The June Rotorua General Practice Conference & Medical Exhibition (GPCME) was a valuable opportunity for Migraine Foundation Aotearoa New Zealand to connect with health professionals and share the most up-to-date information, resources and best practice guidelines.
The 3 day conference was held at the Rotorua Energy Events Centre, and was attended by over 1,000 GPs, nurse practitioners, nurses and other allied health professionals from throughout New Zealand.
Our team of volunteers staffed an education stand with a range of resources, including factsheets about acute and preventive medications, information about anti-CGRP medications and patient brochures. We also had a series of myth-busting cards, to challenge some misconceptions people can have about migraine.
We enticed people into our stand by asking them “Do you know someone with migraine?” It felt like a bit of a trick question, as everyone knows someone with migraine and we’re pretty sure we never received a “No”! And often it wasn’t just their patients they were saying yes about, we talked with many health professionals who said yes for themselves or yes for a friend or family member.
We had a range of conversations about migraine and our charity. It was heartening to find out that many health professionals already knew about our organisation and have been referring patients to our website and support group. For some health professionals, they were thrilled to learn about us for the first time and to now have a place to send patients for further information and support.
There were varying levels of knowledge about the latest migraine medications. Some health professionals knew about the new anti-CGRP medications available, and for those who didn’t, there was a real willingness to learn about them and understand how patients can access them. And yes, we reiterated time and again that GPs can prescribe these new migraine-specific medications.
Some health professionals acknowledged that migraine can be hard to treat. Others admitted that they often don’t have the right resources or information to give to patients (though they do now, now that they know about what we can provide). We even had a few invitations to come and provide further information to their practices (which we’d love to do with the right funding and support).
The conference was also a great opportunity for our team to meet and connect with other exhibitors, especially those in the not-for-profit space. We’re always learning, and it was good to see what information other charities are sharing with health professionals and hear about their organisation.
Our co-founders Sarah and Fiona were present during the conference and were supported by volunteers Caitlin and Amanda. Huge thank you to both for giving up their time to represent our migraine community.
Thank you to AbbVie for supporting our attendance and resource production with a grant.
And thank you to our migraine community. During May we ran a 31-day fundraising campaign to help cover some of the associated costs of attending the conference. Our community raised over $3,000 so we couldn’t have attended the conference without this support.
Sarah and Fiona are now preparing for the South GP conference, held at the Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre, 15–17 August 2025. Some of the money raised during May will be used to support attendance costs.
Our hope is that these opportunities to enhance the knowledge of health professionals about migraine will help improve the lives of people with migraine through better understanding of migraine disease as a disabling neurological condition, improved knowledge of migraine treatment options (medication and non-medication options) and minimising migraine stigma.
And we continue to welcome donations to support our work, either by becoming a regular donor or making a one-off donation. Find out more here
