The LIME Network
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What is the LIME Network?
The LIME Network is a Medical Deans Australia and New Zealand Project and is hosted by the Onemda VicHealth Koori Health Unit within the School of Population Health at The University of Melbourne.
The aim of the LIME Network is to be a dynamic network dedicated to ensuring the quality and effectiveness of teaching and learning of Indigenous health in medical education and curricula, as well as best practice in the recruitment and retention of Indigenous medical students.
The LIME Network Project seeks to establish a continuing national presence that encourages and supports collaboration within and between medical schools in Australian and New Zealand to support the development, delivery and evaluation of quality Indigenous health content in medical education with the aid of the CDAMS Indigenous Health Curriculum Framework and the Critical Reflection Tool (CRT). It also seeks to build multi-disciplinary and multi-sectoral linkages and to provide quality review, professional development, capacity-building and advocacy functions.
The LIME Network recognises and promotes the primacy of Indigenous leadership and knowledge.
Who are the members of the LIME Network?
The LIME Network consists of a range of participants from key stakeholder groups including: medical educators; specialists in Indigenous health; policy makers; and community members concerned with the delivery of quality Indigenous health content in medical education and curricula. LIME Network members come together every two years at the LIME Connection.
The LIME Network Project also has a Steering Committee and a Reference Group.
The LIME Network Steering Committee is chaired by a medical dean and comprises of three medical deans along with representatives from a range of external stakeholders. This Committee sets the strategic and policy direction for the project.
The LIME Network Reference Group is made up of representatives from each medical school and is responsible for supporting and providing advice on the implementation and strategic initiatives set by the Steering Committee.
What are the LIME Network project objectives?
The objectives for the LIME Network Project are as follows:
- Quality Review: Implement a cyclical quality review process and report on the quality and effectiveness of Indigenous health curriculum and Indigenous student recruitment and retention initiatives in medical schools.
- Professional Development and Support: Support and encourage members and others to engage with and deliver quality Indigenous health and medical education initiatives through information sharing, feedback, peer networking and celebrating successes among the membership.
- Capacity Building: Identify and advocate best practice, quality and effectiveness in teaching and learning, resource development, assessment, evaluation to support Indigenous student recruitment and retention initiatives.
- Professionalisation of the Discipline: Encourage the development of Indigenous health as a discipline in its own right through networking, an e-journal and collaborative information sharing and feedback.
- Multi-disciplinary and multi-sectoral Networking: Work collaboratively, build linkages, and share information with other health science disciplines (including allied health and nursing), Indigenous health networks, postgraduate medical education councils, Indigenous communities and organisations, medical colleges, medical and professional divisions, medical student representatives and medical education networks.
- Advocacy and Reform: Contribute to medical education and medical workforce issues through high quality policy advice and recommendations where appropriate.
- LIME Connection: Plan and implement a professional conference for the LIME Network membership and their guests to be held every two years. The LIME Connection provides an opportunity in which quality review, professional development, networking, capacity-building and advocacy functions of the network are actualised.
What is the history and background of the LIME Network Project?
In 2002, the Medical Deans of Australia and New Zealand, formally the Committee of Deans of Australian Medical Schools (CDAMS) partnered with the Office of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health (OATSIH) in the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing (DoHA) to establish and implement the CDAMS Indigenous Health Curriculum Development Project, later referred to as the Medical Deans Indigenous Health Project.
The Indigenous Health Project consisted of two phases. The major aim in phase one was to develop a nationally agreed curriculum framework for the inclusion of Indigenous health into core medical curricula. Outcomes included: a national audit of medical schools, the development of the CDAMS Indigenous Health Curriculum Framework and the establishment of a preliminary network of Indigenous and non-Indigenous medical educators. A discussion paper on the LIME Network (PDF 130.72 KB) was developed as a means to stimulate further development and eventual implementation of sustainable network of medical educators.
Phase two of the project aimed to consolidate the linkages that had developed in phase one into a sustainable, functional and effective network of medical educators and to further develop and implement Indigenous health content in medical curricula, using the Curriculum Framework as a guide. Outcomes included: the endorsement and accreditation of the Indigenous Health Curriculum Framework, the development and trial of the Critical Reflection Tool (CRT), facilitation of the Australian Indigenous Doctors Association (AIDA) and Medical Deans Agreement for Collaboration and the vertical integration of Indigenous health curricula into postgraduate medical education.
In 2005, the LIME Network was established and formalised at its inaugural conference called The LIME Connection in Fremantle in June. The Network convened again at the LIME Connection II in Sydney in 2007.
The LIME Network Website was also established to promote LIME Network membership and to provide resources and share information about quality and effectiveness in Indigenous health curriculum development as well as promote the LIME Connection proceedings.
The Medical Deans Indigenous Health Project was completed in December 2007. However, the LIME Network became a stand alone project forming part of the broader Medical Deans “Close the Gap” program, and has secured three years funding until 2011. The 'Closing the Gap' program aims to create a forward agenda for the Medical Deans in line with the government's committment to close the life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians and provide health equality for Indigenous Australians.