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The 2023 Preventive Health Conference theme is: Prioritising Prevention - Action Now!

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This year’s theme and sub-themes have been designed to equip you to make meaningful changes that will lead to action in preventive health. We hope to learn from previous success and experiences, but also look forward over the horizon to the next opportunities and challenges for public health. We have crafted an agenda with the aim to explore emerging trends and equip us to deal with these. We aim to inspire action across the continuum, whether it be changes to your daily work, research and communication, through to system change and everything in between. It’s time to challenge ourselves and each other, to bring preventive health to the forefront of the policy agenda and we hope this conference will inspire action.

With these and many other issues to consider, we invite you to the Preventive Health Conference 2023

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About the Hybrid Conference

 

What is a hybrid conference?

A hybrid conference combines a "live" in-person event with a "virtual" online component.

 

Attending

Depending on the restrictions at the time of the conference, delegates will have the option of attending the conference in Adelaide or participating virtually.

 

Face-to-face delegates will have access to all of the content live in the venue as well as the virtual on demand content.

 

Virtual delegates will have access to and be able to participate in the live plenary sessions, and view the content on demand.

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Presentations

Where possible, keynote speakers will present live at the venue and plenary sessions will be broadcast through the virtual platform and enable virtual and face-to-face delegates to ask questions directly to the keynote speakers. Plenary sessions will also be recorded and made available on demand through the virtual portal.

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Abstract presenters that have been accepted for a face-to-face presentation will present live at the venue (restrictions permitting). In addition to presenting live, speakers will also provide a pre-recorded presentation to be made available on demand through the virtual portal. Concurrent session content will be released at the same time as the live version. Abstract presenters that have been accepted for a virtual only presentation will provide a pre-recorded presentation to be made available on demand in the virtual portal.

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The virtual portal will be available to registered delegates for an extended time following the conference dates, to catch up on any presentations you have missed.

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What happens if restrictions increase?

Potential restrictions could mean that the hybrid conference is pivoted to a virtual only conference. This would mean that all delegates will access the content through the virtual portal and the conference would not proceed with the face-to-face component.

 

Delegates will be kept updated throughout the planning process and will be advised on how the conference will proceed depending on the restrictions.

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For more information about how the hybrid conference will run, please click on the FAQ's page.

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Abstract Submission

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We welcome submission of abstracts for presentations relevant to the conference theme and sub-themes.

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Submitted abstracts must clearly show how the presentation will present key learnings and outcomes in association with the conference themes.

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We encourage submitters to think about the story they are telling, and how they will ensure the presentation is dynamic and engaging.  

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We encourage presentations on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ health to be presented or co-presented with an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander person. We encourage abstracts submitted to note if authors identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander.

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Presenters of research focusing on particular Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities should provide an additional paragraph with their abstract outlining whether the relevant community/ies have provided permission to publicise the research findings. An additional 50 word paragraph is permitted in addition to the 300 word maximum.

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All abstracts should be submitted electronically using the online abstract submission portal. 

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It is the submitting author’s responsibility to ensure the correct version of the abstract is uploaded.

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Abstracts submitted should be checked for spelling and grammar as they will be published exactly as received. 

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All presenters must register at the time of confirming their acceptance presentation offer and pay the Conference registration fee.

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Conference Sub-themes

 

The Preventive Health Conference will be guided by the below sub-themes. We invite you to submit abstracts under the following session topics:

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Strengthening the business case for prevention and communications and framing for public health

Calls for action in preventive health, while often underpinned by a solid evidence base can be met with resistance at many levels. Calls require clear and persuasive framing, communication strategies, advocacy, and in many cases economic modelling.  We invite presentations focussing on any or all of these strategies used, case studies and lessons learnt to inform and advance the future preventive health agenda.

 

Addressing power, privilege and politics

Addressing social, economic, ecological, cultural and commercial determinants of health and wellbeing are critical for improving health equity. Understanding how power, privilege and politics intersect with these determinants is critical. How do we address racism? How do we ensure rural and remote voices are heard? How do we advocate against the unhealthy commercial interests of industry? (for example, tobacco, alcohol, gambling, unhealthy food and drink industries) What do we need to know about how we can ameliorate the impacts of power (in its various forms) and privilege (including that relating to socio-economic status, gender, age, sexuality and race)? How can we navigate politics of power and privilege through changing the systems and environments where prevention action is required most?​

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Understanding the complexities and Challenges of Co-Design

Co-design has become a program and policy priority in contemporary prevention discourses. However, it means different things to different people, and to different sectors. While co-design (and its derivatives)  is increasingly important for enhancing consumer engagement and for redistributing power in the planning and implementation of preventive health programs and services, it is full of challenges and complexities that need to be negotiated carefully and sensitively with different stakeholder groups. Co-design processes can also create dilemmas for navigating research ethics submissions (particularly during protocol development and the design phase of intervention research), and when navigating publication processes in academic journals. What are the challenges and complexities you have faced in co-design work that you’ve been involved with? Importantly, what strategies and solutions were enacted?

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Strengthening Indigenous voices through preventive action

The Australian Government has committed to a referendum to enable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to provide advice to the Parliament on policies and projects that impact their lives. We know that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people face some of the most pronounced health and social inequities in the world. Yet, their strength in culture, connectedness and holistic worldview provides important guidance for advancing preventive health in Australia. Indeed, we have seen a substantial growth in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander researchers, policy-makers and practitioners supporting preventive health endeavours in recent years. It is time for their voices to be heard and celebrated. We invite Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander led contributions in this stream.

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Knowledge translation exchange

Knowledge translation from research to practice is critical to our effectiveness. It is often a two, three or four way process involving consumers, policy makers, practitioners and researchers. How can we work better with policy makers, to understand and build research agendas? How can we engage with consumers at both the agenda setting and dissemination phases? How can policy makers be engaged to drive the research agenda and tailor the questions that need answering for rapid adoption in policy and practice. We encourage presentations that address these areas both in terms of examples that have worked well, lessons learnt or ideas for the future.

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Environments and settings for public health

The Ottowa Charter for Health Promotion highlights that ‘Create Supportive Environments for Health’ and it is widely acknowledged that there needs to be a reciprocal maintenance between our communities and our natural environments. Our public heath is at threat by climate change, and is a global responsibility. Our patterns of life, including our work and leisure activities also impact on our health both positively and negatively. We encourage submissions on the settings and environments that can serve to facilitate and undermine good public health. We also encourage submissions that address preventative health measures to protect vulnerable populations from the effects of climate change.

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Learning from our success stories (and also from things that didn’t work)

Preventive health professionals are achieving incredible outcomes for our communities each day. We encourage insights, experiences, success stories on lessons to be learnt (whether they be successes or indeed failures as they are just as important to learn from too) across the spectrum of preventive health, from smaller scale projects in our local communities through to lessons learnt from key fields in public health. We encourage these presentations to include broader implications for the future of preventive health.  

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Action from womb to tomb – addressing prevention across the life course

Research and practice in prevention occurs at all different stages across the life course in order to address critical public health concerns. Breakthroughs in prenatal and early childhood health and development set our future generations up for later life success. Early intervention to reducing the burden of mental ill-health for our children and adolescence is imperative in addressing suicide rates. Understanding effective ways to reduce future risk of cardiovascular disease, cancers and diabetes later in life is becoming increasingly urgent given our ageing population. All these critical public health issues and more, require a prevention lens. We encourage submissions that demonstrate preventative health efforts or research with clear prevention implications, across various stages of the life course.

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Emerging issues and the ‘next’ public health

Planning for action involves looking over the horizon at factors that might influence public health in years to come, making predictions and setting up research agendas. The report by CSIRO ‘Our Future World’ highlights 7 megatrends which will shape the next 20 years including: Diving into digital; Increasingly autonomous; Adapting to climate change; Leaner, cleaner and greener; The escalating health imperative; Geopolitical shifts and Unlocking the human dimension. We encourage presentations aimed at understanding these trends, including the implications that artificial intelligence may have, remote monitoring and diagnostics, and how they might shape public health, and public health workforce going forward.  

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Presentation Types

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Long Oral Presentations

Presenters have a total of 10 minutes to present. Abstract submitted must have clear learning objectives and outcomes. All presenters must provide a pre-recorded presentation. Face-to-face presenters will have an additional 5 minute allowance for audience questions. Please note, places are limited.​

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Rapid Fire (Short Oral)

Presenters have a total of 6 minutes’ presentation time using up to 6 PowerPoint slides (including title slide). All presenters must provide a pre-recorded presentation. Face-to-face presenters will have a short 1 minute allowance for one audience question. Please note, places are limited.

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Conversation Starter Presentations

Presenters have a total of 3 minutes presentation time using a maximum of 4 PowerPoint slides (including title slide). Presenters should give the ultimate elevator pitch. Think about how to best engage the audience to continue the conversation with you out of session. All presenters must provide a pre-recorded presentation. Face-to-face presenters will not have an allowance for audience Q&A.

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Presentation Preference

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We are asking abstract submitters to express interest in your preferred presentation method. Please note, this cannot be guaranteed.

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• Face-to-face presentation and recording of presentation
  By selecting to present at the face-to-face conference in Adelaide, speakers must be willing to present at the venue (restrictions permitting) and provide a pre-recorded video of their presentation.​

 

• Virtual only presentation (recording of presentation)
  By selecting a virtual only presentation, speakers must be willing to provide a pre-recorded video of their presentation.

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Abstract Requirements

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• All intended presentations require the submission of an abstract. All abstracts will be subject to peer review.

• The abstract title should be no longer than 12 words.

• The abstract should be a maximum of 350 words in simple text paragraphs without images or tables.

• The presenters bio should be a maximum of 150 words.

• If there is more than one author, all correspondence will be sent to the person whose name and email address is entered with the abstract.

• A maximum of two (2) abstracts may be submitted per presenting author. All abstracts must be original work and submitted in English. A maximum of 2 presenters per abstract. 

• Abstract presenters must be able to provide a pre-recorded video of their presentation, guidelines will be provided, by the due date to be made available on demand for virtual attendees.

• When abstract presentation offers are sent out, authors need to be accepted the offer to present. If no response is received within the specified timeframe, another abstract can be offered in its place.

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