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The Health Services Research Association of Australia and New Zealand (HSRAANZ) awards and prizes program recognises individuals who have made significant contributions to the fields of health services and policy research in Australia and New Zealand. The following awards will be presented at the HSRAANZ 2020 end of year event and Annual General Meeting.

Best Health Services and Policy Research Papers

• Best overall paper
• Best paper by an Early Career Researcher (ECR)
• Best paper by a PhD Student

Health Services and Policy Research Impact Award

• This award recognises research that has had a significant impact on health and health care. The award is intended to identify and promote examples of outstanding research that has been successfully translated into health policy, management, or clinical practice.

The deadline for nominations for all 2020 awards is 31 August 2020.

More information and nomination process

An online knowledge hub for consumer and community involvement in healthcare and health and medical research is currently being developed. It will bring together all the consumer and community involvement resources, contacts and information you need – together in the one place.

The Australian Health Research Alliance (AHRA) is developing this online knowledge hub to further connect health professionals, researchers, managers, consumers and community members across Australia.

AHRA are asking Australian healthcare professionals, researchers, managers and consumers to share their information, resource and support needs for consumer and community involvement in a short 10-minute survey.

Your responses help AHRA to prioritise the resources and features to include within the online hub.

This work builds on the 2018 AHRA Australia-wide Audit recommendation that AHRA facilitates the sharing of existing consumer and community involvement resources and expertise.

For further information contact Sarah Carmody, Project Manager Consumer and Community Involvement, Monash Partners Academic Health Science Centre.

The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) is undertaking a research project to determine if there are appropriately clear and supported pathways available to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clinician researchers in Australia, and to develop a better understanding of the challenges they face. The findings of this research will be used to better support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clinician researchers in the future.

NHMRC have asked ORIMA Research, an independent research organisation, to conduct this research. For this project, ORIMA Research is looking to speak with:

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clinician researchers – that is healthcare professionals that both conduct research and provide direct clinical services; and
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander medical students interested in a career as a clinician researcher.

The interviews will be conducted by telephone and will be about one hour in duration. They will be conducted from 20 July to 28 August 2020.

This project may benefit Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clinician researchers from medical, nursing and allied health disciplines, and medical students planning a career in clinical research, in a number of ways. A strong clinician researcher workforce is vital to the translation of research into practice and effective research impact. NHMRC will continue to invest in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clinician researchers and to support the clinician researcher workforce through funding and the outcomes of this project.

If you are interested in participating in this research, or for more information, please contact Isabella Frances from ORIMA Research via email or phone: (03) 9526 9000.

The Perron Institute are seeking your involvement in a consumer survey on consumer experiences or perspectives of palliative care in WA. This research has been commissioned by the WA Department of Health in response to the recommendations of the Joint Select Committee on End of Life Choices.

Patients with a life-limiting illness, their family or friend carers and anyone who has been a family member or friend carer of a person with a life limiting illness in the last five years is invited to participate. The survey is open to people who have accessed palliative care as well as those who have not accessed palliative care.

For more information on the study or to access the survey please visit the Perron Institute’s website.

Professor Elaine Holmes, Murdoch University Director of the Centre for Computational and Systems Medicine and Premier’s Research Fellow, has been awarded the prestigious Australian Laureate Fellowship from the Australia Research Council (ARC).

Professor Holmes, one of only 14 Australian leading academics recognised in 2020, has been awarded over $3.36 million to deepen our understanding of age-related changes in the gut microbiome – the complex community of bacteria and other microbes that reside in the intestine and plays an important role in health and wellbeing.

The aim of Professor Holmes Fellowship is to make significant advance in the understanding of host-microbiome signalling in ageing which could lead the way to preventative therapies and individualised treatments.

Learn more

The Morrison Government is investing $18.8 million to supercharge the discovery of better treatments for cancer, epilepsy, stroke, paralysis, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, brain injuries, back pain and chronic middle ear disease.

Under round three of the Government’s $45 million BioMedTech Horizons (BMTH) program, 21 very promising projects will receive funding to help unlock some of the key health challenges of our times. Three of the 21 recipients are from Western Australia. Congratulations to OncoRes Medical, Ear Science Institute Australia and Artrya.

Successful applicants will use the funding to develop medical devices–including wearable devices–telehealth and telemedicine, and digitally-enabled personalised medicine.

The Government is supporting Australia’s world-class biomedical and medical technology sector for the benefit of all Australians, while creating new jobs, growing expertise and building sustainable export markets.

Victoria-based Seer will receive $1 million to develop a real-time seizure forecasting system, through mobile and wearable monitoring, to empower people with epilepsy to regain control of their condition.

This project has great potential to save lives and improve lives of people with epilepsy and their families.

Other projects include a 3D bioprinting system for regenerating skin and developing a smart brain biopsy needle for faster, safer neurosurgery.

The Morrison Government provides funding for the BioMedTech Horizons program through its $20 billion Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF), while industry is backing these projects by matching contributions to the tune of $21.3 million.

The MRFF is a key pillar of Australia’s long term national health plan to build the world’s best health system.

MTPConnect, a not-for-profit organisation driving innovation, productivity and competitiveness in the medical technologies, biotechnologies and pharmaceuticals sector, delivers BioMedTech Horizons on behalf of the Australian Government.

View projects and recipients funded

At this moment in time, we see how critical a high performing healthcare system is to public health and safety; a continuous healthcare improvement approach is vital to achieve this.

The Implementing Innovation in Healthcare course is an introductory healthcare improvement course aimed at all healthcare workers.

Through this course, you’ll gain insight into the fields of implementation science, health care improvement and the learning health system, enabling your ability to implement innovation in healthcare.

The duration of this FREE course is three weeks and commences Monday 3 August. You are welcome to join at any stage throughout the course.

Learn more or access the course

The International Alliance of Mental Health Research Funders (IAMHRF) has asked NHMRC to circulate an invitation to participate in a survey, which aims to help develop a set of common demographic measures to be used in mental health research in a broad range of contexts. The invitation from the IAMHRF follows:

A serious barrier to understanding mental health conditions has long been the inability to aggregate data across different research efforts. In the wake of COVID, it will be more essential than ever to be able to combine studies and arrive at overall conclusions about the impacts on mental health around the globe. We are asking for your input to help develop a common set of demographic measures to be used in mental health research in a broad range of contexts.

The Data Harmonization working group of the International Alliance of Mental Health Research Funders (IAMHRF) proposes a minimum set of demographic questions to be collected from funded mental health research projects. The IAMHRF is seeking to promote the uptake of a few shared measures that researchers use alongside any other instruments that may further their research interests so that data aggregation may be simplified across the mental health field.

Your expertise as a member of the research community is an essential component in successfully harmonizing data collection and advancing the mental health field. We cannot hope to advance a meaningful set of measures without your guidance.

Please provide your input and help develop a set of common demographic measures here.

This should take you no longer than 20 minutes to complete.

The survey will be open until 15 October, 2020.

We would like to thank you for your interest and essential contribution.

NHMRC encourages researchers in the mental health field to participate in the survey.

A global research team led by The University of Notre Dame Australia School of Medicine’s Professor Merrilee Needham, in collaboration with the Perron Institute, Fiona Stanley Hospital and Murdoch University was awarded $1.8 million in funding for the trial of a re-purposed drug (Sirolimus) in the treatment of the rare disease Inclusion Body Myositis (IBM).

Consumer and community members have been at the forefront of this research and contributed to the successful grant application. In total $3.5 million was awarded by the Australian Government investment into 17 cutting-edge research projects.

“This study will be led from Australia to allow access for as many Australian IBM patients as possible, and we are so delighted to offer our patients a trial of a potential treatment, and more importantly, hope for their future”, Professor Needham said.

Read the media release from the University of Notre Dame Australia

Read the media release from Minister for Health Greg Hunt

The two-week COVID-19 testing blitz on people not showing symptoms across Western Australia has ended with no positive cases detected.

The opportunity for people from identified groups to be tested for COVID-19 produced further evidence that there are no undetected cases COVID-19 in the community.

HBF has committed $2.5 million to the project. HBF’s contribution covers the full costs of DETECT Snapshot and will provide investment in other COVID-19 related research and innovation projects.

Between Thursday May 28 and Wednesday June 10, 2020, healthcare workers, WA Police staff, school staff, meat workers, and retail, hospitality, transport and tourism industry employees not displaying symptoms of COVID-19 were invited to undergo a swab test for the virus.

As part of the program 18,409 people stepped forward for testing and all tested negative, with the breakdown of major cohorts as follows:

• 11,192 health care workers (61%);
• 2,197 school staff (12%);
• 1,852 retail workers (10%);
• 925 hospitality workers (5%); and
• 875 meat workers (5%);

WA Police staff, transport workers and tourism industry workers accounted for under 5 per cent each.

The median age of people tested was 47 years, and 72 per cent were female.

Just over three quarters of participants reside in the metropolitan area.

The program was a major co-ordinated effort by public and private pathology providers PathWest, Australian Clinical Labs, Clinipath, and Western Diagnostic Pathology, to offer as many opportunities as possible within the two-week window.

Testing was offered at more than 100 clinics, drive-through facilities, and pop-up clinics across the State, and on-site testing was facilitated at nearly 200 businesses.

Read the full media statement