Innovation the winner in healthy exchange of ideas

Professor Annemarie Hennessy, Dr Maree Collins, Associate Professor Paul Middleton, Professor Les Bokey, Liverpool CEO Kiersten Fishburn, Liverpool Councillor Nathan Hagarty, Dr Emma George and Dr John Crozier.

Liverpool’s diverse population faces significant health challenges but it also presents opportunities for creative approaches to healthcare, the Ideas 2170: Vital Signs forum heard last night.

A panel of health experts including Professor Les Bokey, Dr Maree Collins and Dr John Crozier explored the key issues facing Liverpool before an appreciative audience at the Liverpool CBD campus of Western Sydney University.

While there was general agreement that populations from lower socio-economic and Culturally and Linguistically Diverse groups faced serious health issues, panellists said that same diversity could lead to ground-breaking research.

Professor Les Bokey, Foundation Professor of Surgery and Clinical Dean, Western Sydney University at Liverpool Hospital, said Liverpool provided a fertile environment for innovative healthcare.

“When we see Liverpool and South Western Sydney as being difficult, of course it’s difficult,” Prof Bokey said. “There’s so much to do but importantly the opportunities are there to make a change.”

Prof Bokey said the Liverpool Innovation Precinct was luring researchers and academics from around the country. Centred on Liverpool Hospital, the precinct draws together health, education and research experts to find creative approaches to healthcare.

“Everyone wants to be ‘innovation something or other’ but we’re actually making it work,” he said. “And it’s not just one university like Sydney University or University of NSW. We’ve got five universities knocking at our door saying, ‘Can we be a part of you?’ ”

Early intervention was highlighted as a critical part of delivering better health outcomes.

“The first four months following birth are the most crucial in preventing obesity in children later on,” said Dr Haider Mannan, lecturer in biostatistics at the Centre for Health Research and the School of Medicine, Western Sydney University.

Associate Professor Paul Middleton, Director of the South Western Emergency Research Institute at Liverpool Hospital, said researchers were examining data from the 90,000 patients treated at Liverpool Hospital’s emergency department last year to try to find out why some groups had worse health outcomes.

“We’re taking the 90,000 people, taking the CALD and then comparing them to the rest and saying are there people – for whatever reason, health literacy, ethnicity, poverty – who are more at risk, who are sicker?” Prof Middleton said.

Ultimately, the solutions lay out in the community, panellists said.

“We need to make sure that we are not just doing research about communities but that we are doing our research with communities,” said Dr Emma George, senior lecturer in health and physical education at Western Sydney University.

Dr Maree Collins, program manager at Mission Australia, said: “There are so many people that are still falling through the gaps for us.

“I’d like to think we know our neighbourhoods well but we don’t connect with the most vulnerable cohort enough. It’s boots on the ground stuff which is not sexy and it’s time-consuming.”

Ideas 2170 is a series of talks held by Liverpool City Council and Western Sydney University.