Sustainable Health Review Interim Report: Response to the Consultation

This submission responds to the Interim Report of Western Australia’s Sustainable Health Review, addressing the final three survey questions on the Review’s 12 Directions. Research Australia accepts that the Directions are broadly appropriate but maintains that the Final Report should recognise health and medical research as an enabler of all 12, not only Direction 9, because research can assess the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of existing services, identify low-value practice and design and evaluate new models of care. Drawing on case studies from Western Australian members, including Healthway, the Consumer and Community Health Research Network, the Western Australian Health Translation Network (WAHTN) Clinical Trials and Data Centre, the Healing Right Way brain injury trial with Aboriginal Australians, the Population Health Research Network, the Digital Health Cooperative Research Centre and nursing workforce research at Edith Cowan University, it shows how researchers can contribute to prevention, person-centred and country health services, a statewide electronic medical record, data linkage and workforce planning. Its recommendations include establishing a body to evaluate site-level innovations for statewide adoption, funded through targeted recommends research and drawing on clinical quality registries; using Western Australia’s health economics expertise in funding reform; considering Social Impact Investing; recognising the short-term costs of integrating research into healthcare delivery; and requiring the Health Department to develop a formal framework for engaging researchers in developing and evaluating its programs. It notes that proven treatments can take 10 to 20 years to enter routine care.