17 - 18 March, 2021 |
International Convention Centre, Sydney
International Convention Centre, Sydney
GPs and Primary Healthcare Day Two: Thursday, 1 October 2020
Health Facilities Design & Development Day One: Wednesday, 17 March 2021
Health Facilities Design & Development Day Two: Thursday, 18 March 2021
Digital Healthcare Day One: Wednesday, 17 March 2021
Digital Healthcare Day Two: Thursday, 18 March 2021
Aged Care Day One: Wednesday, 17 March 2021
Aged Care Day Two: Thursday, 18 March 2021
Nursing and Midwifery Day One: Wednesday, 30 September 2020
Nursing and Midwifery Day Two: Thursday, 1 October 2020
Patient Experience Day One: Wednesday, 30 September 2020
Patient Experience Day Two: Thursday, 1 October 2020
GPs and Primary Healthcare Day One: Wednesday, 30 September 2020
GPs and Primary Healthcare Day Two: Thursday, 1 October 2020
Healthcare Workforce Day One: Wednesday, 30 September 2020
Healthcare Workforce Day Two: Thursday, 1 October 2020
Start Ups: Wednesday, 30 September 2020
Women In Leadership: Thursday, 1 October 2020
10:20 am - 10:30 am WELCOME ADDRESS FROM THE CHAIR
10:30 am - 11:00 am Keynote Presentation: Using Automation to Simplify and Improve the eRerreral Process for General Practices
Since 2017, Eastern Melbourne Primary Health Network collaborated with three major health services (Eastern Health, Austin Health and Northern Health) to develop and roll out the integrated HealthPathways/eReferral solution across 275 general practices in the region. This solution allows GPs to send electronic referrals that are auto populated from their clinical information system, creating more seamless experience for patients. With 13,000 eReferrals received via this tool by the end of 2019,
learn how to:
- Educate GPs around the value of using software effectively to get the most out of their referrals, help them shift out of old habits like faxing and address technical issues around the new technology
- Use the tool to increase staff and patient satisfaction, improve appointment times and the referral process, and empower GPs to make informed clinical decisions using HealthPathways based on data
- Adapt the tool across hospitals and clinics for improve patient outcomes
11:00 am - 11:30 am Moving Away from the Bulk-Billing Culture: Be at the Front Line of Preventive Evidence- Based Medicine to Achieve Long-Term Patient Outcomes
Over 80% of GP consultations bulk billed nationally. Along with the increased cost of business, a relatively frozen Medical Benefits Schedule (MBS) and consumer confusion fuelled through the wellness industry and the internet, many GPs hands are tied and must practice volume medicine to survive.
Ultimately, prevention is better and cheaper than a cure, but patients experience “bandaid medicine” in an environment where GPs are rewarded for seeing more patients in less time.
So how do we move away from this bulk billing culture?
Patrick will get us asking the right questions:
- Is it possible to educate the public so that paying a private gap for good medical care is valued as much as vitamins and gym memberships? Is it possible to draw money out of areas in the economy other than the government to incentivise primary care business models that take a holistic approach?
- Beyond a gap based model, is a subscription based medical practice more appealing?
- If bulk billing is unavoidable, what is the best way to structure for a high yield both financially and to improve the overall health outcomes of patients?
11:30 am - 12:00 pm Spotlight Interview: Embracing Opportunities to Accelerate Your Professional Development and Medical Practice – Lessons learned from MyHealth, Australia’s Fastest Growing Medical Practice Franchise
MyHealth is the fastest growing medical practice franchise in Australia with 82 medical centres and 3.5 million consultations per year, putting through about $1 Million a day in gross billing with a turnover of $200 Million+ in gross billing annually. James will share his personal story, from humble beginnings to where he is today, sharing lessons learned in establishing his franchise enterprise,including:
- Be a “Yes” man – be open to opportunities and be willing to throw yourself into the deep end
- Mistakes are good learning points – don’t be afraid of making mistakes but always reflect on lesson learned
- The three fundamentals to good business: people, location and processes
James Liang
Chief Executive OfficerMyHealth Medical Group
12:00 pm - 12:30 pm Case study: How one organisation is developing and deploying an app to dramatically reduce alcohol related health issues
GPs encounter an increasing case of patients with substance abuse. Instead of challenging the entrenched drinking culture of Australia, Hello Sunday Morning moves away from the norm by providing a Government-funded app called Daybreak that helps people change their own relationships with alcohol and curb the rising cases of substance abuse in Australia. A recent Curtin University evaluation of Daybreak showed weekly alcohol consumption dropping from 37 to 17 standard drinks at three-month follow up.
To support this tool, Chris has had to implement fundamental changes in nearly all aspects of his company.
Learn how he:
- Introduced a tightened and heightened data protection and user-privacy mindset throughout the company to alleviate data sensitivity
- Adopted of governance and operating standards in line with registered health services
- Ensured principles of best psychological practice were incorporated into the technical and design elements
- Initiated a research program, aimed at building a body of evidence to support the framework for developing the Daybreak app, and to determine its effectiveness as a support tool
12:30 pm - 1:00 pm A Collaborative Approach: How to Adapt a Scalable Model for Greater Engagement with General Practice
Since 2016, Queensland is shifting its focus at a ministerial level to address the fragmentation between primary and secondary care, increase general practitioners’ engagement within the health system and ensure that its state-wide initiatives benefit both the health service and primary care. Nalani shares her experience undertaking a wide-scale engagement program that aimed to empower general practitioners, acknowledge their feedback and build trust across the sectors to create better health outcomes.
Learn how to:
- Adapt this model in your own local health district or health service to better understand general practitioners’ needs and expectations and create a more holistic health system
- Build a trust relationship between sectors utilising wide-scale face to face engagement
- Overcome challenges around the lack of understanding of needs and expectations from both sides of the system and barriers to establishing trust with general practitioners to ensure a streamlined patient journey
1:00 pm - 1:30 pm Goodbye Fax and Paper, Hello Artificial Intelligence and Robots: How the Emerging Digital Landscape will Impact GPs and Translate into Better Health Outcomes for Patients
As the largest machine learning group in Australia, the Australian Institute for Machine Learning (AIML) connected world-class machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities to the new Adelaide Biomed City. Johan will reflect on his experience as a clinician adjusting to the emerging digital landscape and share insight on how these emerging capabilities will affect GPs.
Learn about:
- The opportunities and limitations of AI and machine learning for general practice
- How machine learning and artificial intelligence ultimately improve patient experiences, safety and health outcomes
- What to expect within the next decade and how to prepare yourselves for this shift

Dr Johan Verjans
Deputy Director Centre for Medical Machine LearningAustralian Institute for Machine Learning
1:30 pm - 2:00 pm Prevention is Better than Cure: Connecting with the Community to Better Meet their Needs with Personalised and Preventative Care
Mental Health is the number one reason people visit their GP in Australia with an average of 20 minutes per consultation. However, GPs need a lot more time to properly assess, plan and review a psychological issue. This puts GPs in a position where they cannot properly care for our ‘at risk’ community. Increasing the amount of time GPs and practice nurses spend with these clients can significantly improve outcomes for all involved.
Learn how to:
- Improve the overall health of clients with mental health issues by having additional Medical Benefits Schedule (MBS) numbers for mental health care visits and including a mental health care plan for all clients of the practice
- Connect with the community by commencing a nurse clinic in the GP practice to prevent acute admissions to mental health care facilities and reduce trauma to clients, GPs and support workers
- Prevent mental health from affecting your everyday tasks by providing bulk billing psychologists in your practice

Lisa Healy
RN, GP Practice Nurse, RM & Parent Education FacilitatorEngadine Medical Practice
2:00 pm - 2:30 pm Panel Discussion: Consumer-Driven Healthcare: Understanding the Forces that are Shaping the Delivery of Primary Care
Speakers:
Dr Carolyn Ee Program Lead/ Director, Western Sydney Integrative Health, NICM Health Research Institute Western Sydney University
Liz Travers Principal Project Officer Clinical Excellence Queensland
Dr Patrick Aouad Co-Founder and Managing Director Loxley Health Pty Ltd
Dr Harris Eyre Chief Medical Officer CNSDose
Dr Carolyn Ee Program Lead/ Director, Western Sydney Integrative Health, NICM Health Research Institute Western Sydney University
Liz Travers Principal Project Officer Clinical Excellence Queensland
Dr Patrick Aouad Co-Founder and Managing Director Loxley Health Pty Ltd
Dr Harris Eyre Chief Medical Officer CNSDose
The interplay between technology evolution, social media and the wellness industry is evolving the priorities, needs and expectations of the modern healthcare consumer. This panel will explore the major healthcare consumer forces impacting the future and delivery of primary care, including:
- Consumerism and patient activism, where consumers have more choice and are more engaged, informed and demanding about what they want based on self-research
- Fragmentation of trust between healthcare consumers and practitioners and the friction point where consumers feel like they know more than you do!
- Disruption of consumer services with patients seeking different modalities for healthcare delivery

Dr Carolyn Ee
Program Lead/ Director, Western Sydney Integrative Health, NICM Health Research InstituteWestern Sydney University
2:30 pm - 3:00 pm Top Tips for Self-Care as a GP: Looking after Yourself will Benefit You, Your Teams and Patients
As a health professional, you spend most of your time thinking about and caring for others. Yet one of the greatest challenges GPs have yet to master is the one of self-care. As a leader, it is your duty to ensure that you are present and resilient to provide high level of care to others.
Kelly will share top tips on how to:
- Incorporate self-care in your busy schedule and make mindfulness part of your every day
- What strategies can really work to build resilience in our workforce
- How we support the workforce of the future to achieve work life balance
3:00 pm - 3:30 pm Leveraging Data to Improve Clinical Governance in Primary Care
Primary Care has the potential to use its longitudinal data for the significant betterment of patients and the community as a whole, however there are significant challenges for secondary use of patient data that must be overcome. To transform and utilise this data, you need safe, consistent and functional frameworks for the secondary use of patient data, underpinned by good clinical governance to support patients and practitioners in making better health choices guided by evidence.
Michael will get you thinking about the following three questions:
- How do you manage appropriate secondary use of data?
- How do you develop better systems within primary care?
- How do you transform primary care from a responsive patient driven service to a proactive patient-centred service?
3:30 pm - 4:00 pm Understanding the Issues of Burnout, Self-Care and Wellbeing Amongst GPs
Evidence tells us that GPs are at greater risk of mental illness and stress-related problems and more susceptible to substance abuse, burnout, psychological distress, and sickness absence than other professionals. The 2019 Health of the Nation Report released by the RACGP indicated that four out of ten GP’s delayed seeking care for their health in the past two years.
Learn about:
- Burnout in GPs: prevalence, causes and impact
- The importance of self-care for GP’s including evidence-based strategies such as mindfulness-based interventions for achieving wellbeing
- Overcoming barriers to self-care, and the importance of having your own GP
- Being a GP to another GP: what you need to know

Dr Carolyn Ee
Program Lead/ Director, Western Sydney Integrative Health, NICM Health Research InstituteWestern Sydney University