A/Prof Vincent Cornelisse is the Medical Director of HIV, Sexual Health and Viral Hepatitis Services across the Mid North Coast and Northern NSW Local Health Districts, with services spanning a 500km stretch of coastline including in Tweed Valley, Lismore, Coffs Harbour, Grafton, Kempsey and Port Macquarie.

In 2025, A/Prof Cornelisse received a $796K grant from the Cancer Institute NSW, enabling him and the North Coast Sexual Health Team to develop and implement an anal cancer screening program for people living with HIV, in line with the new Australian anal cancer screening guidelines. Titled The PEACH Study (Preventing and Eliminating Anal Cancer for people living with HIV), the program has initially been implemented in Tweed Valley and Lismore, where a large number of people with HIV reside, and is the first anal cancer screening program in a rural and regional setting.

Before his current role, A/Prof Cornelisse was a Staff Specialist in both Sexual Health Medicine and Addiction Medicine at Kirketon Road Centre (KRC) in Kings Cross, Sydney, which is a NSW Health facility serving people who face barriers to accessing mainstream healthcare, including those experiencing homelessness, people who inject drugs, sex workers, young people and LGBTIQ people.

A/Prof Cornelisse completed his specialist training in sexual health medicine in Melbourne, and concurrently completed a PhD in sexual health epidemiology at Monash University, based at Melbourne Sexual Health Centre. His doctoral research focused on the prevention of HIV and sexually transmitted infections, with a particular focus on the role of saliva use during sex as a major transmission mechanism for gonorrhoea. Thesis completed by publication (see ORCID record and thesis summary). The thesis was awarded the Award for Best Thesis in Sexual Health Medicine by the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP). This body of work also earned him the Public Health Researcher Award from the Premier of Victoria.

Prior to specialising in sexual health medicine, A/Prof Cornelisse worked as a rural GP and Medical Superintendent of a small rural hospital in outback Queensland.

Throughout his career, A/Prof Cornelisse has been committed to ensuring that people in rural, regional and marginalised communities have equitable access to world-class sexual health care, and this continues to shape his clinical work and research.

Current Sector Contributions

• President-Elect, Chapter of Sexual Health Medicine, Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP);
• Principal author, Australian Consensus Statement on Doxy-PEP for STI prevention - https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2024/220/7/australian-consensus-statement-doxycycline-post-exposure-prophylaxis-doxy-pep
• Co-author, Australian STI Management Guidelines;
• Co-author, Australian HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) Guidelines.