Session 1 : (i) Pitch session: Dr Sandra Mendel ; Soap Box : Prof Jenny May | Session 2 : Workshop : Changes to codeine access : Impact on rural and remote Australians. Adj Prof Tim Greenaway TGA (45 mins)
Tracks
Lake 1&2
| Friday, October 20, 2017 |
| 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM |
| Lake 1&2 |
Overview
Session 1 : (i) Pitch Session : How do we educationally support our Rural Generalists? Dr Sandra Mendel. (15 mins) | (ii) "The computer will see/hear/probe you now" : a proactive approach to technology and rural communities. Prof Jenny May. (15 mins)
(30 mins)
Session 2 : On 20 December 2016 the Department of Health, through the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), announced that over-the-counter (OTC) medicines containing codeine will require a prescription from 1 February 2018. This decision was taken after extensive consultation due to the increasing evidence of harm from and misuse of OTC codeine-containing medicines which had not been mitigated by the 2010 decision to up-schedule all codeine-containing analgesics to pharmacist-only (S3) medicines. Although the availability of over-the-counter (OTC) codeine preparations provides convenient access to analgesics for patients in rural communities, it should be noted that there is a lack of evidence that medicines containing low doses (<30mg) of codeine provide greater symptomatic relief that other medicines without codeine.. The decision to up-schedule codeine-containing medicines aligns Australia with the regulatory positions for these medicines taken by the US, Japan and much of the European Union.
It is known that compared with those who live in urban Australia, people in rural and remote regions have reduced access to a range of health, medical and professional pharmacy services. Despite the issues associated with access to appropriate professional health advice and despite OTC codeine-containing medicines being identified as low value, high risk medicines both nationally and internationally, codeine use is higher in more remote areas when compared with use in Australian cities. Additionally, the number of individuals presenting to addiction treatment services with codeine dependence (both prescription and OTC codeine) in recent years has increased, with 1 in 3 people now from rural and remote areas.2 This trend of higher codeine use in more geographically remote areas is mirrored internationally.
This interactive oral presentation investigates the likely implications of the February 2018 changes to codeine access for rural health professionals and patients.
(45 mins)
Speaker
Adj.Prof Tim Greenaway
Therapeutic Goods Administration | Department of Health
Session 2 : Workshop : Changes to codeine access : Impact on rural and remote Australians. (30 mins) |
Biography
Adjunct Professor Tim Greenaway MBBS, FRACP, PhD, FAMA.
Tim Greenaway completed undergraduate medical studies at the University of Sydney and trained in endocrinology at Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. He was awarded a National Health & Medical Research Council Postgraduate Medical Scholarship to undertake doctoral studies in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Sydney into hepatic insulin resistance in Type 2 diabetes. Tim was for many years the Director of Clinical Endocrinology at the Royal Hobart Hospital and Adjunct Professor in the School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Tasmania. He has been actively involved in undergraduate and postgraduate medical education for over 30 years and has received several University awards for teaching. His research interests include the pathophysiology of diabetic complications and their prevention. In August 2016 he was appointed to the position of Chief Medical Adviser with the Health Products Regulation Group in the Commonwealth Department of Health.
During his time in Tasmania, Tim held a number of senior positions at the University of Tasmania and Royal Hobart Hospital, including Head of the Division of Medicine and Chair of the University of Tasmania’s Health Research and Ethics Committee. He served on a number of Ministerial Advisory Committees and was, until his move to Canberra, the Deputy Chair of the Health Council of Tasmania and the Chair of the Healthy Tasmania Committee.
Tim was an officer in the Army Reserves between 2002 and 2012 and served as AMA Tasmania’s Vice President from 2012-2014. In 2014 he was elected President of AMA Tasmania, a position he held for 2 years. He was also a member of AMA Federal Council from 2013-2016 and the Executive of the Tasmanian Salaried Medical Practitioners’ Society. He was awarded a Fellowship of the AMA in 2017.
Prof Jenny May
Director
University of Newcastle
Soap Box: (ii) The computer will see /hear/probe you now!”- A proactive approach to technology and rural communities
Biography
Professor Jennifer May AM is Director of the University of Newcastle Department Of Rural Health (UoNDRH). Jenny’s role encompasses oversight of undergraduate teaching activities, research and evaluation in medicine and allied health disciplines across the University of Newcastle’s rural footprint. The UoNDRH aims to gain, train and retrain those with an interest in working in rural and remote Australia. Her research interests include medical workforce in particular the supply of specialists in non-metropolitan areas. She works as a GP at Peel Health Care, a not-for-profit general practice in Tamworth, NSW and is a GP supervisor for registrars. She holds fellowships of both the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and the Australian College of Rural and Remote medicine. Jenny is also the Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA) representative on the National Rural Health Alliance. She has been involved in numerous committees and working parties around rural health issues and is on the Commonwealth Government advisory group on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ANACAD) and National Medical Advisory Training Network (NMTAN) and the Primary care committee of the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in health Care. Jenny has lived and worked in the New England area since 1984 with a five year sojourn in remote Western Australia’s Pilbara and has had 2 yearlong working stints in rural practice in British Columbia Canada in 2004 and 2015-6. She was named Telstra RDAA Rural Doctor of the Year in November 2014 and received an Australia Medal AM for services to rural and regional health, education and professional groups in 2016
Dr Sandra Mendel
Senior Lecturer Rural Health
Western Sydney University
Pitch : (i) How do we educationally support our Rural Generalists?
Biography
Dr Sandra Mendel is Senior Lecturer in Rural Health at Bathurst Rural Clinical School, Western Sydney University. She is also a General Practitioner in Orange NSW where she has been a Rural Generalist for the last 20 years. Over the past 15 years she has been actively involved in Senior Medical Education roles for Australian General Practice Training and has recently been the Director of Training for ACRRM. Currently she is the Clinical Lead for Independent Pathway Selection for ACRRM and involved in AGPT selection.
Sandra has a Masters in Medical Education and a keen interest in promoting and educating Rural Generalist skills. Her research interests include exam readiness for assessments and predictive tools for exam success.
