Regional medical research excellence celebrated at annual DRIVERS conference

From the gender gap in rural general surgery, to spiked helmet signs, to applications of space medicine, the second Doctors for Regional Innovation, Vision, Excellence, Research and Scholarship (or DRIVERS) conference showcased the potential of regional medical research.

Hosted by Monash’s North West Victorian Regional Training Hub on Saturday 22 October, DRIVERS 2022 brought together medical students, junior doctors and clinicians from across south east Australia in a hybrid conference format. Over 40 presenters shared their scientific, reflective and case study presentations covering a breadth of topics, all focused on improving health outcomes for rural communities.

Attendees were welcomed by Dja Dja Wurrung Traditional Owner, Jason Kerr, and Associate Professor Janelle Brennan, Director of the North West Victorian Regional Training Hub. Three inspiring keynote speakers - Dr Dinesh Palipana, Associate Professor Matthias Wichmann and Dr Sarah Van Der Wal - generously shared their insights on happiness, resilience and collaboration.

Associate Professor Brennan was thrilled to build on the success of the inaugural DRIVERS conference and provide a platform for regional doctors and medical students to share their research.

“I’ve been to a lot of conferences and it’s really important that junior doctors get the chance to present. Rural doctors don’t always have access to research institutions. Some of the things important for rural doctors, in terms of research, are different from what’s important in a metropolitan centre. DRIVERS was an opportunity to enable our younger doctors to prepare research dedicated to a rural and regional audience.”

Associate Professor Brennan was blown away by the quality of the research on display at the conference.

“Some of these projects should be going to higher levels of governance - the boards of hospitals and healthcare networks, as well as state governments, to see how we can improve outcomes for rural patients.”

The conference also provided the DRIVERS steering and scientific committees, made up of a group of Loddon Mallee based junior doctors, the opportunity to take on leadership roles.

Dr Ruby Marslen, one of the DRIVERS 2022 Steering Committee co-chairs, valued the opportunity not only to bring together a community of passionate regional health professionals, but to gain a new professional skillset.

“My role was to collaborate with the other junior doctors on the committee to create an exciting program to really tailor it to what we’re interested in and what we wanted to get out of it as junior doctors. Being involved in the DRIVERS committee has given me a fantastic skillset I can use in my personal and work life. It gives me the confidence to be involved in future projects, to expand my skills and build my network.”

Following the tremendous success of the conference this year, DRIVERS will run again in September 2023.

DRIVERS 2022 award recipients

Awards were presented at the conference’s gala dinner, acknowledging the excellence of rural research on display at the event. Presentations were judged by Monash University academics and senior medical professionals from a range of backgrounds.

Congratulations to the category winners:

  • Best Overall Scientific Presentation: Dr Katie Blunt for ‘A Clinical Audit of Ultrasound Use in Predicting Fetal Macrosomia at a Regional Hospital’.
  • Best Quality Improvement Project: Dr Gagandeep Singh for ‘Number of patients who presented to Northwest hospital Tasmania and their transfer time in comparison to national guideline for shifting to closest PCI centre’.
  • Most Visionary Presentation: Dr Jessica Paynter for ‘Rural General Surgery:
    characterising female rural General Surgeons to respond to gender gap’.
  • Best Reflective Presentation: Georgia Maroske for ‘Mother’s experience of Breastfeeding complications. Perspectives from mothers and clinicians’.
  • Best Case Study Presentation: Dr Jessica Wynn for ‘The “spiked helmet sign”, a mimic of ST elevation myocardial infarction in postoperative ileus’.
  • Best Rural Medicine Case Study: Dr Manoj Anandan for ‘Sporotrichosis : a rare cause of a forearm ulcer in rural Victoria.’
  • Best Scientific Poster Oral Presentation: Ella Ryan for ‘A retrospective audit looking at the diagnosis, management, and coding of sepsis in the Bendigo Health Emergency Department’.
  • Best Scientific Poster Displayed: Georgia Seamer for ‘Rural Surgical Transfers from Mildura: a tri-state border model of general surgical care’.
  • Regional Training Hub Director’s Award: Dr Vienna Tran for ‘The applications of space medicine for rural and remote health on Earth’.
  • DRIVERS Honorary Mention: Amy Sylvris for “Enhanced Recovery After Surgery" can improve our rural healthcare crisis: An audit at Latrobe Regional Hospital’.

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Monash Rural Health Regional Training HubsThe Monash Rural Health Regional Training Hubs facilitate speciality training and career development opportunities for junior doctors, to help them live, work and train rurally.  The Monash Regional Training Hubs are supported by the Rural Health Multidisciplinary Training Program of the Department of Health.