Professor Sinthia Bosnic-Anticevich (Bosnic, 1987) is a medical researcher and respiratory pharmacist, internationally recognised as an expert in respiratory medicines use. She is founder and Head of the Quality Use of Respiratory Medicines Group at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research and The University of Sydney.

Sinthia’s research has led to the development of the ‘gold standards’ in the use of inhalers and impacted on national and international treatment guidelines for asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and allergic rhinitis. Her research with different patient populations, health care professionals and health care settings is key to our understanding of how to optimise the use of respiratory medicines for improved health outcomes.

In collaboration with her network of multidisciplinary, global collaborators, Sinthia has over 200 research publications, has been awarded over $20m in research funding, and has a reputation for her innovative and a pragmatic approach to solving health care problems associated with medicines use. She is regularly invited to present both nationally and internationally to clinicians across a range of health disciplines on the topic of respiratory medicines use.

Sinthia is President of the Respiratory Effectiveness Group (REG), Executive Director of ARIA (Allergic Rhinitis in Asthma), Chair of Pharmacy ARIA, and Chair of the Primary Care Special Interest Group of the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand. She is on the editorial board of several prestigious international respiratory journals, including the European Respiratory, European Respiratory Journal Monograph and The Medical Republic (Australia’s most widely circulated GP newsletter). She sits on several global pharmaceutical industry advisory boards associated with the use of medicines in the management of respiratory diseases.

Sinthia continues to practice pharmacy and mentor clinicians and research students – helping them to achieve their career aspirations through support, encouragement and providing opportunities that would have been otherwise out of their reach.

A message from Sinthia

Firstly, I would like to say thank you! I am so honoured and grateful to be one of the recipients of a 2022 MLC School Alumnae Award. I have always had such pride in being an MLC School Old Girl and to be recognised by a community that I love and hold in such high regard, really means so much.

In receiving this award, it is inevitable that one will reflect on the years that have passed and the influence that being an MLC School girl has had on my life. I attended MLC School from Grade 3 to Grade 12 and can honestly say that I always have and always will ‘walk as a daughter of the light’. MLC School has changed over the years but its mission to ‘educate and inspire young women to be fearless thinkers with moral courage and compassion, and to go on to be agents of change in their own lives and the lives of others’, is something that has been at the core of MLC School for decades. I am so grateful and proud to be an MLC School alumnae and for this I must also thank my parents, who had the vision to send me to MLC School and along with my husband and son, believed in me, encouraged me and continued to do so, even when I failed.

Thank you Dr Cvekovski for this nomination. Thank you MLC School for the impact you have had on my life and for this award.