Media advisory

2 September 2005

National Screening Unit - Screening Symposium 2005

On 3 and 4 October the National Screening Unit (NSU) of the Ministry of Health will host New Zealand’s first ever ‘Screening Symposium’. The Symposium, to be held at Te Papa, is titled “Screening to improve health: challenges and opportunities”. The Symposium brings together a range of national and international experts to present on a wide range of issues in screening.

This will be of considerable interest to health and general media, with access to speakers across almost every aspect of screening. Contact details, the website and information on registration (which is complimentary for media) are all below.

Symposium Overview

The two day symposium aims to enhance understanding around screening and discuss how screening can improve health.

The Symposium also aims to encourage discussion about screening - both the challenges and opportunities - and update participants about screening for specific conditions.

The Symposium will bring together a range of people involved in screening, including health care practitioners, providers, consumers, screening experts and policy makers.

Plenary Speakers

Professor Alistair Woodward, Chair of the National Screening Advisory Committee and Head of the School of Population Health at the University of Auckland, will traverse some of the issues in the current screening environment in his keynote address “Screening in New Zealand: History, Challenges and Opportunities”.

Professor Nicholas Wald, a Director of the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine in London will present on screening for Down’s Syndrome in the United Kingdom. Professor Wald’s research has contributed directly to major advances in epidemiology and preventive medicine including screening pregnant women for Down’s syndrome.

Associate Professor Alexandra Barratt, a Senior Lecturer in Epidemiology at the University of Sydney, will share some of the lessons from Australia in her address: “Screening in Australia: cancer screening – pros, cons and making an informed choice.”

Professor Norman Sharpe, Medical Director of the National Heart Foundation, will present on "Cardiovascular risk assessment and management - the keystone challenge in the heart health continuum".

Professor Richard Taylor, School of Population Health, University of Queensland will present on ‘Mortality effects of mammography and cervical screening in populations.'

Concurrent Sessions

In addition to the plenary sessions, there will be concurrent sessions (with more than 50 presenters) covering:

breast cancer screening – current issues future cervical screening issues quality of screening programmes screening in twenty years/horizon scanning screening in the PHO environment cancer screening antenatal and newborn screening the role of consumers in screening informed consent and screening stages of screening policy development reducing inequalities in screening programmes genetic screening economics and screening; and societal costs of screening.

The Symposium will be opened by the Director-General of Health, Dr Karen O Poutasi.

The final programme, including details of the more than 50 concurrent session speakers, will be available on Monday 12 Sept.

Media Registration

Representatives from all media are invited to attend, with complimentary registration for all media personnel. Media representatives must register for the Symposium via the standard registration process which can be accessed on the Symposium website.

Indicate that you are representing the media, including the name of your organisation and you will be issued with a Media Pass for the full two days of the Symposium. This will enable you to take advantage of some of the specific arrangements being made for the media.

Media Arrangements

All plenary speakers will be made available to the media for interview immediately following their presentations at the Symposium

Prior contact with plenary speakers will also be facilitated wherever possible

Facilitation of contact with the more than 50 speakers over the two days

Access to speech notes and presentation material wherever possible

Contact Details for the Media

Graham Bethune
Communications Manager
National Screening Unit
Ministry of Health
DDI: 09 580 9035
Mobile: 027 471 4255

mailto: Graham_Bethune@moh.govt.nz


Further Information for Media Use

The two day symposium aims to enhance understanding around screening and discuss how screening can improve health. The symposium also aims to encourage discussion about screening - both the challenges and opportunities - and update participants about screening for specific conditions.

NSU Group Manager, Karen Mitchell, says the title of the conference reflects a desire to provide a forum for those with an interest in screening to discuss both the current environment and the many challenges that lie ahead.

“The screening environment in New Zealand is vastly different now to what it was even two or three years ago. There have been major changes to legislation affecting the National Cervical Screening Programme and the decision to extend the age range for BreastScreen Aoteaora in July last year effectively doubled the size of the programme overnight. What many people don’t realise is that the NSU is now responsible for New Zealand’s three national screening programmes, having assumed responsibility for Newborn Metabolic Screening in July. We are also responsible for the rollout of antenatal HIV screening over the next three years.”

However, Ms Mitchell says it is the health sector and public’s increased expectations for further screening programmes – and the need to improve understanding of what a screening programme involves - that provide some of the NSU’s greatest challenges.

“We are at various stages of preliminary work on screening for colorectal cancer screening, Chlamydia screening and universal newborn hearing screening. And of course the debate regarding screening for prostate cancer continues. It’s vital that robust analysis be given to any proposed new programmes to ensure we learn from the lessons of the past and also to carefully consider whether the evidence justifies the introduction of a population-based screening programme.”

The programme for the Symposium brings together a mix of national and international speakers with expertise in the many aspects of screening that will help to ensure healthy debate around some of these complex issues.

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Related information

National Screening Unit