By Manasi Jiwrajka

The beautiful city of Perth on the Western Coast of Australia hosted the Ottawa 2016 and ANZAHPE conference this year. Delegates from the US, Canada, the UK, Netherlands, Indonesia, Hong Kong, China, South Africa, Australia and many other countries attended this conference. I downloaded the mobile app for this conference prior to my flight from Brisbane to Perth, and got a minute by minute update on the conference.

There were several important medical education themes addressed during this conference from simulation in the context of medical education, OSCEs, peer tutoring, medical scientist, rural health program, global health, and empathy. My poster was titled ‘Why Should Students Write a Global Health Case Report?’, and I presented it to an eclectic audience that thanked me for my enthusiasm! Several educators approached me after the presentation for more information regarding their students writing case reports for the BMJ, and I reminded them of the elective competition that is due on April 30^th.

Some of my favourite parts of the conference included (i) a talk on cultural competency, and including patients culture to provide individualised healthcare, (ii) the concept of ‘phenomics’, suggesting that a patient’s environment can affect their health prognosis, (iii) all the focus on feedback for students, (iv) how empathy levels can be altered following a reflection exercise, and is dependent on coping styles, (v) and acquiring loads of free pens!

I am looking forward to the next ANZAHPE conference in Adelaide next year.