Stillbirth Research and Education

This submission to the 2018 Senate inquiry into stillbirth research and education addresses each of the inquiry’s seven terms of reference from the perspective of Australia’s health and medical research and innovation system, aiming to show which existing programs, structures and networks the Committee could use or adapt. Research Australia notes that the first Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) report on stillbirths, released in 2014, used data only up to 2009, and maintains that work on My Health Record and public data creates a favourable climate for better collection, linkage and availability of state and territory data. It points to Australia’s strong international collaboration, including ranking 9th of 41 OECD countries for internationally collaborative highly cited publications and 13 Australian members of the International Stillbirth Alliance, and to the NHMRC-funded Centre of Research Excellence in Stillbirth as a coordinating hub for research and multinational clinical trials. It identifies funding and partnership avenues including NHMRC targeted calls and Centres of Research Excellence, Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) programs and co-funded missions, Cancer Australia’s joint philanthropic scheme, Cooperative Research Centres, ARC Linkage grants, clinician research fellowships and corporate social responsibility programs. It recommends an evidence-based approach to communicating with families, including Indigenous and multicultural families, drawing on Australian social marketing expertise, and says health economists, including work under way with the Stillbirth CRE, can quantify the economic cost of stillbirth.