OUR 2023 PROGRAMME
This year’s programme is shaped around the theme: Creating Our Future
The organisers reserve the right to make changes to the programme
Day 1 - Wednesday 20 September
Te Aro and Waterfront Room, Harbour City Function Centre, 4 Taranaki Street
8.00 am - Registration opens
8.45 am - Welcome and karakia
SETTING THE SCENE
9.00 am - Creating our future
Dame Dr Karen Poutasi
Chair, Te Whatu Ora - New Zealand Health Agency
9.30 am - Pre-screening the New Zealand population with AI-generated cardiovascular risk prediction algorithms
Professor Rod Jackson
Section of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, School of Population Health, Faculty of Medical & Health Sciences, University of Auckland
Our University of Auckland research group has developed high-information cardiovascular (CVD) risk prediction algorithms (PREDICT-Clinical) from a clinical cohort of over 400,000 New Zealanders. These algorithms are now used by primary care practitioners New Zealand-wide to assess their individual patients’ CVD risks. We have also developed low-information CVD risk prediction algorithms (PREDICT-Policy) from a national health administrative dataset including over 1.7m New Zealanders. These less (individually) accurate algorithms can be applied remotely to whole populations and were designed for application at a group level rather than individual patient level, and have already been used by policy makers to inform decisions about the level of access to new expensive diabetes drugs. We now propose using state-of-the-art artificial intelligence methods to develop high-information CVD risk prediction algorithms (PREDICT-AI) from a national health administrative database over 3m New Zealanders, utilising much more data than was possible when deriving PREDICT-Policy algorithms. We plan to remotely apply PREDICT-AI algorithms to the entire NZ adult population and we hypothesise that they will be sufficiently accurate at an individual patient level to be used as a pre-screening algorithm. If we are successful we plan to provide individual level information about CVD risk and risk management to each person’s primary care provider, to support population-wide improvement in CVD risk management.
10.00 am - A workforce solution – what a clinical scientist brings to the sector in New Zealand
Dr Ian Phillips
Clinical Biochemist, Awanui
The scientific and medical workforce of New Zealand are facing many challenges, particularly chronic shortages, and retention of these groups within pathology disciplines. The introduction of a clearly defined career pathway for scientists is long overdue. The clinical scientist career has been established in the United Kingdom for over 25 years, with a clear career progression structure producing highly qualified and experienced individuals working as consultant clinical scientists in many pathology disciplines. Now is the time to induct the clinical scientist career pathway into the New Zealand clinical laboratories.
10.30 am - Morning Tea
LABS - OUR WORLD IS CHANGING
11.00 am Pathology: Working Together in the Northern Region. The journey so far
Dr Matthew Rogers
Consultant Clinical Microbiologist, Laboratory Clinical Director, Te Whatu Ora – Waitemata
The Te Whatu Ora Northern Region Laboratories Harmonisation Programme is a programme bringing together the 4 Northern Region Public Laboratories and our Private sector partners, all working to improve the quality and equity of the service we provide and the experience of our highly valued staff. The Programme has developed at pace and includes staff from all of our Laboratories. Central to the programme are our key overarching workstreams of Quality, Workforce, Data and Digital and Operations and also individual Service Workstreams encompassing all of the Pathology disciplines. Of note all of our Service workstreams are led jointly by both a Clinician and a Scientist. In my talk I will do my best to give a broad view of the journey we have been on to this point and where we hope to go to next!
11.30 am - Partnering with the Board for effective transformation
David Simpson
Chief of Strategy and Partnerships, Southern Cross Healthcare
A key factor in successful business transformation is ensuring strong engagement and alignment between Board Directors and Executive Leadership team. David Simpson, Southern Cross Healthcare’s Chief of Strategy and Partnerships will share his insights and experiences into some of the critical success factors for transformation and how Southern Cross Healthcare approached their Reimagining 2033 Strategy.
12.00 pm - The move to HPV Primary Screening for Cervical Cancer
Jenny Grant - with thanks to Abbott
Head of Department, Molecular Pathology, Awanui
This presentation will provide a laboratory based perspective on the National Cervical Screening Programmes’ (NCSP) recent change to HPV Primary Screening.
12.30 pm - Lunch
WHAT ARE WE DOING WITH GENOMICS
1.30 pm - The precision health research-practice continuum
Professor Cristin Print
Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, Molecular Medicine and Pathology, University of Auckland
Precision health technologies including genomics are evolving at break-neck speed. We hope that these technologies will bring benefit in two ways:
1. by guiding current patient care and precision wellbeing and,
2. by enhancing our scientific understanding of wellness and disease in order to improve wellbeing and clinical care for future patients.
In this talk, we will discuss our team’s experiences in this field, partnering closely with Māori leaders, clinical colleagues and industry experts. We will raise questions about how we can accelerate the benefits and minimise the risks of these technologies in Aotearoa New Zealand, and about the role of precision health research in parallel to precision health practice.
2.00 pm - Creating a living ecosystem map of genetic/genomic healthcare in Aotearoa New Zealand
Brendan Swan
Lead for Personalised Healthcare and Foundation Medicine, Roche NZ
The path to a Precision Health future is complicated and full of barriers. When navigating such uncertain terrain it is always advantageous to have a map.
The primary aim of this talk is to present the first draft of an ecosystem map that outlines services, institutions, projects, and organisations associated with the delivery of genomic healthcare. The goal is to create an ecosystem map that can be shared publicly and is revisited on a frequent basis.
The secondary aim is to recruit experts who can help shed light on the poorly charted regions of the map. There is already a lot of activity going on in Aotearoa New Zealand in the genetic and genomic healthcare space and this draft does not capture all of it, it is hoped that through sharing this map we will inspire others to contribute.
2.30 pm - Improving population health with Genomic-integrated disease risk prediction
Carl Stubbings
Chief Commercial Officer, Genetic Technologies Ltd
How implementation of integrated risk assessment tests, using a combination of genomic and clinical information can provide an accurate assessment of an individual’s risk of developing a particular disease. Integrated risk assessments testing enables disease prevention through personalised medicine by providing actionable results to improve access to existing screening and risk-reduction guidelines. Supporting clinicians who are looking for ways to provide proactive solutions to their patient’s healthcare. Moving from “sickcare” to healthcare.
3.00 pm - Afternoon Tea
WHY DO WE NEED GENOMICS IN NEW ZEALAND
3.30 pm - Genomics should be a priority in a resource constrained health environment
Victoria University Debating Society
Aidan Homewood - Mathematics and Biology, Victoria University
North -Computer Science and Theatre, Victoria University
Cara Homewood - Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology in a Biomedical Science degree, Victoria University
Jesse Richardson - Degree in Mathematics and Economics degree and Existential Risk Alliance fellowship, Cambridge
The Victoria University Debating Society was formed in 1899, in anticipation of the opening of the new Victoria College, part of the then University of New Zealand.
The Society has a long record of participation and success on the international stage. At the end of 2008, a team from the Society reached the semi-finals of the World Universities’ Debating Championships. In 2007, a team from Victoria won the Cambridge Union IV and reached the final of the Oxford IV. This has been accompanied by continued domestic success, as in 2022 the society was crowned sports club of the year, and most recently in 2023 the society won one of the two major tournaments in the New Zealand debating calendar, Officer's Cup.
The Society is a non-profit incorporated society, a registered New Zealand charity, and an affiliated club within the Victoria University of Wellington Students’ Association. The Society is heavily involved with debating and public speaking events around Wellington, participating in a number of public debates for various organisations and taking a leading role in organising and promoting debating at a secondary school level.
5.00 pm - Closing Remarks
5.30 pm - Networking Drinks Function - with thanks to Mediscope
6.30pm - Dinner Function - with thanks to BD
Day 2 - Thursday 21 September
8.45 am - Welcome Day Two – Reflections
DATA AS THE BASE OF OUR HEALTH SYSTEM
9.00 am - What we really need in New Zealand
Leigh Donoghue
Chief, Data and Digital Officer, Te Whatu Ora
Join Leigh Donoghue, the Chief Data and Digital Officer of Te Whatu Ora, our new national health agency, for an inspiring and insightful talk. Leigh joined Te Whatu Ora in May 2023. Leigh’s motivated by the once in a generation opportunity to create a pae ora - healthier futures for all New Zealanders. It’s a time of unprecedented opportunities digital and biotechnology revolutions are creating new possibilities for improving health outcomes, and delivering better care. Leigh will share his passion and vision for creating a people-centred, digital health service for Aotearoa, one that leverages the power of data and technology to transform diagnostics and care. He will also discuss the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead, such as funding, workforce, infrastructure, regulations, and collaboration.
9.30 am - Collaboration and standards on our way to a GEM
Warren Wright
Information Services Manager, Pathlab
This session will explore collaboration amongst laboratory providers to implement standards and the implications for the Health ecosystem.
10.00 am - The Value of a Clinical Perspective
Dr Lara Hopley
Chief Clinical Informatics Officer, Te Whatu Ora
I will take you back to the future from the experiences in COVID and make a plea to help resolves the wrong blood in tube we all have but currently pretend we don’t, explaining how getting things right at the very start and focusing on removing rework and waste, is the way we can engineer our digital future.
10.30 am - Morning Tea
THINKING BEYOND THE LAB
11.00 am - Innovation Direction and Opportunities in New Zealand
Professor Robyn Whittaker
Director Evidence Research and Clinical Trials, Te Whatu Ora
Robyn will describe the new national Service Improvement & Innovation Directorate and the functions it will be responsible for. This includes her area of evidence, research and clinical trials. She will also discuss the collaborative work with the Data & Digital team on innovation pathways.
11.30 am - Investing in Diagnostics - The Value of Health Technology Assessment. The What and How.
Matthew Needham - with thanks to Roche
Market Access Strategist, Roche Products Ltd.
The benefits of IVD to individuals, the healthcare system, the economy and society are broad and diverse.
Diagnostic tests can optimise health outcomes for the individual, and lead to the better allocation of resources with the healthcare system. They can also support individual and economic prosperity by enabling people to remain healthier for longer, and fully participate in society.
Innovation in the IVD sector is occurring rapidly and revolutionising healthcare by changing how, when, and by whom healthcare can be delivered. When coupled with the use of digital health technologies, the power of diagnostics to deliver more preventative, predictive, personalised and participatory healthcare is significantly enhanced. In this presentation we will explore how Health Technology Assessment provides the basis for a discussion on the value that IVDs bring to individuals, the health system and society.
Dr Jamie Platt
Managing Director, Pictor
Innovative technologies have enabled more personalised medicine, yet opportunities remain to integrate information from these tools in order to provide more comprehensive health insights. A holistic view of the human blueprint, gene expression, and immunological response is critical to better management of disease, health and wellness. Laboratories are the cornerstone to a better, more comprehensive personalised medicine approach and understanding how to manage the data and transform it into meaningful information is key. Opportunities for laboratories to empower better clinical insights will be discussed using examples from genomics, liquid biopsy, MRD, and reference lab segments.
12.30 pm - Lunch
THE FUTURE
1.30 pm - Does one size fit all? Or is geolocalisation required for precise diagnosis?
Adnan Ali - with thanks to AusDiagnostics
Head of Product Management, AusDiagnostics
AusDiagnostics has closely worked with regional laboratories to enable precise diagnosis. Experiences of working with local laboratories to create focused products that have addressed the gaps in molecular diagnostics to serve localised populations better and enhance diagnostic facilities' capabilities and efficiency.
2.00 pm - The influence of the female sex hormones on Sports Related Concussion
Natalie Hardaker
Researcher, Sports Performance Research Institute, Auckland University of Technology (SPRINZ, AUT)
2.30 pm - Navigating the Impact of Change in our Sector
Ryl Jensen
CEO, Digital Health Association
3.00 pm - Closing remarks
Join us for a final networking drink at the Shed 22 on the waterfront.
See registration desk on the way out to get a drink on us.