Engagement and connection between health professionals, researchers and those affected by or who may benefit from research and healthcare improvement is crucial. Policy and funding agencies including NHMRC and MRFF, increasingly recognise and prioritise partnership with consumers or end users, communities, organisations and services in research and healthcare improvement.
The Academic Health Science Centres nationally have made a joint leadership commitment to ‘nothing about us, without us’ – in research and healthcare improvement committing to community partnership.
Whilst such a leadership commitment is important, implementation strategies are needed to deliver genuine engagement. To build capacity in consumer and community involvement (CCI), Monash Partners has engaged extensively with stakeholders, completed a systematic review and co-designed a set of evidence-based resources including six self-paced online training modules, titled Consumer and Community Involvement. The modules offer practical information, strategies and resources on how to meaningfully conduct and embed CCI in research and healthcare improvement projects. We hope access to this knowledge makes a difference to projects and through knowing how to effectively collaborate our health system is shaped to best serve our community.
We continue our work on facilitating clinical research and governance streamlining and on data sharing systems with our Monash Partners data sharing principles and agreement now in the final stages as we move to implementation. Our Learning Health System pilot is now funded by government and is supporting programs of work in high value care and telehealth/virtual models of care.
Our strategic partnership with the Medical Institute of Medical Engineering (MIME) is also well developed, with a focus on practical solutions to real world problems through medical technology and digital health solutions. MIME has a vision to impact on health, deliver solutions for commercialisation and build the cross sector workforce of the future. The next MIME seed funding round is now open, with student summer scholarship HISS programs to be announced shortly.
Stay safe,
Professor Helena Teede
Executive Director, Monash Partners
