The Northern Health Pleural Medicine Unit recently hosted a successful two-day workshop focusing on pleural disease and thoracic ultrasound.

Pleural medicine is now widely recognised as a sub-speciality of respiratory medicine, the body of evidence is both large and compelling. Despite the advances in quantity and quality of pleural research, clinic inertia remains, leading to a delay in the translation of research into everyday clinical practice.

“The Pleural Medicine Unit at Northern Health is leading the way in Victoria and has an international presence that contributes both to research and improved patient outcomes for patients with pleural disease,” said Dr Katharine See, Head of Respiratory Medicine.

“To assist in creating awareness and supporting the translation of pleural research into practice, we developed the ‘Pleural Disease and Thoracic Ultrasound Workshop’. This two-day workshop aimed to increase knowledge and confidence of emerging clinicians, with the use of thoracic ultrasound in assessing and performing pleural procedures for patients with pleural diseases, explained Dr Sanjeevan Muruganandan.

“The course provided participants with an interactive and practical learning environment in which they were guided by a diverse and dynamic teaching team from different specialities including respiratory, emergency medicine, thoracic surgery and interventional radiology,” Sanjeevan said.

The feedback received from participants was overwhelmingly positive.

“We have already seen meaningful change in practice at multiple external centres as a result of the course. Feedback has highlighted the gap in knowledge and translational delay in implementing evidence into care, across other centres. It is evident that Northern Health has the potential to impact care across the state,” Sanjeevan said.

The Pleural Medicine Unit is incredibly passionate about providing high quality person-centred evidence-based care for patients with pleural diseases.

“We believe sharing knowledge, developing skills and confidence of next generation clinicians is key to ensuring the ongoing transformation of care for patients with pleural diseases,” said Kirstin Tirant, Pleural Clinical Nurse Consultant.

With this in mind, the Pleural Medicine Unit aims to provide this unique learning opportunity to healthcare professionals around the country bi-annually.

“The Pleural Medicine Unit at Northern Health is leading the way in the provision of expert, safe, evidenced-based and timely care to patients with pleural diseases. It is an innovative, world class service providing person-centred care that ensures the optimisation of quality of life for all its patients. These workshops will ensure the clinicians of the future have the tools to ensure the continuation and improvement of such care into the future for all patients of the northern community and beyond,” Katharine said.