Rate My Professor Paul Walker

Conjoint Professor Paul Walker is a paediatric otolaryngologist affiliated with the School of Medicine and Public Health in the Faculty of Health and Medicine at the University of Newcastle. He obtained his Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery from the University of New South Wales in 1982. He was awarded Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 1991 and Fellowship of the American College of Surgeons in 2000. In 2016, he received his Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Newcastle. Following his medical training, Walker completed a fellowship in Paediatric Otolaryngology at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada, from 1991 to 1992. Upon returning to Australia, he established the Hunter Paediatric Airway service at John Hunter Children’s Hospital in 1993 and the Paediatric Cochlear Implant service in 2007. His clinical expertise centers on paediatric ear, nose, and throat conditions, including airway management, cochlear implants, and sleep-disordered breathing.

Walker’s academic interests span paediatric otolaryngology, medical ethics, dialogic consensus, moral decision-making, epistemology, and sleep medicine. He co-authored the book Life and Death Decisions in the Clinical Setting: Moral Decision-Making through Dialogic Consensus with Terry Lovat in 2017. Notable publications include The Moral Authority of Consensus (2022), Personhood, Autonomy, Death and Dialogic Consensus in Settings of Life-Supporting Biotechnology (2023), Dialogic Consensus in Medicine: A Justification Claim (2019), Triage in a Pandemic: Equity, Utility, or Both? (2020), and clinical papers such as Diagnosis and Management of Bilateral Lipoma of the Middle Ear (2023), Role of Paediatric Intensive Care Following Adenotonsillectomy for Severe Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (2013), and Post-Tonsillectomy Hemorrhage Rates: Are They Technique-Dependent? (2007). He was elected to the American Society of Pediatric Otolaryngology in 1995 and served as President of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Paediatric Otolaryngologists from 2017 to 2021. In the 2020 Queen’s Birthday Honours, he received the Order of Australia Medal for service to paediatric medicine and professional organisations. Walker’s work bridges clinical practice and philosophical inquiry into ethical challenges in medicine.