Advocacy

ACTA is a national peak body focussed on delivering better health outcomes though best evidence. We represent clinical trial networks, clinical quality registries and clinical trial coordinating centres. ACTAs members play a fundamental role in identifying ways in which clinical care can be improved through comparative effectiveness studies and through the collection of information on how clinical services have been delivered as patients move through their clinical care journey. Together, these two arms of inquiry provide evidence that supports the Australian Government to optimise health service delivery.

According to an analysis published in the Journal of Clinical Epidemiology by Howick et.al, it is suggested that only 1 in 10 outcomes for health care interventions are supported by high-quality evidence. Whilst this is surprisingly low, there is clearly an opportunity to improve clinical care through provision of insights and importantly, through carefully managing the implementation of these findings.

Our advocacy activities naturally focus on promoting the role of our members who provide a critical function to support the future wellbeing of all Australians.  We aim to inform governments, healthcare policymakers and sector colleagues on issues that impact the conduct of investigator-initiated clinical trials and clinical quality registries.

Strong engagement and partnerships between policymakers, clinical researchers and health data custodians significantly improves our capacity to generate high-quality evidence for new and existing therapies. We are committed to working with our members to create, strengthen, and expand collaboration opportunities, and promote the value proposition of clinical trials and clinical quality registries.

Our focus

Our advocacy efforts focus on:

• Advocating for reforms to strengthen the investigator-initiated clinical trials and clinical quality registry sectors
• Supporting the embedding of a learning healthcare system model
• Working with our industry partners to develop a globally competitive clinical trials environment

Consultations

ACTA is committed to representing its members, one way we do this is by participating in consultations.

Submission examples

Consultation	Consultation call from	Submission date	ACTA's submission
Review of the 2016 Statement on Consumer and Community Involvement in Health and Medical Research	NHMRC	15 June 2024	View
Improving alignment and coordination between the Medical Research Future Fund and Medical Research Endowment Account	Department of Health and Aged Care	14 July 2023	View
Framework for Australian Clinical Quality Registries Consultation	Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (ACSQHC)	31 March 2023	View
Healthcare Identifiers Framework Project Consultation	Department of Health and Aged Care	28 February 2023	View

If you would like to be involved in a submission, or find out more information about ACTA’s advocacy and consultation activities, please contact us.