Teamwork to help tackle Indigenous health issues

Indigenous health issues will be the focus of this year’s National HealthFusion Team Challenge (HFTC), which will be hosted by The University of Queensland tomorrow.

Teams from eight universities will work to assess a fictionalised case involving brain injury and present the best health management strategy incorporating both acute and long-term problem solving.

This year students from audiology, dentistry, dietetics, exercise physiology, medicine, nursing, occupational therapy, paramedic, pharmacy, physiotherapy, psychology and speech pathology programs will participate.

Project Director Dr Monica Moran said this year’s patient case challenged students to look beyond the acute needs of a young person and their family to their longer term struggles of living with acquired brain injury.

“Not only does this scenario highlight Indigenous health issues, it also presents a complex case which requires high-level teamwork to ensure the best patient outcomes,” Dr Moran said.

The HFTC team worked in collaboration with representatives from the Brisbane-based Acquired Brain Injury Outreach Service (ABIOS) and a team of experts from the University of Wollongong Indigenous Health Department to develop the case study.

The aim of HFTC is to promote effective teamwork across the health professions, as a means of improving the health care industry.

Now in its third year and the largest of its kind in Australia, the initiative has attracted considerable interest from health faculties and industry representatives internationally.

Deakin University, Flinders University, Griffith University, Queensland University of Technology, Monash University, the University of Melbourne, the University of Sydney and The University of Queensland are participating this year.

There is also interest from universities in Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States, with many sending representatives to observe the event.

Specials guests include UQ Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous Education) Professor Cindy Shannon and international interprofessional education expert Associate Professor Carole Orchard from the University of Western Ontario.

The National HealthFusion Team Challenge is a free public event and will be held at UQ’s Pharmacy Australia Centre for Excellence (PACE) in Woolloongabba.

Media: Jane Furnas (0433 544 969, j.furnas@uq.edu.au)

National HealthFusion Team Challenge event program

Friday, August 26

Student breakfast: 9am
Bootcamp: 10am
Session 1: 11- 12.30
Session 2: 1.30-3.30pm
Finals- 4pm
Awards presented by Professor Shannon: 6pm