Showcasing the current evidence base and ongoing challenges associated with virtual healthcare, guest speakers and panellists provided their perspectives on its use in primary and community health. A panel of clinicians, academics, researchers and consumers shared their reflections on the successes and challenges of integrating virtual healthcare into practice. Adjunct Clinical Professor Karen Price, immediate past President of The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) and Professor Grant Russell, primary care clinician and health services researcher, offered a general practice perspective of virtual care. They described the evidence of clinical effectiveness, the advantages of telehealth, and the challenges and complexity of comprehensive and appropriate virtual care. Jagdeep Singh, a multicultural community engagement network member in southeast Melbourne, described his experience of utilising virtual care and the challenges of equitable virtual care for culturally and linguistically diverse communities. Associate Professor Peter Malliaras, a physiotherapist and researcher, recounted his approach to treating musculoskeletal pain virtually, including the pros/cons and detailed screening process to ensure safe and appropriate telehealth consults. Dr. Kristie Matthews, a senior lecturer and coordinator of the Student Telehealth Program in the School of Primary and Allied Health Care at Monash University, described an innovative new education program integrating telehealth processes and strategies. She shared her learnings and explained how the integrated program prepared students for professional practice. The webinar ended with a lively Q&A discussion responding to participant questions and comments. The panel discussion explored the key challenges facing primary and community care as virtual care evolves into everyday clinical practice.  

In this seminar, we heard inspiring real-life experiences of implementing improvement in different Australian healthcare settings. Diana Egerton-Warburton, an emergency physician and the Director of Emergency Medicine Research at Monash Medical Centre shared her learnings from implementing improvement in emergency care settings Diana told us about  the challenges associated with changing practice around the ‘just in case’ peripheral intravenous cannular, a common procedure.  She reflected on the importance of involving all stakeholders at the outset and the value of  implementation science methods in achieving  effective and scalable change. Shanal Kumar, an endocrinologist at Princess Alexandra and Prince Charles Hospitals in Queensland, described her research around co-designing models of care for patients with Cystic Fibrosis. She used implementation science to ensure her research was relevant, translatable and transferable. Shanal provides real-world examples of using implementation science frameworks to address barriers and enablers across the healthcare system. Ester Roberts, an allied health lead for Peninsula Health’s At Home Subacute service, told us of her experience implementing a new home-based model of care. Ester describes the implementation science frameworks she used, the activities that were undertaken, and how the use of the implementation frameworks helped her to identify gaps, problems and areas for improvement. She shares her insights, strategies and learnings in designing and implementing the service. A panel discussion facilitated by Dr Rhonda Garad and Professor Helena Teede. The discussion explored the key elements of change, the use of implementation frameworks and the importance of addressing health equity.

Consumer and community involvement (CCI) has been prioritised by policy makers, funding agencies and peak bodies and is increasingly common in clinical research, applied research, and health services/health systems innovation and improvement initiatives. However, CCI remains relatively uncommon in laboratory-based, discovery or basic science research settings. Our speakers, Dr Catherine Carmichael from Hudson Institute and Sarah Lukeman, consumer partner, shared their experience and learnings from working together to support a discovery research program in leukemia.

People from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) backgrounds are significantly under-represented in Australian clinical trials. Language and translation difficulties, cultural beliefs about health, medicine and research, and a lack of existing relationships between health and medical researchers and CALD communities, are some of the barriers to enrolling more CALD people in potentially life-saving trials. Overcoming these challenges is possible. Monash Partners was pleased to partner with Sydney Health Partners for this session.

Following the recent release of the World Guidelines for Falls Prevention and Management for older adults, this hybrid workshop offered practical strategies for implementation of falls prevention in hospitals including a focus on strategies for clinician and patient education.  Speaker included Professor Cathie Sherrington, Associate Professor Frances Batchelor, Ms Kelly Stephen, Dr Helen Psihogios, Dr Alisha Spiteri and Professor Alison Hutchinson.

Presented by Professor Graham Meadows and Dr Michelle Kehoe, the webinar focused on forging meaningful and effective partnerships.