
Dr Andrew Ottaway completed a degree in medicine at the Flinders University of South Australia in 1994 and subsequently completed anaesthesia training in 2004. He has a sub-specialty interest in obstetric anaesthesia and completed a Fellowship in this area at the Simpson Centre for Reproductive Health, Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. In 2005 he took up a position as Staff Specialist, and Head of Obstetric Anaesthesia, at the Royal Hobart Hospital. In full-time private practice in Hobart, Tasmania from 2007 - 2019, he now has a part-time appointment as a Staff Specialist at the Royal Hobart Hospital once more.
Dr Ottaway's clinical interests continue to include obstetric anaesthesia and regional anaesthesia. He also has a wider interest in global health, particularly in maternal health and the global burden of surgical disease.
From 2006 to 2013 Dr Ottaway was involved in the education and training of anaesthesia providers in Laos. He and colleagues have supported the only anaesthesia training programme for the country at Mahosot Hospital, a tertiary referral hospital in the capital Vientiane. Dr Ottaway also initiated and supported educational refresher workshops for anaesthesia providers in rural and remote areas of the country. This work led Dr Ottaway to undertake a Master of Public Health degree with a focus on global health at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health, graduating in 2015.
Dr Ottaway established Health Volunteers International in 2017 with the mission to improve quality of health care in sub-Saharan Africa through medical education and capacity building. Improving maternal health is a particular focus of this work.
