MAGNET’s Annual Scientific Meeting a big success!
Thank you to all of our wonderful presenters and attendees for such a successful MAGNET Annual Scientific Meeting last week!
We have a very passionate and dedicated network of people coming together to connect knowledge for better mental health outcomes in Australia!
Our inaugural MAGNET Annual Scientific Meeting took place on the 2nd of November as a hybrid/face-to-face meeting at Deakin Downtown in Melbourne. We had 100 attendees travel from all over Australia to join us face-to-face with another 30 connecting online who were welcomed by Prof. Susan Russell.
The meeting kicked off with our first International Keynote Speaker Prof. Peter Margolis from Cincinnati Hospital, joining us virtually to share his experience on digitally enabled learning health networks of patients, clinicians, and researchers to transform care. Peters’ presentation was followed by national imminent researchers in clinical trial design, bio statistics, health economics, ethics and first nations sovereignty including Prof. Andrew McKinnon, Prof. Cathy Mihalopoulos, Dr. Mary Lou Chatterton, Prof. Andrew Baillie, Prof. Rory Wolfe, Prof. Alison Yung, A/Prof. Richard Mathews, and Dr. Stewart Hay.
We also heard from key members from the MAGNET team. Exciting developments in MAGNET’s governance, strategic plan, signature trials and platform developments, all soon to be launched on MAGNET’s website, were outlined by Dr. Ayla Barutchu, Prof. Susan Rossell, Prof. Chris Davey, Prof. Adrienne O’Neil, Dr. Sanna Barrand, Prof. Michael Berk and Prof. Phil Batterham.
Three panels were held throughout the day covering assessments, health economics, governance, data, lived experience and First Nations engagement and how the MAGNET trials endorsement process will function. A very special thank you to our guest panelists Professor John Myburgh AO, Professor Geoffrey Donnan AO who joined the MAGNET team members including Professor Suresh Sundram, Professor Cathy Mihalopoulos, Professor Denny Meyer, Dr. Stephanie Miles, Dr. Ravi Iyer, Dr. Clinton Schultz, Ms. Leilani Darwin, Ms. Eileen McDonald, and Dr. Sarah Russell.
We were honoured to finish the day with a face-to-face presentation from our second international Keynote Speaker, Prof. Lakshmi Yatham, the Director of the Mental Health Institute at University of British Columbia in Canada. Lakshmi spoke about how translational chasms must be targeted to advance psychopharmacology and patient care before the day was closed by Prof. Michael Berk.
A very special thank you to all our Chairs for honouring us including A/Prof. Vinay Lakra, Prof. Anthony Rodgers, Dr. Clinton Schultz, Ms. Eileen McDonald, and Prof. Michael Berk.
Last but not least, we couldn’t have done it all without the passionate commitment of our secretariat, and communications and marketing officer, Ms. Angela Markus.
On behalf of the MAGNET Operations Group, thank you to all of our wonderful presenters and attendees for such a successful MAGNET Annual Scientific Meeting. We have a very passionate and dedicated network of people coming together to connect knowledge for better mental health outcomes in Australia!
We look forward to seeing you all at MAGNET’s next Annual Scientific Meeting.