The Goldfields Ear Health Conference in Kalgoorlie-Boulder attracted some notable speakers, and listeners, including 2003 Australian of the Year and Director of the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, Professor Fiona Stanley. She gave the opening address but also had a little surprise…

"I have a medal that I give every year to a person who in my opinion has contributed most to health and medical research and this year's medal has gone to (local) Annette Stokes who is one of the most outstanding Aboriginal health worker researchers we've had in our program."

Annette's work meant any accolades headed her way should have been far from a shock but, as Fiona describes, "You should have seen her face when I announced the medal, it was terrific, it was a total surprise for her! Previous recipients have been people like the health minister Michael Wooldridge and Michael Chaney, who heads up Wesfarmers, so she's in very good company."

The work that earned Annette that recognition involved involving children in the research from birth in order to "find out how soon they got ear disease, how soon the bacteria colonised the ear, what were the factors that encouraged colonisation (or) protected against getting colonised with bacteria, (and) what kind of clinical pattern the children had," Fiona explains.

The importance of healthy ears at a young age is important, according to Fiona, because it can lead to problems with schooling later in life and even to deafness. "Also, what's important is what are the risk factors for ear infections and can we prevent them?

"Results of our research show that you need to do things like prevent smoking amongst pregnant women and reduce alcohol consumption. We (also) need to know how we can do that in Aboriginal communities and usually that means giving Aboriginal people the power and the capacity to do that themselves," Fiona says.

Of course, the lack of health services in regional Australia is often cited as a factor in such issues. However, Fiona believes that "often you go to remote areas and you actually get the joined up kind of thinking that needs to happen that you don't get in the metropolitan area. The people working in the school have a closer relationship with health care providers and aboriginal health workers in communities than they do in the city and that's really important and you mustn't lose that. In fact, if anything, you should encourage it."

Fundamentally, it's all about "creating healthier people at the beginning of their lives," she concludes.

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/goldfields/stories/s1492270.htm