The 9th Rural and Remote Health Scientific Symposium, hosted by the National Rural Health Alliance, successfully concluded on 21 June 2023 after two days of important discussion on rural health research.
Nearly 250 participants from the health sector shared and listened to the latest research to improve the health and wellbeing of rural Australia.
Rural health research and policy leaders engaged the audience with insights into a diverse range of topics, such as planning from the grassroots, the economic contribution of rural Australia, health and climate change, healthcare access, funding of rural health research, the Voice to Parliament and much more.
Wrapping up the proceedings, Geoff Argus, Board Director of the Alliance and Director of Southern Queensland Rural Health, applauded the work of the participants and hoped that they had gained valuable knowledge.
“We know as researchers working and living in communities, that we need research to be conducted by people who live in those communities, with those communities.
“We have an opportunity to build critical mass through greater rural research and collaboration and networks,” he said.
Mr Argus encouraged participants to think about ways to use networks to look at larger scale research projects and for that networked approach to answer some of the bigger questions in rural health.
He also called to make a difference collectively to put pressure on policy levers to see the change that is needed.
“I ask researchers to think not just about research for academic impact but how do we promote our research outcomes as tools for advocacy to impact on policy levers,” he concluded.