THEO MURPHY (AUSTRALIA) HIGH FLYERS THINK TANK

Preventative health: Science and technology in the prevention and early detection of disease

University of Sydney (Eastern Avenue Complex), Thursday 6 November 2008

Professor Kurt Lambeck FAA FRS

Kurt Lambeck is a distinguished professor of geophysics at the Australian National University and President of the Australian Academy of Science. His research interests cover the disciplines of geophysics, geodesy, geology, climate and environmental science, and space science. He has been at the Australian National University since 1977, including ten years as director of the Research School of Earth Sciences. He is currently also strategic science advisor to National Geospatial Reference System of Geoscience Australia. Kurt was elected to the Australian Academy of Science in 1984 and to the Royal Society in 1994. He is a foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (1993), Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters (1994), Academia Europaea (1999), and the Académie des Sciences, Institut de France (2005).

Kurt's recent work has focused on aspects of sea level change and the history of the Earth's ice sheets during past glacial cycles, including field and laboratory work and numerical modelling. Past research areas have included determination of the Earth's gravity field from satellite tracking data, examination of tidal deformations and the rotational motion of the Earth, the evolution of the Earth–Moon orbital system, and lithospheric and crustal deformation processes.

I would like to welcome you all to this gathering, particularly those of you who have come a long way from New Zealand and from the west. It is a great pleasure to have you here and I look forward very much to following your contributions to this meeting.

The Academy has a strong commitment to providing developmental opportunities for early- and mid-career researchers. This meeting is one of a number in which the Academy tries to do this by bringing together early- and mid-career researchers from a range of different disciplines and to get them to engage in active discussion about issues of national importance. The topic this year – and I don't need to remind you – is preventative health, particularly the science and technology in the prevention and early detection of disease. This meeting brings together researchers from a whole range of fields. I think they include haematologists, environmental epidemiologists, population health experts, nutritionists, molecular physiologists and so on.

The principle of the think tank is to bring together this diverse group of problem solvers with the aim of reaching new understanding and identifying new approaches that can be brought to bear on the problem under consideration. This is what we ask you to do today: to apply your rich diversity of knowledge and experience to think about novel applications of existing sciences and technology and to identify gaps in knowledge that are required to tackle the problem.

The break-out sessions provide an opportunity for detailed discussions of important scientific directions and developments in the key health areas, as well as explorations of the possible applications in disease prevention. These break-out groups will be chaired by some of Australia's leading researchers, and they will start off the proceedings this morning by sharing their perspectives. To help you focus, the time available for the break-out groups is short, so you are going to have to start thinking ahead now about the issues that you want to bring forward and to which you can contribute. So I encourage you all to check which groups you have been attached to and to start thinking about those issues right now, at the same time, of course, as listening to the speakers.

Many diseases, illnesses and injuries can be prevented by analysis of risk factors, early detection, lifestyle changes and other measures. Preventative health aims to improve the health and wellbeing of Australians through early implementation of measures to tackle the health challenges caused by such things as tobacco, alcohol and obesity – you know that better than I do. Preventative health efforts are usually aimed at addressing the factors that determine health and the causes of illness rather than their consequences, with the aim of protecting or promoting health or preventing disease. It is important to emphasise that while socioeconomic status is a key determinant to susceptibility and prevalence of many diseases, science too has a role to play in this and that is our main focus today.

The government has commenced a range of initiatives intended to improve Australia's health outcomes, including the establishment of the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission, the overhaul of the Rural Workforce Programs and the development of a National Primary Health Care Strategy. Perhaps one of the most prominent – and it is one that was established at about the same time as the Academy decided on this topic for its next think tank – is the National Preventative Health Taskforce to provide evidence based advice to government on preventative health programs and strategies. They are focusing particularly on the burden of chronic disease caused by obesity, tobacco and alcohol – so no drinking tonight, I guess, and no eating too much.

The government's Taskforce is chaired by Professor Rob Moodie, who is an internationally recognised leader in health promotion and preventative health. Unfortunately, he is overseas at present and sends his regrets at not being able to be here. But we are delighted that the deputy chair, Mike Daube, who is professor of public health at Curtin University of Technology and also the former director-general of the Western Australian Department of Health, is here. We are also delighted that Paul Zimmet, professor and director of the International Diabetes Institute, who is also a member of the Taskforce and an expert on obesity and type 2 diabetes prevention, is going to be able to participate. So I thank both of you. Therefore, holding this think tank is fortuitous or good planning – I am not quite sure which – because it provides you with an opportunity to make input into the Taskforce. It is enabling early- and mid-career researchers, which you largely represent, from a range of different backgrounds to contribute to the taskforce activities. I'm hoping that out of this will come fresh and relevant insights.

It is important to note that the outcomes of our think tanks can be quite far reaching at times, as some have finished up on the table of the Prime Minister's Science, Engineering and Innovation Council and have helped subsequently to shape some of their position papers; I think we have that opportunity today as well. So you, as Australia's future leaders and policymakers, have the opportunity to inform the government's Preventative Health Taskforce on a number of issues where good science, public policy and sociology should come together, along with new innovative ideas to improve the health and wellbeing of all Australians. I am sure that you will be able to achieve this and I am going to thank you now in advance for the efforts that you will put into that.

Just finally, I would like to give special thanks to the three people who have led the development of this year's think tank: Professors Bruce Armstrong, John Chalmers and Phil Kuchel. You have helped us very much in bringing together expertise, your expertise and experience, and I am particularly pleased that you are all able to be here today. Also, I just need to thank our new sponsor of the think tank program: the Royal Society of the UK, through the Theo Murphy (Australia) Fund. For us, this is an important development because it now permits us to put the think tanks on our yearly calendar. I certainly hope that these think tanks will become very much a part of the annual science calendar in the country. So thank you very much for coming and I look very much to your contributions and to the outcomes by the end of today and those tomorrow; so thank you.