It has been a busy month across the Institute with many members sharing how they are getting back into face-to-face events, conferences and workshops. I experienced this through the International Congress on Obesity (ICO), which had a large contingent of IHT representatives (I saw over 25 presentations and posters!) along with our international partners. It was wonderful to gather with many IHT colleagues and friends at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, and a great opportunity for collaboration, networking and learning together.
I and many others did end up with COVID so please take care as you venture out into the world again. I also hope you are all staying safe and taking care regarding the recent flooding events taking place across Australia.
It has been an exciting month for media, with plenty of IHT leaders featured in the media this month. Suzanne Robinson, head of Deakin Health Economics, spoke to WIN News Ballarat about speak DHE’s evaluation of the new Ballarat Priority Primary Care Centre. Alison Hutchinson, director of QPS, was featured across the media regarding the QPS evaluation of Dementia Australia’s new BrainTack app. Hannah Pitt and Simone McCarthy’s work addressing gambling harm was also featured on our website and in the Geelong Advertiser.
I’m also enjoying watching Magda’s Big National Health Check on ABC TV, and it’s been fantastic to see so many of our key messages reflected in the program – not to mention a few familiar faces from the GLOBE and Deakin communities!
Since our last newsletter, we have released three more episodes of our podcast, Healing Health. Released during ICO, Putting wealth before health: junk food advertising and the internet delves into Kathryn Backholer and Ruby Brooks’s research on how TikTok turns children into brand ambassadors for junk food companies. In Unmasking healthcare workers’ experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic Linda Sweet and Sara Holton share their research on the wellbeing of healthcare workers’ during the pandemic and how we can better monitor the wellbeing of our healthcare workforce. Decarbonising our healthcare, a prescription for action delves into Rebecca Patrick and Mike Forester’s work in sustainable healthcare. You can listen to the episodes on the IHT website, or wherever you get podcasts.
With so much valuable work taking place within IHT, and many communications activities taking place across the institute, I’d like to remind everyone to review the Promoting your IHT research and expertise resource on the Members’ Portal and the other templates and resources available in the communications section of the portal.
Last week we also said farewell to Elizabeth Manias, who is moving on from Deakin to take up a position at Monash University. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Elizabeth for all her invaluable contributions to IHT as both a researcher and member of the IHT Executive and Research Committees and wish her all the best at Monash.
As we all begin to prepare for the end of the year, our calendars are already filling up with end of year events. I’m looking forward to our last All Members Day for 2022 on 6 December, and the upcoming organisational health literacy workshop on 10 December featuring two of our international guests from Denmark. I encourage everyone to check the events section below for all that’s left to come in 2022.
Welcome to new members:
- Penny Casey, Research Fellow, QPS
- Madison Frith, Administration Officer, DHE