Over 3.5 million Australians have now had COVID-19. Amid the varying degrees of disease severity and recovery observed, early data suggests up to one third of people recovered post-ICU admission will encounter some form of enduring symptoms. From fibrosis and secondary infections to microvascular and psychological complications, emerging knowledge around post-COVID sequalae has informed new approaches to care for this growing population. Hear from our expert panel on the frontline of both practice and research on the very latest in long COVID and post-acute care, including:
- Clinical practice guidelines for post-acute COVID-19
- Focus on guidelines for breathlessness and pulmonary investigations
- Updates from the Australian COVID-19 Taskforce
- Support for the primary care community in managing long-COVID
Speakers:
Prof Peter Wark
Senior Staff Specialist in Respiratory and Sleep Medicine, John Hunter Hospital, Newcastle Conjoint Professor
University of Newcastle
Prof Peter Wark is a senior member specialist of the Priority Research Centre Healthy Lungs and a member of the Vaccines Immunology Viruses and Asthma research group at the Hunter Medical Research Institute. He has been a member of the TSANZ executive board since and Chariman of the Clinical Care and Resources Subcommittee since 2011.
His research interests are in the area of infection and the impact this has on inflammatory airways disease, with a particular interest in viral respiratory infections. His group has developed expertise in identifying respiratory viruses in airway secretions and developing an in-vitro cell culture model of the airway epithelium that we use to model the effect of infection and inflammation. He is the centre director for the John Hunter Adult Cystic Fibrosis clinic that manages 75 adult patients with CF in the context of a multidisciplinary team. He is area director for the oxygen and related products scheme and lead physician for the advanced respiratory failure clinic. He is chairperson for the Hunter New England Local Hospital network respiratory stream, responsible for the provision of respiratory services throughout the Hunter New England area, with a catchment population of 840,000.
A/Prof Megan Rees
Interim Head of Unit, Department of Respiratory and Sleep Disorders Medicine – The Royal Melbourne Hospital
Honorary Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Medicine – RMH The University of Melbourne
Megan Rees is a Respiratory and Sleep Physician with an interest in pulmonary infections. She completed her medical degree at the University of Melbourne. After internship she moved to London, England to undertake general physician training at the Royal Free Hospital where she obtained her MRCP. Whilst in the UK she pursued her interest in infectious diseases completing a DTM&H from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She returned to Australia in 2003 to compete her FRACP qualifications specialising in Respiratory Medicine and Sleep Disorders with training at the Royal Melbourne, Alfred and Western Hospitals.
Megan Rees is the RMH lead for the Australian Bronchiectasis Registry. Megan is the co-chair of the Respiratory Infectious Diseases Special Interest Group of the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand. She is a member of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians COVID-19 Expert Advisory Group. Megan is a member of the Disease-Modifying Treatment and Chemo-prophylaxis Panel of the National COVID – 19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce.
Dr Andrew Knight – Facilitator
Staff Specialist, South Western Sydney Primary and Integrated Care Unit Conjoint Senior Lecturer – University of NSW
Chair – NPSMedicineWise
Dr Andrew Knight has been a general practitioner for 35 years. He is a staff specialist at the South Western Sydney Primary and Integrated Care Unit, a conjoint senior lecturer at the University of NSW and is currently the chair of NPSMedicineWise. Andrew was a Director of Training in the Australian General Practice Training Program and has been involved in GP Divisions and Medicare Locals. He was the chair of the Nepean Blue Mountains Primary Health Network until 2019. He has particular interests in GP quality improvement through his role with the Australian Primary Care Collaboratives program.
