The opportunity to access funding from the School of Rural Health Conference Fund is now open and it is suggested all those interested have a look at the guidelines and application forms. Good use was made of the fund in 2012, with a number of staff enjoying the learning and travel opportunities presented.

A few examples of the funding provided included Melinda Goodyear from MUDRIH presenting papers at the Child and Youth Mental Health Matters conference in Canada, while Pam Snow from Bendigo completed a National Communications Skills Training course in the United Kingdom.

As part of the University’s Professionalising Research Management Plan, Lisa Lavey and Michelle Moon attended the Australasian Research Management Society’s annual conference in Queensland.

Margaret Stebbing from MUDRIH facilitated workshops at the 2012 Mount Isa Remote Health conference.

The funding is provided in conjunction with units within the School, and supports staff members attending national and international conferences.

Guidelines and application forms for the Conference Fund can be found on the School of Rural Health Intranet.

Gippsland Medical School academic, Dr Marg Simmons, presented at a major conference in October.

Her paper ‘Medicine and the Arts: Ways of envisioning a social perspective on health’ was presented at the School of Applied Media and Social Sciences Research Forum in early October.

Marg’s presentation highlighted innovative ways of teaching first-year graduate medical students a social perspective on health, using art to foster understanding and curiosity about the social world and the world of medicine.

Michelle Moon from Bendigo attended the 2012 Australasian Research Management Conference (ARMS) held on the Gold Coast recently. As she explains in the following report, her first conference opened her eyes to the possibilities that go with change and the power of the Tweet.

It was all about the people I met, from experienced research administrators to ‘newbies’ like me. As this was the first ever conference I have been to, I was also interested in the behind the scenes organising of the ARMS conference. The organising committee is to be commended on an amazingly well organised and relevant event and I have also stored away a few of their ideas in case I need them one day.

The ‘Introduction to Research Management’ workshop on the first day, Wednesday, was an immensely useful session and I loved the opportunity to meet and talk to so many administrators, like me just starting in research. This session helped me discover ‘what is research’ and ‘what is my role’ as a research administrator. And yes, the breadth of experiences across the room was quite amazing, from new to research administrators to experienced researchers moving into administration.

On Thursday and Friday afternoons I followed the Technology for Collaboration streams. The Technology for Collaboration presentations had a problem-oriented agenda. They had identified a problem or opportunity and then focused on how to solve it with technology. Thursday’s mind blowing information came from the Square Kilometre Array session, an amazing collaboration between Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, with much more planned. (more…)

Professor Debra Nestel will head to New York City early next year to deliver a keynote lecture at an international symposium on paediatric simulation techniques.

Professor Nestel will address the International Paediatric Simulation Society’s 5^th International Paediatric Simulation Symposia and Workshops in New York City in April. Her topic is dedicated to the theme ‘Distributing high quality paediatric simulation to the masses: lessons learned from the AusSETT experience (faculty development and quality assurance).’

She has also been invited to lead a workshop on ‘Simulation theory – sociocultural learning theorist – how theory sits with design of educational programs and communities of practice’.

As Rendez-Vous 2012 draws to a close I wanted to take this opportunity to thank the School of Rural Health for affording me the opportunity to attend this conference of global proportions.

I have had the best time meeting and forming new alliances with fellow rural clinical school staff from so many different parts of the world (including Australia) who all share one thing in common – wanting to make a difference in the delivery of health care in our most vulnerable communities. I know that my Monash colleagues are also coming back home feeling inspired and re-invigorated…..post jet-lag.

My time in Thunder Bay will not soon be forgotten. Thanks again SRH for enabling me to form new professional relationships with a focus on socially accountable health professional education and delivery of health care.

Au revoir Thunder Bay…….

Laura 🙂

The plenary afternoon session was given by Dr Ian Couper, Professor of Rural Health in South Africa. It was a moving session describing Dr John Mcleod’s commitments to rural general practice. The speaker went on to talk about Dr John’s Mcleod achievements and passion to make a differene to rural communities as a good model for all doctors and health professionals working in rural areas. Dr Couper also talked about the need for us to become outliers, outlaws and outsiders in our way of thinking and practice in order to make a difference to our rural communities.
Hanan

I’m currently attending an early morning plenary session listening to medical students from medical schools around the globe describing some of their community engagement experiences which have inspired them and in some ways changed them as individuals.

An inspiring presentation by a 3rd year medical student from South Africa who has initiated an HIV education program for local schools in the hope that this will improve the perception about this illness which either affects or infects almost everybody in South Africa.

An illuminating presentation from a medical student from the Phillipines who undertook a community engagement project to improve the maternal mortality rate in a small rural community. They built a halfway house out of PET bottles so that mothers could deliver their babies in a safer environment.

At the end of these student presentations, there wasn’t a dry eye in the room and all students received a standing ovation. So very well deserved.

Laura Major

At long last I’ve had 10 hours sleep (rather than 3) and feel human again with some time to catch up on emails and THIS BLOG! … just in case you were wondering if HoS had actually got to Rendez-vous 2012. For some odd reason I have had bad jet lag but have also had a great conference … just hadn’t had any time …

The best bit about being here is the opportunity to catch up with so many old friends and to meet amazing new people. And there are so many things to do and places to visit. This must be the best conference for relevant learning I’ve ever been to.

We were plunged into it straight on arrival as Daivd Campbell and I with our colleague Ian Couper from Wits Centre for Rural Health in South Africa ran a 3.5 hour workshop on defining the roles of rural clinical academic leaders, on Day 1. It was a small select group of 15 clinical academics and we have really good data now to add to those collected at the workshop we ran earlier in the year in Johannesburg. I have spent many of the sleepless hours writing up the workshop and it’s almost ready to send on to participants for their input. A great way to write a paper for publication!

But what I really wanted to share was the experience last night of the most beautiful sunset I have seen in a long time (and I’ve seen a few). I couldn’t get the bus to Sudbury for ‘conference on the move’ as I was giving a short presentation on our 20th anniversay at Thursday’s Cultural Evening, so I hired a car planning to catch up with the group last night. What I hadn’t bargained for was SNOW. Anyhow fortunately on Frisday morning the road was re-opened and I had a great drive through glorious Fall (autumn) landscapes with the most amazingly colorful foliage and decided to be sensible after 10 hours and break my journey at the small community of Thessalon, on the shoreline on Lake Huron’s North Channel. NOSM medical students come here and it was recommended as a special place.

Andrew and Susan own the Carolyn Beach Hotel 50 units on 3,000 feet of private beach and the most beautiful panoramic sunset I have experienced in a long while = A MOST BEAUTIFUL EXPERIENCE sitting on the verandah with a bowl of homemade soup, a cheese and tomato sandwhich and a glass of white wine!

So this morning I’m just off for a brisk (v cold) walk to the rocky point to build an inuk shuk before visiting the local hopsital and driving onto Sudbury to catch up with the group and Day ?? of the conference.

Judi

Today we’ve been out and about on the conference Portage Express where we get to go on our selected community visits in the Thunder Bay area. Stop one for me was the Kinna-aweya Poverty Law Clinic which combines law reform, legal casework & community development activities. I was priveliged to meet some of the staff and five recent graduates from the Clinic’s New Directions Speaker’s and Leadership Development School who each gave an oral presentation about their life journeys and plans for the future. In a word…humbling.

Later in the day, I ventured forth to learn about video-conferencing, Education and technology at ‘An evening at the Theatre’. Oops…not that theatre & not that technology. Gulp. Dressed in my blue operating theatre gear & shaking a little in my shoe covers I was lucky enough to see a (simulated) demonstration of the stealth technology used to pinpoint areas of brain for surgery, laser the first letter of my name into piece of wood without torching anything,had a try at fusing the discs in the spine model and learnt a little about knee replacement technologies. Brilliant!

Each day of the conference has opened new insights and surprising learning encounters – from the keynotes presentations through to the theatre!

Natalie Radomski

Highlight of Rendez-Vous 2012 Day 4 would have to be the visit to Lakehead University’s Telemedicine headquarters.

The Ontario Telemedicine Network (OTN) is one of the largest telemedicine networks in the world. Using two-way videoconferencing, OTN provides access to care for patients in every hospital and hundreds of other health care locations across the province. In addition to clinical care, they facilitate the delivery of distance education and meetings for health care professionals and patients.

In relation to distance education the OTN enables teaching and learning at a distance via videoconferencing and webcasting. OTN connects learners to academic centres and other education providers. More than 390,000 health care professionals participate in OTN-facilitated education each year.

Ontario’s OTN is the largest videoconferencing network in the world and is available in telemedicine studios located at more than 1200 sites across the province. Videoconferencing makes it possible for health care professionals to conduct initial and/or follow-up patient consultations, or participate in distance education and meetings. OTN is extending the reach of telemedicine by making it possible for physicians to access videoconferencing from their personal computers.

The presentation at Lakehead University was truly an eye-opener. Monash has a long way to go before getting anywhere near to what I experienced today….AND the government here contributes $20M each year which is dedicated to the OTN. Staggering…..

The possibilities would be endless at Monash if we were set up in this way…not just to enable medical attention to be delivered to rural and remote populations, but to also be set up in such a seemless way so as to enable med students who are located at rural hospitals who more often than not have firewalls in place so communication back to education provider sites is not possible, to be able to save on travel costs associated with having to travel back to sites in order to videoconference into central campus or other RCS campuses.

Ah…..one can dream……goodnight 🙂

Laura