Trauma Symposium
Join us for a thought-provoking two-day event bringing together leading experts across surgery, emergency medicine, intensive care and rehabilitation, including acute care and rehabilitation nursing and allied health, offering a holistic view of trauma care across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.
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Event overview
2025 Trauma Symposium - what a wonderful experience.
On 21 and 22 November, leading experts across surgery, emergency medicine, doctors, nursing, and rehabilitation and allied health, across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, came together at the Royal Adelaide Hospital for the Trauma Symposium, offering a holistic view of trauma care. This event explored this spectrum of injury from the significant single event to the multiple concussions and will look at the causes, treatment and options for prevention.
Keynote speakers included:
- Professor Mark Fitzgerald, Director of the National Trauma Research Institute and Director of Trauma Services at The Alfred.
- Dr Adam Wells, FRACS, Neurosurgeon
- Associate Professor Rowena Mobbs, FRACS, Neurologist.
Read our wrap up article in Surgical News
Theme: Navigating the brain injury spectrum
Dates: 21 - 22 November 2025
Venue: Royal Adelaide Hospital, Adelaide
View Program outline (PDF 1.84MB) | View speaker profiles (PDF 5.26MB) | View event booklet (PDF 8.68MB)
Professionals in this field are confronted with a wide spectrum of trauma which can be isolated or multi-trauma after a single event. This includes a wide spectrum of injury and disease, and the brain is no different and is frequently involved. There is, however, a range of disease mechanism leading to brain injury. It can, at one end, be a single significant event or repeated minor injuries or ‘concussions’, each potentially leading to brain dysfunction.
Why it mattered
Trauma affects people in complex and often life-altering ways. Whether it’s a single severe incident or the cumulative impact of repeated minor injuries, the consequences—especially for the brain—can be profound. Understanding the full spectrum of brain injury is essential for improving outcomes.
That's why we held this symposium to bring together diverse voices from across the trauma care continuum to explore how we can better respond, treat, and prevent these injuries.
Symposium purpose
The 2025 Trauma Symposium aims to foster collaboration and knowledge-sharing across disciplines involved in trauma care. With a focus on brain injury—from severe trauma to concussion—our program explored the mechanisms of injury, current treatment approaches, and emerging strategies for prevention. By bringing together experts from surgery, emergency medicine, nursing, rehabilitation, and allied health, the symposium offered a holistic view of trauma care across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.