E-bikes and e-scooters are transforming how Australians move around cities – but our laws and safety frameworks have failed to keep pace. Children as young as five are arriving in emergency departments with serious injuries, and clinicians are warning that without urgent reform, the toll will only grow.
This webinar, hosted by the ACEM Trauma Emergency Medicine Network, opens with a clinical case that brings the e-mobility injury crisis into sharp focus. As we work through the clinical aspects of the case, we will consider the fragmented legislative landscape across Australian states and territories, including the tensions between legalisation, age restrictions, helmet mandates and speed limits on shared paths.
The webinar will also explore the critical role of data surveillance in understanding injury burden – how we can drive meaningful reform by systematically capturing, analysing and using emergency department data. We will hear about what ACEM is doing to ensure the voice of emergency medicine shapes policy at a state and national level.
The session will conclude by examining our role as medical experts – how emergency physicians can deliver the highest level of clinical care to these patients and translate this frontline clinical experience into the evidence that policymakers need to act.
Program
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Time
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Topic
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Speaker
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10:30am – 10:35am
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Welcome and introduction
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Dr Chris Bowles
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10:35am – 10:55am
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The Patient the Law Forgot
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A/Prof Dane Chalkley
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10:55am – 11:15am
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"They Just Had No Idea": E-Scooter Injuries and the Case for Change
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Dr Sarah Whitelaw
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11:15am – 11:35am
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Connecting the dots through data – lessons from the Qld inquiry
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Prof Kirsten Vallmuur
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11:35am – 11:50am
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Q&A
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All speakers
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11:50am – 12:00pm
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Closing remarks and next steps for TEMN
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Dr Chris Bowles
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Speakers
Professor Kirsten Vallmuur – Chair of Trauma Surveillance and Data Analytics, Australian Centre for Health Services Innovation, Queensland University of Technology and Jamieson Trauma Institute, Metro North Hospital and Health Service, Queensland.
A/Professor Dane Chalkley – Co-Director of Trauma, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, NSW.
Dr Sarah Whitelaw – Deputy Director of Trauma, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Victoria
This activity will meet 1.5 ACEM CPD hours.
Register now to join this important discussion on e-mobility injury, legislation and the role of emergency medicine in driving reform.