Thursday 15 October 2026

Connect with your peers, and meet likeminded practice professionals, over a hot breakfast buffet, proudly supported by Healthengine.

Hear an update from Dan Stinton, CEO, Healthengine and from Miranda Grace, CEO, AAPM as we introduce our newest State Committee members.

As digital health technologies become increasingly embedded in primary care, health care leaders are faced with a critical question: how can clinics embrace innovation while preserving the human connection that sits at the heart of quality care?

This presentation shares findings from a multi-phase Australian research program exploring the Digitaltech-humanness approach: the degree to which health care services can achieve greater efficiency and person-centredness through the effective use of digital technologies.

Drawing on insights from patients, clinicians, practice managers, and clinic owners, the presentation will explore how digital transformation can influence patient experience, staff wellbeing, and practice performance. Attendees will gain an overview of emerging evidence, learn about the development of new tools designed to support quality improvement in primary care, and consider the opportunities and challenges facing clinics as they navigate an increasingly digital future. The session will challenge participants to rethink the use of digital technologies in their clinic, and to identify practical ways to achieve an optimal balance of “tech and touch” within their own organisation.

Presenter: Professor Janet McColl, University of Queensland

In this panel session, we will discuss referral pathways between specialist, allied health and general practice.

Panelists: Cara Denley, Deb Constance, and Dr Keshav Dhawan

Concurrent A: Maximising practice revenue without compromising Medicare compliance. 

Medicare billing is changing rapidly, and effective revenue cycle management has never been more important to the financial health of general practice.

This practical session will examine the latest MBS item changes, Medicare and Department of Health developments, emerging compliance risks and the areas where practices may be unnessarily losing revenue. We will follow the revenue cycle from consultation to payment, identifying common causes of missed billing, rejected claims and revenue leakage, while looking at what Medicare’s increasingly data-driven approach to compliance means for GPs and Practice Managers. Attendees will leave with practical strategies to improved billing accuracy, strengthen compliance and ensure their practice is capturing every dollar it is legitimately entitle to receive.

Presenter: Loryn Einstein, Medbill

Concurrent B: Me, My Friends (Doctors) and AI – Hype, Help or Headache?

AI scribes, automated phone agents and chatbot-drafted letters have arrived in Australian practices faster than the policies to govern them. Often its practice managers left to work out where to start, while juggling vendors, anxious staff, reluctant doctors, and patients and families with questions of their own.

This candid session skips the product pitch and tackles the harder questions. Is AI making us more efficient, more effective, or just busier? How is it reshaping the way practices run? Should we adopt every new tool as fast as it appears, or is there wisdom in waiting? And where do we actually begin with patient consent, privacy, data security, choosing a vendor, and bringing people along through change? Delivered from three vantage points at once (clinician, practice owner and self-confessed digital health nerd), this is an honest look at what AI really means for a practice.

Presenter: Dr Daryn Cheng, Magentus

Concurrent A: The End of Service Trusts: Federal budget shake-up * Repeated session

The 2026 Federal Budget didn’t just target property investors. It also introduced significant changes that could reshape how many medical practices are structured. Existing service trust structures may no longer deliver the same benefits, making it critical for practice managers to understand what’s changing. As the people responsible for implementing and managing these changes on the frontline, you need to understand how they will affect day-to-day operations and the options available to support your next steps.

In this session, Stuart will explore:

• What the latest legislative changes mean
• How your current practice structure could be affected
• The key risks and opportunities practice managers should be aware of
• The restructuring options available and how to determine what’s right for your practice
• Practical considerations for implementing change and managing the transition within your practice
• The landscape is changing. The practices that understand their options early will be best placed to adapt and move forward with confidence.

Presenter: Stuart Chan, Cutcher&Neale

Concurrent B: Service Agreements Under Scrutiny: Is your practice audit-ready? * Repeated session

Payroll tax scrutiny of health and medical practices is no longer theoretical – audits are happening, and the way practitioner arrangements are structured can have significant financial consequences.

With different rulings, exemptions and approaches across Australia, Practice Managers and Owners need to understand where things currently stand, what Revenue Offices are examining and where seemingly standard Service and Facilities Agreement arrangements can create unexpected risk.

In this practical session, Hillhouse Legal Partners Director Craig Hong will cut through the complexity and share what Hillhouse is seeing at the coalface of current audit activity, including:

• where we currently sit with payroll tax rulings and approaches across Australia;
• what Revenue Offices are focusing on during audits;
• flow of funds and banking arrangements – what works, what doesn’t and practical alternatives;
• the new dangers of unsigned agreements;
• SFA clauses that can increase risk without providing meaningful commercial benefit;
• common payroll tax and Service Agreement misconceptions and mistakes; and
• practical steps you can take now to make your practice audit-ready – including how to actually get your doctors to sign their agreements!

Using practical examples and lessons from current audit activity, Craig will show delegates where practices are getting caught and, importantly, what they can do differently.

Don’t wait for a Revenue Office audit to find the problems in your practitioner arrangements. Know what to look for – and fix what you can now.

Presenter: Craig Hong, Hillhouse Legal Partners

Concurrent Session C: Cyber security compliance obligations have changed!
Understanding the new and expanded AI and cyber security requirements and what that means for your practice.

Practice Managers must understand the new and expanded AI and cyber security compliance obligations for healthcare providers in the new RACGP Standards 6th Edition security for GP clinics, and the key changes in force from October 1 to the security and access rules under the My Health Record Rules 2026 participation obligations for all healthcare organisations.

Miroslav will explain the new and expanded AI and cyber security technical and organisational measures that must now be in place and will provide practical guidelines on how to ensure practice compliance with legal obligations to keep sensitive data secure in a constantly changing cyber threat landscape.

Presenter: Miroslav Doncevic, Digital Medical Systems

From studying the stars as an astrobiologist to surviving a life-altering heart attack, Adam’s path to recycling was anything but linear.

A chance meeting with a sea turtle in the Pacific changed everything, shifting his focus from the cosmos to the crisis of plastic in our oceans. Fast forward 5 years and he now runs a micro-recycling factory in Ballarat that has diverted over 4.7 million plastic lids from landfill. This Catalyst for Change, has reached over 8,600 students, proving that with a bit of grit and a lot of hard work, that waste is only waste if we waste it.

Presenter: Adam Slater, Zero Plastics Australia

Concurrent Session A : Smile at the Storm – Is Your Practice Ready for a Connectivity Crisis?

It’s 10am on a Tuesday. The internet drops out. Systems freeze. Your doctors are frustrated and your front desk is in a panic…

Sound familiar?

In healthcare, connectivity underpins almost everything, from phones and patient communications to practice management software, cloud applications, payments and clinical workflows. When that connectivity fails, the impact can be immediate and costly.

In this session, we’ll explore practical strategies to keep your practice connected, even when the unexpected happens. We’ll look at connectivity, voice, data and redundancy, including a live failover demonstration and stories from the field where resilience has been put to the test.

Because when things go wrong, you should know who to go to.

Presenters: Richard Boothy, Switch Telecom and Jackie Beer, Practice Owner/Manager

Concurrent Session B: Beyond Recruitment. Building a team people want to join and stay in.

Recruitment is only one part of the workforce challenge facing Practice Management professionals. Finding great people matters, but so does creating an environment in which they want to stay, grow and build their careers.

This session takes a practical look at the employee journey — from attracting and selecting the right people through to onboarding, engagement, development, retention and career progression. It will explore what candidates and employees increasingly look for from employers, why good people leave, and the role Practice Managers can play in creating meaningful career pathways even within relatively small teams.

Attendees will leave with practical ideas for strengthening their recruitment approach, improving retention and creating a workplace where people can see a future for themselves.

Presenters: Lisa Pratt, Managing Director, Johnson Recruitment

Concurrent Session A: Mystery Shop your own Practice. See what your patients see before they tell Google.

Every practice manager knows their practice from the inside — the roster, the phones, the recall list, the room that’s always too cold. Very few know their practice from the outside: the version a prospective patient meets when they Google the practice at 9pm, attempt an online booking and ring the front desk — and the version your existing patients live with every time they rebook, receive a reminder or recall SMS, chase a repeat script or referral, pay for an appointment, or get asked for a review. The gap between how practices think they present and what patients actually experience is where new patients quietly leak away, where loyal patients slowly drift, and where a practice’s reputation is formed long before anyone complains at the front desk.

This is a hands-on session, not a lecture. Attendees will mystery-shop their own practice live in the room — phones out, no preparation possible — using a simple patient-journey audit that covers both journeys: the front door (search, website, online booking, phones) and the return visit (reminders, recalls and results comms, repeats and requests, payments, and the review ask). Drawing on years spent working directly inside hundreds of Australian practices of every size, from solo clinics to large multi-site groups, we’ll compare scores across the room, look at where practices most consistently rate themselves lowest, what the highest-performing practices do differently at each step, and which fixes cost nothing but an afternoon. Attendees leave with a completed audit of their own practice, a prioritised fix-list in their own handwriting, and a repeatable exercise to run with their team every quarter.

Presenter: Nina Kowalski, HotDoc

Concurrent Session B: Tech without the Wild West. Managing technology safely in your Practice.

The Tech Wild West has arrived in general practice, with AI, apps and new tools being adopted faster than practices can put guardrails around them. So, what happens when everyone starts experimenting without a shared set of rules?

This practical session explores how to support your team’s tech-thusiasm while keeping patient data and practice systems safe, with real-world case studies and practical strategies for bringing your team along.

We will look how Practice Management professionals can create sensible guardrails around the use of new and emerging tech, including policies and processes, staff responsibilities, permissions and access controls, data fragmentation and storage, and warning signs that deserve a closer look.

Presenter: Brooke Batchelor, Best Practice Software

Concurrent Session C:  Beyond the Scribe. Bringing AI to the Specialist Front Desk

AI scribes have shown how significantly AI can reduce the administrative burden on clinicians, but documentation is only one part of running a busy specialist practice. Drawing on Medow’s experience working with more than 1,000 specialist clinics, Joel Freiberg will share what Medow has learned about the next major opportunity for AI in healthcare operations, including insights from building Medow Front Desk, its newly launched AI-powered front desk product.

Presenter: Joel Freiberg, Medow Health

Culturally diverse patient interactions can involve differences in understanding, communication, family involvement and expectations of service.

Through realistic healthcare scenarios, intercultural business consultant Craig Shim will give practice managers insights for helping patient-facing teams communicate with greater clarity, cultural awareness and sensitivity.

Presenter: Craig Shim, Alphacrane Intercultural Specialists