Let’s realise the opportunities!
Have you ever wondered what makes a research study a ‘clinical trial’ or why these trials are needed in rural settings?
The fourth event in our virtual 2020 WHRN webinar series will focus on a broad range of aspects relating to clinical trials.
Join this FREE virtual event to learn more about the different types of clinical trials, how trials are run and how access could be improved for people living outside large metropolitan areas.
The webinar will be facilitated by Dr Rob Zielinski, Oncologist and Clinical Trials Director for the Central West Clinical Trials Unit.
Presenters include A/Prof Georgina Luscombe who will cover what a clinical trial is; Anita van der Meer and Steve Millard will explain why we need them; Jan Savage will cover how communities can support them; Dr Melanie Berry and Carlos Castrillon will give examples of different types of clinical trials and Rebecca Mister will provide a practical insight into the governance and ethics relevant to clinical trials. The webinar will also cover how to facilitate access for people in regional and rural areas.
We encourage community members and all health and education professionals to spend 90 minutes listening to our range of expert speakers discussing the value of growing clinical trials in rural NSW.
Thank you to everyone who joined this webinar. We had over 100 attendees and great feedback was provided. The video recording from this session can be viewed below.
Program
Speaker List
Rob Zielinski, Director, Central West Clinical Trials Unit, Western NSW Local Health District
A/Prof Georgina Luscombe is a research academic at The University of Sydney School of Rural Health. She has a broad range of expertise in medical and allied health research, particularly in the design, implementation and analysis of research with community organisations and clinicians. A/Prof Luscombe strives to achieve fairer participation of Aboriginal people in both healthcare and research and believes that privileging of Indigenous ways of knowing will lead to improvements in health for Aboriginal people. Her main areas of expertise are in research design and statistics, and her research interests include rural health, healthcare access and digital health.
Jan Savage is a foundation member of Cancer Care Western NSW and the Funding/ Marketing Coordinator responsible for funding the build of Western Care lodge for Cancer Patients and the seed funding for Clinical Cancer Trials at OHS” Jan has a background in Business , tutoring and Health. She has received state and national awards for philanthropy.”
Anita van der Meer currently leads clinicaltrialsNSW at NSW Health where she is responsible for developing strategies to enable clinical trial capacity, capability and collaboration across New South Wales. Her expertise in translation and development of pharmaceutical and medical technologies is supported by more than 20 years of clinical trial experience in Australian start-ups and global pharma and med-tech companies.
Anita Van Der Meer has previously managed pre-clinical and clinical trials for Medtronic, Schering-Plough, MSD, SpineThera, Pharmaxis, Applied Physiology and Ventracor. Her areas of expertise include medical devices, cardiac rhythm and cardiovascular technologies and First-in-Human clinical trials. She has previously been co-chair of the Medical Technology Association of Australia Clinical Investigations Forum and member of the Research and Development Task Force and AusBiotech Clinical Trials Advisory Group.
Mr Steve Millard, Manager, Central West Clinical Trials Unit, Orange Health Service originally training as a nurse in the UK. Steve moved to Australia 16 years ago and worked as a chemotherapy nurse at Sutherland hospital in Sydney before transitioning to clinical trials at St George hospital in Sydney. In 2015 he moved to Orange to manage the clinical trial unit. Today he manages a successful, self funding trials unit with a small team of research nurses and pharmacists.
Rebecca Mister, Clinical Trials Program Manager – Cardiovascular and Diabetes. Rebecca has over 20 years of experience in design and management of Clinical Trials both in the UK and in Australia. Rebecca leads the Cardiometabolic Trials team at NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre, University of Sydney and is responsible for the development of new trials as well as management of existing trials within the portfolio. She is also responsible for oversight of the Ethics Co-ordinator team and in-house support for ethics questions. Prior to this Rebecca was Head of Site Management, providing support to CTC staff for SOPs, education and training, monitoring, standardising ethics applications and many other things. Rebecca was also a key member of the internal Matrix committee responsible for reviewing of internal protocols prior to ethics submission. Rebecca also teaches 2 Units of the Masters of Clinical Trials Research at the University of Sydney.
Rebecca has been a member of the University of Sydney HREC since 2014, and also contributes to SLHD HREC Clinical Trials Committee, she and has a passion for ethical issues and questions.
Dr Melanie Berry, Orange Health Service, Western NSW Local Health District
Carlos Mesa Castrillon is a PhD student of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney. He is a physiotherapist from Colombia and has a master degree in physiotherapy from Brazil. He currently has a scholarship from Colombian government to complete his studies in eHealth and musculoskeletal pain in rural populations.
Lesa Towers is a senior manager and member of the Western NSW Local Health District’s Aboriginal Health Leadership Team. Lesa has a wide-range of expertise in Aboriginal Health, including leading the development and implementation of a number of Aboriginal health initiatives inclusive of Aboriginal Research. Lesa recently worked as part of the investigator team for the National Aboriginal Career Pathways Project. Lesa also received the award for Best Presentation at the 2019 WHRN Research Symposium.
The WHRN would like to thank our sponsor the NSW Government for this webinar which is part of the WHRN 2020 Research Symposium series.
People living in Western NSW have been able to be involved in clinical trials since 2014, with the
establishment of the Central West Cancer Clinical Trials Unit in Orange.
Now in its seventh year of operation and led by Director, Dr Rob Zielinski, the Unit currently has
over 25 active trials involving more than 150 patients enrolled on a trial or in the follow-up phase.
“Access to clinical trials is not a nice add on but it is considered part of the standard of care in all health conditions”
Photo by mick orlick on Unsplash
Western NSW Health Research Network Inc 