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Great to spend the day with my old CF pal Petrina Fraccaro at the Patent Voice Initiative (PVI) event yesterday. Patient focus research was the focus of the day and the speakers clearly showed the value of listening to patients.

Caught up with Jonathan Smithers at Arthritis Australia’s Parliamentary Friends event. The report launched looks at the future burden of the disease & predictions to 2040. Fascinating reading but the numbers are concerning. Thanks Arthritis Australia for this great resource.

Australian Patient Advocacy Alliance (APAA) EO Deidre Mackechnie and I met with a dozen pharmaceutical companies who support our work. The Roundtable allowed for lively discussion and debate plus the sharing of concerns and ideas. Thanks for your support.

APAA Summit today … Jamie Nicholson, corporate affairs manager at Roche spoke about successful partnerships with patient organisations. His final slide sums it up beautifully.

APAA Summit today What a panel!!! Jo Watson - Dept Chair PBAC Ann Single - Patient Voice Initiative, patient rep Shelly Parker & moderator Peta Lange from Ogilvy Healthcare looked at true partnerships in the HTA space. Take away is … good policy and collaboration is fundamental.

APAA Summit today 80 people gathered at the National Press Club for Day 1 of APAA’s Summit to look at patient centred policy in the health space. Day Two promises to be valuable as well. The Summits aim is to place the patient at the core of health policy.

APAA Summit Day 2 Minister Butler addressed the APAA Summit today & shared his and the Government’s passion for and commitment to Medicare & Bulk Billing and a prevention strategy for obesity.

Shadow Health Min. Ruston joined the APAA Summit & her candour was welcome she said ‘When patients are in the room when a policy is created the policy is better … It makes plain good economic sense’. APAA is striving for this … patients at the centre of health policy & debate

The APAA Summit is over and we ended up with a plethora of ideas & expectations. Involve patients policy design & you get outstanding policy. Today’s take away from our final panel - clinical & policy courage … so let’s judge ourselves by our willingness to be courageous.

Great panel discussion at the MedNews event. John Morton, Ethical Strategies stated pharma comms focus on medicines & numbers not ‘purpose’. Adam Connolly, Apollo Communications believes there is a distrust of stated there’s a ‘resentful dependancy’ by community. More to come.

At the MedNews event Roger Christie, founder of Propel looked at risk, opportunity and digital reputation. Take away ... ‘Proximity, Warmth and Scale’ can build trust, intimacy and affinity with stakeholders. He added that it is important to be yourself online. All great advice.

In the second last session at MedNews Conference, Matt Zeller, Country President of Novartis ANZ hit the nail on the head. ‘Access to patients is what really matters’. I think we agree with that. Thanks Matt for putting patients first and thanks MedNews for a great conference.

Valuable discussions at SHAPING THE FUTURE OF ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY & HEALTHCARE ACCESS conference. 5-7% of AUS emissions come from pharma. Time for change & Tony Keogh (GSK) said ‘there is no plan B’. Ged Kearney share a little re ‘Health in All’, can’t wait to hear more

Here is an interesting fact … if healthcare was a country it would be the 5th largest emitter worldwide … another great insight from todays conference.

Today CANFORUM was opened by Richard Vines. The Forum is focusing on ‘The Moonshot’ … a better world for rare cancers … we know what is needed but how do we get there?

Professor Georgina Long is a rock star & her presentation at CANFORUM was outstanding. She is passionate & positive about what is possible in cancer diagnosis & care. She is truly an ‘Australian of the Year’.

Ged Kearney, Assist. Health Minister opened the Parliamentary Summit on better care for arthritis & musculoskeletal conditions. She confirmed the government’s commitment to support the millions of Australians who live with a musculoskeletal condition.

Day One at the Sydney Test. Looking forward to a relaxing day of wickets and runs.

Attending MedNew’s ‘Pharma Reputation’ conference today. Fascinating research impacted by ‘cost of living’ & other personal issues. The panel discussion shared insights about the election & dealing with a minority government … great speakers sharing their thoughts & predictions.