A VITAL lived experience leading to a novel interventional platform for women’s mental health

Description

My suboptimal lived experience in entering peri-/menopause drove the creation of a novel platform for national healthcare intervention. Despite representing the majority of Australians in peri-/menopause, and even with the advantage of 20 years of medical research experience, perimenopause’s arrival and subsequent impact on my mental health and work productivity were a complete surprise. Aims: To apply my previous research experience to create a peri-/menopause
registry prioritising what consumers – not purely clinicians or researchers – think most important, share data via appropriate circumstances, & enable this community to have a voice in making even more change and translation into improved health outcomes. Methods: I began a qualitative content analysis – aka explored social media, scientific journals, clinical society websites etcetera,
and became even more concerned about the lack of knowledge and support available on the sheer range of symptoms and intensities, subsequent costs, time commitments, and impact on daily function. But peri-/meno wasn’t my specialty, so I reached out nationally to gather expertise across all relevant specialties and backgrounds, including consumer networks, to kickstart the changes needed. Results – “VITAL”, the Virtual registry of perI-/menopause in Australia, has recently launched, enabling the perimenopause community to not just report on their symptoms but advise on our registry questions & volunteer for both committees and further research. Our platform has been deliberately designed to enable future embedding of randomised clinical trials, authorised data sharing, wearable compatibility, and international rollout for even greater translational impact.
Conclusion: Hoping my own lived experience helps others in future

Period	12 Oct 2023
Event title	Asia Pacific Conference on Women's Mental Health
Event type	Conference
Location	Melbourne, AustraliaShow on map