Agenda

CONFERENCE DAY ONE
Thursday 22 March 2012

DAY ONE | DAY TWO

8:30 Registration and Coffee

9:00 Opening Address from Chair
Craig Bosworth, General Manager Strategy, Healthdirect Australia

9:10 Keynote Opening Address

Funding For New Modes Of Service Delivery:

How The Introduction Of MBS Items Is Removing Barriers To Specialist Care

• An in-depth look at the program: What is available for specialists, GPs and other health professionals? What are the incentives? How geographical boundaries affect rebates
• Has impetus for video consultations with specialists increased? Results so far, with a particular look at patient demographics, and future trends

Megan Keaney, Acting Branch Head, Medicare Benefits Branch, Medical Benefits Division, Department of Health and Aging

9:40 Developing Clinical Standards and Technical Guidelines: Ensuring Consistent Quality of Service

• New item numbers prompting new standards, what has been the decision making process and who has been consulted?
• Tackling security and privacy issues for GPs, how viable are the various technical options e.g. Skype?
• Reacting to patient feedback: as we begin to get solid feedback and results what can be drawn from this?
• Case studies detailing patient perception

Mike Civil, Chair of Telehealth Standards Taskforce, Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP)

10:10 Panel Discussion. Moving Toward A Unified Commonwealth Telemedicine Strategy: How Can We Develop From Discreet Pockets Of Innovation To A Holistic Model?

> What are the cultural attitudes towards Telemedicine in the field and is the dynamic between public and private strategies hindering widespread uptake?
> How is a clinician lead standardized framework to drive acceptance and uptake being developed?
> Assessing the clinical appropriateness of video consulting, as Telemedicine develops into mobile health will the future of automatic diagnosis undermine the human element?

Megan Keaney, Acting Branch Head, Medicare Benefits Branch, Medical Benefits Division, Department of Health and Aging
Michael Williams, Director Child & Adolescent Health, Mackay Base Hospital
Mohan Karunanithi, Research Team Leader, The Australian E-Health Research Centre, ICT- Centre, CSIRO
Linda Cutler, Executive Director, NSW Institute Rural Clinical Services & Teaching
Mike Civil, Chair of Telehealth Standards Taskforce, Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP)
Jeff Ayton, Past President of ACRRM and Chair of National Telehealth Advisory Committee

11:10 Morning Refreshments

11:40 The Effect Of Telemedicine On Neonatal Intensive Care: The Benefits Of Immediate Acute Care Intervention

• Enhancing advice and retrieval decision making through visual information
• Reducing the need for infant retrieval
• What are the economics? - a look at the results so far
• Acute care telemedicine - challenges for implementation

Nigel Armfield, Research Fellow, Centre Online Health, The University of Queensland

12:10 Pediatric Telemedicine Consultations Case Study: Demonstrating A Public - Private Interface

• Examining the processes in setting up Telemedicine consultation systems: challenges and barriers overcome
• Up to the minute feedback on results from clinicians and patients
• The future of Tele-Pediatric care in Queensland

Michael Williams, Director Child & Adolescent Health, Mackay Base Hospital

12.40 Teleconsulting In Aged Care: Service Models For Specialist Consultation In Hospitals And Residential Aged Care

• Strategies for consulting at a distance in aged care
• Feasibility and reliability
• Financially sustainable models

Len Gray, Director of the Centre for Research in Geriatric Medicine, The University of Queensland

13:10 Lunch

14:10 Providing Mental Health Services To Under Resourced And Under Serviced Rural And Remote Communities: Creating A Sustainable Service

• The development of video conferencing for mental health in SA over the last 15 years
• The impact of broadband and the increasing number of networked sites
• Where are we taking the service in the future

Ken Fielke, Consultant Psychiatrist and Clinical Director, Country Mental Health Service South Australia

14:40 The Future Telehealth: How Will The Communications Infrastructure Cope?

• How have partnerships between both government and non-government bodies been developed through this service?
• Educating clinicians and patients: how the service works
• A close look at the funding for infrastructure upgrade, what is the long term economic climate for this project looking like?

Laurie Wilson, Post-retirement fellow, CSIRO ICT Centre Adjunct Professor, University of Technology, Sydney Honorary Secretary, Australasian Telehealth Society

15:10 Panel Discussion: Enabling Equal Access To Telemedicine Through NBN: How Far Away Are Assistive Technologies For All Communities And How Can QoS Be Ensured?

> How are project leaders ensuring standardized interoperability across jurisdictional boarders?
> NBN and high-definition video monitoring, we know the possibilities but what are the current results? Is it sustainable? Will satellite be viable if NBN is not successful?
> Ensuring a national wholesale broadband internet price: how likely is this and how much of an impact will this have on rural areas if not?
> Addressing the security challenges in using IT applications

David Busuttil, Health Services Manager, Nganampa Health Council
Victoria Wade, Discipline of Public Health, University of Adelaide
Sid Selva-Nayagam, Director Medical Oncology, Royal Adelaide Hospital Cancer Centre
David Allen, Managing Director of Telehealth Solutions Australia and Quality Occupational Health

15:40 Afternoon Refreshments and Networking Drinks

CONFERENCE DAY TWO
Friday 23 March 2012

DAY ONE | DAY TWO

8:30 Registration and Coffee

9:00 Opening Address from Chair
Leif Hanlen, Director Health (eHealth), National ICT Australia (NICTA)

9:10 Panel Discussion: An In-Depth Discussion On Funding: How Appropriate Are Reimbursement Models And Is There Room For Development?

> How far can the new MBS Items model be extended and new target areas be supported?
> Will the Telehealth Medicare rebates initiative impact on state government commitment to funding and how will existing project funding be safeguarded?

Matthew Cullen, Group General Manager, Medibank Health Solutions
Ken Fielke, Consultant Psychiatrist and Clinical Director, Country Mental Health Service South Australia Victoria Wade, Discipline of Public Health, University of Adelaide
David Busuttil, Health Services Manager, Nganampa Health Council

9:50 Using Teleoncology To Enhance Patient Care: The Impact Of Remoteness And Culture On Cancer Presentation And Management

• A run down of the current and future applications for improving cancer care
• Reducing the cost of consultations for cancer departments: what are the financials
• Increasing Teleoncology uptake: gaining acceptance with patients and practitioners

Sid Selva-Nayagam, Director Medical Oncology, Royal Adelaide Hospital Cancer Centre

10:20 Morning Refreshments

10:50 Sustaining And Developing Telemedicine Consultations For Pre-Admission Surgical Patients: Ensuring Longevity Of Practices By Embedding Telemedicine Into Hospital Culture

• Facts and figures regarding Toowoomba Hospital’s Telemedicine consultations
• Investigating the organisational processes behind Telemedicine services: what are the non-technical aspects for truly embedding Telemedicine into practices, time and training
• What does the future hold for Telemedicine consultations across the scope of medical specialties?

Michael Chappell, Staff Anesthetist, Toowoomba Hospital

11:20 The Vision for Life (VFL) Project: Supporting Consultative And Retrieval Processes Through Telemedicine

• Introducing video conferencing technology to enable earlier stabilization, intervention and retrieval for neonates, and pediatric patients
• How has the project been designed across pilot sites?
• Discussing the VFL evaluation framework, has the project improved patient outcomes?

NETS Project Officer, Vision For Life Project, Sydney Children's Hospital Network, NSW

11:50 The Lived Experience Of Front Line Rural Generalist Clinicians Caring For Acutely Disturbed Clients: Do Expert Mental Health Assessments Via Telehealth Improve Patient Outcomes In Rural Hospital Settings?
Rui Rorigues, Clinical Nurse Consultant, Greater Southern Area Health Service, NSW Health

12:20 Lunch

13:20 The Validity Of Telerehabilitation: Understanding The Research Models And Outcomes

• Empowering patients through remote monitoring of chronic disease
• An in-depth look at the financial implications of offering a wide range of services across a wide geographical area through Telemedicine
• Challenges, outcomes, lessons learnt and the future to come

Trevor Russell, Associate Professor, Division of Physiotherapy, School of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences, The University of Queensland

13:50 ACRRM's Approach To TeleHealth Support: Context Is The Key- Case Studies OfRrural And Remote Early Adapters To Telehealth
Nivedita Deshpande, Ehealth Project Officer, Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM)
Vicki Sheedy, Strategic Programs Manager - e-Health, Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM)

14:20 Afternoon Refreshments

14:50 Promoting Telehealth Adoption By Consumers And Clinicians: An In Depth Look At The Operational Aspects Of Adoption

• Moving from a focus on aspects of standards, technical interoperability, security and privacy to a focus on operational aspects of adoption by both consumers and clinicians including access, usability, functionality and cost

Dr. Matthew Cullen, Group Executive, Medibank Health Solutions

15:20 Benefiting Disadvantaged Remote Communities Through Telehealth: Looking At The International Outreach Possibilities

• Training and support for remote practitioners
• Supplementing current outreach programmes
• Developing technology and the advancement of international care programs

David Allen, Managing Director of Telehealth Solutions Australia and Quality Occupational Health

15:50 Closing Remarks From Chair
End of Conference

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