and now for the main event!

The 2020 Western NSW Health Research Awards will give us the opportunity to celebrate the wonderful achievements in health research in our region. This year, we will have four awards to recognised dedicated clinicians and academics in our region. Awards will be presented at the 2020 Western NSW Health Research Network Symposium virtual end of year event being held on December 10, 12.30pm – 2pm AEDT

REGISTER HERE

Meet our speakers

Lucy Bloom

Lucy Bloom is an award-winning leader, international keynote speaker, consultant and author. She uses her superpowers for writing and speaking about courage, trust, failure, change, maverick thinking, generosity and fun. Lucy is a charity expert, governance gun and strategy machine. She’s a rule breaker, idea maker and exceptional communicator.

Here is a snapshot of Lucy’s accolades see more on her website

Lucy has an impressive track record in communicating tricky subjects for mass appeal, strategic financial management, governance and policy. She is also an expert in building and developing high-performance teams.
Lucy Bloom is the first and only Australian to be listed in the world’s top 30 #socialceos
She was a founding director and CEO of Hamlin Fistula Ethiopia (Australia), going from volunteer to CEO in 8 years
Lucy Bloom is a branding expert, accomplished photographer and art director
Lucy Bloom is the creator of the world’s first childbirth education program for men, which is run in pubs all over Australia. She is the author of the best selling book which accompanies the program, Cheers to Childbirth
She is a recipient of a Kindness Award from the Wake Up Project
Lucy is the winner of the 2015 Women’s Agenda Emerging Leader in the not-for-profit Sector Award
She was a finalist in the Agenda Setter category of the 2016 Women’s Agenda Leadership Awards
Lucy has been nominated many times and named a finalist twice in the Telstra Business Woman of the Year Awards
She is the Winner of a Weekly Award for Best Talk at the Adelaide Fringe Festival 2019
In 2019, HarperCollins Australia published Lucy’s memoir – Get the Girls Out: a memoir of love, loss and letting loose
She is often called on to provide comment in mainstream media on a wide range of subjects such as gender equality, social media, leadership and international aid
She’s a member of Women on Boards and Professional Speakers Australia

Adjunct Professor Ruth Stewart was appointed as the second National Rural Health Commissioner for Australia in July 2020. She brings to this role nearly 30 years of work as a Rural Generalist doctor with the advanced skills of a GP obstetrician. Ruth and her husband Anthony Brown now live and work on Thursday Island in the Torres Strait. For 22 years Ruth and Anthony were General Practitioners in private practice in Camperdown in south west Victoria where they had Visiting Medical Officer status in the local public hospital. In 2008 Ruth was employed as the inaugural Director of Clinical Training Rural with the then new medical school of Deakin University. Her role was to establish the rural program. She created a network of 12 growing to 18 Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship placements for third year medical students from Deakin University to spend the whole of their core clinical year in rural practice. In 2012, Ruth moved to north Queensland to become Associate Professor of Rural Medicine, Director Rural Clinical Training with James Cook University. In this role she oversaw the doubling of rural clinical placements for the medical school and worked clinically as a Senior Medical Officer at Mareeba Hospital. Ruth is the immediate Past President of the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine and was on the College’s board from 2002-2020 in various roles. She was on the board of the Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service for 6 years, the Cape York Hospital Board for two years and has been on the board of several Regional Training Providers/Organisations for General Practice Training, on the board of the Rural Doctors Association of Australia for two years and the Tropical Australian Academic Health Centre board. For three years. She has held a number of representative and medico political roles including on the Distribution Advisory Group, and the Health Innovation Advisory Committee for the National Health and Medical Research Authority. Ruth received a PhD from Flinders University in 2014. Her thesis examined the lessons learnt from a Managed Clinical Network of rural maternity services in South West Victoria. She has an abiding interest in quality of rural maternity services and sustainable models of rural health care.

Jade Bunt – Dubbo’s Young person of the Year 2019

Thank you to our 2020 Symposium event supporters and their representatives who will be presenting the following awards at this gala online event.

Meet the WHRN 2020 Research Symposium Presenter finalists

WHRN 2020 Research Symposium General Research Best Abstract & Presentation finalists

General Presentation Abstract booklet and Speaker biographies here Download

Dilli Banjade – Implementation advanced radiotherapy technology to improve clinical outcomes in regional set up.
Brett Chambers – A stepped wedge trial of effcacy and scalability of a virtual clinical pharmacy service (VCPS) in rural and remote NSW health facilities. Implementation Lead – Virtual Clinical Pharmacy Service, Western NSW LHD.
Sarah Hyde – Co-designing a student mobile dentistry placement in rural aged care and community mental health settings evaluating impact for sustainability.
Suzanne Ingram – Aboriginal children, women’s health and housing supply – what are the indicators for regional NSW?
Cathy Rogers – Dubbo Community Aged Care Forum.
Kylie Routledge – Strong & Deadly Futures: building resilience and preventing drug and alcohol use among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non- Indigenous youth.
Deborah Warr – Exploring resettlement experiences of people with refugee backgrounds resettled in a regional city

WHRN 2020 Research Symposium Emerging Research Best Abstract & Presentation finalists

Lynette Bullen – Barriers and enablers faced by clinicians when referring Aboriginal clients to an involuntary drug and alcohol treatment unit in NSW. Senior Drug and Alcohol Worker, Involuntary Drug and Alcohol Treatment Unit (IDAT), Western NSW LHD
Jayne Lawrence – Bringing Yindyamarra into workplace learning experiences in Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations (ACCHOs). Lecturer in Rural Indigenous Health, Three Rivers UDRH, Charles Sturt University
Victoria Lovecchio – Growing up is hard to do: Experiences of transitioning from youth to adult mental health services in rural NSW
Catherine Sanford – Linking Schools, Families, and Health – Schools-Based Primary Health Care Registered Nurses in Broken Hill. Research assistant and PhD candidate at the Broken Hill UDRH.
Kate Smith – Down the Track: what is the impact of extended rural placements on the work location of Sydney Medical School graduates. Senior Research Officer, School of Rural Health, Orange Campus, University of Sydney.
Morwenna Williams – Bachelor of Midwifery Graduates – Understanding What Makes Them Leave and What Makes Them Stay, Clinical Midwifery Consultant, Western NSW LHD

Emerging Research Abstracts and Speaker Biographies Download

WHRN 2020 Research Symposium ePoster – People’s Choice finalists

Taiwo Esther Dada – A case study of the beliefs about green leafy vegetable intakes among populations in the Ndokwa community, Delta State, Nigeria
Ann-Maree Fardell Hartley – The use of social media to communicate suicidality by young people and its implications in rural and remote New South Wales
Sulaiman Mandoh – Psychosocial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic as perceived by Australian based-West Africans who survived the 2014-2016 Ebola Virus Disease epidemic in West Africa: A Descriptive cross-sectional survey
Lesley Murray – Otitis Media – Watch this Space concept ePoster
Kathryn Naden – You must see one, to be one: Seeding and growing a rural and Indigenous health workforce
Anna Noonan – Accessibility and availability of appropriate reproductive health care including abortion in rural settings
Anne Roth – Acceptability of ASQ TRAK with Aboriginal children and families in Building Strong Foundation
Michelle Squire – Telehealth in Residential Aged Care (TRAC) Program
Alison Stoker – Shared Health & Advance Care Record for End of life choices (SHARE) project
Jan Savage – CancerCare Western NSW
Mithila Zaheen & Alice Leung – Improving risk stratification of chest pain in a regional emergency department

ePoster Research Abstracts and Speaker Biographies Download

2020 Western NSW Researcher of the Year Awards

Aboriginal Health Researcher 2020 nominees

Lynette Bullen, Senior Drug and Alcohol Worker, Involuntary Drug and Alcohol Treatment Unit (IDAT), Western NSW LHD and Masters of Philosophy candidate, University of Sydney
Jayne Lawrence, Lecturer in Rural Indigenous Health, Three Rivers UDRH, Charles Sturt University
Gemma Purcell-Khodr, PhD candidate, University of Sydney
Lesa Towers, Manager Aboriginal Workforce Capability, Development and Culture, Western NSW LHD

Clinical Research Leader of the Year 2020 nominees

Emily Davis, Speech Pathology Manager, Western NSW LHD
Dr Olivia Fox, Unaccredited Orthopaedic Registrar, Bathurst Health Service, Western NSW LHD
Dr Florian Honeyball, Medical Oncologist and Chair District Cancer Services Clinical Stream, Western NSW LHD
Dr Ruth Jones, Director of Cancer Services and Innovation, Western NSW LHD
Dr Shannon Nott, Rural Health Director of Medical Services (WNSWLHD), Virtual Care Accelerator (eHealth), and Chair Virtual Care Community of Practice (ACI)
Dr Jaqueline Spurway, Chief Sonographer and District Clinical Co-ordinator Ultrasound Services, Western NSW LHD

Emerging Researcher 2020 nominees

Brett Chambers, Implementation Lead – Virtual Clinical Pharmacy Service, Western NSW LHD
Teesta Saksensa, Research Administration Officer, Western NSW LHD
Nicole Snowden, PhD Candidate, National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales
Kristie Sweeney, Senior Sonographer, Bathurst Hospital, Western NSW LHD
Dr Georgia Wingfield, Data Analyst, Health Intelligence Unit, Western NSW LHD
Morwenna Williams, Clinical Midwifery Consultant, Western NSW LHD

Health Research Academic Leader 2020 nominees

Jannine Bailey, Senior Lecturer Rural Health & Research, Bathurst Rural Clinical School, Western Sydney University
Emily Saurman, Research Fellow in Rural Health, Broken Hill University Department of Rural Health
Emma Webster, Senior Lecturer Rural Research, School of Rural Health, The University of Sydney