comment

Health and medical research, including research funded through the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), is crucial to continually improving the high quality of health and medical care in Australia. An investment in health and medical research also generates social and economic benefits to the community.

Total Federal Government funding for health and medical research since 2002 has increased only marginally as a percentage of GDP, and has in fact declined as a percentage of the total Federal health budget in that time.

comment

Patients rely on their doctors to provide them with the best medical techniques and care. This means that doctors should have access to the best, evidence-based therapies and treatments informed by well-funded, world-class research.

comment

The health system needs to be efficient, and a central part of this is having best-practice knowledge and techniques available to medical practitioners and their patients. An efficient health system also needs to be effective in health service delivery. This is not only the case for cutting-edge hospital procedures, but also in primary care services and in managing patients through complex care pathways.

Australia has a proud record of achievement in health and medical research, and this must be maintained. The next Government also needs to counter the rising international competition for our excellent researchers.

comment

The next Government must increase funding for health and medical research including for:

• Further research on health systems, policy, evaluation and effectiveness to support ongoing health system improvement and reform. This should encompass research on ways to improve the evidence base for complex care clinical pathways, preventative medicine, and chronic disease management;
• A new strategic approach by the NHMRC to focus research efforts on emerging community health priorities and prevention of illness, and to build multidisciplinary research capacity to address these challenges; and
• Stronger Government support to improve the relationship between research and clinical practice, health systems and policy, and commercialisation pathways.

* For a full pdf version of the Key Health Issues for the 2010 Federal Election click here