The RACGP Annual Scientific Convention 2006

The Annual Scientific Convention was - as always - packed with workshops, launches, and a variety of plenary sessions. Whilst highlighting some of the major works of the college over the last 12 months, RACGP President Dr Vasantha Preetham identified indigenous ASC 2006 health as the nation's most urgent health priority and revealed that the newly formed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health unit would help further develop the links between the college and the Indigenous community.

The importance of patient safety and the care and wellbeing of GPs were highlighted at the launch of the college's new safety resources, which included the Safety every time checklist, the fourth edition of the RACGP Infection control standards for office-based practices, the Being human, being safer educational tool focusing on the human factors that can influence patient safety, and Reaching a fair deal, the RACGP employment kit designed for employers, employees and general practice registrars seeking a fair employment contract.

The convention took a moment to look at the past of general practice with the launch of the RACGP Virtual Museum, Australia's first online museum of general practice, featuring antique medical equipment and other artefacts donated to the college.

Thank you

I wish to thank the huge contributions made by so many Queensland RACGP members to make the ASC the success it was. Leading us all the way into the future was Dr Peter McKain, supported by his wife Sylvana McKain who contributed in many other ways.

Major contributors to the event were Drs Mary and Patrick Mahoney, Nadine Garraway, Kathy Kirkpatrick, Barbara Jones; Professors Chris Del Mar and Claire Jackson; Associate Professors Michael Yelland, and Beverley Raasch.

Thank you ALL for giving so generously, and thank you to all the other members, too many to name who also participated in many positive ways to this conference. In reality there are too many individuals involved to mention them all, and the great support of many staff from RACGP and YRD was part of the recipe.

Jane Smith
Queensland Faculty Chair

Scientific papers presented at the ASC2006

Every year, the convention presents a variety of workshops to assist GPs in providing the best possible care to their patients. This year, GPs were given a glimpse of recent and future advances in general practice through both the workshop program and the keynote presentations on cutting edge research in evidence based medicine, cervical cancer and human papilloma virus prevention, genetic diseases, advances in teledermatology and skin cancer management.

Rural workforce issues