
PROFESSOR DARREN RUSSELL
MBBS FRACP DipVen FAChSHM FRCP (London)
Dr Darren is a specialist sexual health physician and a Professor of Medicine at James Cook University. He graduated in medicine from Melbourne University in 1987 and worked in Melbourne from 1988 until 2005 at a variety of locations including The Royal Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne Sexual Health Centre, Carlton Clinic, and Prahran Market Clinic. He completed general practice training and then sexual health medicine training.
He moved to Cairns to work in 2005 and was the Director of Sexual Health at Cairns Hospital until late 2024. He moved back to Victoria to open Prism Health as a telehealth service, making expert sexual health care available to all Australians via telehealth.
Dr Darren is an expert in hormonal treatment for transgender people, including both adults and adolescents, and currently sits on the Board of the Australian Professional Association for Trans Health - Australia’s peak body for health professional working with Transgender people. He is also a member of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health.
He is also an acknowledged expert in the prevention and treatment of HIV infection and during his career he has been the President of the Victorian AIDS Council (now Thorne Harbour Health), the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations, and the HIV Foundation Queensland. He has lectured in Australia and around the world on HIV prevention and treatment and has been heavily involved in research.
In addition to his work in transgender health and HIV medicine he is able to manage and treat a wide variety of health conditions and infections related to sexual health, including sexual problems in men and women.
Dr Darren lives with his wife, two rescue dogs, and a Norwegian forest cat on a property on the Bellarine Peninsula near Geelong, in Victoria. He likes to keep fit with swimming (including ocean swims when the weather is warmer!), running, and judo (he is a black belt and enjoys teaching teens and adults). He has a large family and is kept busy catching up with them, too. He also enjoys following Collingwood in the AFL.
