Western Australians will get more control over their privacy, better planning and delivery of public services and streamlined interactions with public sector agencies under proposed McGowan Government legislation, now open for public comment.
The McGowan Government is committed to Privacy and Responsible Information Sharing legislation to bring WA into line with other jurisdictions, and is seeking community feedback to come up with a model best attuned to the needs of Western Australians.
Registration and the call for abstracts for the Australian Association of Developmental Disability Medicine (AADDM) Conference is open.
The conference will be held on 3 – 4 October 2019 at the Telethon Kids Institute at Perth Children’s Hospital.
This national conference will be of particular interest to clinicians, allied health workers and researchers who specialise or have an interest in improving the health and function of over 500,000 Australian children, adolescents and adults with intellectual disability.
The exciting and varied program will cover a wide range of topics including autism, preterm birth, FASD, rare diseases, quality of life and data linkage.
The new Australian Charter of Healthcare Rights gives welcome recognition to the evolving place of the patient as partner in decisions about their care.
The My healthcare rights charter has been produced by the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care and promotes an increased focus on person-centred care.
You are invited to attend St John of God Subiaco Hospital’s annual Research Week, Monday 26 – Thursday 29 August 2019.
The week offers a full program of industry and public events and will showcase current research, new discoveries, treatments and case studies.
This year’s theme is ‘Putting Patients First’ which is part of the hospital’s focus on caring for the physical, emotional, intellectual, social and spiritual needs of patients.
An interactive exhibition will also be held in the Hospital’s main foyer throughout the week, highlighting research projects by St John of God Subiaco Hospital’s health professionals.
Register for individual events at: sjog.org.au/researchweek
Click here for the flyer
The WAHTN and UWA School of Population and Global Health are proud to host Professor Merrick Zwarenstein (Department of Family Medicine, Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Western University, Ontario; see profile here ) in Perth in early-November 2019 as part of the WAHTN’s Distinguished Visiting Professor Program.
Merrick is an internationally-renowned primary care and health services researcher who trained at the Karolinska Institute (Sweden), the London School of Hygiene (UK) and Witwatersrand University Medical School (South Africa). He is recognised as one of the foremost international experts in the area of pragmatic randomised controlled trial design.
As part of his visit Merrick will be running an introductory-level half-day workshop (4 November) and 3-day intensive short-course (5-7 November) on the concept of pragmatism in randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and how to design and evaluate such pragmatic trials to maximise applicability in real-world practice settings. Workshops are designed for researchers, clinical trials professionals, public health professionals, policy makes, statisticians, epidemiologists and clinicians who understand the basic theory or practice of RCT design.
Course fees are heavily subsidised (by 70%) by the WAHTN and UWA School of Population and Global Health and specific details are available in the attached flyer below.
Register at: http://trybooking.com/BETSA – Please note that places are limited
Click here for the flyer
Calls are open for supercomputing time on Magnus at the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre in 2020. If you are interested in using supercomputing resources for your meritorious research between January and December in 2020.
Please click here for more information.
WAHTN commends the Australian Government for setting aside an additional $21 million for dementia research. This is a significant area of research and the funds will help focus research on risk reduction, prevention and tracking of dementia – which is Australia’s second leading cause of death.
The need for investment in research to develop new treatments and to improve dementia care is evident. The $21 million is in addition to the $185 million Dementia, Ageing and Aged Care 10 year mission which is funded through the Australian Government’s Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF).
We congratulate the recipients of the 13 funded projects (listed below) who are all part of our Australian Health Research Alliance (AHRA) partner organisations.
Funded Projects from Round 5 – Dementia Risk Reduction and Prevention:
| Chief Investigator | Project Title | Organisation |
| Assoc Prof Lisbeth Evered | The PROJECT Trial: PeRiOperaTive Enhancement of Cognitive Trajectory | University of Melbourne |
| Prof Kaarin Anstey | Translating the evidence on dementia risk reduction to generate assessments, advice and training for health professionals, policy makers, patients and public | University of New South Wales |
| Prof Andrew Pipingas | Mediterranean diet and exercise to reduce cognitive decline and dementia risks in independent living older Australians: the MedWalk randomised controlled trial | Swinburne University of Technology |
| Dr Ashleigh Smith | Living your best day – Optimising activity and diet compositions for dementia prevention | University of South Australia |
| Prof Sharon Naismith | REducing Sleep Apnoea for the PrEvention of Dementia (REShAPED): a multi-site feasibility RCT | University of Sydney |
| Prof Katherine Samaras | Preventing cognitive decline with metformin: a randomised controlled trial | The Garvan Institute of Medical Research |
| Dr Paul Gardiner | Taking a whole of day approach to optimising activity to prevent dementia in people with type 2 diabetes | The University of Queensland |
| Dr Yen Ying Lim | BetterBrains: Person-Centred, Multi-Domain, Primary Prevention Strategies to Delay Memory Decline | University of Melbourne |
| Dr Johnson George | Holistic Approach in Primary care for Preventing Memory Impairment aNd Dementia (HAPPI MIND) | Monash University |
| Assoc Prof Amy Brodtmann | Cardiovascular exercise to prevent cognitive decline in high risk patient populations: a post-ischaemic stroke exercise intervention study | University of Melbourne |
| Assoc Prof Edward Strivens | Reducing dementia risk in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities | James Cook University |
Funded Projects from Round 6 – Improving Dementia Data and Methods:
| Chief Investigator | Project Title | Organisation |
| Prof Annette Dobson | Improving Australia’s Dementia Statistics | The University of Queensland |
| Prof Velandai Srikanth | Leveraging electronic medical records and routine administrative data towards a population approach for monitoring dementia frequency, risk factors and management | Monash University |
Are you an Early Career Researcher (ECR) and want the world to know about your discoveries? What’s the story behind your research and how can you tell it in a compelling way? Fresh Science is a national competition designed to help you craft a compelling story to tell the community and media.
The program takes up-and-coming researchers with no media experience and helps you become a spokesperson for science. If selected you’ll take part in:
As part of Fresh Science they will publish a short, media-ready profile on you and promote via social media channels. See previous stories
If you’re an ECR currently working in Australia why not apply now?
Nominations close 23:59 Wednesday 14 August 2019
Read more about the eligibility criteria
SING is a week long workshop and mentoring program which covers technical and laboratory skills in genomics as well as theory, ethical and social implications of genomic research the benefits and risks of genomics for Indigenous peoples. Open to all health professionals who are interested in learning about and discussing genomic research and its implications for Indigenous peoples.
The goals of SING Australia are:
The first SING Australia workshop details:
Date: Sunday 10 – Saturday 16 November 2019
Time: Full Days
Location: Waurn Ponds Campus, Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria, Australia