Monday 13 May 2019
Industry lunch session supported by
Time: 1225-1325
Location: Bluewater 1&2, Level 1, Pullman Cairns International (17 Abbott Street, Cairns)
Session title: Sharing the Ascent: setting up a private clinic for TRS
Session speaker: Kaye Soward
Session synopsis: With the current overburdening of the available public mental health services for patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia, transitioning these patients into the private setting can improve outcomes. Using the private clozapine model developed by Ascent Psychiatry, Southport, Queensland, as the example, this lunchtime symposium will provide an overview of important considerations for setting up a similar clinic, and present case studies that demonstrate how the private clinic setting may better enable patients to integrate back into the community.
Kaye Soward is the Practice Manager at Ascent Psychiatry, QLD, Kaye leads their team of dedicated staff and is responsible for the day to day operational management of the practice on behalf of the Partners. Kaye has extensive experience of working in the healthcare sector for over 15 years, both in commercial sales and marketing roles as well as holding the position of Clozapine Co-Ordinator.
Tuesday 14 May 2019
Industry breakfast session supported by
Time: 0715-0815
Location: Meeting Rooms 3&4, Mezzanine Level, Cairns Convention Centre
Talk 1 : Clinical evidence update in MDD treatment
Talk 2: Screening and Intervening for Metabolic Syndrome in Australian Psychiatry Practice
Session speakers: Professor Malcolm Hopwood and Professor David Castle
Speaker biographies: Professor Malcolm Hopwood is the Ramsay Health Care Professor of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne; based at the Albert Road Clinic in Melbourne Australia His research areas of interest include psychopharmacology and clinical aspects of mood and anxiety disorders. He has held several senior positions within the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists including past Chair of the Victorian Branch and past Chairmanship of the Board of Research and in he was President of the College from 2015 to 2017. He is also currently President Elect of The Asian Federation of Psychiatric Associations (AFPA).
David is Professor of Psychiatry at St Vincent’s Health and The University of Melbourne. He has wide clinical and research interests, encompassing schizophrenia and related disorders, bipolar disorder, cannabis abuse, OCD spectrum disorders and disorders of body image. He has published over 700 papers and chapters; and 23 books. His broader interests include music, literature, theatre and art.
Wednesday 15 May 2019
Industry breakfast session supported by
Location: Meeting Rooms 3&4, Mezzanine Level, Cairns Convention Centre
Session title: Precision dosing in psychiatry – incorporating genetic and non-genetic factors
Session speakers: Thomas M Polasek and Graeme Suthers
Session synopsis: Novel technologies labelled as precision medicine are targeting all aspects of clinical care. The promise is better healthcare for all via better treatment of the individual. Precision dosing is defined as dose selection by a prescriber for an individual patient at a given time. The non-genetic factors that influence precision dosing are familiar to most prescribers – age, body weight, liver and kidney functions, and interacting drugs. The relative importance of these is determined from studies that investigate the relationships between patient characteristics and the outcomes of drug therapy, including biomarkers of drug effects and clinical outcomes. Pharmacogenomics (PGx) is also helpful for the precision dosing of some drugs. However, PGx requires additional tests and is unfamiliar to most prescribers. Psychiatry is a prime target for precision dosing that includes PGx because the benefit:risk of drug therapy is often sub-optimal and because many psychotropic drugs are sensitive to gene variants that cause extremes of drug exposure (too high exposure leading to adverse effects or too low exposure leading to lack of efficacy) or drug response (e.g., immune-mediated severe toxicities). Pharmacogenomics has been an academic ‘nicety’ for many years with considerable hype, and translating the scientific literature into clinical practice has been slow. This is changing with increasing evidence that PGx-guided prescribing can improve patient care. Importantly, international guidelines for the clinical implementation of PGx are now available. This presentation will summarize the latest evidence for PGx in psychiatry. Novel technologies that incorporate genetic and non-genetic factors for precision dosing will be described, with a focus on separating academic hype from clinical reality.