ANZSRS 30th Annual Scientific Meeting Brisbane

Heather and I have just returned from the Annual Scientific Meeting, which was held in hot humid Brisbane last weekend. What a challenge it was for both of us logistically just getting to and fro Brisbane from country Victoria. Heather chose to drive from Hamilton to Avalon then fly to Brisbane and return the same way. I decided to use public transport and took the coach from Hamilton to Ballarat, the shuttle bus to Tullamarine and finally plane to Brisbane. Unfortunately my return journey was a little more complex in that I flew from Brisbane to Melbourne, Skybus from Tullamarine to Southern Cross Station, train to Warrnambool and then finally a coach to Hamilton and 12 hours later as if by magic I was home!
Heather stayed in Mount Warren Park about half way between Brisbane and the Gold Coast…. so she had a pleasant 40 minute express train trip to and from the Convention centre every day whereas I stayed in an exotically sounding “Resort”. I have stayed in some quirky places in my travels but I must say I have never stayed in a room, which had a kitchen sink beside the bed ....not that I am saying that’s a bad thing. It was within walking distance of the venue and the staff were very friendly. This is view I had from my window.

We were both very fortunate to be given this opportunity so took full advantage of all that was on offer and Day 1 found us fresh and enthusiastic.

The amount of research that is being undertaken in Labs is overwhelming and we were impressed by quality presentations representing this. The sheer volume of oral presentations 29 in total and 19 poster presentations was a lot to process s in a couple of days.


By Day 2 we had visited all the trade exhibits and had been generously supplied with enough pens and note pads to open a stationery store and I almost had to pay excess luggage with the brochures and various information I bought back for our Respiratory Nurses. The Trade Exhibition was a great place for collegiate binding and to view the many toys displayed. We were beginning to tire by this stage but sparked up after a few refreshing beverages. A highlight at the trade exhibition was meeting David Sinks, Director Technical Marketing CareFusion from California. He has given us 3 fabulous ideas to enhance our current reporting method and will email us the details upon his return to the States.
It was a treat to hear Sandi Anderson from NSW speak as she actually discovered Mannitol for bronchial provocation and to be present for her retirement presentation.
Even though we were in awe of the research and work performed by the big labs many were equally in awe of the volume and scope of tests we perform and especially the remote work we undertake with the planning, travel and machine set-up that that entails.
It was exciting to hear the Oral presentation of a study presented by the Austin, which we contributed to last year looking at the “Inter-rater reliability in the interpretation of lung function tests”. We were also involved in contributing data for the poster presented by Royal Adelaide Hospital titled “Six minute walk test: Compliance with ATS Guidelines”.
It was interesting listening to work being done in the field of exhaled breath biomarkers and the diseases that are being diagnosed by non-invasive breath testing.
The presentation “Evaluating a child with perceived exercise limitation” by A/Professor Selvadurai from NSW was very entertaining but interesting to note that this group may constitute a phenotype.

Thanks again to RRM for this opportunity and once we recover we will look forward to the ASM in Perth next year.

Vanessa & Heather