Rural GPs Refresher Conference 2026 - Obesity Care in Focus
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Rural healthcare deserves depth, nuance and equitable access to best practice.
Next month, our Founder, Dr Angela Kwong, travels to Port Macquarie to present at the Rural Doctors Network (RDN) Rural GPs Refresher Conference - contributing to a weekend designed specifically to support rural General Practitioners in the realities of modern practice.
For our team, this invitation feels especially meaningful.
Dr Angela was last in Port Macquarie in 2010, as a young medical student at the Rural Clinical School.
Growing up in the country herself, rural medicine has always felt personal.
And rural General Practice carries extraordinary breadth.
The Breadth and Depth of Rural General Practice
Rural GPs provide whole-of-life care.
They care for families across generations.
They hold long-standing relationships within their communities.
They manage complexity, at times, with limited access to subspecialists.
They balance clinical excellence with real-world resource constraints.
The Rural GPs Refresher Conference program reflects this breadth beautifully.
Across the weekend, attendees will have the opportunity to engage with topics spanning dermatology, ADHD reforms, gut health, AI in practice, diabetes updates, paediatrics, cognitive decline, and palliative care.
Saturday’s program includes:
- Dr Cliff Rosendahl - Diagnosing Skin Cancer in General Practice
- Dr Sarah Khanlari - Update: ADHD Reforms
- Dermatoscopy with Dr Cliff Rosendahl
- The Practical Guide to Smarter Practice: AI, workflow, billing and patient care - Chris Smeed
- Gut Health for GPs - The Microbiome and how to help patients - Dr Fi Lam with Emeritus Professor Donald Hoffman online
- Dr Sultan Linjawi - Diabetes Management Update - Tips & tricks
Sunday continues with:
- Dr Liz Percival - Paediatrics for General Practice: Meltdowns and mealtimes
- Dr Hilton Koppe and Dr Karen Savery - New Horizons for Alzheimer’s Disease: The role of biomarkers in the assessment of cognitive decline
- Dr Clare Jones - Palliative Care Insights
And closing the conference:
- Dr Angela Kwong - Managing Obesity in General Practice: Medications, side effects and nutritional considerations
Why Obesity Care Matters in Rural Practice
Obesity management sits naturally alongside the other themes of this conference - metabolic health, chronic disease care, paediatrics, ageing, and palliative considerations.
In rural communities, the GP is often the central coordinator of long-term metabolic care.
New medications are expanding what is possible in obesity treatment.
But prescribing is only one part of the picture.
The real-world questions tend to be practical.
How do we titrate safely and thoughtfully?
How do we manage side effects in patients who may not have ready access to subspecialist review?
How do we protect muscle mass and nutritional adequacy when appetite is reduced?
How do we ensure weight loss supports long-term wellbeing rather than undermines it?
These conversations require confidence, clinical judgement and open discussion.
They also require a shift in mindset - recognising obesity as a chronic, multifactorial disease that deserves the same rigour and compassion as diabetes or cardiovascular disease.
For rural GPs, who understand their patients within the context of family systems, occupation, culture and community, this perspective is especially powerful.
A Shared Commitment - Regardless of Postcode
At Enlighten Me, we believe that where someone lives should never determine the quality of obesity care they receive.
Rural General Practice brings something invaluable to this field - continuity, context and trust.
Our hope for this session is not simply to deliver content, but to contribute to thoughtful peer discussion.
To explore what is working.
To acknowledge what feels challenging.
To strengthen collective capability in managing this complex condition well.
Returning to Port Macquarie - no longer as a student, but as a speaker alongside such a diverse and respected faculty - feels quietly significant.
Medicine evolves.
So must we.
And meaningful change happens when clinicians gather, reflect and learn from one another.
We look forward to continuing that conversation with rural GPs next month.
You are not alone in this work.
And your role in advancing equitable, evidence-based obesity care truly matters.
Discover the Agenda at https://web.cvent.com/
