News

Multi-ed Trip to Australia, November 2004

01 December 2004

Following a whistle stop trip to Brisbane in July 2004, the feedback and interest from those we met, meant a return trip needed to be planned. So on the 16th November we left the drizzle of Manchester Airport for the heat of Brisbane with the following agenda planned.

18th November

• Cancer Fund Australia
• Diabetes Association Australia
• Incontrol Group Australia

19th November

• Diabetes Educators at Logan Hospital
• Australian Heart Foundation

21st November

• Cardiomyopathy Association

22nd November

• Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane

23rd November

• Repatriation Hospital Adelaide

24th & 25th November

• Neoteck Solutions, Tasmania

29th November

• Queensland Health Board

Over the period, we managed to meet with nurses, GPs, consultants, pharmacists, Age Concern, Educators and Government Officials together with interested companies. The trip was an outstanding success as detailed below:

18th November
Cancer Fund Australia
Met with David Millichap and colleague Beverley re. possibility of developing a skin cancer education program on the lines of what we do.

They had never seen anything like this method of education delivery and thought it was outstanding. We have left them with programs to look through and have a think about ways we could work together if any.

18th November
Diabetes Association Australia
Met with 3 specialist nurses seconded to DAA, they thought it was exactly what was needed in Australia as the Diabetes Educators Association, have been tasked with trying to educate primary care nurses.

Each region of Australia has it’s own diabetes association although they do have a national umbrella. We have given them a full pack which they intend to discuss as they had several thoughts about how we could work together.

18th November
InControl Group Australia
Met James Woodward of InControl Group. James attended both our meetings today as he wanted a feel for the reception to the program within the healthcare field.

He took us along to The Royal Brisbane Hospital to show us his own system and introduced us to some people.

19th November
Diabetes Educators at Logan Hospital, Brisbane
Met with Michelle Robins and her colleague Kent. They are responsible for the diabetes education within the area and Kent is also involved in the ‘interior’.

Overall thoughts were very positive, although amends would be required for the Australian market, however, these were considered to be minor.

They educate patients, nurses and specialist nurses.
They gave us a number of contacts. Michelle has mentioned the possibility of running a pilot and writing up the outcomes. So we have left a couple of programs for her to go through and we will contact her shortly.

19th November
Heart Foundation, Australia
Met with Dr Peter Abernethy, National Director of Cardiovascular Health, Dr Anna Hawkes, Manager of Cardiovascular Health (secondary prevention) and also Ryan O’Sullivan, National On-Line Services Manager who was our original contact.

They outlined the Australian Heart Foundation and what it does, which is different form the BHF as they do no research, they purely support the patient. They are a national body with regional offices but they work to the same national strategy.

Thought the idea of the programs were outstanding and are keen to look at the possibility of working with us, although they would require online versions as well as CDs.
Overall extremely positive meeting.

21st November
Cardiomyopathy Association
Met David Abbott, he is going to take the programs along to the Cardiomyopathy meetings to see what people think. If there is any interest he will be in touch although in Australia this is only a small society. He is keen to be kept informed of what we do with the British group.

25th November
Neoteck Pty Hobart
Had a day long meeting with Neoteck directors and staff. Both companies outlined our business ethos, strategies and plans with a view to seeing if there was any synergy between us. There undoubtedly is and we will look over the coming months to formalise our joint plans.

26th November
Neoteck Pty Hobart
Presentation to invited parties.
8:30am start with a pre presentation briefing at Neoteck offices where we were told who would be attending the presentation, there were representatives from Local Government Economical Development Departments, Age Care Facilities, The Royal Hobart Hospital, Pharmacists, Primary Care Doctors, Medical Advisor to the Australian Federal Government and IT.

The presentation was held at a local hotel and was attended by 16 people, the response was outstanding.
After the demonstration we meet with each of the attendees individually and discussed their individual needs and requirements, everyone was given a demo program to take away with our contact details.

29th November
Queensland Health Board
Following the meeting earlier in the trip at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane a meeting was arranged at The Queensland Health Board with the executive team.

We presented the program to a full room and received an outstanding reception.

We have left several programs for the Health Board to view and hope to be in contact again shortly.

All in all a fantastic trip that gave us an insight into what will be required to introduce the programs into Australia with the possibility of being able to forge partnerships with different organisations covering different disease areas.

We very much look forward to hopefully introducing Multi-ed programs into Australia shortly.

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