Indigenous and older Australians will be the main winners in the latest round of research grants from the National Health and Medical Research Council.
Nine capacity building grants totalling $18.2 million have been awarded to university research teams across Australia. These grants will support work in population health and health services – the implementation of health research and studies into effective and efficient health care services.
The grants will also build the skills of teams of population health and health services researchers.
The 2008 grants support research into diverse areas to improve health at a population level by:
• Providing better outcomes in Indigenous health to close the 17 year gap in life expectancy between Indigenous and other Australians
• Ensuring health initiatives are not only cost effective but that they achieve the best possible outcomes for patients and families.
• Addressing the mental health of Australia’s ageing population
The projects, funded for five years, include:
• Prevention and management of mental disorders in older Australians: Professor Perminder Sachdev, University of New South Wales, has been awarded $2.4 million to develop young researchers to translate knowledge of the major neuropsychiatric problems that Australia’s ageing population will face in the next 50 years, dementia, mild cognitive impairment and depression, into better health outcomes for older Australians.
• From Broome to Berrima: Building Australia wide research capacity in Indigenous offender health and health care delivery: Associate Professor Tony Butler, Curtin University of Technology, WA, will receive $2.3m to improve the health services and health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in custody.
• Using health economics to strengthen ties between evidence, policy and practice in chronic disease: Associate Professor Stephen Jan, University of Sydney, will receive $1.8m to develop a team of health economists to research the costs and benefits to individuals, their family and the economy of different treatment strategies for chronic disease and how to sustain these in the real world.
The scheme provides up to $2.5 million over five years, commencing in 2009, to build groups of excellent population health and / or health services researchers. The scheme will strengthen and grow teams with an established basis and a record of undertaking innovative, significant and internationally competitive research.
Media Contact: Carolyn Norrie, 02 6217 9190, 0422 008 512
2008 Capacity Building Grants for Population Health and Health Services Research
571376 Professor Simon Chapman, University of Sydney, $1,897,375
The Australian Health News Research Collaboration
Lay Description:
News media are highly influential in setting health agendas and shaping health policy. The program builds multidisciplinary research capacity between 3 universities, including participation by some of Australia’s leading health journalists, to examine the content and accuracy of news treatments of health issues, how key audiences understand and are influenced by news coverage, how journalists decide which issues to cover and how they approach this coverage. The program aims to improve media literacy and the potency of policy advocacy among health professionals and so improve the quality of health news reporting in Australia.
568940 Professor Perminder Sachdev, The University of New South Wales, $2,352,525
Prevention and management of mental disorders in older Australians
Lay Description:
Dementia, mild cognitive impairment and depression are the major neuropsychiatric problems that Australia’s ageing population will face in the next 50 years. With the rapid advances in neuroscience, we need a cohort of young researchers who can translate this knowledge into better health outcomes for older Australians. The Brain & Ageing Program (B&AP) at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) has identified potential future leaders who will develop key research themes to improve the mental health of older Australians. This grant will enable them to take on this challenge.
546248 Professor Malcolm Sim, Monash University, $1,593,250
Linking research policy and health services to build a better evidence base for workplace public health.
Lay Description:
This application brings together four of Australia’s leading population and occupational health researchers to develop much needed national research capacity to reduce the burden of the largely hidden problem of occupational disease and to improve health and wellbeing in Australian workplaces. It is designed to develop a wide range of skills in a group of post-doctoral Team Investigators to improve the link between research, policy and practice. This program will address several of the National Health Priorities such as asthma, cancer, mental health and musculoskeletal disorders.
533546 Associate Professor Tony Butler, Curtin University of Technology $2,315,190
From Broome to Berrima: Building Australia wide research capacity in Indigenous offender health and health care delivery
Lay Description:
Australia has the highest Indigenous incarceration rate in the OECD which impacts profoundly on Indigenous communities. Further, offender populations endure a greater health burden compared with the general community. This grant develops much needed capacity in offender health research, building a team of Indigenous researchers, and creating an Australia-wide network for sharing knowledge in this field. Outcomes will include better Indigenous offender health services and improved health and wellbeing for this marginalised population.
573122 Professor Louisa Jorm, University of Western Sydney, $2,261,542
OSPREY: Building capacity for research to improve health services for mothers, babies and children
Lay Description:
The OSPREY program will build human capacity, skills and methods to use linked health service data for research to inform improvements in health services for mothers, babies and children. It brings together experienced chief investigators from NSW and WA, and eminent national and international mentors. Through the program, nine team investigators will develop as independent researchers, substantially boosting Australia’s capacity for health services research focused on a “Healthy start to life”.
565501 Professor Konrad Jamrozik, The University of Adelaide, $2,094,714
Health care in the round: building capacity for integrated decision-making for improving health services.
Lay Description:
Our title, ‘Healthcare in the round’, reflects two key perspectives on improving health services. First, we wish to ‘close the loop’ between the introduction of an innovation and measuring its uptake and impact. Second, we are seeking to explore how decisions about health services might be ‘rounded out’ if the ethical dimensions, economic implications and community’s views on what is being proposed were routinely considered in deciding what changes to make to existing patterns of care.
533547 Professor Jan Piek, Curtin University of Technology, $2,376,600
Building mental wealth: Improving mental health for better health outcomes among Indigenous Australians
Lay Description:
Mental health issues impact on the health and wellbeing of Indigenous Australians who do not always engage with mainstream mental health services. This project will build the capacity of a critical mass of Indigenous and non Indigenous researchers who will engage, collaborate and work with Indigenous communities, clinicians and health providers to develop a sustainable culturally appropriate mental health policy and service model including adjunctive services to chronic disease management.
571926 Associate Professor Rosalie Viney, University of Technology Sydney, $1,468,500
Building capacity in innovative approaches to health technology assessment
Lay Description:
This research will develop innovative approaches to health technology assessment by using a range of data sources analysed using sophisticated econometrics techniques. It will build capacity in new methods of economic evaluation and in econometric analysis of administrative and clinical trial data, using sophisticated approaches to combining data sources. This will allow fuller assessment of cost-effectiveness, incorporating a wide range of possible coverage scenarios and detailed monitoring.
571372 Associate Professor Stephen Jan, University of Sydney, $1,817,303
Using health economics to strengthen ties between evidence, policy and practice in chronic disease.
Lay Description:
There is a major shortage of researchers with health economics expertise in Australia. This grant will provide training and development for a team of health economists to research chronic diseases covering issues such as: What is the value for money from investment in different treatments? How do such diseases affect the economic circumstances of families? How do we ensure that strategies to address illness work in practice and can be sustained? How do these issues get put on the policy agenda?
