Wild Health Canberra 2026


The Great Prevention Pivot

We talk incessantly about it, but politics, system momentum, tribal thinking and vested interests keep combining to stymie any meaningful progress towards transitioning our system to prevention. Times up. What are the key blockers in play and how can we start going around them to actually start ‘The Great Prevention Pivot’?

Tuesday June 16th – Wednesday June 17th 2026, Park Hyatt Canberra

A half-day workshop and one-day summit, followed by the HSD gala dinner.

Brought to you by Health Services Daily, Wild Health and the AIDH

  • Healthcare in the harshest light of our rapidly approaching demographic train crash
    • The unfolding reality of aged care, mental health, the NDIS, chronic care, hospitals and the capacity of community healthcare services
    • Workforce crash
  • Identifying the critical inflection points in the intersection of technology, policy and funding
  • Deconstructing key system dynamics to understand points of potential intervention
  • Our hospital problem
  • The new elephant that just broke down the door 
    • Are AI plays like ChatGPT Health going to shift information access and power towards patients away from where its always been – govt and providers, and if so, what does that mean for prevention 
    • If this trend takes hold, should government and providers move to work with AI more than govern and control it? 
    • If you map out what we are already seeing, what does it mean for prevention? 
  • Practical ideas to meaningfully move the dial on prevention:
    • Federal vs State system management opportunity
    • New models of care that are scaling and having impact
    • Learning from PHI innovation
    • Private vs public system integration
    • Optimising the evolving sharing by default infrastructure
    • Inverting the hospital centric model with connectivity
    • Workforce and AI
  • Case studies of success

Tuesday 16 June


Registration

11:30am – 12:00pm


Setting the scene panel: the role of data and ai to support secondary prevention

12:00am – 12:40pm

Enjoy a buffet lunch while learning from this expert panel setting the scene for discussions to come.

Speakers and moderator TBC.

DECONSTRUCTING PREVENTION WORKSHOP

A professionally moderated healthcare leadership workshop looking at what keeps blocking meaningful movement to a prevention system paradigm, and, what strategies might help in moving us all forward

12:00pm – 4:30pm

  • Why we aren’t investing properly in prevention?
  • Context: The first and last 1000 day paradigm
  • A draft plan in the form of a sector whitepaper
  • Prevention deconstructed:
    • Understanding and managing the politics of federationNew care models in a line from treatment to preventionPatient data sharing, ownership and prevention
    • Scaffolding – ‘sharing by default’ et al
    • If new AI platforms shift the power to consumers
    • Why private providers are leading prevention innovation
    • Managing medical tribalism
    • Learning from overseas models like Mayo
  • Reframing the prevention paradigm for a sellable political ROI

Moderating Group TBA


Welcome Sponsors Space Drinks

5:00pm – 7:00pm


TUESDAY 16 June

6:00pm

WELCOME DINNER and THE GREAT DEBATE


The Great Debate

6:00pm – 8:00pm

Join us for a cocktail reception and delicious meal, and watch our take on The Great Debate.

The topic is:

The Great Debate: The DOHDA and the ADHA should stop what they’re doing and start work immediately on an API that would allow any patient in Australia to extract whatever data they wanted directly into Claude or ChatGPT Health 

Moderated by your MC, Tom Cashman

Debaters to be announced.


Wednesday 17 June

FULL-DAY LEADERS CONFERENCE


Registration

8:20am – 9:00am


Welcome

9:00am – 9:10am


Train Crash

Our healthcare demographic time bomb in all its ugly glory.

Simon Kuestenmacher, Co-founder, The Demographics Group

9:10am – 9:40am


Time Bomb

Simon Kuestenmacher vs TBC Senior Health Policy Officer, Commonwealth

Moderated by Jeremy Knibbs, HSD Publisher

9:40am – 10:10am

What are the inflection points of opportunity in our changing demographic for our healthcare leaders and policy makers? How much time do we have? What can’t we avoid and therefore need to plan better for?


Model of Care Case Study 1: Virtual Care

10:10am – 10:20am


Panel: The relevance of the first and last 1000 days

Moderated by Hediyah Vandat, CEO and Co-Founder of Linéaire Projects.

Speakers TBC.

10:20am – 10:40am

  • The nuts and bolts of money and real prevention
  • A vision for context
  • Now the reality check

Morning Tea

10:40am – 11:10am


Interview: TBC, Mayo Clinic

11:10am – 11:50am

The road to prevention according to Mayo. US challenges vs Australia. What can Australia learn and apply from a highly stressed system?

Interviewed by Jeremy Knibbs, HSD publisher


Model of Care Case Study 2: Vertical Integration in the Private and NFP Sector

11:50am – 12:00pm


Panel: PHIs are pivoting and innovating, why not the public sector?

12:00pm – 12:40pm

  • Why private health insurance is pivoting so big to prevention
  • PHI is going around the public funding model. What does that mean for the system?
  • The pros and cons of a set of big new vertically integrated players in our healthcare system
  • How far can they go without funding?
  • Can the public sector take advantage of these first movers?

Speakers:

  • Dr Rachel David, CEO, Private Healthcare Australia
  • Dr Karen Price, Director, HCF Australia
  • Marc Miller, Managing Director, Health Systems Advisory

Model of Care Case Study 3: Cardihab

12:40pm – 12:50pm


Lunch

12:50pm – 1:50pm


Interview: Senior Federal and State Health Politician

TBA

1:50pm2:20pm

Topics:

  • Can we see the state-federal hospitals blind spot in terms of moving us to prevention
  • How state-federal co-operation works, and might work better
  • A straw man for a vertically integrated state run, commonwealth guided Mayo vertically integrated model
  • Extracting ourselves from he said, she said the Groundhog Day system funding paradigm

Scaffolding and plumbing update: When the rubber hits the road on the HIE, MHR upgrade, consent and other government adventures in legislation and infrastructure

2:20pm – 2:40pm

Speakers: Daniel McCabe, Simon Cleverly, et al


Panel:

Prevention with a touch of seismic disruption

2:40pm3:10pm

  • Have ChatGPT and ClaudeHealth turned our digital health plans upside down 
  • What happens if we fight AI – withhold the My Health Record and don’t make it easy to talk to? 
  • Who has the power over time here: govt and providers per all of history, or patients? 
  • What happens in medicine if AI does go sentient?
  • AI and workforce, especially the clinicians
  • The end of asymmetric knowledge in medicine
  • AI, the patient and prevention
  • An empowered patient
  • Out of control AI
  • Safety… over time

Speakers:

  • Dr Jill Freyne, Healthcare Industry Lead, AWS
  • Bettina McMahon, CEO, Healthdirect
  • Anja Nikolic, CEO, Australasian Institute of Digital Health
  • Dr Matt Vickers, Clinical Director, Eucalyptus

Moderator: Associate Professor Emily Kirkpatrick, Managing Director, EKology Group


Model of Care Case Study 4: Streamliners

3:10pm – 3:25pm


Afternoon Tea

3:25pm – 3:55pm


Panel:

What are the Opportunities and threats if AI like ChatGPT health does empower patients to by system drivers not followers

3:55pm – 4:30pm

  • Should the government work with the AI vendors rather than try to control them too much 
  • Should we make the My Health Record available to patients to suck into their AI app 
  • In what ways might AI empowerment improve a patients chronic care outcome 
  • Where else should AI stick its nose in digitally to improve prevention 
  • Who is going to pay for all of this? 

Audience Q&A

4:30pm – 4:55pm


Wrap

4:55pm – 5:00pm

Key points from the day summing up.


Dr Alison RobertsCommissioner, Productivity Commission
Consumer Health ForumRepresentative TBA
Dr John HalamkaPresident, Mayo Clinic Platform (Virtual speaker)
Dr Jill FreyneHealthcare Industry Lead, AWS
Associate Professor Emily KirkpatrickManaging Director, EKology Group
Luke SlawomirskiHealth Economist
Hediyeh VahdatCEO and Co-Founder of Linéaire Projects
Dr Robert MarshallChief Strategy Officer, St Vincent’s Health Australia
Adjunct Professor Karen PriceDirector, HCF Australia
Dr Tim SeniorGP | Medical Advisor Aboriginal Health, RACGP
Sidney ChandrasiriChief Executive, Australian Institute of Health Executives
Ken Hillman AOEmeritus Professor of Intensive Care UNSW
Rachel DavidCEO, Private Healthcare Australia
Simon KuestenmacherCo-Founder and Director, The Demographics Group
Marc MillerManaging Director, Health Systems Advisory
Travis GrantManaging Director, Australia Health, Accenture
Anja NikolicCEO at Australasian Institute of Digital Health
Associate Professor Alam YoosuffChair, Murrumbidgee PHN
Bettina McMahonCEO, Healthdirect Australia
Dr Michael WrightPresident, RACGP
Dr Zoran BolevichCEO, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
Dr Matt VickersClinical Director, Eucalyptus

Program, Content and Panelist Enquiries
Talia Meyerowitz-Katz: talia@medicalrepublic.com.au

Hyatt Hotel, Canberra – A Park Hyatt Hotel

Location

120 Commonwealth Ave, Yarralumla ACT 2600

https://www.hyatt.com/park-hyatt/en-US/canbe-hyatt-hotel-canberra-a-park-hyatt-hotel

Public Transport

The Hyatt Hotel is 9 Kilometers away from Canberra Airport (CBR), and 5 Kilometers away from Canberra Railway Station.

Parking

Self-Parking

The hotel also offers self-parking. Parking spots for people with disabilities is situated in the undercover car park and conveniently close to the lift, which has direct access to guest-room levels. Wheelchair access is also available at the banquet entrance of the hotel.

Daily $30.00

Street Parking

There are 200 off-street parking spaces surrounding Hyatt Hotel Canberra – A Park Hyatt Hotel, with fees Monday–Friday, 8:30 a.m.–5 p.m. Parking is free on Saturday and Sunday.

Daily $15.50s

Valet Parking

Hyatt Hotel Canberra – A Park Hyatt Hotel offers valet parking.

Daily $55.00

EV Charging

Complimentary EV charging stations for guests are available in the hotel car park.

Getting Here

Registration Enquiries
Talia Meyerowitz-Katz: talia@medicalrepublic.com.au

Program, Content and Panelist Enquiries
Talia Meyerowitz-Katz: talia@medicalrepublic.com.au

Partnership Opportunity Enquiries
Michelle O’Brien: michelle@wildhealth.net.au