After three and half years as inaugural Chair of the Queensland Clinical Networks’ Executive (QCNE), Professor Liz Kenny AO will step down in April when Professor Ian Scott will take over the reins.
Prof Scott, who some may know as the past Chair of the Statewide General Medicine Clinical Network and Director of Internal Medicine and Clinical Epidemiology at Princess Alexandra Hospital, acknowledged the enormous efforts and leadership of Prof Kenny.
“Over the past three and half years [as QCNE Chair], Liz has been a passionate and tireless advocate for all of the clinical networks and has ensured that the voice of clinicians and consumers within the networks has been heard throughout the various arms of Queensland Health,” he said.
“Liz has been the consummate diplomat in welcoming advice and contributions from all the network committees and working with the Clinical Senate and many other high-level groups in advancing healthcare in this state through some very challenging times. On behalf of QCNE, I sincerely thank her for her work and wish her all the best in her future endeavours.”
QCNE Deputy Chair Dr Ivan Rapchuk said Liz was adept at incorporating the many elements required of healthcare leaders to ensure appropriate direction, alignment and commitment within teams and organisations.
“She lived and personified the principles and practices of inclusive, transformational and collective change with a high level of accountability,” he said. “Liz’s inclusive style – with the clinicians in the networks and the administration in Queensland Health - was critical to limiting the possible harm done in achieving certain goals for clinicians and patients.”
“She fostered a new form of dialogue within the networks and Queensland Health that passed over the negative impacts of traditional discourse and narratives to change the landscape of healthcare delivery in Queensland. Clinician leaders are critical to the function of Queensland Health, and Liz embodied the type of individual and the work practices that we as clinicians are lucky to have fighting for us to attain better outcomes for clinicians, the system and especially for patients.”
An example of her leadership and collaboration is her support of Prof Sabe Sabesan on the national application for the implementation and evaluation of the Australasian Teletrials Model (ATM).
Thanks to the application, Queensland Health was awarded a $75.2 million competitive grant under the Medical Research Future Fund Enabling Infrastructure for Rural, Regional and Remote Clinical Trials program. This funding will be transformational for the clinical trials sector and will accelerate clinical trial activity across rural, remote, and regional Australia.
Prof Scott, who has been a member of the QCNE since its inception, said he was looking forward to making the most of the new opportunity, particularly under the new Queensland Health executive team and reform agenda. He aims for the clinical networks to help shift the healthcare system towards being more consumer-centred, outcomes-focused, data-driven, value-added, and sustainable.
“The post-COVID-19 recovery era and the new initiatives announced by our incoming Director-General of Health provide the basis for a fresh approach to how care should be designed, delivered and funded,” he said.
“The clinical networks need to, and I am sure will, commit to actively assisting in the reform process, as we have done in the past. Change is never easy, but the response of clinicians, managers and consumers to the COVID-19 pandemic has shown that, when we have to, we can find and adopt new ways of doing things for the better.”
Among many other roles, Prof Scott is the inaugural chair of the Metro South Clinical AI Working Group and the Australian Deprescribing Network. He has research interests in evidence-informed medicine, clinical reasoning, clinical informatics, quality and safety improvement, and quality use of medicines.
For more information on the QCNE or the Statewide Clinical Networks, visit the website.
