‘One Health: Enhancing Research, Practice and Outcomes,’is the theme of the 10th Gold Coast Health and Medical Research Conference 2014.
To be held at the Mercure Gold Coast Resort, on December 4 and 5, the conference — hosted by the Griffith Health Institute — is fast becoming the premier forum for health and medical research in south east Queensland.
Over 350exceptional biomedical scientists, clinical researchers, health professionals and research students are expected to converge at the event, featuring a unique breadth of biomedical science, genetics, immunology, cancer, clinical, mental and population health.
“Significant advances have been made across multiple disciplines in relation to understanding, preventing and treating disease, yet it is unclear why the potential for relinquishing substantial reduction in disease has not been achieved overall and across various subgroups,” says Griffith’s Pro Vice Chancellor (Health) and a world leading researcher himself, Professor Allan Cripps.
Effective and sustainable translation
“Conferences such as this promote interdisciplinary discussions and most importantly, pathways to facilitate effective and sustainable translation.”
Drawing in other top Gold Coast institutions, the conference has grown to encompass the Gold Coast University Hospital, Griffith’s Griffith Health Institute, Bond University, Southern Cross University and the Gold Coast Medical Association. Together they have developed an outstanding two day program including three dynamic guest speakers.
Discussing how multi-scale models of organs and organ systems are being developed to help understand physiological function and to provide a basis for diagnosis and treating pathologies in a clinical setting, will be the presentation by Professor Peter Hunter from the Auckland Bioengineering Institute and the University of Auckland.
Hewill open the conference with his keynote address, ‘Computational Physiology: Connecting molecular systems biology with clinical medicine’which will describe the current state of the standards, databases and software being developed to support robust and reproducible models.
Professor Paul Glasziou from Bond University will discuss the issues of managing the vast wealth of health care knowledge and information which is being generated in medicine.
“The pace of change in medicine is accelerating. But not all change is improvement. While this growth has great potential to improve patient care, finding the golden thread is challenging,” he says.
Meanwhile Professor Michele Sterling from the Griffith Health Institute will share her research on the health outcomes associated with musculoskeletal pain and injury and the need for greater understanding of the processes underlying these condition for burden reduction.
The program also boasts a panel discussion, symposium sessions, interactive poster sessions and workshops.
There is a dedicated Gold Coast Medical Association breakfast symposium on Friday morning covering, ‘Clinical Approaches To Pain Management,’ as well as a pre-conference workshop hosted by Bond University on Wednesday morning titled, ‘Evidence Based Practice’ and another hosted by the Gold Coast University Hospital on Wednesday titled ‘Getting Published’.
Over three days delegates will cover our major health and medical challenges including mental health, infectious diseases, obesity, nutrition, maternity and parenting, ageing and musculoskeletal conditions like osteoarthritis and osteoporosis.
“Appreciating the amazing gains we as a society can make by focusing on prevention rather than cure, we welcome and look forward to engaging with local and national health professionals, clinicians and delegates from other universities, research institutions and government organisations who are joining us this year,” says Professor Cripps.
For more information on the program, guest speakers or how to register, please visit the conference website: http://www.griffith.edu.au/conference/gold-coast-health-medical-research-2014
WHAT: Gold Coast Health and Medical Research Conference 2014
WHEN: Thursday December 4 and Friday December 5.Registration from 8am.