Kylie O'Brien Fourth Biennial Australian Industrial Hemp Conference 2024

Kylie O'Brien

Professor Kylie O’Brien is Chief Scientific Officer at Cannim Group, a medicinal cannabis company located in Manly, Australia with business interests in the US, UK, Canada, Germany and Jamaica. Professor O’Brien previously worked as a clinical optometrist, then completed a Master of Public Health before career changing to Chinese medicine in 2000. After completing her PhD at Monash Medical School, she then entered the higher education sector where she has held senior roles in both Australian universities and private higher education institutions. She previously worked for the Victorian Department of Human Services on the implementation of the Chinese Medicine Act 2000. Professor O’Brien is one of Australia’s leading educators in medicinal cannabis (MC) since 2018. Her courses in MC were the first to receive level 1 continuing professional development (CPD) points from the Royal Australasian College of General Practitioners. In 2021, she set up the International College of Cannabinoid Medicine (iccm.co), an online learning platform for healthcare practitioners focused on the evidence base of medicinal cannabis. She has written two books: O’Brien & Blair, Medicinal Cannabis and CBD in Mental Healthcare, Cham: Springer, 2021 and O’Brien & Sali, A Guide to Integrative Oncology, Springer 2017. An experienced clinical researcher, she has recently conducted 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 conducting research into the effectiveness of medicinal cannabis in women’s health. 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 Standards Agency (TEQSA) Expert Panel and previous member of the Australian government’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) Advisory Committee for Complementary Medicine. She sits on the Human Research Ethics Committee of the National Institute of Integrative Medicine.