2008 Research Showcase

Primary Health Care Research Showcase
Royal on the Park, Alice Street, Brisbane
Wednesday 5th March 2008, 8am – 1pm

Sponsored by the Queensland Primary Health Care Research Evaluation and Development Collaboration
and supported by Queensland Health

The Showcase was convened by the Queensland PHCRED Collaboration to promote the uptake of research into policy and to provide a platform for a more cooperative and targeted approach to primary health care research. There is growing recognition of the value of research activity within primary health care research. Although, generally the projects that are undertaken are researcher driven and frequently the outcomes are not effectively disseminated to policy makers.

This event was a vehicle for initiating discussion on health policy priorities at a State level, so that the academic sector can align itself in planning research priorities over the next two to five years. It is envisaged that the alignment of the academic sector with the public, private and non government sectors will, over the long term, lead to the more appropriate use of scarce health and research resources. The event also provided the opportunity to showcase existing research that may be of interest to policy makers.

The key factors highlighted as impacting on the engagement between the PHC policy and research communities were:

The fragmented nature of the PHC research community which not only makes it difficult to present a coherent message regarding PHC research but also makes it hard for Government to engage the group as a whole;
Lack of effective avenues for communication between researchers and policy makers; and
A general lack of understanding on behalf of many PHC researchers regarding how to influence policy

The approach taken by the Qld PHCRED Collaboration was to hold the event over a half day with short presentations from key speakers on three key themes. As outlined below these themes were chosen because they are particularly relevant to both PHC research and policy.

Chronic Disease – The primary health care sector plays an important role in chronic disease prevention and management and as such has made a significant investment in research relevant to this subject. This investment is further supported by an increasing Government commitment in this area.
Workforce – In the light of the recent Forster enquiry and ongoing international health workforce shortages it is important to discuss innovative workforce solutions suitable for the Australian health care system.
World Class Best Evidence –World standard primary health care research is undertaken within Queensland and is receiving national and international recognition.

Indigenous health issues relevant to these key themes were featured throughout the Showcase.

We believe the Showcase offered a unique opportunity for the PHCRED Queensland Collaboration to support the establishment of better links within the primary health care sector which will, in turn, lead to better informed health care policy, service delivery and ultimately better health outcomes for Queenslanders.

Program and PHCRED Highlights

Program and PHCRED Highlights (PDF 250KB)

Presentations

These presentations may not be reproduced without permission from the authors.

Introduction

Hon. Stephen Robertson, Queensland Government Health Minister
Philip Davies, Deputy Secretary, Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing (PDF 25KB)

Chronic Disease

Workforce

Assoc. Prof. Richard Murray, Dean of the School of Medicine, James Cook University (PDF 493KB)
Jody Meier, Queensland Health Workforce (PDF 1.9MB)

World Class Best Evidence

Prof. Chris Del Mar, Dean, Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine, Bond University (PDF 214KB)
Assoc Prof Maarten Kamp, Queensland Health Reform Team (PDF 586KB)