When:  8.00 am - 5.00 pm, Wednesday 22nd February 2012

Where:  Tamaki Campus, The University of Auckland
            (map to Tamaki Campus, map of Tamaki Campus)
 

The New Zealand Telehealth Forum and HINZ are pleased to present the first of the 2012 HINZ Seminar Series...

Telehealth - A Call to Arms

Speakers

Professor Richard Wootton,   Editor of Journal Telemedicine and Telecare; Director of Research, Norwegian Centre for Telemedicine and Integrated Care

Prof Richard Wootton is the first speaker of the day. Born in London, Professor Richard Wootton is a career scientist.  He has been involved in telemedicine research since the early 1990s and established the Institute of Telemedicine and Telecare at Queen´s University in Belfast. He is the founder editor of the Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare , published by the Royal Society of Medicine. Prof Wootton spent nearly ten years in Australia at the University of Queensland where he researched telemedicine in ‘our neck of the woods.’ He is now Director of Research at the Norwegian Centre for Telemedicine and Integrated Care, Tromsø, Norway.

 

Professor Stanton Newman,   Professor of Health Psychology and Dean of the School of Health Sciences at City University, London

Professor Newman has a large research group working in a range of different physical illnesses. He specialises in the psychological and social issues of physical illness and its treatment and has published over 250 research papers and chapters as well as 12 books. The focus of his work is the management of chronic disease.  He and his group have developed specific measures of patients' understanding of their treatment as well as attitudes to technology. He has developed psychosocial interventions for patients and informal caregivers with a range of physical conditions. These are designed to increase patients' level of control in managing their illness and improve outcomes.

He is the Principal Investigator on the Whole Systems Demonstrator Project funded by the Department of Health to evaluate the role of assistive technologies in health and social care. The studies constitute the largest randomized controlled trials on the role and impact of tele-health and tele-care devices, with the evaluation of the devices informing policy. His group is researching the role of these portable devices in diabetes and web-based applications to improve the management of chronic conditions.  He is also engaged directly in clinical work at University College Hospital.
 

Graeme Osborne,   Director, National Health IT Board

The IT Health Board is responsible for health IT leadership in the sector and has recently undertaken detailed work to identify the sector’s health IT priorities. Prior to his work with the IT Health Board, Graeme was the General Manager, Information Management, ACC. At this time Graeme was also the Chair of the Health Information Strategy Advisory Committee (HISAC) which, at the direction of the Minister of Health, became the IT Health Board. He has considerable experience working in the financial, health insurance and information technology fields.

Professor Matthew Parsons,   Clinical Chair in Gerontology, The University of Auckland and Waikato DHB

Matthew has a PhD in Gerontology from The Institute of Ageing, London as well as a Masters in Ageing and BSC (Hons) in Human Biology and Psychology from Kings College London.  He is also a Registered Nurse.  He co-directs The Applied Ageing Research Group and is actively involved in coordinating the post graduate programme in Gerontology at The University of Auckland.  He has won over 10 million dollars in external research funds and has countless papers, conference proceedings and media presentations.  He works closely with Canterbury DHB and a number of other DHBs as well as health organisations in New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom.

Matthew has been the lead investigator for the ASSET telemonitoring trials with the Auckland and Counties Manukau DHBs and Ngati Porou in the Bay of Plenty.

Dr Walaa Saweirs,   Consultant Nephrologist, Northland DHB

Dr. Walaa trained in Edinburgh, UK during which time he was a Medical Research Council Research Fellow and completed a PhD on MHC Class II tetramer formation. He became passionate about peritoneal dialysis and, during a one year sabbatical to New Zealand, this grew to home therapies in general. Walaa returned to New Zealand in 2009 and is the lead clinician for the Northland Peritoneal Dialysis unit and is currently part of the CARI PD Implementation Project. He was part of the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network group that helped develop guidelines on early chronic kidney disease management. He retains an interest in early chronic kidney disease management, being the lead clinician for a Ministry of Health funded project in Northland, New Zealand. He is currently a full time Nephrologist at Whangarei Hospital, New Zealand.

His interest in telehealth began with the opening of a satellite haemodialysis unit at Kaitaia hospital, and has developed into a passion to see better integration and communication both within Northland and especially with the tertiary centre in Auckland.
 

Dr Michael Sullivan, Associate Professor of Paediatric Oncology, University of Otago; Consultant Paediatric Haematologist/Oncologist in the Children’s Haematology Oncology Centre, Christchurch Hospital

Michael is Director of Research of the Children’s Cancer Research Group, University of Otago, Christchurch. He trained in Paediatric Haematology/Oncology in New Zealand and Australia and his PhD is in Cancer Epigenetics. He is Chair of the New Zealand Child Cancer Clinical Network, a member of the International Paediatric Oncology Society (SIOP), and is Principal Investigator for Children’s Oncology Group.   He is Chair and clinical leader of the New Zealand Children’s Cancer Registry and the New Zealand Late Effects Assessment Programme. He is an Executive Council member of the International Childhood Liver Tumour Clinical Trial Group (SIOPEL), International Co-Chair of the SIOPEL 6 Hepatoblastoma Clinical Trial and a full member of SIOPEN, the European neuroblastoma clinical trials consortium.

Since 2001 Dr Sullivan has had a national leadership role in the development of Telehealth services. He led the development and implementation of the New Zealand TelePaediatrics Service (now Vivid Solutions). Over the last 2 years as Clinical Leader of TeleHealth for the Canterbury and West Coast District Health Boards he has led the implementation of clinical Telehealth service to support Clinical Network based health care to remote and rural health services.
 

Dr Anthony Smith,   Deputy Director and Associate Professor at the Centre for Online Health, The University of Queensland, Australia; and Executive Committee Member for the Australasian Telehealth Society

Dr Anthony Smith is an Associate Professor and Deputy Director of the University of Queensland’s Centre for Online Health (COH) at the Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH).  Anthony has a decade of research experience based on investigations of new telemedicine applications for the benefit of clinicians and patients in regional and remote areas of Queensland. Specific research interests include the evaluation of feasibility, cost-effectiveness and diagnostic accuracy of telemedicine applications in the context of paediatrics and child health. Current research includes the evaluation of wireless (robot) videoconference systems in paediatric wards; home telemedicine consultations for children with chronic health conditions; email-based telemedicine support; and a community-based telemedicine health screening programme for Indigenous children in the South Burnett region of Queensland. Dr Smith is the co-convenor of the International Successes and Failures in Telehealth (SFT) conference held annually in Australia since 2001; the program co-chair of the Global Telehealth Conference (GT2010) held in Australia during November 2010; and the inaugural Queensland representative of the Australasian Telehealth Society, established in 2008. Anthony was also appointed as an Associate Editor for the BMC Health Services Research journal in 2009.
 

PANEL MEMBERS

Sandra Boardman, General Manager of Planning, Funding and Population Health, Taranaki DHB

Sandra is responsible for identifying the health and disability needs of the district; leading strategic and annual planning to meet those needs; prioritising demands to ensure transparent and effective allocation of funds; and developing innovative funding mechanisms to reduce access barriers and achieve better co-ordination and integration of services.  She is a member of the Alliance Leadership Teams of the Midland Health Network and the National Hauora Coalition.  Sandra represents the Midland District Health Boards on the national Health of Older People Steering Group. Prior to arrival in New Zealand in 2003, Sandra worked for 20 years in the National Health Service of the UK, initially as a hospital pharmacist and at a senior level in a number of Health Authorities and NHS Trusts.

Michael Thorn, Senior Policy Advisor and Researcher, Medical Council of New Zealand

Michael has 18 years experience in health sector policy advice, investigation and health promotion.  He has been with the Medical Council for seven years,  where one of his responsibilities is the development and implementation of Good medical practice and Council’s other standards, including its Statement on use of the internet and electronic communication.  He has a special interest in the legal and practical implications of telemedicine when it is practised across international boundaries, and helped develop a new pathway for registration designed to make it easier for doctors located in another country to practise telemedicine on New Zealand patients.

Simon Hayden, Chief Executive, Vivid Solutions

Simon has been with VSL and the preceding NZ TelePaediatric Service for 10 years. He has developed and managed the service since its inception and deployment of the initial 8 sites to a national network of over 210 endpoints. He has been involved in the development of a number of clinical based video solutions for services such as Remote Renal support, Radiology, Paediatric Palliative Care and Multi-Disciplinary Team Meetings. Simon takes a proactive role in the health sector through his roles on the Australasian Telehealth Society Executive and as Treasurer of Health Informatics NZ.

Ernie Newman, Chair, National Health IT Board Consumer Panel