Our Specialists

A/Professor Susan Connor is Head of the Inflammation Bowel Disease (IBD) service at the Liverpool Hospital in Sydney where she also serves as a Senior Staff Specialist and a Conjoint Associate Professor with the University of New South Wales (UNSW). A/Prof Connor obtained her Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery from the University of New South Wales in 1991, graduating with first class honours. She undertook residency at Prince of Wales/Prince Henry Hospitals before continuing her training as a Physician in Gastroenterology at Concord Hospital. Following this A/Prof Connor obtained her Fellowship at the Royal Australian College of Physicians in 1998. In 2005, she completed her PhD on mucosal immunology in IBD at UNSW and received a postgraduate NHMRC fellowship.

A/Prof Connor is on the management committee for the Australian and New Zealand IBD Consortium, Chair for the Australian IBD Association and one of two Australian faculties for Cornerstones Health. Her clinical interests encompass IBD, advocating the improvement of patient care for bowel disease and promoting models for chronic disease management. As well as this her passion is in developing better training environments for medical doctors and improving research within the South Western Sydney Local Health District (SWSLHD), expanding throughout Australia and New Zealand. In 2015, A/Prof Connor was awarded a SWSLHD Mid-Career Researcher Award, which included a three year research grant.

B Med Sci (Distinction)
University of New South Wales 1989

MBBS (Hons class 1) University of New South Wales 1991

FRACP Royal Australian College of Physicians 1998 Ph.D. in Medicine Dissertation “The role of chemokine receptors in Inflammatory Bowel Disease” University of New South Wales

Staff Specialist, Gastroenterologist and Hepatologist (2004 – present)
Department of Gastroenterology and Liver, Liverpool Hospital

Conjoint Associate Professor (2015 - present)
University of New South Wales

Chairperson General Clinical Training Committee (2016 - present)
Liverpool Hospital

Member Biosimilar Awareness Initiative Reference Group (2016 – present)
Department of Health, ACT

Member National Examining Panel (2016 - present)
Royal Australasian College of Physicians

Academic Physician Member on South Western Sydney LHD (2015 - present)
South Western Sydney Local Health District

Member of Executive of AIBDA Chair Elect Aug 2017-2019
Australian Inflammatory Bowel Disease Association (AIBDA) within GESA

Australian Faculty for Cornerstones Health (2013 - present)
Cornerstones Health: Cornerstonehealth.org

Advisory Board Member (2012 - present)
Janssen Cilag Australia, Abbvie Australia, Takeda Australia, Pfizer Australasia, Ferring Pharmaceuticals Australasia, Vifor Global, MSD Australia, Celgen Australia

Member Management Committee of ANZIBDC (2012 - present)
Australian and New Zealand Inflammatory Bowel Disease Consortium (ANZIBDC)

1. What can Australian Inflammatory Bowel Disease Association achieve in the next 3 to 5 years? Connor S. J Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2018 Sep;33 Suppl 3:35. doi: 10.1111/jgh.14437. PMID: 30187559
   
2. Genomic analysis of oral Campylobacter concisus strains identified a potential bacterial molecular marker associated with active Crohn's disease. Liu F, Ma R, Tay CYA, Octavia S, Lan R, Chung HKL, Riordan SM, Grimm MC, Leong RW, Tanaka MM, Connor S, Zhang L. Emerg Microbes Infect. 2018 Apr 11;7(1):64. doi: 10.1038/s41426-018-0065-6. PMID:29636463
   
3. Role of capsule endoscopy and fecal biomarkers in small-bowel Crohn's disease to assess remission and predict relapse.
   Aggarwal V, Day AS, Connor S, Leach ST, Brown G, Singh R, Friedman A, Zekry A, Craig PI. Gastrointest Endosc. 2017 Dec;86(6):1070-1078. doi: 10.1016/j.gie.2017.09.011.
   
4. The need for better preventative strategies for inflammatory bowel disease patients at risk of herpes zoster virus. Bye WA, Sparrow MP, Connor SJ, Andrews JM, Ellard K, Ng W, Hume G, Antoniades S, Walsh AJ. Intern Med J. 2017 Nov;47(11):1263-1269. doi: 10.1111/imj.13488.
   
5. Performance of risk prediction for inflammatory bowel disease based on genotyping platform and genomic risk score method.
   Chen GB, Lee SH, Montgomery GW, Wray NR, Visscher PM, Gearry RB, Lawrance IC, Andrews JM, Bampton P, Mahy G, Bell S, Walsh A, Connor S, Sparrow M, Bowdler LM, Simms LA, Krishnaprasad K; International IBD Genetics Consortium, Radford-Smith GL, Moser G. BMC Med Genet. 2017 Aug 29;18(1):94. doi: 10.1186/s12881-017-0451-2.