Key Facts:
- Full-day postgraduate and advanced trainee workshops scheduled for 27 March 2026 at Perth Convention Centre, focusing on strengthening respiratory workforce capabilities
- Programme includes comprehensive sessions on Interstitial Lung Disease, Bronchiectasis, and Pulmonary embolism management, featuring multidisciplinary approaches and expert-led discussions
- Morning workshops cover lung nodule management, occupational lung diseases, professional development, and tuberculosis updates
- Afternoon sessions focus on complex symptom management, including exercise-induced breathlessness and chronic breathlessness management masterclasses
- Programme emphasises practical skills, clinical decision-making, and mentoring opportunities between senior clinicians and emerging respiratory specialists
Perth, March 2026 – Strengthening the future respiratory workforce will be a central focus of the TSANZSRS Annual Scientific Meeting (ASM) 2026, with a full day of postgraduate and advanced trainee workshops scheduled for Friday, 27 March at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre.
Delivered as part of the ASM scientific program, the postgraduate workshops respond to growing workforce pressures, increasing clinical complexity, and the need for consistent, high-quality training pathways in respiratory medicine. Designed for clinicians, researchers, and allied health professionals, the program prioritises practical skills, clinical decision-making, and multidisciplinary collaboration aligned with real-world care.
The workshop program is structured across full-day, morning, and afternoon sessions, allowing participants to engage in targeted learning while addressing priority areas of respiratory practice and professional development.
Full-day sessions focus on conditions and clinical scenarios requiring advanced expertise and coordinated care. Dedicated TSANZ Advanced Trainees (Adult and Paediatric courses) provide two streams run by senior respiratory physicians, nurses, senior advanced trainees, and allied health professionals, with ample opportunity to interact with experts and ask questions, and crossover learning linked to the Professional Development workshop.
Other full-day workshops address major areas of specialist care, including:
- Interstitial Lung Disease: providing the latest updates on research and clinical management, and advances in precision diagnosis and management, with interactive learning, case discussions and expert Q&A;
- Bronchiectasis - a lifelong condition, reviewing recommended treatment, learning from registry data and strategies to implement a multidisciplinary model of care; and
- Pulmonary embolism management in the era of mechanical thrombectomy, covering advances in diagnosis, risk stratification and imaging, with a multidisciplinary faculty spanning respiratory medicine, diagnostic and interventional radiology, and critical care.
Morning half-day sessions centre on diagnostic decision-making, emerging respiratory risks, and workforce development. Workshops include lung nodule management, with an expected increase in referrals following commencement of the Australian National Lung Cancer Screening Program in July 2025, and a multidisciplinary focus spanning Radiology, Respiratory Medicine, Interventional Pulmonology, Radiation Oncology, and Thoracic Surgery.
Sessions on emerging occupational lung disease examine the increasing incidence of silicosis in underground tunnellers and the stone benchtop industry, and the re-emergence of coal workers' lung, covering pathways from initial occupational assessment through to referral and systematic approaches to screening at-risk workers. A dedicated Professional Development workshop supports advanced trainees and early- to mid-career members throughout their careers, including continuing education, career development opportunities in clinical practice and research, and network-building. TB on the Spectrum provides a 2026 tuberculosis update, covering diagnosis, prevention, and treatment, as well as the significance of post-TB sequelae for long-term lung health.
Afternoon workshops focus on complex symptom management and system integration. A practical masterclass on exercise-induced breathlessness uses expert-led presentations, live demonstrations, and multidisciplinary discussion to strengthen assessment and management of complex causes, including asthma, dysfunctional breathing, and exercise-induced laryngeal obstruction. Chronic breathlessness management examines evidence-informed clinical strategies, incorporating clinical practice guidelines and case-based discussion, with non-pharmacological strategies as a central focus.
Additional sessions address integrating evidence-based nicotine cessation treatments into adult and paediatric clinical settings, with particular focus on the National Lung Cancer Screening Program integration, and lung transplantation in the modern era, providing a comprehensive update on evidence-based clinical methods, advanced immunological principles, collaborative care strategies, referral criteria, and donor eligibility considerations.
Together, the postgraduate and advanced trainee workshops underscore the ASM's commitment to building workforce capability by linking education directly to clinical practice. Overall, the program emphasises skills transferable to everyday care, while fostering mentoring, peer learning, and knowledge sharing between senior clinicians and the next generation of respiratory specialists.
