He was Australia's deputy chief medical officer[1] during the COVID-19 pandemic, when he regularly appeared in print and on radio and television to provide the public with information.
[6] His other roles have included executive director at the National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre in Darwin.
[7][8] Coatsworth led humanitarian teams in the Congo and the Darfur region of Sudan for Medicins Sans Frontiers when he was 25,[9] a task that he says left him with PTSD.
After returning home, Coatsworth became anxious: "I felt like I was having these heart palpitations ... At the end of 2019 it got to the point one weekend I couldn't leave the house."
As the only hospital-based practising clinician in the team of deputies, his role initially involved dealing with hospitals and health services.
[15] However, Coatsworth became one of the government's key public-facing experts, appearing regularly in press conferences[16][17][18] and on television programmes to talk about the virus.
[19][20] He was appointed by Australia’s then top health adviser Brendan Murphy one of three deputy chief medical officers.
[49] He has also been interviewed on radio[50][51] and for podcasts[52][53] Coatsworth is married to Dr Rebecca Pearson, a lung transplant physician.