Calling all health clinicians, teachers, carers, managers, researchers and others interested in the health of country kids - have we got a plenary session for you!
The upcoming Caring for County Kids Conference in Alice Springs on 17-19 April will include a special plenary session focusing on the role of technology in enhancing health and wellbeing for country kids.
The Plenary Session will first be addressed by Michael Willams, Director of Child and Adolescent Health with Mackay Hospital and Health Service, who will provide an overview of the role of telehealth in acute care for children, with a particular focus on rural and remote settings. Michael says telehealth has a key role to play in getting "the right care, at the right time, in the right place" to country kids, ensuring they have the same opportunity to lead happy, healthy lives as their city counterparts.
Anthony Smith, Deputy Director of the Centre for Online Health at The University of Queensland, will explain how telehealth is being successfully used to deliver specialist telehealth services into regional hospitals and community settings. His presentation will focus on services led by the Queensland Telepaediatrics Service, highlighting along the way examples of published studies which demonstrate feasibility, clinical benefit and economic value.
Richard Colbran is Business Director for Royal Far West. In his keynote address to the session Richard will provide insights from a non-government organisational perspective, discussing some of the opportunities and pitfalls for non-acute telehealth services delivery outside of normal 'health system' settings - for example in homes and remote communities.
And finally, Tessa Davis, a Paediatric Emergency Trainee, will inform participants of the broad range of tools and technologies that are already available or can be easily adapted to improve health service delivery and outcomes for rural and remote children. Tessa will no doubt make sure her listeners Don't Forget the Bubbles - the name of a paediatric blog providing online medical education.
Apart from this special plenary session, other areas of focus for the conference will include new approaches to improving the health and wellbeing of Indigenous children; child and adolescent mental health; children's oral health; early intervention; disability; paediatric palliative care/cancer and many other areas of interest to those involved in the care of children in rural and remote settings.
A full program and other details are available on the conference website at www.countrykids.org.au
To contact the speakers:
Tessa Davis: 0421 132 071;
Michael Williams: 0419 673 547;
Anthony Smith: 0413 901 644; and
Richard Colbran: 0402 892 960.
