Over 2018-2020, the IPAC Trial (Integrating Pharmacists within Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services (ACCHSs) to improve Chronic Disease Management) explored the impact of pharmacists integrated within ACCHSs. Megan Tremlett, Senior Pharmacist with the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA), was a project manager on this trial. Megan will highlight the IPAC Trial and its key outcomes, plus subsequent Medical Services Advisory Committee support for public funding of this model of care. She will discuss PSA’s joint advocacy for the permanent funding of pharmacists integrated within ACCHSs and co-development of a training program to prepare more pharmacists to work in this setting.

Aleysha Martin is an occupational therapist at the Mater Hospital Brisbane with research interests in models of care, including allied health transdisciplinary models. Aleysha’s work was recently recognised by the Stroke Foundation. Aleysha and the team on the acute stroke unit co-designed and evaluated a transdisciplinary stroke assessment that replaced profession-specific assessments. Using the transdisciplinary stroke assessment changed the way services were provided and by whom, reducing service duplication and saving allied health professional time. While tested in a stroke service, transdisciplinary assessments could be translated into other settings (e.g., Medical Objects in primary care).

Dr Katelyn Dyason, PhD, is a clinical psychologist (registrar) in the OCD BOUNCE service at the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network and Conjoint Lecturer at UNSW, Sydney. Katelyn will outline research showing that inpatient hospitalisation for children with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) results in prolonged, and repeated, separation from their parents and schoolmates. In response to these findings and feedback from consumers, an intensive community-based outpatient program was developed in partnership with Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services for severe and complex OCD. Initial results highlight the effectiveness of this novel clinical service in preventing admissions whilst providing best-practice evidence-based treatment.

Dr Janet Sluggett is an Associate Professor in Pharmacy and Pharmacoepidemiology at the University of South Australia. Janet is an NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow and a pharmacist, and her research focuses on optimising medicines use among older people. In this presentation, Janet will outline the scientific evidence-base for medication simplification from clinical trials involving individuals accessing aged care services. She will discuss her experiences working with aged care providers, hospitals, and pharmacists to roll-out simplification to enable staff to shift a meaningful amount of time (~0.5 FTE/100 residents) away from medication administration to other care activities to improve resident care and wellbeing.

Although pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) is a key recommendation in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) guidelines, Indigenous people lack access to PR in culturally safe environments. The NHMRC funded BE WELL project partnered with Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services (ACCHSs) to trial PR implementation. PR was successfully implemented in three ACCHSs. In 18 NSW ACCHSs surveyed, very limited respiratory services and no PR were available despite COPD in Indigenous people being 2.5 times more prevalent and hospitalisations 5 times higher than in non-Indigenous Australians. Upskilling ACCHS staff and funding are needed to increase access to culturally safe PR for Indigenous people.

In this presentation, Dr Jonathan Foo and Dr Marie-Claire O’Shea will present on the development of an automatable indicator for detecting malnutrition in the long-term care setting (AutoMal). AutoMal is different to existing tools as it relies only on routinely collected data, thus can be applied electronically without additional burden on workforce. We propose AutoMal should be included as a mandatory national quality indicator. This presentation should be attended by those with an interest in improving quality of life for older adults; as well as those interested in developing automated tools for other health indicators.

Dr Penm is a Pharmacist and Senior Lecturer at the University of Sydney. Dr Penm’s research focuses on improving the safe use of medicines, such as opioids, in the hospital setting. Dr Penm has published over 130 peer-reviewed publications and is Secretary for the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) Hospital Pharmacy Section (HPS) and immediate past-Chair of the FIP HPS Research Committee. He is Chair of the Research Leadership Committee of the Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia (SHPA) and Vice-chair of the SHPA New South Wales Branch.

Professor Sandi Hayes has expertise in exercise oncology and cancer epidemiology and is Director of Research, Cancer Council Queensland. Her cancer survivorship program of research involves prospective, longitudinal cohort studies and clinical trials, with a particular focus in breast and gynaecological cancer. This research seeks to improve understanding of the concerns experienced because of cancer and in identifying cost-effective interventions that can improve quality of life and survival following cancer equitably.

Alex is a clinician-researcher trained as a clinical neuropsychologist and specializing in the field of cognitive ageing. He trained at the University of Melbourne, Monash University and the Australian National University, and has been based at the School of Psychology at Deakin University since 2023. His research mainly focuses on the development, evaluation and synthesis of non-pharmacological interventions aimed at primary and secondary prevention of cognitive decline and dementia. His work has been funded by the Australian NHMRC, Dementia Australia, the Alzheimer’s Association, and the NIH. Since 2021, he co-chairs the Cognitive Interventions Working Group of ADNeT (the Australian Dementia Network). He also continues working in private practice where he supports clients with or at risk of dementia and their families. 

Nadine is a physiotherapist, NHMRC Leadership Fellow and Director of The University of Queensland’s Clinical Trials Centre. Her research focuses on musculoskeletal pain, and she has a particular interest in developing, testing and implementing treatments, new models of care and health services. Nadine will discuss the positive outcomes resulting from direct access to publicly funded physiotherapy and first contact practitioner allied health models of care in the UK, and how Australia might test these models to innovate practice and achieve policy change to adopt this approach.