19 July 2000

Online medical consulting, videoconferencing-based telehealth and electronic health care records will be discussed at the inaugural Asia Pacific Online Health Network Conference to be held in Brisbane, August 7-11, 2000.

The University of Queensland Centre for Online Health and Mater Misericordiae Hospitals Education Centre are hosting 20 International Speakers in a program showcasing the latest developments in the rapidly growing online health industry.

Director of the UQ Centre for Online Health, Professor Peter Yellowlees, says, "There will be radical changes in the way general healthcare is delivered as a result of forces primarily outside of the health system."

"Health practitioners will face many challenges and it is likely that their roles will change radically as a significant proportion of treatment and interventions will be able to be provided online."

Elements of the program include:
- Future Online Health Development in the Internet
- Healthcare Delivery Using Online and Interactive Health Technologies
- Electronic Health Care Records
- Managing and Realising Organisational Returns in Online Health Systems
- Knowledge and Change Measurement for Online Health
- Executive Workshops for Online Health Technologies

Professor Yellowlees will be joined by world leaders in online health development including Tan Sri Dato Dr Abu Baker Suleiman, Director-General of Health, Malaysia, Associate Professor Gary Doolittle, Director, University of Kansas Medical Centre, Dr Hidekazu Arai, Director of Cardiology, Fukuoka Tokushukai Medical Centre, Japan, Professor Yun Sik Kwak, Kyungpook University Hospital, Korea, Dr Michael Walsh, Chair, Australia New Zealand Telehealth Committee, and Dr Robert Stable, Director-General, Queensland Health.

A full program and abstracts for the keynote addresses are available on the conference website which can be accessed through:

http://www.coh.uq.edu.au

For more information, contact Kay Drabsch (mobile phone 0417 611 885).