DRIVERS 2024 conference highlights innovation in rural health research
The Doctors for Regional Innovation, Vision, Excellence, Research and Scholarship (DRIVERS) conference, now in its fourth year, brought together over 80 junior doctors, medical students, clinicians and researchers to share the latest rural health research on Saturday 7 September 2024 in Bendigo.
Hosted by Monash Rural Health’s North West Victoria Regional Training Hub, DRIVERS was established in 2021 to highlight the opportunities and challenges unique to rural healthcare and health service delivery and support the next generation of rural doctors. The conference - which introduced interactive workshops for the first time this year - showcases excellence in regional medicine and fosters important discussions to further drive innovation and improve patient care in rural communities.
Topics presented ranged from inclusive healthcare for transgender patients, use of Chat GPT in medicine, to recruitment and retention of rural doctors. Junior doctors received vital guidance on maintaining wellbeing and career pathways in rural health from keynote speaker, head and neck surgeon Dr Bridget Clancy. The second keynote speaker, Associate Professor Forbes McGain, spoke about innovative approaches to delivering environmentally sustainable health care in hospital settings.
Medical student Irene Roy, who presented on access to healthcare for people with a history of injecting drugs in rural areas, appreciated the diversity of research presented at DRIVERS.
“A really interesting thing about this conference is that there’s such a wide variety of topics. There were a lot of surgery-related concepts, but also a fair amount of public health and psychiatry. …It’s been really nice to continue to learn about innovation in all these different fields that I probably wouldn't have seen in my day to day life.”
Annabel Wright, a final year medical student from James Cook University, travelled from Townsville to present at DRIVERS, and valued the support and networking opportunities on offer at the conference.
‘It was just a fantastic opportunity to be invited. I‘ve gotten to meet a lot of new people who I otherwise wouldn't get to meet. They’ve been supportive and very interested in my research which is fantastic to see that passion is across multiple different states and territories.”
According to DRIVERS Steering Committee co-chair, Dr Rosanna Powell, DRIVERS opens the door for rural medical students and doctors to share their work with a like-minded audience and build their professional network.
“It’s a great opportunity for junior doctors to have a really non-threatening forum to be able to present research projects and connect with other doctors in the rural setting.”
DRIVERS 2024 Scientific Committee co-chair, Dr Jasmine Elliot, who also presented at this year’s conference, noted the continuing need to elevate rural health research.
“We’re increasingly recognising the importance of having research based in rural and regional areas, because it’s a different patient population, we have different contextual factors, different resources and different fields of practice. DRIVERS is all about bringing that to life and showcasing what research is being done by junior doctors and medical students in the regions.”
DRIVERS 2024 award recipients
Five awards were presented at the DRIVER’s gala dinner, acknowledging the excellence and innovation of rural research showcased at the event. Congratulations to the award winners:
- Best Scientific Presentation: Dr Jason Cox for ‘Cost Effectiveness of routine planned critical care admission for high-risk Emergency major abdominal surgery.'
- Best Poster Presentation: Eugene Wang for ‘Descriptive Audit of a Rural Type 1 Diabetes Outpatient Clinic'
- Best Case Presentation: Dr Jess Wynn for ‘Penoscrotal decompression for ischaemic priapism: A procedure for all regional surgeons’.
- RACGP Best Oral Presentation - Rural Healthcare: Dr Jessica Paynter for ‘A qualitative review of the impact of human capacity and infrastructure upon rural general surgery within Australia.’
- Regional Training Hub Director's Award: Annabel Wright for ‘Are We Prepared To Provide Inclusive Healthcare To Trangender Patients: Exploring Medical Student Perspectives From A Regional Australian University’.
View more images from the day in the DRIVERS 2024 image gallery.
Visit the DRIVERS 2024 website.
View the DRIVERS 2024 Highlights video below
Monash Rural Health Regional Training Hubs
The 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 Department of Health and Aged Care's Rural Health Multidisciplinary Training Program.