About this webinar:

Falls can have significant impacts on health and well-being, particularly for older people. Previous research has shown that prescription opioids are associated with increased risks of falls, and the highest fall risks occur in the first month of use. This webinar presents the results of a study that uses real-world data to compare the risk of falls between people starting long-acting formulations of tapentadol and oxycodone, the two most common prescription opioids in Australia.

About the speaker:

Dr Ximena Camacho works in the Medicines Intelligence Research Program at the School of Population Health, UNSW. She recently completed her PhD, which specialised in the use of population-level data to assess the safety of prescription medicines. Ximena's research focuses on using real-world data to examine long-term outcomes and adverse events related to medicine usage in routine clinical practice.

With over a decade of experience in health services research, Ximena possesses a strong background in applying sophisticated methods to linked health administrative data to provide valuable insights that inform health system planning, policies and decision-making. She has worked across a variety of fields including cancer, cardiovascular health, ageing and pharmacoepidemiology in Australia and Canada.

About the panellists:

Professor Jonathan Brett is a senior staff specialist in clinical pharmacology, toxicology and addiction medicine at St. Vincent's Hospital and a clinical toxicologist with the NSW Poisons Centre. He is a conjoint Professor at St. Vincent's Clinical School and a Senior Research Fellow with the Medicines and Health Intelligence Unit at the School of Population Health, UNSW. Jonathan's research areas span neuropsychopharmacology, drugs of abuse and medicines use in pregnancy, with a vision to optimise the use of medicines in priority populations and identify new treatments and models of care for people with difficult-to-treat mental health and drug and alcohol concerns. 

Steve Marsh has extensive expertise in consumer involvement in health research and health system reform. He is the Consumer Chair of the Consumer and Community Involvement Portfolio for the Centre for Pain IMPACT at Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA) and Co-Chair of The George Institute Australia’s Consumer, Community and Carer Advisory Committee. He is also a member of the ANZBACK and NHMRC Medicines Intelligence Centre of Research Excellence (MI-CRE) Consumer Advisory Groups, a lay member of the UTS Health and Medical Research Ethics Committee, and a consumer representative on the UNSW Health Systems Research Executive Committee. Drawing on his experience of navigating the NSW health system through multiple spinal and orthopaedic surgeries, rehabilitation, and long-term pain management, Steve brings a strong consumer perspective to health research, health policy, and health system reform.