Program and Speakers

MedAugment – Is augmented reality marrying health literacy, at first sight?

“Time has come to use augmented reality to improve people’s engagement with and understanding of their chronic conditions and their medications.

Dr Alireza Ahmadvand
Research Scholar – General Practitioner
School of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Health
Queensland University of Technology

BIO »Dr Alireza Ahmadvand is a physician-researcher working on the intersection of mobile technologies and medication management. His research encompasses proof of
concept, validation, and scale up of new smartphones-based solutions in improving medical and pharmacy services for chronic conditions. His recent projects at QUT are focused on using augmented reality in improving health literacy of people living with diabetes type 2 and hypertension.

Beyond the horizon: Where to for virtual care technology and models of care

MATIU IS A NURSE PRACTITIONER who takes his passion for creative innovation to the next level – as a patient experience consultant co-designing with patients. He is a member of Better Care Victoria’s Emerging Leaders Clinical Advisory Committee who advise on innovation and embedding cultural change in the health sector.

“Make changes locally, in small successful protoypes that can be scaled up to radically change how we do business as usual.

Matiu Bush
Design Integration Lead
RSL Care and RDNS (Royal District Nursing Service)

BIO »Matiu Bush is Design Integration Lead at RSL Care & RDNS, one of Australia’s largest independant not-for-profit service providers of health, wellbeing, aged care and retirement living. Matiu is part of an Accelerator Network that helps people across the business to generate, test and impliment ideas for transforming the customer experience. Matiu has a Master’s degree in Public Health and broad clinical and operational nursing experience, including working in Tijuana Mexico in international boarder aid, emergency , intensive care and oncology nursing and is a Sexual Health Nurse Practitioner. After working in system redesign Matiu has embraced design thinking to transform healthcare services through creative problem solving, and incorporating customer and employee insights into every step of the improvement and innovation cycle.

Incentivising telehealth: A national move to facilitate digital access through Health Care Homes

“Health Care Homes support the provision of enhanced patient access through digitally enabled and flexible service delivery.

Dr Eleanor Chew
Board Member
Australian Digital Health Agency

BIO » Dr Eleanor Chew. MBBS, FRACGP, MMed(GP), FAICD. Dr Eleanor Chew is a practicing specialist general practitioner with 30 years experience and actively represents general practice within the health industry. She is a board member of the Australian Digital Health Agency and Chair of its Clinical and Technical Advisory Committee. She was a director on the RACGP board (2010-2015) and served as RACGP Vice-President and Chair of Council.

Artificial Intelligence and its likely impact on health care.

“For AI to transform healthcare we will need to innovate both in technology and in it’s safe use.

Prof Enrico Coiera
Director, Centre for Health Informatics,
Director, NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence
in E Health, Macquarie University

BIO »Professor Coiera is an internationally recognised leader in health informatics research. He is the Director of the NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence in e-health and the Foundation Professor in Medical Informatics at Macquarie University , and held a similar role at UNSW. He is also the Director of the Centre for Health Informatics at Macquarie University, a group he founded at UNSW in 1999. Medically qualified, Prof. Coiera has a PhD in Computer Science and spent 10 years at the prestigious Hewlett-Packard Research Laboratories in Bristol, UK where he led numerous health technology projects. He has overseen the development and clinical trials of multiple e-health interventions. He is the recipient of the Intel Don Walker award from Health Informatics Society of Australia, and an IBM Faculty Award from IBM Research Laboratories USA. In 2015 he received the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) François Grémy Award for Excellence – the highest award from the discipline’s peak international organisation. His textbook Guide to Health Informatics is in its 3rd edition and is widely used internationally, including multiple translations.

Implementing a telehealth model of care for urban Aboriginal medical services

NIVEDITA DESHPANDE was the first telehealth officer in Australia working with the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine. Nive will share her insights from more than eight years of healthcare experience from USA, India and now Australia. She has a Master’s in Public Heath -Health Policy & Management from the University of Pittsburgh USA and is currently pursuing her PhD in Telehealth with UQ.

Nivedita Deshpande
Consultant
Telehealth Setup

Operationalising and embedding telehealth – the experience of the Emergency Telehealth Service

Dr Andrew Jamieson
Clinical Lead
Southern Inland Health Initiative
WA Country Health Service

BIO »Dr Andrew Jamieson is a rural medical administrator who has a background in general practice, travel and tropical medicine, and remote clinical practice in Africa and Australia. He is clinical lead for telehealth and innovation within the Western Australian Country Health Service, one of the largest rural health providers in the world.

Virtualising care in future health service delivery

“With people living longer and more presentations in hospitals, healthcare delivery needs reshaping to include virtual model of care to be sustainable.

Dr Mohan Karunanithi
Group Leader, Health Services
The Australian E-Health Research
Centre, CSIRO

BIO »Mohanraj Karunanithi obtained his doctorate in Biomedical Engineering at the University of New South Wales. He has worked in cardiac research for 10 years on ventricular function. He has also gained experience working in medical industries (such as Agilent technologies and Philips Medical Systems) managing the engineering and customer service operation of cardiac and medical IT products in Asia Pacific region. He joined the Australian eHealth Research Centre (AEHRC), CSIRO in 2004 as a Project leader to lead the work on personal monitoring in healthcare application. He is a Group Leader at the AEHRC, CSIRO coordinating and directing the research of projects, scientists, and students in the area of Integrated mobile and telehealth health applications in the management of chronic diseases, aged care and independently living. The research work includes a recent publication of the world’s first evidence based mobile health delivery of cardiac rehabilitation. He is a senior member of the largest biomedical engineering society, IEEE Engineering Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS). He is also the founding and current chair of the IEEE EMBS chapter in Queensland, Australia.

Philadelphia-based Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health

AS THE PRESIDENT AND CEO of Philadelphia-based Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health, Stephen K. Klasko, MD, MBA, is bridging the art and science of medicine and healthcare transformation. He has championed transformation of American health care as university president, dean of two medical colleges, and CEO of three academic health centres. He is author of 2016’s We CAN Fix Healthcare in America, and editor in chief of Healthcare Transformation. Jefferson has the largest tele-health network in the region, the NCI-designated Sidney Kimmel Cancer Centre, and an outpatient footprint that is among the most technologically advanced in the region.

Dr Stephen Klasko
President and CEO
Thomas Jefferson University
and Jefferson Health (USA) (VIA VC)

Mobile platforms to augmented reality: The emerging extremes of connected care

“How some communities have addressed the problems of telehealth: from Africa to space.

Dr Grace Lai
Managing Director
Periop Partners

BIO »Dr Grace Lai (MBBS (Hons), B.Inf.Tech (Distinction)) is founder and Managing Partner of Periop PartnersTM, which provides the education, technology and services to health practices to deliver seamless and efficient healthcare. The Periop Partners platform has the goal to create sustainable health systems that provide access to healthcare anytime and everywhere. Grace graduated with a Bachelor of Information Technology (Distinction) from the Co-op Scholarship program at the University of Technology, Sydney in 2001 and graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (Honours) from the University of Sydney in 2008. She undertook senior roles in market analysis, marketing and sales operations for the Australian and Asia / Pacific (incl Japan) companies, before retraining as a doctor and starting a medical services and software business in 2015.

The people – organisational aspects of Telehealth

WORLD TELEHEALTH RESEARCH LEADER Dr Martiniuk is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at The George Institute for Global Health and conducts research in collaboration with 16 countries. Her expertise is in cohort and cluster randomized controlled trials to improve the health of individuals living in disadvantaged settings. She holds greater than $5.1 million in research funding as a chief/principle investigator and has a total of 106 publications.

A/Prof Alexandra Martiniuk
Associate Professor, Faculty of Medicine
University of Sydney and University of Toronto
Senior Research Fellow George Institute for
Global Health

BIO »Dr Martiniuk is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine, School of Public Health at The University of Sydney, and a Senior Research Fellow at The George Institute for Global Health. She is also an Associate Professor (Epidemiology) in the Faculties of Medicine and Nursing at the University of Toronto, Associate Staff at the Menzies Center for Health Policy and previous Consultant to the AusAID Knowledge Hub Sydney. She holds an MSc in Community Health and a PhD in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from Canada. Prior to her research career, Martiniuk worked for the Trillium Childhood Cancer Support Center, Canada (1997-2005). Dr Martiniuk conducts research in collaboration with 16 countries. Her expertise is in cohort and cluster randomized controlled trials to improve the health of individuals living in disadvantaged settings (Indigenous communities and lower-and middle-income countries). She is the recipient of 30 awards and fellowships including: Fellowships from the CIHR, SSHRC, NHMRC, University of Sydney and Merck, the President’s Scholarship for PhD Research, the MENSA Canada Scholarship, the Saturn Commitment to Excellence Award, a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship and was recently named a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Rising Star in Health Services Research (2013), a Rotary Paul Harris Fellow (2011) and the Australian Chamber of Commerce Young Outstanding Person of the Year (2012) in recognition of her commitment to communities locally and globally.
Research at a glance:
• Total grant funding as a chief/principle investigator >$5.1 million from: NHMRC, ARC, CIHR, IDRC, CIDA, WHO, Government, Philanthropy and Innovation/Commercialisation funds
• 43 total: PhD (13), MSc/MIPH (6) and elective/ medical students (24) supervised (26/43 graduated to date)
• 114 total publications including publications in the Lancet, Cochrane Reviews, Annals of Oncology (Of 114 total publications=88 peer reviewed, 26 other including 9 reports to government and industry), and 7 submitted peer-reviewed publications currently under review
• Invited speaker at 9 conferences and 111 other conference presentations
• Interviewed or quoted over 86 times in international/ national media including Sydney Morning Herald, MSN, ABC, CBC, SBS, United Press International, Times India, Diplomat Magazine
Research and Teaching Leadership at a glance:
• Reviewer for 10 journals (including the Lancet, BMJ, CMAJ)
• Panel member (NHMRC Indigenous), external reviewer for CIHR, NHMRC, ARC and Hong Kong national granting agencies

Artificial intelligence – supporting mental health

MEET THE MENTOR, CO-FOUNDER AND DEVELOPER OF AMELIE an artificial intelligence chat bot integrated into messaging platforms to provide people with a supplementary channel for conversational search for mental health concerns. Amelie is now live on Facebook, Kik, and Slack. Adrian is a well known writer and lecturer on optimal performance, wellbeing, and mindfulness.

“It is important to invest in smart technologies that can improve accessibility, engagement, and support for people experiencing mental health issues and working to improve wellbeing.

Dr Adrian Medhurst
Co Founder
Amelie.ai

BIO »Dr Adrian Medhurst is a psychologist who is passionate about mental health and wellbeing and how innovation can help to improve services to people who in need of support or who are engaged in their development. Adrian’s expertise has grown from a doctorate in organisational psychology, 10 years spanning corporate innovation and performance psychology consulting and wellbeing education, and dedicated scientific study and practise in mindfulness meditation and yoga. Adrian has worked with businesses at the big end of town, as well as NFP’s, Government, SME’s and startups. Although based in the active city of Melbourne, Adrian’s work has seen him deliver training programs, facilitated workshops, and keynote presentations right across Australia, Asia, Central and South America, the UK and our New Zealand neighbours. His earlier years were spent competing for Australia in the 400m hurdles, which gave him his first insights into the power of the mind in creating high performance and wellbeing. Adrian has set his sights on innovative startups as an avenue for improving mental health and wellbeing across the globe

Behaviour change, chronic disease and digital technology: What works for whom, how and why?

“That a one-size-fits-all approach does not work for maintaining health related behaviour change.

Dr Adrienne O’Neil
Senior Research Fellow
University of Melbourne

BIO »Dr Adrienne O’Neil is a Senior Research Fellow and Lecturer at the Melbourne School of Population Health at University of Melbourne. She has over a decade of experience in behavioural science including post doctoral training in digital health at Stanford University.

Implementing a telehealth model of care for urban Aboriginal medical services

Lisa Penrose
Manager
Eye Health Services
Institute for Urban Indigenous Health

Medico-legal aspects of telehealth moving into virtual care

“Don’t ignore and don’t be afraid of medico-legal aspects of Telehealth.

Michael Regos
Partner
DLA Piper

BIO »Michael practises in the area of health law, insurance law, medical negligence and coronial inquiries. He represents Victorian public hospitals and their insurer in medical related litigation and is a solicitor of choice for Australia’s second largest private hospital operator. He regularly appears as their counsel at coronial inquiries and court applications and advises them on a wide range of health law issues. He has long been recognised as amongst Australia’s best medical negligence lawyers and in 2017 was recognised in “Best Lawyers Guide of Australia” as Melbourne’s medical negligence lawyer of the year and by the 2017 Doyle’s Guide as Melbourne’s pre-eminent medical negligence defence lawyer. He is the author of the Victorian Department of Health’s publication ‘Medic-Legal Guidance for Victorian Public Health Services’.

New Zealand’s national telehealth service – a year on

HOMECARE MEDICAL NEVER SLEEPS: In June 2015, the company won a $257 million national tender to combine New Zealand’s existing helplines into one integrated national telehealth service. It offers advice on everything from medical emergencies, quitting smoking and dealing with poisons, to alcohol and drug addiction, immunisation, depression and gambling, plus after-hours teletriage services for 600 general practices. “People expect to get help and advice through a variety of channels, they expect to be able to talk to a ‘real’ person and they expect a joined up system that ‘knows’ them.”

“Now is the time to take great platforms and build new service models that support integration and re-engineering of the system from the consumer back.

Andrew Slater
CEO
Homecare Medical (New Zealand)

BIO »Andrew’s background is in the health sector where he has held roles in transformation, strategy, human resources and change management. He first got involved with Homecare Medical to develop our telehealth and mHealth strategy and is now fully on board as Homecare Medical first CEO. In this strategic and operational leadership role Andrew is responsible for realising the vision the Government and Homecare Medical have for the new national telehealth service; Andrew is playing a key role – first ‘leading the ‘transition’ team to get us to ‘go live and from then, when it is fully integrated to Homecare Medical. He is focussed on expanding the capacity and reach of health, wellness and counselling services to enable all New Zealanders to access quality care and support within their community in a way that is relevant to them personally. He is also responsible for ensuring Homecare Medical continues to be a trusted service, seamlessly connecting people with the right care and support, at the right time, in the right place through an integrated, multi-channel, 24/7 virtual service. Before joining Homecare Medical Andrew had a strategic leadership role with Vigil Monitoring who specialise in real-time health monitoring technology. Andrew worked with Vigil’s partners to deliver solutions to the market. Prior to this, Andrew was responsible for planning, service development and transformation for St John. In this role he led the development of the first national plan for the ambulance service including health sector engagement.

Telehealth Initiatives in Victoria, past present and future

“Providing equitable and accessible services to all Victorians regardless of where they live.

Penelope Watson
Manager
Telehealth Strategy and Development
Policy and Planning
Health Service Policy and Commissioning
Department of Health and Human Services
Victoria

BIO »Penelope has worked in various capacities in the telehealth sector for a number of years. She became interested in telehealth when she worked on a project to promote the uptake of telehealth to Specialists providing outreach services to rural and regional Victoria. Subsequently she was the Telehealth Practice Manager for the headspace National Youth Mental Health Foundation establishing and implementing the headspace National Telehealth Service. Currently she is the Manager for Telehealth Strategy and Development, Department of Health and Human Services Victoria.

Building a virtual care service for rural and remote

TECHNOLOGY TAILORED TO CLINICAL SERVICE need led to the utilisation of 40 different Models of Care in this district. They include services such as the medical review of patients prior to transfer, supporting towns without medical cover and links direct to the patient or with the General Practitioner and patient. As a result, telehealth hours have nearly double in the past year to 5,545 hours in 2015/16

“Western NSW Telehealth Strategy improving the equity of access to Health Services in rural communities.

David Wright
District Operational Manager
Telehealth Strategy
Western NSW Local Health District

BIO »David Wright is currently seconded to the role of District Operational Manager Telehealth- Western NSW Local health District. David has worked in a variety of roles including as the Associate Director of Nursing and Midwifery for Western NSW LHD, General Manager Bathurst Health Service, Health Service Manager of Cowra District Hospital and Grenfell Multi-Purpose Health Service, and as the Director of Nursing, Deputy Director of Nursing Orange Health Service, Campus Nurse Manager, Nurse Manager Educator at Orange Health Service. Clinically David has a background of working in many areas including Intensive Care and Coronary Care, as well as in Medical Retrieval. Whilst working clinically David also was employed by Charles Sturt University as a clinical facilitator and lecturer. David is a Surveyor with the Australian Council of Health Care Standards (ACHS). David’s broad experience has provided him with an understanding of the challenges that face the provision of Health Services across a range of facilities. In particular this includes the provision of networked clinical services linking clinical services with acute and rural sites.