We enjoyed meeting peers at the 2019 Australia & New Zealand Spinal Cord Society (ANZSCoS) Annual Scientific Meeting in Melbourne last month.
The theme of this year’s conference was SCI – Working Together Now and Tomorrow. The SRI was well represented at the conference with an information booth and the presentation of two scientific posters.
It was an important opportunity to connect with SCI researchers, clinicians and community members to promote the value of the Spinal Cord Research Hub (SCoRH), launched in 2018, and its benefits to the SCI research community to improve research outcomes. It was also a wonderful opportunity to introduce researchers to our new Consumer Engagement Program.
Dr Gillean Hilton’s poster, Early intervention vocational rehabilitation and employment outcomes for people following spinal cord injury: establishing an Australian and New Zealand dataset, won best scientific poster. The SRI funded Dr Hilton’s project and we are thrilled for Dr Hilton and her team, and to see the impact her research is having in this field.
We were fortunate to have time with John Chernesky, Consumer Engagement Lead at Rick Hansen Institute in Canada, while he was in Australia for ANZSCoS. As we are embarking on our own Consumer Engagement Program it was most beneficial to have John, as a leader in the field, visit us at the SRI. We also had the chance to connect him with the local SCI community, meeting Peer Leads at the Royal Talbot Rehabilitation Centre and in a successful evening session where the SRI partnered with AQA Victoria, that brought together researchers and people with the lived experience of SCI to hear John share his insights into consumer engagement.
Photos (clockwise from left): The SRI’s Executive Officer, Kristine Hendry, and Project Manager, Emma Peleg. Consumer Engagement Lead at Rick Hansen Institute, John Chernesky with Kristine Hendry at the SRI’s offices. Connecting with SCI researchers and clinicians. Our posters on display at ANZSCoS – An online pathway for consumer participation in spinal cord research (middle bottom) and Spinal Cord Research Hub (SCoRH) – One-year post launch is facilitating international, cross-discipline research connections (bottom left).
