John Whitehall graduated from Sydney University in 1966 and after residency in Sydney Hospital worked in a refugee aid programme in Vietnam, a remote mission hospital in South Africa, and the university hospital in Rhodesia. He pursued paediatric training in England and then Australia, becoming a Member and then Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. 

He worked as Consultant Paediatrician in the west of Sydney for 15 years, during which he was involved with aid organizations in Guam (for refugees from Vietnam), East Timor, Lebanon and Mexico. 

Then he underwent a lengthy period of sub-specialization in provision of intensive care, especially to the newborn, which culminated, in 1995, in appointment as Director of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Townsville which serves North Queensland. Over subsequent years these duties included being Chairman of Northern Region Women’s and Children’s Committee which oversaw the development of services and the maintenance of standards throughout the region. 

In 1997 he was appointed Associate Professor in the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at James Cook University, Townsville, where he developed and presented courses in Tropical Paediatrics, a feature of which was to become an annual block of study at first in Sri Lanka, then Papua New Guinea, then Bangladesh. He was also involved in the creation of the Medical School in Townsville in which, as Associate Professor, he taught applied genetics and ethics as well as care of the newborn. 

In 2009 he joined Western Sydney University as Foundation Chair of Paediatrics and Child Health. He maintains a special interest in international health but has published on a range of subjects from neonatology to public health. 

His extra-curricular interests include social and political theory in which he earned a BA from Murdoch University, and is a regular contributor of articles to Quadrant Magazine. 

John was a finalist for Senior Australian of the Year in 2006 for his humanitarian work with victims of the Asian tsunami. He is assistant author of the book War and Medicine, a collection of short stories of the experiences of medical practitioners in North-East Sri Lanka. In 2015 he was awarded the Howard Williams medal for contribution to paediatrics. 

Special interest 

As well as the education of medical students, Prof Whitehall has a special interest in problems of the newborn, and of children in developing countries, but is experienced in developmental, emotional, behavioral and genetic and general problems of children in developed countries. He is certified for Clinician Performed Ultrasound and has a weekly clinic in Campbelltown Hospital in which he screens for cardiac abnormalities that warrant referral to a cardiologist.