KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Professor Michael Kidd AO Chief Medical Officer for Australia |
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Professor Michael Kidd AO is Australia’s Chief Medical Officer, based in the Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing. He is a general practitioner and a primary care and public health researcher, and has served as president of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, and president of the World Organization of Family Doctors. He is an elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, and has held past research appointments at Monash University, the University of Sydney, Flinders University, the Australian National University, and the University of Toronto. He holds a current joint academic appointment as the Foundation Director of the International Centre for Future Health Systems at the University of New South Wales, and as Professor of Global Primary Care with the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford, where is he also a Senior Research Fellow of Green Templeton College and a Fellow of Kellogg College. He previously served as a member of the Council of the NHMRC from 2015-2018. |
Assoc. Prof George Laking Director of Te Aka Mātauranga Matepukupu Centre for Cancer Research University of Auckland |
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A/Prof George Laking is a medical oncologist who is deeply concerned about the impact of climate change and weather catastrophes on the delivery of healthcare, especially to at-risk communities. His research into the health impacts following Severe Tropical Cyclone Gabrielle’s path of destruction across the southwest Pacific and northern New Zealand in early 2023 provides insights to how primary care can better prepare for and respond to such disasters. George is a Director of Te Aka Mātauranga Matepukupu, the Centre for Cancer Research at the University of Auckland. He is a board member of Hei Āhuru Mōwai Maori Cancer Leadership Aotearoa, and OraTaiao the New Zealand Climate and Health Council. He is a past President, Aotearoa and New Zealand, of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, where for several years he also chaired the Māori Health Committee. He is a past Chair of Te Ohu Rata o Aotearoa, the Māori Medical Practitioners' Association. Te Weu me Te Wai: Health and wellbeing impacts of adverse weather conditions |
Dr Jillann Farmer CEO, A Better Culture |
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Dr Jillann Farmer is the CEO of “A Better Culture”, a commonwealth-funded project that aims to create a national framework ensuring safe, healthy workplace conditions and nurturing a thriving healthcare workforce. Jillann is a frontline clinician in primary care and emergency medicine in rural Australia as well as former medical director for the United Nations in New York during the COVID-19 pandemic, and with senior leadership roles in patient safety and clinician performance for Queensland Health. This gives her a unique perspective on the challenges of training, sustaining and retaining the primary care health workforce. "If healthcare was a mine, we'd be shut down' This presentation will look at practitioner health as an occupational health and system issue, contrasting with the more conventional approach of applying repeated individual level interventions. The absence of an occupational health perspective has led to recurrent failures to address root causes and drivers of healthcare worker morbidity. |
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