RHDAustralia partnered with the South Australia (SA) Health Rheuamtic Heart Disease program to run workshops in Pt Augusta on 26-27 September 2019.

Attendees travelled from all over country SA, including Oodnadatta, Ceduna, Pt Lincoln, Pt Augusta, Pt Pirie and Whyalla. The GP session on the 26th was held at the RFDS and attended by a variety of professionals (students, nurses, GPs). Dr Chris Zeitz gave a brilliant overview of acute rheumatic fever (ARF) and rheumatic heart disease (RHD), and Christine Barclay from SA Health discussed the SA program and took us on a patient journey.

The following day, Aboriginal Health Worker and Practitioner’s joined us at Bungala Aboriginal Corporation for a day session on ARF and RHD. Aboriginal Health Worker and Practitioner’s play a vital role in the early detection and management of ARF and RHD, and it was a pleasure to engage in discussions around their experiences. Vicki Wade presented on the patient journey and Leah Van Kasteren from SA Health had some absolutely outstanding ‘visual learning aids’ that were well received! Christine Barclay again delivered a fantastic presentation on specific patient cases in SA, which encouraged a lot of passionate discussion around how health systems can improve to prevent RHD.

We listened as the participants discussed the issues and barriers they face ‘on the ground’, and how we can support them. Dr Zeitz came for a Q and A, and Bec Slade, program manager at RHDAustralia presented on RHDAustralia's role and discussed a bit of the research and what is happening at a national level in RHD and where we go from here.

A huge thank you to everyone involved in pulling this together, it was a pleasure to work with the SA RHD Control Program and meet some members of this passionate community.