Dr Olivia Fisher and Associate Professor Elizabeth Martin from our Health Services Research team, recently attended Research Australia’s Pre-Election Summit at Old Parliament House in Canberra.
Olivia was invited to be part of the Innovation in Healthcare Panel and spoke about the groundbreaking virtual healthcare research being conducted at Wesley Research Institute.
Olivia and Elizabeth advocated for continued research in the private hospital sector. The private hospital sector is a critical component of Australia’s overall healthcare system, making up almost half of all Australian hospitals and 41% of hospital admissions (2022-23).
Summit attendees and speakers raised the importance of health services research and embedded clinician researchers to improve the quality of care that patients receive. Olivia and Elizabeth highlighted that although there is a strong medical research and clinical trials culture within private hospitals, health services research is a major gap in the private hospital sector, and they spoke about national research and health policy strategies to address this.
Wesley Research Institute will continue working with Research Australia to advocate for research funding and policy reform in the private hospital sector.
The Health Services Research program at WRI aims to improve outcomes for patients by using research to guide the design, implementation and evaluation of new health services. Learn more about this innovative research by clicking the button below.