INTERVIEWS

Guest: Malcolm Pradhan
Presenter: Wayne Bucklar
Guest Bio: With over 20 years of experience in Medical Informatics, Malcolm Pradhan is one of the world’s leading minds in Clinical Decision Support. Prior to co-founding Alcidion in 2000, Malcolm was the Associate Dean of IT and Director of Medical Informatics, University of Adelaide. During his time at the University of Adelaide, Malcolm provided thought leadership and conducted research into applications of clinical decision support, and into optimum uses of a variety of statistical and probabilistic methods for applying clinical decision support. He also was active in the Australian health informatics community, as a founding fellow of the Australasian College of Health Informatics (ACHI). Malcolm’s broad knowledge and vision of the path to a high performance healthcare system are complimented by formal qualifications of an MBBS from University of Adelaide, and a PhD in Medical Informatics from Stanford University.

Segment overview: In today’s Health Supplier Segment, Chief Medical Officer Malcolm Pradhan from Alcidion Corporation joins us today to talk about the various services they provide for the health industry. In his time at Alcidion, Malcolm has overseen and driven the development and design of Alcidion’s products and has been responsible for transforming Alcidion’s technology platform, which was initially used only for Emergency Medicine, into a powerful health informatics platform which can be applied to a broad set of clinical scenarios. Throughout his career, Malcolm has contributed to the Health Informatics community, and has specialised in research into patient safety, evidence based medicine, operational analysis and optimisation, data analysis and probabilistic simulation modelling, and Bayesian analysis and modelling.

Overview:

• The Islamic organisations paid to certify halal meat in Australia are being reviewed as part of an overall audit of food certifiers, which includes organic and kosher organisations. According to Senate hearing into food certification there has been 22 different halal certifying organisation and about 70 abattoirs that export to the Islamic markets.

• Another measles case linked to the University of Queensland’s (UQ) St Lucia campus has been confirmed, bringing the total number of cases to six in just five weeks.

• The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation claims a Launceston General Hospital patient was forced to wait more than a week in the emergency room for a bed on a ward. Federation’s branch secretary, Neroli Ellis, said it was evidence that pressure on the hospital had reached ‘crisis’ point, and that more beds were needed to cope with increasing pressure in the emergency department.

Guest: Robin Ferguson
Presenter: Wayne Bucklar
Guest Bio: From a background in communications and data cabling to sales specializing in medical equipment Robin Ferguson built his business First Responder Group Pty Ltd representing other brands as a direct sales consultant. This process allows him to offer customers the best available equipment at the most economical price and builds the market profile of the companies he represent.

Segment overview: In today’s Health Supplier Segment, know more about the First Responder Group Pty Ltd as we are joined by Managing Director Robin Ferguson. They specialize in supplying medical equipment and first responder equipment to industry medical centers, aged care facilities, GPs across Australia and overseas. One of their biggest products and best sellers is the lifepak AED that they supply to building sites. They also supply a lot to aged care facilities with bronchoscopes, Ambu bronchoscope in the hospitals before, and ECG machines, holter monitoring equipment, BP cuffs, evacuation kits, soft packs, oxygen sets.

Overview:

• At the Queensland University of Technology’s (QUT) Dr Mia Woodruff who leads the Biomaterialas and Tissue Morphology Group has been doing research to help future hospital by allowing surgeons to print 3D models of areas of the body that they operate on, and printing a “scaffold” that can be implanted as a replacement.

• The Government said it would give businesses until the August 1, 2017 to prepare for the smoking in outdoor will be banned, which will cover all outdoor dining areas at restaurants, cafes, take-away shops and licensed premises. Victorian Health Minister Jill Hennessy said smoking related illnesses killed 4,000 Victorians each year, and cost more than $2 billion in health care and lost productivity.

• In a report released by advocacy group Bowel Cancer Australia, five leading cancer specialists argue there is unmet need for new therapies and research. Associate Professor Peter Gibbs is a medical oncologist at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and he co-authored the Bowel Cancer Australia report.

Overview:

• A renewed call to recognise Lyme disease came from Parliament House this week, pleasing thousands of people who believe there is no adequate treatment for the tick-borne illness in Australia.

• British American Tobacco has applied to access data collected by the Cancer Council of Victoria from school students covering a range of issues, including where they get their cigarettes from, when they started smoking and how they feel about plain packaging.

• Ward C3 which was a dormant part of the Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH) has been re-opened, as the city’s hospitals struggle to find space for patients. It is now being used by 10 regular patients waiting to be discharged.

Overview:

• South Australia’s Education Department has issued an official alert to schools to be on the lookout for flu symptoms among staff and students following high rates of absence, more than 5,700 flu cases have been reported this year.

• Researchers at Adelaide University are investigating how a chemical receptor in chili can activate nerves in the stomach which send messages to the brain about how full the body is. It could hold the key to helping people to eat less to lose weight, and ultimately fight obesity.

• An almost fully formed brain has been grown in a laboratory for the first time, scientists from Ohio State University say. The unconscious brain, the size of a pea and comparable with a five-week-old fetus, could speed up neuroscience research into conditions like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

Overview:

• An aggressive, disease-carrying Asian tiger mosquito is regarded as a public health threat has been detected at the Port of Cairns in far north Queensland. It has a voracious appetite for blood, can survive in a variety of climates, and spreads dengue fever, ross river virus and chikungunya.

• Patients at Calvary hospitals with Medibank Private Cover have now been given until the end of October before potentially being slugged with out-of-pocket expenses.

• A team of researchers from the University of Canberra and the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is investigating whether wearing compression clothing can increase the brain function of athletes.

Guest: Robert Tiller
Presenter: Wayne Bucklar
Guest Bio: Robert is the founder and CEO of Tiller Design, and partner businesses Tiller Manufacturing Pty Ltd. Robert has held board positions on several ‘start up’ companies focussing on technology commercialisation. He also advises many business entrepreneurs on successful new product development, manufacturing and distribution. Robert has judged international design awards programs in Korea and Australia. He has spoken at international design and sustainability conferences in Saudi Arabia, China, North America and Australia. Robert is a highly respected design professional and a founding member on The Good Design Council Australia.

Segment overview: In today’s Health Supplier Segment, get familiarized with the various services that Tiller Design has to offer as we are joined by their founder and CEO Robert Tiller. They are a leading product design and development consultancy based in Sydney, Australia. A champion of truly diligent product design, Robert has over 25 years of experience in product development, design, manufacture and commercialisation. Globally Robert and his team have developed many successful products in the medical, consumer, commercial and business market.

Overview:

• Paramedics attended 27 per cent more ice-related incidents in regional Victoria in the past financial year, and ice use in metropolitan Melbourne jumped by 10 per cent, according to new research.

• People using e-cigarettes will be asked to stick to nine designated smoking areas at next month’s Royal Adelaide Show. The show’s general manager, Michelle Hocking, told 891 ABC Adelaide that organisers would be making a polite request for cooperation.

• The Western Local Health District board has decided to knock down the building which sits alongside the town’s Multi-Purpose Health Service and Health One.

Guest: Paul Elmslie
Presenter: Wayne Bucklar
Guest Bio: Born in Australia, Paul has almost 20 years work experience with a focus on skin cancer. He was a pioneer of the original sub-specialised skin cancer business model and established 18 clinics between 1999 and 2006 across four states in Australia. He also owns the Redcliffe Skin Cancer Centre, a highly respected referral centre and training facility in Queensland, Australia. In 2006, Paul founded HealthCert, a global organisation dedicated to changing the lives of doctors and patients in the area of skin cancer medicine. With the vision of a world where nobody dies from skin cancer, the company operates in five countries through three distinct business units: Medical Education, Skin Cancer Referral Centres and TeleDermatology Services.

Segment overview: In today’s Health Supplier Segment, we are joined by founder and CEO Paul Elmslie of Healthcert International. They are a Singapore based company that delivers the latest research and practical knowledge with a unique model of online learning and assessment with practical workshops. With more than 6,500 GPs trained across 15 countries, Paul has taken HealthCert to become the world’s leading provider of primary care skin cancer diagnosis, treatment and education. More recently, Paul set up the Skin Cancer Institute, a multidisciplinary organisation focusing on research, education and a better availability and delivery of diagnosis and treatment in skin cancer medicine.