The History of the Amyloidosis Workshops

The first education workshops in Australia took place in 2005 in Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. This meeting was sponsored by the Leukaemia Foundation Australia and arranged by the LFA staff and Mrs Pat Neely, LFA’s “amyloidosis consultant” in close cooperation with four haematologists, Dr Peter Mollee in Brisbane, Dr. Joy Ho in Sydney, Dr Noemi Howarth in Adelaide and Dr Merrole Cole-Sinclair in Melbourne. The overseas guest speaker, the Director of the UK National Amyloidosis Centre, Professor Philip Hawkins, conducted education meetings for patients and families and separate medical meetings based on case studies for doctors and health professionals in each city.

The second workshop, run by the newly formed Australian Amyloidosis Network, took place twelve years later in 2017 with Professor Philip Hawkins returning to Australia as guest speaker and joined by the American Cardiologist Professor Rodney Falk.

The Australian Amyloidosis Network now arranges similar meetings with overseas speakers every 2 years.

The goal of these workshops is to raise awareness about the different types of amyloidosis and provide education and treatment updates for doctors and health professionals and support and education for patients and families.

Table #1: A timeline of the Amyloidosis Workshops

Workshop International Expert
(role at the time of participation)
Locations
Amyloidosis Workshop 2005 Professor Philip Hawkins (Director, UK National Amyloidosis Centre) Adelaide
Brisbane
Melbourne
Sydney
Amyloidosis Workshop 2017 Professor Philip Hawkins (Director UK National Amyloidosis Centre)

Professor Rodney Falk (Director Cardiac Amyloidosis Programme, Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Boston & Harvard Medical School)

Brisbane
Melbourne
Sydney
Amyloidosis Workshop 2019 Professor Angela Dispenzieri (The Mayo Clinic, Rochester)

Professor Julian Gilmore (Director, UK National Amyloidosis Centre)

Adelaide
Brisbane
Melbourne
Perth
Sydney