Oz needs more research
October 5, 2012
INVESTMENT in research is vital
to support innovation, performance
improvement, and curtail escalating
healthcare costs, according to the
new McKeon Review of Health and
Medical Research.
Published this week, the review
was prompted by the Federal
Government and investigated the
state of health and medical
research in Australia in order to
make recommendations about the
strategic direction of the sector.
The review panel took into
account feedback from researchers,
clinicians, hospitals and state and
federal governments, and
developed a vision for health and
medical research which it called
‘Better Health Through Research’.
“Better health encompasses
population health outcomes, such
as increased life expectancy, as well
as social goals such as equity,
affordability and quality of life,” the
report said.
“HMR is the R&D arm of
Australia’s $130bn health sector, so
investment in research is vital to
support innovation, performance
improvement, and curtail escalating
healthcare costs,” the report added.
According to the panel, Australia
should move towards a “high
quality and efficient health system,
where a defined proportion of the
health budget is invested in
research in the health system and
where all research activity is well
managed to deliver health impact”.
As such, the panel recommended
that the focus should start off with
spending current investment more
effectively.
To that end the panel said that
over the next decade an additional
$2–3 billion per annum should be
invested in research to deliver a
better health system and that an
additional $0.4–0.6 billion per
annum should be funneled into
other initiatives.
The strategy to achieve this Better
Health vision has seven themes
including: embedding research in
the health system (including driving
research activity in the health
system; establishing integrated
health research centres; promoting
research participation by health
professionals; realigning sector
research and governance; and
streamlining clinical trial processes).
Other themes include setting and
supporting research priorities;
maintaining research excellence;
enhancing the non-commercial
pathway to impact; enhancing the
commercial pathway to impact;
attracting philanthropy; and
investing and implementing
(enhancing and aligning HMR
investment programs, with
extended oversight by the
expanded NHMRC, and establishing
a robust implementation process
with a medium term follow up
review by the NHMRC and with
oversight by an independent panel).
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