Professor Neil Thomson, Director, and Bronwyn Gee, Manager presented a keynote address on ‘a model of knowledge management for Aboriginal health’ at the national Aboriginal Health Information Symposium held in Ottawa, Canada on 11-13 February. The topic was of particular relevance to the National Aboriginal Health Organization (NAHO), as effective knowledge management has been recognised as critically important in addressing its mandate of improving and promoting the health of Canada’s Aboriginal Peoples and communities. The presentation included a demonstration on how the HealthInfoNet attempts to address the needs of the variety of potential users of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Indigenous health knowledge and information. Neil outlined how the HealthInfoNet researches and develops introductory material and detailed overviews of specific health conditions and topics, regularly updated summaries of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health status, and brief answers to frequently asked questions. He stressed that: ‘It is important that knowledge and other information provided to users is both authoritative and current. Dissemination of knowledge and other information via the Internet provides the potential to be totally up-to-date.’ Bronwyn and Neil also conducted a HealthInternet café on the Tuesday and Wednesday of the symposium. This provided delegates with an opportunity of getting some hands-on guidance on specific topics. The café also demonstrated how the Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet could be used as a model for a comprehensive site for Canadian Aboriginal health. The opportunity to participate at this symposium was an enlightening experience, with Bronwyn and Neil attending many thought-provoking and challenging sessions including ‘Don’t be on the other side of the digital divide: an overview of current health information initiatives impacting Aboriginal Peoples’ by Ms Ceal Tournier, First Nations Centre Governing Committee, NAHO. They were able also to consider similarities and differences between the HealthInfoNet and Canadian initiatives, and explore various ways to use health knowledge and information to inform and strengthen the health care system for Indigenous people, and thus contribute to improvements in health and wellbeing.
Acknowledgment to NAHO for their permission to use these photos |
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Month: March 2002
Harkness Fellowship examining Indigenous Australians’ access to kidney transplantation
| Dr Alan Cass, a PhD student at the Menzies School of Health Research and researcher at the Cooperative Research Centre for Aboriginal and Tropical Health, has been awarded a Harkness Fellowship to continue his research in the United States. He will undertake a cross-national study of the barriers facing Indigenous Australians and Native Americans with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) who need a kidney transplant. He is a clinical nephrologist at the Royal Darwin Hospital and a member of the ‘Sharing the True Stories’ team looking at the impact of miscommunication in the delivery of health care to Indigenous patients with ESRD. His PhD explores health inequalities in Australia, with a focus on renal disease. |
Nine Harkness Fellowships are awarded each year to scholars in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom to allow them to spend up to 12 months in the US. The Fellowships are managed by the Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation that supports independent research on health and social issues. The Fund’s goals are to improve access to health care for disadvantaged groups and to improve quality of care. It aims to build a network of policy-oriented health care researchers and to stimulate innovative thinking on health policy and practice in the United States and other industrialised countries.
Native Americans, like Indigenous Australians, have very high rates of renal disease and receive relatively few transplants, the most effective treatment for ESRD. A successful transplant confers a better quality of life, a longer life expectancy and results in lower costs than does the alternative, long-term dialysis.
Similar factors may well influence transplantation for both Native Americans and Indigenous Australians. Social determinants-poverty, lack of education and other disadvantage-play an important part, but cultural issues also profoundly affect how Indigenous people relate to the health care system.
Dr CASs will use US databases pertaining to dialysis and renal transplantation. He will examine how people have interacted with the system and whether they have had access to transplants. He plans to use the data to document any disparities and then to interview service providers, policy makers and, of course, Native Americans themselves, to discover whether or not there are systemic barriers to access.
The predominant aim of his research is to develop strategies that will help improve equity in access to transplantation for Indigenous Australians.
Alan CASs MBBS FRACP Grad. Dip. Clin. Epidemiology
PhD student, Menzies School of Health Research
Nephrologist, Royal Darwin Hospital
