Dear ASBHM members,
I am excited to welcome you all to the 2019 scientific annual meeting for the Australasian Society of Behavioural Health and Medicine. The theme of this year’s conference is ‘Behavioural Medicine – making an impact’ and we hope to stimulate discussion throughout the conference regarding the growing interest in demonstrating the impact of our research.
I would like to thank the scientific organising committee and the local organising committee for their outstanding job creating an exciting meeting that incorporates the breadth of research interests of ASBHM members and delegates. A special thank you goes to Roeline Kuijer, chair of the local organising committee, for her ‘on the ground’ organisation of the conference. We have organised a full and interesting program for you, including two half-day workshops, 47 oral presentations, 1 symposium (focusing on behaviour change interventions) and a new ‘roundtable’ session (focusing on implementation science). We are also very fortunate to have three world leading key note speakers presenting at the conference: Professor Jeffrey Braithwaite, Professor Beth Grundy and Professor Christine Stephens and I hope you enjoy hearing about their vast, interesting research programs and thoughts on the future of behavioural health and medicine.
ASBHM is proud to continue supporting our post doc students and early career researchers. We have introduced a new program called ‘Peers Connect’ (formerly PROMISE) which aims to promote research, mentoring and education opportunities and I hope all students and ECR’s get involved in the specific Peers Connect events planned during the conference.
I wish you a wonderful meeting and hope that you learn something new, enjoy catching up with old friends (and make some new ones!). Christchurch is a beautiful, welcoming city and I hope you find time to explore all that it has to offer.
Best Wishes
Dr Helen Brown
(ASBHM President)