President’s Message

Hello Colleagues,

I firstly want to acknowledge our New Zealand colleagues who have been affected by flooding that started back in January and Cyclone Gabrielle that hit the North Island in late February. The health impacts of these events have been vast, and some of you have no doubt been on the front-line. through your work. I send my thoughts and hope your families have remained safe in these very challenging times.

This year will see a major change for ANZSGM at a governance level where we plan to transition from an incorporated association to a company limited by guarantee. Council has overseen this process since it was first proposed back in 2021. I encourage you to read this article to get a better understanding (without the legalese!) of what this proposal is for and what the transition will mean for members.

The Annual Scientific Meeting is fast approaching and I look forward to seeing many of you in Brisbane in May. It has been three years since we have had a wholly face-to-face meeting and I know connecting with our members in-person after so long will be a wonderful experience. I’m very excited about our first Perioperative SIG workshop  – registrations have now closed thanks to an outstanding response (over 180 registrations!), boding well for any SIG workshops in the future. The Advanced Trainee Weekend is sure to be another popular event.  

Speaking of SIGs we hope to get the ball rolling this year on the “Out of Hospital Care” SIG which will focus on outreach services to residential care, community care of older people including Geriatricians role in private practice. We also plan to start a Dementia SIG. Now more than ever it important that we highlight the importance of Geriatric Medicine services in the care of people living with dementia. Have a look at the Dementia in Australia Report 2022 by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare which among other things provides some data about our role in caring for people with dementia. Separate to this report there is quite correctly a lot of discussions about developing more services and support for people with dementia. We have an important role to play in making sure this does not result in fragmentation of care and we need to “talk up” the benefits of providing as much of the assessment, diagnosis and managements plans under the one umbrella in collaboration with primary care and aged care community and residential care services.

So far this year we will continue to find ways we can effectively influence reform across the regional and national levels of government in both Australia and New Zealand.. In early March the Society was invited with peer organisations to be part of a roundtable discussion to inform the work of the Interim Inspector-General and Inspector-General of Aged Care Ian Yates, whose remit is in part to look at the recommendations of the Royal Commission. These discussions have confirmed to me that our core message remains around our outreach teams – we as geriatricians are ideally placed to provide significant leadership to outreach teams and there are some excellent examples of well resourced, multidisciplinary teams across the country and we must continue to advocate for their support.

Finally want to acknowledge two of our members Sue Kurrle and Eddy Strivens who back in January were awarded an Office of the Order of Australia and a Member of the Order of Australia respectively. Both Eddy and Sue have made outstanding contributions to geriatric medicine (read more here) and have both somehow managed to find time to play prominent roles in the Society over the years. My warmest congratulations to you both.

Best Wishes

Vasi Naganathan

The 2023 ANZSGM Annual Scientific Meeting welcomes a dynamic line-up of speakers

This year’s ANZSGM Annual Scientific Meeting (10-12 May 2023) promises an exciting line-up of speakers across three days. It has been three years since the ASM was held as a wholly in-person meeting, and the long awaited return to a face-to-face format will no doubt make it a special event. A diverse program of 26 speakers will present plenary sessions, breakfast sessions and panel discussions and in between speakers, attendees will have opportunities to network, chat with old friends and meet new colleagues.

Under the theme of ‘Celebrating Successes and Understanding Failures’ speakers will cover clinical updates on organ failures, reflections on ‘healthy ageing’, debates about successful and not-so-successful interventions, and thoughts on health system innovations. 

This year’s keynote speakers – Professor Kenneth Rockwood and Professor Maria Fiatarone-Singh, will share their insights into successes and failures in geriatric medicine at personal, individual patient, health system and population levels.

Professor Kenneth Rockwood will present the first Plenary Session ‘Can geriatrics save medicine?’ on Day 1 and the fourth Plenary Session on Day 4  the Derek Prinsley Memorial Address ‘Brain failure: Dementia and delirium’. Kenneth is Professor of Medicine (Geriatric Medicine & Neurology) and the Kathryn Allen Weldon Professor of Alzheimer Research at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. A member of the Senior Leadership team at Nova Scotia Health, he is the inaugural lead of the Frailty & Elder Care Network. Ken has key roles on numerous studies in Canada and elsewhere.

The second Plenary Session will be presented by Professor Maria Fiatarone-Singh – the A. John Campbell Memorial Address “Targeting Optimal Ageing with Evidence-Based Exercise and Nutritional Prescriptions”. Maria’s research, clinical, and teaching career has focused on the integration of medicine, exercise physiology, and nutrition as a means to improve health status and quality of life across the lifespan. She has held the inaugural John Sutton Chair of Exercise and Sport Science in the Faculty of Health Sciences, and Professorship, Sydney Medical School, at the University of Sydney since 1999, with continuing appointment as Senior Research Associate at Harvard-Affiliate Hebrew Institute for Aging Research since 1987.

View the full program on the website here, and a full list of speaker bios can be found here.
Start planning your ASM experience now!

2023 Advanced Trainee Weekend – Register Now!

Perioperative Medicine Special Interest Group Workshop

By Jacqui Close
Chair, Perioperative Medicine SIG

We look forward to seeing many of you at the forthcoming ANZSGM ASM in Brisbane and the first Perioperative Medicine SIG workshop on the afternoon of Tuesday 9 May (1.30-5pm). The activities of the SIG have evolved over the last couple of years and we hope the program will cater to the interests of the increasing number of geriatricians interested in working in the perioperative medicine space.

Our very own Margot Lodge and Yih Harng Chong will present data from a Delphi process intended to produce a consensus driven minimum common data set for geriatricians assessing patients in the perioperative medicine setting. Not only is it designed to provide a consistent approach to assessment but also facilitate collaborative research activity. Hannah Seymour will tackle the thorny issue of anticoagulation in the perioperative medicine setting and highlight some international examples of this work that can provide guidance in this space. I will outline a few key issues relevant to geriatricians from the Hip Fracture Registry.

We will hear from Dale Murdoch, a cardiologist from Brisbane on what is really meant by “cardiac optimization” in the surgical setting  – what can we do to actually reduce risk in those undergoing surgery. Getting it Right First Time is gathering momentum in Australia and internationally and we will hear from Matthew Burstow, a general surgeon from Brisbane on work happening in the acute surgery setting.

The Perioperative Medicine Diploma has been a hot topic over the last few years and we have developed a healthy and productive relationship with our colleagues in ANZCA. Jeremy Fernando has been a key figure in the area and he will update people on the Diploma which a number of geriatricians may well consider undertaking in coming years.

The formal part of afternoon will conclude with a facilitated discussion of some tricky cases with our panel of speakers including  ANZSGM’s international invited speaker, Professor Ken Rockwood.

Networking is key to fostering new collaborations, generating research ideas and sharing our experiences so we will continue the afternoon’s discussions at Barbossa Bar, Southbank.

Registrations for this event are now closed due to an overwhelming response from members. 

A proposal to transition the Society from an Incorporated Association to a Company Limited by Guarantee

In November 2021, as part of a strategic planning exercise, the ANZSGM Council began a review of all governance policies, procedures and processes that impact the way the Society operates. As part of this review, the Council discussed the most appropriate governance structure for the Society.

To ensure that the ANZSGM can operate as a truly international organisation that complies with the regulatory requirements in these environments, it was decided to explore options for reforming the organisation under Commonwealth law. The ANZSGM Council has decided that it would be appropriate to reform the Society as a company limited by guarantee to be regulated and governed by Commonwealth laws.

The ANZSGM was originally established as (and remains currently) an incorporated association under New South Wales law and the NSW Department of Fair Trading. This set a range of expectations around how the ANZSGM conducts its business.  It is proposed that the ANZSGM change from an incorporated association under New South Wales law, to a company limited by guarantee under Commonwealth law.

In this conversion it is proposed that the ANZSGM adopt a new constitution as part of that process. While substantially similar in form to the existing Rules of the Society, the new constitution will reflect changes in the way that the ANZSGM is governed to better align them with the change in nature of the Society from an association to a company, and the practices and procedures of the Society as it has developed and matured since it was established.

A new constitution has been developed as part of this proposal. While no substantive changes will be proposed to the provisions relating to the operations of the Society or Council, some functions will be removed from the Constitution to be managed through new governance measures. Most notably, this will include the operations of ANZSGM Divisions, Section 41 of the existing Rules of the Society, which will removed from the Society’s Constitution and managed through the development and implementation of By-Laws that further support the function and purpose of these important bodies.

This proposal will be discussed and voted on as a Special Resolution at the Annual General Meeting on Thursday, 11 May 2023 at 12.00pm (AEST), at the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre as part of the 2023 Annual Scientific Meeting.

There are a number of reasons from both statutory and operational perspectives why remaining an incorporated association in NSW is no longer an appropriate structure for the Society.  In particular, the Society is an international body and should be recognised as such in the public domain.  The proposed structure of a Company Limited by Guarantee governed by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) will provide the Society with the most relevant legal structure for its brand and recognition.  In particular, the following requirements in relation to Societies support the need for this change:

• Technically a registration as an incorporated association in a particular state (NSW) means the organisation is not entitled to operate activities outside of the State. ANZSGM now carries out regular activities in all states of Australia and New Zealand.
• The Government of New South Wales has legislated that associations with a certain level of income or assets may no longer be entitled to remain as incorporated associations within NSW due to their scale. The ANZSGM is close to one or more these benchmarks and therefore this decision is simply meeting what may well be legislated shortly.
• As Directors of a company registered under ASIC, the compliance requirements and general level of Governance expectations will be at a higher standard than that imposed at State level. We believe it is appropriate for the professionalism of the Society that it is governed by the most appropriate standards to support the membership.
• The reflection of the organisation as a national entity better reflects our membership base and is more appropriate when presenting to Government and other statutory authorities.

An detailed Explanatory Memorandum will be prepared for Society Members and form part of the Notice of General Meeting for the 2023 Annual General Meeting. This will provide further information about the proposed change of structure of the Society and the Council’s recommendation to approve the transition. Members are encouraged to read these in conjunction with the accompanying proposed Constitution which will also be distributed.

Council welcomes any feedback from Members about this proposal. Please feel free to contact head office with any questions at:

Alison King – ANZSGM Executive Officer
executive@anzsgm.org 

ANZSGM Welcomes New Members

The Society welcomes the following new members who were endorsed at the Council meeting on 27 March 2023

NSW
Kavya Elizabeth Baby (AT)
Giselle Bennett (AT)
Ashleigh Elkins (AT)
Divya Kumar (AT)
Htoo Myat (AT)
Alan Truong (AT)
George Wells (AT)

South Australia
Fatema Nur-E-Zannat (Full)

Victoria
Timothy Bayles (Full)
Caitriona Bennett (AT)
Ryan Cheng (AT)
Kapil Satyapal Gupta (Full)
Anita MacGregor (AT)
Rashid Mahmood (Full)
James Mahon (Full)
Renee Marangon-Elliott (AT)
Olivia Moore (AT)
Reginald Ng (AT)
Julia Ong (AT)
Nipuni Pathiraja (AT)
Manoshayini Sooriyakumaran (AT)

Queensland
Chisom Aghanwa (AT)
Cuong Do (AT)
Brenton McCormack (AT)

Western Australia
Sarah Cooper (AT)
NIcholas Heberlein (AT)

New Zealand
Robert Hil (AT)
Puertas Broggi Pedro (Full)
Amber-Jane Wood (AT)
Emma Jones (AT)

Geriatricians acknowledged in the Australia Day Honours List

ANZSGM warmly congratulates members who were acknowledged in the Australia Day Honours List for their contributions to geriatric medicine.

ANZSGM Council member Professor Susan Kurrle (AO) was awarded an Officer of the Order of Australia for her distinguished service to medicine as a geriatrician, and to research into dementia and cognitive function. Sue was a former medical senior advisor to the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety (2019-202), she is a practicing geriatrician for the Northern Sydney Local Health District, specialising in the areas of dementia, frailty, elder abuse, successful ageing, and intergenerational care and is the Curran Professor in Health Care of Older People at the Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney.

ANZSGM Past President Professor Edward Strivens (AM) was awarded  a Member of the Order of Australia for his significant service to geriatric medicine  and to professional organisations.  He has performed a number of expert advisory roles for the Queensland Department of Health and is an NHMRC chief investigator and grant reviewer. He is currently Clinical Director Older Persons Sub-Acute and Rehabilitation (OPSAR) and Assistant Director of Research at Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service.

ANZSGM also congratulates past member Sadhana Mahajani (AM) who was awarded Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to aged care, and to community health. Dr Sadhana Mahajani retired in 2011 after 38 years of working as a doctor in the Northern Territory, most recently as a geriatrician.

How Dr Sanka Amadoru balances the private-public mix

The question around whether to work in a private practice or the public sector is a conversation many geriatricians have. The pros and cons of each working environment are different and there’s no simple answer. Melbourne geriatrician Dr Sanka Amadoru, works across both systems, and offers a  unique insight into managing a career with a foot in both camps.

Sanka started working as a consultant in 2017 and is based at Austin Health, where he works at the hospital memory clinic and the neurocognitive disorders clinical trials unit. He also does occasional ward and consults work. 

When asked about the positive side of working in the public system Sanka enjoys the “diversity of patients, as well as the closer contact with medical and multidisciplinary team colleagues.”

“There are also vast opportunities to train, teach, and mentor junior doctors and students and to get involved in large-scale research and public sector projects,” says Sanka.

But there are also limitations, “It’s easier to implement change and innovation in the private sector, and continuity of care at a clinician level is not always possible,” he adds.

Sanka’s private practice work focusses on comprehensive geriatric assessments in clinics and residential care but he doesn’t do private inpatient work. As a joint founder of the private practice Aria Health, Sanka says that “this has been very rewarding in that we have addressed significant gaps in geriatrician service provision in metropolitan Melbourne and rural Victorian communities, and have made a positive difference at scale.”

“The learning curve in running a practice has been steep, but the challenge has been worthwhile,” he says.   

More recently he has developed an interest in digital health, exploring how this is relevant to our older community members.

In his private practice work Sanka enjoys the clinical autonomy and direct patient involvement it offers, but also points out that “you do all the clinical work yourself”. While the other big advantage is that “clinical continuity allows for developing lasting therapeutic relationships with patients and longitudinal learning, and there is the space to focus on community work.”  

“It can be professionally isolating in some private settings, so we have made a deliberate effort to maintain a collegial culture in our private practice. This means we get to support and learn from each other as early-to-mid career consultants, and leverage each others’ strengths.” says Sanka.  

As a geriatrician working in both public and private systems, Sanka feels he gets the best of both worlds, “It can be synergistic for patient care across systems, especially when building relationships with GPs and community providers,“ says Sanka.

For trainees who are thinking about working across the two settings, Sanka says “it’s important to think about what you would like your life to look like, and then work out how your work commitments will fit with that”.

He flags time management as crucial in balancing the two different work settings, with travel between sessions in different locations a challenge as well as availability in multiple part-time workplaces.

“Be careful not to overcommit your time. If it is something you want to pursue, talk to consultants who work only in one setting, and across both!”.

Image Courtesy: Aria Health

Member profile: Sarah Fox and her year in Edinburgh

Sarah Fox was a consultant at Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane before she took leave in 2022 and moved to Edinburgh for a year-long placement at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. Now back in Brisbane, Sarah reflects on her experience and learnings from a memorable and rewarding year. 

Last year, I worked as a geriatrician in Edinburgh. I received an offer in mid-2021 and after clarifying that no, we would not be allowed to live at the Castle, we boarded a plan the following January anyway.  

Like a lot of doctors in previous generations, I was keen to experience work as a geriatrician in a different country. Often asked what prompted me to go, I have usually replied that I was looking for a bit of an adventure.  And while this is partly true, I was also keen to know whether what I learnt during my Australian training still ‘worked’ in a whole new health system.  I wanted to challenge myself in a new environment, hoping it might make me more self-aware and self-critical in my own clinical practice.

We are lucky that as Australian-trained physicians, we can work as (locum) consultants in the UK without needing to formally register on the specialist register (which by all accounts sounds like a painful and arduous process). The UK government also offers readily available visas to Australian doctors.

Leaving Brisbane in the middle of summer to arrive in an Edinburgh winter required some adaptation. But once the children got used to the more obvious differences (“Do we really need to wear a coat to walk to school?” and “Why can’t I bring a snowball inside?”), we settled in for life as usual, and I was able to start at the Royal Infirmary.

I was the recipient of a lot of kindness that made the year a happy one. Many people went out of their way to make us feel welcome, and it’s that demonstration of kindness that I hope to extend to those making the opposite journey in the future.

One colleague, who was to become a close friend, was entrusted with my orientation, patiently answering questions from this so-called geriatrician from Australia – what’s a POC? A package of care. And a PF? The procurator fiscal (…and what’s that?). How could I do my job if I didn’t grasp this basic know-how? But of course, I learnt, and people were happy to answer my questions with only a small amount of ribbing on the side.

To be better understood by my patients, I made small adjustments to my Australian drawl. Bowels soon became ‘bow-wells’ (I am a geriatrician after all…) and world ‘wi-deld’. But the skillset was of course the same – communicate clearly, make sensible decisions that centre around patient needs and values, work as a team.  In this way geriatric medicine was the same in Edinburgh as it is in Brisbane. This was the biggest relief of the year.

In Edinburgh, I worked a combination of acute geriatrics, as well as orthogeriatrics. The established position of geriatric medicine in Scotland, in which patients are admitted directly from the emergency department to MoE wards (‘Medicine of the Elderly’ has not been renamed) is something I found extremely beneficial in terms of proactively commencing comprehensive geriatric assessment at the front door and then continuing this during the hospital admission.

The NHS is under pressure.  I witnessed an incredible amount of dedication from everyone working in the hospital. No nursing ratios mean that beds don’t close. This took some adjusting. There were times on the acute geriatric ward, admitting patients straight from ED, where we had three nurses for 36 patients. Palliative care and early mobilisation are both equally hard in that setting.

From a medical perspective, I do think the clinical load I managed in Edinburgh is higher than back home, but the requirement for departments to create structured job plans mean that the workload is spread evenly, which I felt improved efficiency and made things clear and achievable. Doctors get paid significantly less in Scotland than in Australia but the professional standards they work to are the same.  Wage differences between different medical specialties don’t exist.  The financial motivation for a career in medicine is somewhat less powerful over there. The doctors I worked with were passionate about excellent patient care.  

Working in a different setting makes you think about how you practice and why. Different prescribing practices demand an open and inquisitive mind.  Gentamicin is king in Edinburgh, a fact that coming from the northside of Brisbane I found hard to digest. Conversely, the hand that prescribes augmentin or (gasp!) ceftriaxone in Scotland is much maligned. (I think this is partly due to an earlier mandate by the Scottish government to reduce rates of clostridium difficile infection). Other similar, and relatively small, local differences required some adjustments during the year.

Home care packages in Scotland appear more generous and available than in Australia. Maxing out at two carers visiting four times during the day plus once overnight, living at home in the later stages of frailty seemed more achievable there than it does at home.  Despite concerns about the ‘long waits’ for home care packages in Scotland, these seem to pale against what we have come to accept in Australia. As such, people will wait in hospital for the POC (that’s a package of care) to become available, in a way that we would never be able to entertain in the Australian system.

I had the impression of more geriatricians having higher research degrees in Edinburgh. Junior doctors have the opportunity, as residents or registrars, to do dedicated research (PhD) time, whilst being paid a wage equivalent to a doctor working clinically, and without losing a spot on the training pathway. This means that two of the big barriers to pursuing a higher research degrees – money and loss of clinical opportunities, are removed.  This translates down the line to more consultants who are also researchers.

Another positive observation in Edinburgh was the established position of nurse practitioners within the department. This highly professional group provided a constant, stable workforce that did not come and go in the way that junior doctors must. They could keep the unit cohesive, keep things ticking over, provide consistency at points of medical workforce transition, and provide oversight and insight during quality improvement initiatives.

The practicalities of moving our family to Scotland seemed large but achievable. Some things helped, like finding a lovely flat while still in Australia and having our children welcomed  wholeheartedly into the local school. The challenge of moving back was more unexpected, as we hadn’t reckoned with leaving a piece of our hearts in Edinburgh.

Why don’t more doctors go now? I am not sure. Maybe the quality of our training in Australia feels more than adequate (I think it is), maybe it’s the scare of the news reports about the state of the NHS (in Edinburgh it was busy but not in a harrowing way). I think few experiences can make you reflect on your practice as clearly as a year abroad.  As a new consultant, I’m so grateful I was able to do it, and what better place than Edinburgh.

Image Courtesy: Sarah Fox
Sarah with her children outside a castle in Edinburgh

History Project Update

By
Robert Prowse
prowserj@bigpond.net.au

Mid-2022, the History Project was finally able to visit the Australian Association of Gerontology office in Melbourne to inspect the archives.  I was appreciative of the access granted by James Beckford Saunders, who was by then the out-going CEO of the AAG.

Particular attention was paid to records covering the years around the formation of the Australian Geriatrics Society.  The most exciting finding was in the minutes of the AAG Council in Melbourne on 28^th September 1972.

Under a heading “Association of Geriatricians” it was recorded that, “Dr Gary Andrews reported that a meeting had been called for Sunday, 1^st October for which an agenda and proposed Constitution had been circulated to doctors who might be interested.  A good response had been received, indicating that approximately 50 people would attend the inaugural meeting”.

This is the only contemporary record I have seen concerning the foundation of our Society. 1972 has always been given as the founding year, and was recorded as such by those who were involved.  However, a historian welcomes a confirmatory document.  More importantly, this gives us the actual date of the Society’s founding, in addition to the year.  The first of October will be reasonably easy to remember for occasions when reference to the birth of the AGS is required!

I think this is likely to be the only extant record of this important date for the ANZSGM.  It was of interest that the AAG had records of its Council meetings from its inception in 1964, whereas the earliest AAG Council meeting minutes seen by the History Project were from 1987 and the first of an Annual General Meeting in 1979.  The difference can be attributed to the somewhat different circumstances of the formation of the two organisations.

Our inaugural meeting occurred at the same time as a scientific meeting of the AAG, which provided an appropriate association for medical professionals interested in ageing and aged care.  After formation of the AGS, the Society continued to meet with the AAG.  The History Project hoped that the AAG archives would provide accounts of these AGS meetings, given the dearth of information about early scientific meetings of the Society.  Unfortunately, there were very few such reports.  The first was a mention, in the 1981 AAG Annual Conference program, of a concurrent session on undergraduate teaching, the first section of which was listed as an “AGS Meeting” concerning undergraduate teaching in medicine.  The second was a recording in the program for the 1983 AAG conference, at which the Annual General Meeting of the AGS was scheduled for the 16th October.  These references confirm that the AGS was closely involved with the AAG, but at the 1981 meeting the AGS seems to have been a contributor to the AAG program, rather than meeting in its own right.  Apart from these two references, if meetings specifically of the AGS were taking place, they were doing so informally and did not require mention by the AAG.

As usual, these gaps in our knowledge remind me to ask for any historical documentation that members come across in an attic, garage or storage locker.

Enhancements to the AIR functionality of Influenza Vaccines

The following message is from:
Nicholas Stoney
Assistant Secretary, Immunisation Branch
Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care
E: Immunisation.Registers@health.gov.au

In preparation for the 2023 influenza season, the following enhancements will be made to the Australian Immunisation Register (AIR) on 11 February 2023:

 Addition of new influenza vaccines
To enable better monitoring and reporting of influenza vaccines funded under the National Immunisation Program (NIP), the following vaccine names will be added to the AIR.

This change will enable vaccination providers to select whether an influenza vaccine is funded under the NIP or purchased on the private market. When reporting to the AIR, vaccination providers should select the relevant vaccine name i.e. (NIP) for NIP funded vaccines and (Non-NIP) for privately purchased vaccines.

For individuals, only the vaccine brand name will display on their Immunisation History Statement. For example, Afluria Quad (NIP) will display as “Afluria Quad”.

These new vaccine names will be available to report to the AIR using clinical software, however if these vaccines do not appear we recommend vaccination providers contact their software provider in the first instance. Alternatively, vaccination providers can report the vaccine to the AIR using the AIR site.

Updates to existing influenza vaccines
To improve the data quality and reporting of influenza vaccines, the AIR will be updated to prevent the reporting of historical vaccine brands that are no longer registered or available for use in Australia. Please see below:

Please note:

• Vaccination providers will still be able to report these vaccines if they were administered prior to 11 February 2023
• Influenza vaccines reported to the AIR prior to 11 February 2023 will remain recorded on the AIR and display on individuals’ vaccination evidence. 

In instances where an individual has been vaccinated (i.e., overseas) and the vaccine brand is not available to report to the AIR, vaccination providers can report it as a generic vaccine brand, for example ‘Generic Influenza’. This ensures that individuals have a complete AIR record and can provide evidence of vaccination for education, employment, or travel purposes.

It is mandatory under the Australian Immunisation Register Act 2015, for vaccination providers to report all Influenza vaccinations administered on, or after, 1 March 2021.

Reporting timely, high quality and accurate vaccination information ensures that the AIR contains a complete and reliable dataset to enable the monitoring of immunisation coverage and administration.

The Department of Health and Aged Care will continue to work with Services Australia to help software developers and vaccination providers meet their reporting obligations.

Online seminar: To prescribe, or to deprescribe? Managing medications in frail patients

Professor Ruth Hubbard’s team at the University of Queensland Centre for Health Services Research (UQCHSR) and the Queensland Dementia, Ageing, and Frailty Clinical Network is, in collaboration with the Queensland Dementia, Ageing, and Frailty Clinical Network, organising the next Geriatric Seminar on Wednesday 19 April between 12:30-1:30pm AEST.

To prescribe, or to deprescribe? Managing medications in frail patients
Globally, healthcare systems are challenged with providing appropriate care to patients with complex care needs, multiple chronic conditions, and multiple medications. At present, there is a lack of guidelines to inform safe prescribing and deprescribing for frail adults. This presentation will provide an overview of the current evidence related to the benefits and harms of prescribing and deprescribing medications in frail patients and how to capture patient preferences to ensure optimal care.

Online Seminar: To prescribe, or to deprescribe? Managing medications in frail patients
Speakers: Associate Professor Danijela Gnjidic and Dr Rakhee Raghunandan
Date: Wednesday 19 April
Time: 12:30-1:30pm AEST
Speakers: Associate Professor Danijela Gnjidic and Dr Rakhee Raghunandan
Zoom link: https://uqz.zoom.us/j/86531060260

Read more about this event here.

Residential Aged Care Communique

By Joe Ibrahim

The Residential Aged Care (RAC) Communiqué is an electronic publication containing narrative case reports about lessons learned from Coroners’ investigations into preventable deaths in aged care homes. The RAC Communiqué addresses the entire socio-technical system of health care from policy to the bedside. Each edition focuses on a theme relevant to the clinicians, managers, educators, and care staff, it provides case summaries and commentaries from recognised experts. The RAC Communiqué is published free, distributed electronically every quarter to obtain a copy subscribe at: https://www.thecommuniques.com/subscribe

Read the latest issue here

Perioperative Medicine Communique

The March Issue of the Perioperative Medicine Communique is now available.

AJA Latest Issue and New Editor

By Jane Sims
AJA 
Deputy Editor in Chief

As we begin 2023, welcome to the first wholly online Issue of the Journal. We would like to introduce our new Editor in Chief, Professor Mark Hughes. Professor Hughes has worked as a social worker in health, aged care and mental health settings both in Australia and the UK. He has held positions at the University of Queensland, the University of New South Wales, and Goldsmiths College, London. Currently he is Professor of Social Work in the Faculty of Health at Southern Cross University and is a former Editor of Australian Social Work.

We also welcome working with new personnel at two of our partner organisations. After several decades at the helm of COTA Australia, Ian Yates retired in December 2022, with Pat Sparrow becoming Chief Executive. At the AAG, Renu Borst has taken up the reins from James Beckford Saunders as Chief Executive Officer. We look forward to working with all our new colleagues in the gerontology space.

As an international journal, we have considered ‘ageing in place’ as it plays out in various parts of the Australasia-Oceania region. In this Issue, we present a Special Feature on Ageing in Place in China. Professor Wong from the Macao Polytechnic University introduces four papers on ageing in place models in this particular setting in her editorial ‘Beyond the logic of promoting independent living of older adults’.

The Issue contains articles that provide a comprehensive snapshot of research being conducted in the fields of gerontology and geriatric medicine. There are four reviews, including one on assessing driving safety. A team from UTS in Sydney consider the quality effects of agency staffing in residential aged care. Other articles discuss peripheral intravenous catheters, swallowing assessment, teaching delirium to undergraduate medical students and Australian and New Zealander geriatricians perspectives on Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment.

The complete Table of Contents and all articles can be accessed (subject to membership) here.

Job alerts

Visiting Medical Officer – Geriatric Medicine
Full-time position
Manning Base Hospital, Lower Mid North Coast NSW
Application: Via website
Closing date: 18 April 2023
Position Description
Position Reference number: REQ387727
Contact: Stacey Burbridge, Senior Medical Recruitment Consultant, 02 4985 3297 or stacey.burbridge@health.nsw.gov.au
Listed: 30/03/2023

Senior Staff Specialist or Staff Specialist (Geriatric Medicine)
Full-time position
Metro North – Queensland
Application: Via website
Closing date: 11 April 2023
Position Description
Website
Position Reference number: COH477139
Contact: Dr Craig Margetts (07) 3049 1558
Listed: 30/03/2023

Physician with Stroke Specialty
Permanent, full-time position (1 FTE)
Whangarei, New Zealand
Application: Via website
Closing date: 13 June 2023
Position Description
Website
Position Reference number: TBF011672
Contact: Kimiora Nathan, SMO.Jobs@northlanddhb.org.nz
Listed: 21/03/2023

Telehealth Geriatrician / General Medicine Physician Vacancy
Work from home / Australia Wide
Application: Via website
Closing date: Ongoing
Further information
Contact: Mel Houston, Senior Recruitment Partner mel@prescript.com.au 0414 716 132
Listed: 22/04/2022

Locum Geriatrician
Australia-wide
Application: Please contact GMMedicine@globalmedics.com.au
or 02 8248 2000
Closing date: Ongoing
Further information
Contact: GMMedicine@globalmedics.com.au or +61 8248 2900
Listed: 31/03/2022

Visiting Medical Officer – Geriatric Medicine
Full-time position
Manning Base Hospital, Lower Mid North Coast NSW
Application: Via website
Closing date: 18 April 2023
Position Description
Position Reference number: REQ387727
Contact: Stacey Burbridge, Senior Medical Recruitment Consultant, 02 4985 3297 or stacey.burbridge@health.nsw.gov.au
Listed: 30/03/2023

Senior Staff Specialist or Staff Specialist (Geriatric Medicine)
Full-time position
Metro North – Queensland
Application: Via website
Closing date: 11 April 2023
Position Description
Website
Position Reference number: COH477139
Contact: Dr Craig Margetts (07) 3049 1558
Listed: 30/03/2023

Physician with Stroke Specialty
Permanent, full-time position (1 FTE)
Whangarei, New Zealand
Application: Via website
Closing date: 13 June 2023
Position Description
Website
Position Reference number: TBF011672
Contact: Kimiora Nathan, SMO.Jobs@northlanddhb.org.nz
Listed: 21/03/2023