Plenary Session Five

Disruptive Medicine: Is our medical system ready for the revolution?

Conventional health treatment pathways are reaching an inflexion point. The fusion of medicine with nanotechnology, biological engineering, IT and artificial intelligence will soon revolutionise mankind’s battle with disease.

Powerful emerging technologies will enable early detection and personalised treatment and monitoring of cancer and other diseases. And personalised therapeutic vaccines (tailored to the immune systems of patients) will make genuine preventative healthcare a routine procedure.

In this new era, traditional ‘test-treat-cure’ models of health care will face unprecedented technological disruption. Medical professionals and policymakers are yet to properly grasp what the ramifications will be for healthcare in Australia and globally.

The implications both for patients and health systems will be the focus of this panel discussion.

Dr Rob Grenfell

Health Director, Health and BioSecurity, CSIRO

Professor Matt Trau

UQ-CSIRO Chair in Personalised Nano,  Professorial Research Fellow, School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, University of Queensland

Dr Floyd Taub

Diplomat, American Board of Pathology

Dr Mike Fay

Cancer researcher and clinical oncologist, with Genesis Care Newcastle

Director and Founder of the Centre for Independent Studies

Professor of Public Policy and Director, Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis in the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University

 

Sociologist, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Sydney.
Author of The New Authoritarianism

Director, Free Market Foundation, (Hungary)

Health Director, Health and BioSecurity, CSIRO

Director and Founder, Academy of Ideas, London, (UK)

Founder and CEO, Cognoscenti Group

Executive Director, The New Zealand Initiative (NZ)

Australian writer and columnist for the News Limited Press

Research Director, CIS

Programme Co-ordinator of the Masters of Urban and Regional Planning, The University of Western Australia

Chinese Canadian human rights advocate

Senior Research Fellow, Culture, Prosperity & Civil Society Program, CIS

CEO and Founding Director, China Matters

Former Liberal member of the Australian House of Representatives and Cabinet Minister

Pro Vice-Chancellor Arts and Academic Culture, and Professor of History, Australian Catholic University

Cancer researcher and clinical oncologist, with Genesis Care Newcastle

Founder and President, Middle East Forum, publisher Middle East Quarterly Journal, (US)

Professor of Economics, University of Melbourne

Senior Research Fellow and Director, Culture, Prosperity & Civil Society Program, CIS

Internationally acclaimed novelist and journalist, (US)

Head of Economic Research, Reserve Bank of Australia

Executive Director, CIS

Professor of Economics at Stanford University; Senior Fellow in Economics at the Hoover Institution and Chair of the Working Group on Economic Policy, (US)

UQ-CSIRO Chair in Personalised Nanodiagnostics, Professorial Research Fellow, School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, University of Queensland

Diplomat, American Board of Pathology

Minister for Population, Cities and Urban Infrastructure

Liberal Party Member for Berowra

Australia’s Ambassador to China from 2007 to 2011, Chairman & CEO of Geoff Raby and Associates Ltd based in Beijing

Director of China and Free Societies program, CIS

Senior Research Scholar, Marron Institute of Urban Management, New York University, (US)