ACTA has made a submission to the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) Advisory Board in response to its call for submissions as part of consultation on the development of the Australia Medical Research and Innovation 5 Year Strategy and 2 Year Priorities announced on May 6.
On behalf of our coalition of more than 60 individual Clinical Trials Networks, Clinical Quality Registries, and specialist coordinating centres with a combined membership of more than 10,000 individuals – the vast majority of whom have dual roles as researchers and clinicians working within Australia’s healthcare system - ACTA put forward a detailed strategy for embedding high-impact research into healthcare delivery.
Context
- Improving the effectiveness and efficiency of healthcare is one of the greatest challenges facing societies and Governments.
- The most critical gap in current healthcare systems is their failure to be able to evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of both existing and new approaches to prevention, diagnosis and treatment of illness - Australia is no exception.
- Successive reviews of Australia’s health and medical research (H&MR) efforts argue strongly the case for embedding clinical and health services research into frontline healthcare delivery (most recently recommended by the McKeon Review).
- The MRFF provides a critical opportunity to realise major improvements in the quality of health care and better health outcomes by investing in coordinated, collaborative needs-driven clinical and health services research (encompassing clinical trials, experimental medicine, translational research, epidemiological studies, public health, health services research, and healthcare quality improvement).
Key Recommendations
ACTA's proposal titled: "Better Evidence for Better Health: Embedding high-impact research into healthcare delivery" identifies five critical pillars for improving health outcomes and the health system through the MRFF:
Build and sustain the embedded clinical research infrastructure needed to generate and implement evidence as part of healthcare delivery.
Identify and deliver priority research that is important to patients and the health system.
Support and commission the highest-quality research based on the potential to deliver direct benefits to patients and the health system
Drive and coordinate a new era of research partnership and coordination across the health system
Routinely measure and report the translation and impact of MRFF-supported research.
We look forward to engaging further with the Advisory Board to support development of the MRFF Strategy and Priorities on behalf of our members.