2019 Annual General Meeting
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2019 Australia Speaks! Opinion Poll Media Release
Australians say health and medical research matters!
Australians’ opinions matter when it comes to our healthcare system and the research that underpins it.
The national peak body, Research Australia, has asked Australians for their opinions on health for the past 17 years and consistently they consistently tell us that research is crucial to better health and living our best lives.
The Minister for Health, the Hon. Greg Hunt launched the 2019 consumer poll Australia Speaks! at Parliament House yesterday to an audience of Research Australia’s Members along with government representatives, sector leaders and other health organisations.
The Minister said, ‘What is clear from this poll is that Australians value their own and government investments in health and medical research for delivering good health outcomes. Health and medical research is a key priority of the Government, that’s why we are investing $20 billion in the Medical Research Future Fund.’
“Health and medical research is about people so each year, with the generous help of Roy Morgan, we ask consumers for their opinions to enable us to reflect their values, and those of our Members, to ensure policy supports our health system.” says Nadia Levin, CEO of Research Australia.
“It is clear Australians see improving hospitals and healthcare as the number one spending priority for the Australian Government, even ahead of infrastructure, education standards and employment opportunities.
“Three quarters of Australians say they are interested in health and medical research. However, while confident in their ability to contribute to decision making about the future direction of the sector, most Australians don’t know how, and many don’t believe they’d be heard. Our governments and research organisations clearly have more work to do to meaningfully engage with the broader community.”
The results also confirmed that Australians are willing to embrace technology that can help them better manage their own health. They trust healthcare professionals to assist them with choosing those technologies and directing them to other credible online information sources. Professor Mary Foley, Managing Director Telstra Health and Research Australia Director shared her views around the impact of data in supporting improved health and what the future holds with the ongoing advances in technology.
The subject of ‘The empowered patient and consumer – managing our own health’ was discussed in a panel made up of sector leaders including the CEO of the Foundation for Alcohol Research & Education Michael Thorn, the CEO of Diabetes Australia, Greg Johnson and Jeppe Theisen, Vice President and General Manager Oceania, Novo Nordisk. Each discussed the importance of preventative medicine and what they are doing in this space to support Australians.
The poll also covered donations and government funding, and once again support for health and medical research is widespread. And at a time when we see the government partnering with the not for profit sector to support health and medical research, people indicated they would be more likely to donate a higher amount if the government would match their donation – a sentiment also reflected in previous polls.
Australians’ opinions continue to shape Research Australia’s strategies and priorities and observations of the changing trends and current attitudes will be shared widely to help shape policy and change to enable a healthier Australia.
Research Australia and Roy Morgan research are proud to release the results of the 2019 poll and further information is available by clicking here.
For more information please contact us on (02) 9295 8545 or admin@researchaustralia.org or follow us on Twitter on @ResAustralia
“Rising to the challenge of medication harm requires communication and care”
One of Research Australia’s Health Services Research Award nominees, Professor Libby Roughead, wrote an article for the not-for-profit journalism organisation Croakey.
“In 2017 the World Health Organization launched a global challenge to reduce severe, avoidable harm related to medications, by fifty percent within the next five years.
Each participating country will bring its own set of circumstances to the challenge. In Australia, the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care released a discussion paper earlier this year, seeking submissions on how we can use our existing systems to achieve the goal, and where we need to bridge the gaps.
Professor Libby Roughead is Director of the Quality Use of Medicines and Pharmacy Research Centre at the University of South Australia.
In the post below, she outlines the challenge ahead, reminding us that, at its heart, medication harm is a problem that centres on people.” – Croakey
Please click here to view the article
Fighting superbugs smartly – Researcher recognised for her work in stopping sepsis.
MEDIA RELEASE 13 September 2019
Fighting superbugs smartly – Researcher recognised for her work in stopping sepsis
A doctor behind a program saving lives and cutting hospital stays across Victoria has been recognised by Australia’s peak research body for her work driving international leadership in antimicrobial stewardship.
Smarter use of antibiotics and other antimicrobial medicines – drawing upon data showing when and how they are being prescribed – has been a key focus of Professor Karin Thursky’s career, with tangible benefits to patients shown in a major study released this week.
The study has shown the effectiveness of Better Care Victoria’s ‘Think Sepsis. Act Fast’ program, which was led by Professor Thursky, demonstrating it saved 52 lives and avoided 96 ICU admissions while in use at 11 Victorian health services over four months. Today is World Sepsis Day, bringing awareness to this critical health issue.
Professor Thursky, who is director of the National Centre for Antimicrobial Stewardship at the Doherty Institute, has now been selected as a finalist in the Health Services Research category of Research Australia’s Health and Medical Awards for her leadership and work that has led to a significant improvement in healthcare.
‘Think Sepsis. Act Fast’ is a clinical pathway which improves outcomes for patients with suspected sepsis through earlier identification and management. It aims to decrease the rate of inpatient sepsis-related mortality, decrease hospital length of stay for patients with sepsis, and decrease sepsis-related ICU admissions while also targeting clinicians’ use of antibiotic therapy to ensure timely and appropriate use.
The recent collaboration between Victorian health services demonstrated a six-fold return on investment with an $11.7 million saving based on reduced length of stay and reduction in costs.
There was a significant improvement in patient outcomes, with a 50 per cent decrease in mortality and 34 per cent decrease in ICU admissions.
Furthermore, the study showed a 28.8 per cent increase in appropriateness of initial antibiotic therapy, highlighting how Australian health care practitioners still have large gains to make in improving their use of antibiotics.
“We know our national appropriateness rate in hospitals (for antibiotic use) is around 73 per cent,” said Professor Thursky, who acted as clinical lead on the collaboration. “It means 1 in 4 prescriptions is still not appropriate, but we can dive deep into the data to find the areas we need to improve in.
“We’ve become international leaders in hospital stewardship. No one else collects the type of data we’re able to collect.”
Professor Thursky leads the National Antimicrobial Prescribing Survey (NAPS) which helps healthcare services assess their prescribing practice. Her team also plays a key role in implementing the National Antimicrobial Resistance Strategy, training doctors, pharmacists, nurses and other professionals for better use of antibiotics.
The clinical pathway for ‘Think Sepsis. Act Fast’ was originally developed at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, where Professor Thursky leads the implementation stream of the Centre of Research Excellence – National Centre for Infections in Cancer.
Research Australia CEO Nadia Levin said Professor Thursky’s work was making a significant impact nationally and internationally on how healthcare providers prescribe antimicrobials such as antibiotics, leading the fight against resistance.
“Professor Thursky has been a key contributor to the successful Guidance Group, based at Royal Melbourne Hospital, which developed software to actively improve clinical use of restricted antimicrobials,” she said.
“Guidance works to support stewardship programs by requiring the doctors to document why they are using antibiotics or restricted antimicrobials. That data is used on a day to day level by the stewardship teams who can undertake a review, encouraging more appropriate prescribing and better results for patients.”
The Guidance System is now used at 70 hospitals across Australia.
Research Australia’s Health and Medical Research Awards recognise the invaluable contributions made to Australian health and medical research, be it through ground-breaking research and discovery, ongoing advocacy or generous philanthropic donations that make innovation possible. The event is attended by some of the country’s most notable researchers, leaders from the Australian public service, key sector influencers and some of the younger researchers making global breakthroughs.
The winners will be announced at the official Awards ceremony on Thursday 14 November at Metropolis Ballroom in Southbank, Melbourne.
Professor Thursky is available for interviews.
Media contact: Pia Akerman, 0412 346 746
Research Matters July 2019
Welcome to Research Matters. With the Federal election quickly receding in the rearview mirror, we take a look at the implications for health and medical research and in particular, what might be coming up.
To contribute to or discuss any of the items in this edition, please email Greg Mullins, Head of Policy, at greg.mullins@researchaustralia.org, or on (03) 9662 9420.
This communication features important information on:
- Research Funding – MRFF & NHMRC
- Personal Health Information
- Prevention
- R&D
Welcoming a National Preventive Health Strategy
Research Australia welcomes the recent announcement by Australian Health Minister Greg Hunt that he will establish an Australian Preventive Health Strategy.
‘It is widely acknowledged that evidence-based preventive measures are typically the highest return investments that can be made to improve the health of our community. They include measures such as vaccination programs and consumer education and awareness campaigns’ said Research Australia CEO, Nadia Levin.
‘New prevention measures start with research, and research can refine and improve existing prevention measures. Research Australia will be advocating for a central role for research in the new Preventive Health Strategy.’
Research Australia has written to the Minister expressing support for the Strategy and emphasising the need for the health and medical research sector to be represented at the Roundtable being convened to advance development of the Strategy.
Research Australia’s Stronger Together Conference Success
Research Australia’s recently hosted a conference themed, ‘Stronger Together’ which was sponsored by The Victorian Department of Health and Human Services. This event bought together health service organisations, philanthropists, state and federal government representatives, not-for-profits, medical research institutes, universities and other key stakeholders to talk about the power of collaboration in leveraging government funding for health and medical research.
Around 100 guests heard from industry leaders and sector influencers to better understand how working together can increase success in seeking funding. Research Australia also launched their report on ‘Non-Government funding for Victorian Health and Medical Research sharing the key outcomes to bring to light some of the challenges and opportunities in the sector. To view the report please click here.
The Hon. Jenny Mikakos, Minster for Health opened the event welcoming attendees and session included a fireside chat with Prof Graeme Samuel AC, a presentation from Harold Mitchel AC and a panel of Research Australia members sharing their learnings from specific collaborations included Prof Doug Hilton AO, WEHI, Prof Kathryn North AC, MCRI, Prof Ricky Johnstone, Peter Mac, Megan Donnell, San Filippo Children’s Foundation. The audience also had the unique opportunity to work in tailored groups to form real-time collaborations for funding.
Thank you to our sponsor, the Department of Health and Human Services, to all our wonderful speakers, facilitators and panellists and to the attendees for their participation in this event, we are delighted with the outcomes.
Should you wish to find out more please contact Sally Shepherd (02) 9295 8545 or email sally.shepherd@researchaustralia.org.
Left: Stronger Together Conference Chair, Research Australia Director and Executive Leader Bupa Health Foundation, Associate Professor Annette Schmiede & Right: Frank McGuire MP, Parliamentary Secretary, Victorian Government
Left: Research Australia Chair, Chris Chapman, Middle: The Hon. Jenny Mikakos, Minister for Health, Right: Associate Professor Annette Schmiede
One of the collaborative working groups discussing a funding project over a working lunch.
ALP GUARANTEES $20B HEALTH AND MEDICAL RESEARCH FUND
After years of campaigning by Research Australia, the Australian Labor Party has committed to the full $20 billion capitalisation of the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) by 2020-21.
The MRFF is a once-in-a-generation plan to underwrite health and medical research, providing better health outcomes for all Australians; and a safer, better quality and more effective health system.
Research Australia CEO and Managing Director, Nadia Levin, said she was thrilled that the MRFF now has bipartisan support, with the fund to reach the full $20 billion by 2020-21.
“Let’s be clear – every dollar invested into medical research is a dollar invested into the health of all Australians, and the health of our economy,” Ms Levin said.
“This funding will make a tangible, measurable difference to the lives of Australians, from treatments for people touched by common killers, through to those with rare diseases.
“It is incredibly rewarding to see both sides of politics reflecting so closely the commitment we called for in our Pre-Election Statement<https://researchaustralia.org/pre-election-statement/> on behalf of the health and medical research community.
“We would like to express our gratitude to the Shadow Minister for Health and Medicare, Hon Catherine King MP for meeting with us recently in April to discuss the issue.
“At the end of the day, this funding will allow new medical discoveries and treatments to bring hope to Aussie patients.
“Research Australia recognises the significant scale of this win, which our membership has been calling for since we convened a Pre-Election summit in 2018.
“This bipartisan support is an important underwriting of a rapidly evolving area of research and healthcare, and will further strengthen Australia’s expertise and build upon our potential.
“The beneficiaries of the MRFF are universities, medical research institutes, not-for-profits and commercial medical research, and ultimately the Australian people and the economy.
“I challenge people to come up with a list more worthy of support.”
To find out more about Research Australia visit: www.researchaustralia.org<https://www.researchaustralia.org>
For more information please contact: Lauren Devlin 0449 041 214
2019 Budget Update
Summary
Notwithstanding a slowing global economy, the 2019 Federal Budget provides an optimistic forecast for Australia’s economic future, with a forecast return to Budget surplus, tax cuts and several new funding announcements, as might be expected with an election to be held within weeks.
The imminent election means less certainty than usual around whether all Budget announcements will be implemented. While health and medical research is fortunate to have strong bipartisan support, if the Government changes at the next election so could some spending priorities. With that proviso, the following is what we know about Budget announcements tonight relating to health and medical research.
The Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) remains on track to receive a massive $7.8 billion capital injection in 2019/20 and to reach its capital target of $20 billion by 2020/21.
Since January we have seen more than $800 million in MRFF funding announcements committed to new programs spanning up to a decade, and a 10 year plan for nearly $5 billion in MRFF funding has been announced tonight.
The NHMRC funding announced tonight provides for continued small increases in funding over the four year budget estimates, at less than the rate of inflation. While the same is largely true for the Australian Research Council Funding programs, funding for the Research Support Program has been cut significantly, hampering the ability of our universities to conduct research.
Read on for more detail.
Medical Research Future Fund
$20 billion in capital by 2020/21
As at 31 December 2018 the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) had $9.4 billion in capital. Tonight’s Budget maintains the Government’s commitment to reach the target of $20 billion in capital by 2020/21, with a forecast balance of $20.2 billion at 30 June 2021. $7.8 billion is scheduled to be added to the capital in the next financial year, by far the single largest capital injection since the MRFF’s inception. A further $2.5 billion in 2020-21 would take the balance to a little over $20 billion. We will watch with interest to see how the commitment to $7.8 billion in 2019-20 plays out.
MRFF Capital Injections
| $m. | 18-19 | 19-20 | 20-21 | 21-22 |
| Capital to the MRFF | 2,288.550 | 7,830.490 | 2,522.178 | Nil |
Funding from the MRFF
Forecast spending from the MRFF remains largely as expected, over the forward estimates, with $396 million available to fund medical research and innovation in 2019/20, rising to $650 million by 2022/23. The forecast for 2020/21 is $579.9 million, some $70 million less than was forecast in the Budget last year. The likely explanation is that the Department is unable to keep up with the rapid increase in the funding available, and is opting to spend wisely rather than quickly. Any funds not spent remain in the MRFF and are available in following years.
MRFF expenditure
| $m. | 18-19 | 19-20 | 20-21 | 21-22 | 22-23 |
| MRFF Funding 2019 Budget | 222.4 | 396.0 | 579.9 | 646.0 | 650.0 |
| MRFF Funding 2018 Budget | 222.4 | 392.7 | 650.2 | 646.0 | N/A |
MRFF Funding Announcements
The Budget included numerous announcements of further funding to be made in the next financial year and further years, with a plan over 10 years, allocating nearly all available MRFF funds over that period. Nearly all of this is the continuation of programs and Missions that have already been funded, including providing funding of $70 million per annum for the Frontiers program instigated by Research Australia from 2021-22.
The surprise inclusions in the MRRF funding announcements are two programs funding research and innovation infrastructure. The first of these is $605 million over 10 years for National Critical Infrastructure. Starting with $5 million in 2019-20, it rises to $75 million per year from 2022-23. This is the Health Portfolio’s contribution to funding of the 12-year National Research Infrastructure Investment Plan announced in last year’s Budget.
The second is a smaller program of funding for Data Infrastructure, expected to fund registries, biobanks and data linkage. This Program provides $10 million a year from 2020-21, and applications for funding are expected to be called for soon.
Together these programs represent a very significant investment in infrastructure, totaling $685 million over 9 years, and nearly $1 in every $7 of MRFF funding over the 10 year plan.
Health and Medical Research Office
Tonight’s Budget also includes $20 million over the next four years to create the Health and Medical Research Office (HMRO) within the Department of Health. The new HMRO will oversee the rapidly increasing level of investments made by the MRFF. It will have its own CEO, appointed by the Secretary of Health, ensuring the MRFF continues to have ‘the right administrative support.
‘The new CEO will be a contact point for greater community and international engagement, provide greater expertise around investments from the MRFF and ensure greater expertise around developing HMR strategy and policy.’
NHMRC and ARC Funding
In Research Australia’s Pre- Budget Submission and our Pre-Election Statement we have called for increases in funding for the NHMRC and ARC’s research programs. This Budget sees both schemes continue to decline in real terms, which is of genuine concern to the health and medical research community.
NHMRC Programs
The 2019/20 Budget reveals funding for the NHMRC’s programs falling in real terms. Funding to the Medical Research Endowment Account (MREA) for the NHMRC’s research programs is $842.766 million for 2018-19. Continuing the pattern of last year’s budget, the estimates for the following three years have the funding remaining virtually stable with increases of roughly 1.5% each year.
The CPI was 1.8% for the year to 31 December 2018, so in real terms Government funding to the MREA continues to decline over the forward estimates, as it has for several years now.
(In Budget Paper 1 at page 9, the following forecast for CPI is provided. ‘Consumer price inflation is forecast to be 2¼ per cent through the year to the June quarter 2020 and 2½ per cent through the year to the June quarter 2021.’)
NHMRC MREA Funding
| $m. | 18-19 | 19-20 | 20-21 | 21-22 | 22-23 |
| Funding to the MREA 2019 Budget | 829.324 | 842.766 | 856.250 | 869.950 | 883.870 |
ARC Programs
The Australian Research Council’s Funding Programs are critical to Australian publicly funded research including to the life sciences and medical technologies.
Over the forward estimates, the funding to the ARC for the Discovery Program declines slightly in later years compared to the estimates in last year’s Budget, a trend that has been continuing for three years now. The increases year on year are a little greater than the current inflation rate of 1.8% and around the forecast CPI.
| $m. | 18-19 | 19-20 | 20-21 | 21-22 | 22-23 |
| Discovery (2019 Budget) | 493.951 | 507.044 | 513.542 | 525.537 | 538.350 |
The Linkage Program was singled out in the Government’s National Innovation and Science Agenda (NISA) as an important component of Australia’s innovation system, and it was announced that from 1 July 2016 the Program would be open to continuous applications and decision making would be fast tracked. Funding over the forward estimates is lower than forecast in last year’s budget and shows increases at around the rate of CPI.
| $m. | 18-19 | 19-20 | 20-21 | 21-22 | 22-23 |
| Linkage (2019 Budget) | 265.974 | 279.168 | 288.788 | 295.246 | 301.741 |
| Linkage (2018 Budget) | 273.990 | 285.432 | 293.492 | 297.862 | N/A |
While not funding ‘medical and dental research’, the ARC Linkage program remains important to the health and medical research and innovation sectors. For example, the latest round of ARC Linkage Program grants included funding for tissue engineering of blood vessels and the reduction of anxiety in children with autism.
Research Support
In addition to providing funding for the ARC Program, the Department of Education and Training also provides funding to universities to help cover the indirect costs of research. The Research Support Program has suffered significant cuts compared to the Budget forecasts for last year; funding for 2019-20 is more than $50 million lower than forecast last year, and nearly $100 million lower in 2021-22.
Research Support Program
| $m. | 18-19 | 19-20 | 20-21 | 21-22 | 22-23 |
| 2019 Budget | 894.016 | 902.062 | 920.573 | 941.748 | 962.455 |
| 2018 Budget | 903.425 | 959.816 | 1,018.879 | 1,042.302 |
Funding for the indirect costs of research funded by the MRFF is now to be provided from the Research Support Program. With the MRFF providing hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to universities over the next few years, a substantial increase in the Research Support Program is needed just to maintain the levels of research support funding for research projects at their current already inadequate level. The cuts to the Research Support Program represent a real threat to the capacity of our universities to undertake vital health and medical research.
The issue of indirect research costs remains unresolved for the whole health and medical research sector and indeed publicly funded research more broadly. Research Australia continues to call for a whole of government approach to the issue of funding indirect research costs. Research Australia proposes that the Chief Scientist lead a review of the funding of indirect research costs to establish a sustainable and equitable funding program.In the short term, the pool of funding for the Research Support Program must be increased substantially.
CRC Program
Funding forecasts for the CRC Program are largely in line with last year’s budget. The program is forecast to receive $922 million over the period from 2018/19 to 2022/23.
CRC Program $million
| $m. | 18-19 | 19-20 | 20-21 | 21-22 | 22-23 |
| 2019 Budget | 167,341 | 184,150 | 187,356 | 192,239 | 191,223 |
The CRC Program is important to health and medical research and innovation with about one third of the CRCs funded over the life of the program being health-related. The most recent round of CRC funding included $55 million over 7 years for the Digital Health CRC.
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