Patient care in Australia will fall below the standards in leading developed nations if hospitals and universities do not join forces, according to Executive Dean of The University of Queensland’s Faculty of Health Sciences, Professor Nicholas Fisk.
Professor Fisk, an internationally regarded clinician and researcher whose Faculty includes Australia’s largest medical school, said while many other countries were beginning to see the benefits of ‘joined up’ academic health science centres (AHSC), Australia was lagging behind.
“Evidence is growing that patient care and health outcomes are improved in an environment where new developments are translated into clinical care seamlessly," he said.
“In the US, single, unified management by universities and hospitals is how their leading health centres are run.
"This approach is increasing in European cities, as well as London, Stockholm, Canada and now Singapore. Australia is way off the pace.”
“Clinicians in an AHSC know about the latest research and could well be involved in it, so they know what treatments work, as well as those that should be dropped. They are at the top of their game.”
He said the value of the approach was shown by the high number of medical discoveries occurring in ‘joined up’ environments, which had produced the majority of recent Nobel Prize Winners in Medicine.
“Australia produces good quality clinicians but there is a knowledge gap between researchers who are developing better treatments and the clinicians who provide the treatments to patients,” Professor Fisk said.
The ideal was a continuous flow with clinicians advancing and applying knowledge to improve health, taking discoveries from laboratory bench to patient bedside and into the population.
However, Australia’s health, education and research institutions have historically grown as separate entities with their own priorities, making it a challenge to unite them for the long term good of patients.
“We have different organisations that don’t relate well to each other," Professor Fisk said.
"For people trying to straddle them, there is unnecessary duplication and delays. It is a logistical burden that is strangling innovative research and treatment breakthroughs.”
He said Federal Government funding of AHSCs would offer a high value option for supporting state health institutions.
Professor Fisk will host a conference and high level think tank on September 9 and 10 aimed at kick-starting discussion about AHSCs in Australia. It will be held at The Education Centre, Royal Brisbane &Women’s Hospital, Herston Brisbane and will include speakers outlining the UK and the US experience.
Media inquiries: Marlene McKendry - 0401 99 6847
More info: About the event - http://www.uq.edu.au/health/academic-clinical-health-science,
About Academic Health Centres - http://www.aahcdc.org/policy/reddot/AAHC_ValueProposition.pdf
