PROFESSOR IAN FRAZER: AC AMBASSADOR AND CHAIR, TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOUNDATION

Quality health services, informed by quality health research, are recognised increasingly as critical as we recover from the Covid pandemic.

Demonstrating that we have a quality health system will be important to support the recovering tourist industry, and the upcoming Brisbane Olympics, and will also ensure a work force fit for purpose, aiding Queensland’s ability to recover from the recession it seems likely we are about to experience.

Fortunately, the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences has recently put together a blueprint for the future development and enhancement of our health system. The Academy’s proposal envisages the application of an enhanced health knowledge base, derived from research, and will be put into practice by ensuring that the knowledge from that research drives the delivery of health care.

Health service precincts with integrated research capacity, such as can be found in our major teaching hospitals in Brisbane, but equally in facilities as diverse as Springfield Lakes and Townsville, will be leaders in instigating and in benefitting from the application of the recommendations of the AAHMS vision report, entitled “Research and innovation as core functions in transforming the health system” which is available on the Academy web site.

Translation of research into practice not only benefits the health of Queenslanders, but also their financial wellbeing. Poor health practices are no cheaper than quality health care delivery – indeed in the long run they are more expensive, as failure to avoid the consequences of chronic disease results in increased expenditure to fix rather than prevent a problem.

Eventually, good health is a partnership between the health system and the general population. A critical part of this partnership is public education in how to best use the health system. Health services are complex, and come with no “user manual”.

This failing can be fixed: education in how to stay healthy is important, but education in how to use the health system when things go wrong is of equal importance. This education needs to start early and be reinforced regularly, and it also needs to be delivered as available advice rather than mandated instruction, in much the way that health care is delivered with consideration of what will be best for the disease in the context of the particular patient, and not just the disease.

We are fortunate to have a good health system already: a research based system will ensure that good becomes “world class”.