STRENGTHENING EVIDENCE THROUGH HEALTH RESEARCH WHERE MOST PEOPLE ACCESS HEALTHCARE, RACGP joins consortium and calls for practice-based research network in primary health
With
Dr Michael Wright GP, President
The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) &
Associate Professor,
International Centre for Future Health Systems (ICFHS)
Australian Health Journal segment
Filmed in Sydney | March 2025
In February 2025, the Australian Government committed over $22 million for primary care research, including $5.2m awarded to Professor Michael Kidd, Director of the International Centre for Future Health Systems at UNSW and recently appointed Australia’s Chief Medical Officer, to lead the establishment of one of the largest research collaborations in Australia focused on improving primary care.
The Royal Australian College of GPs says a new national multidisciplinary consortium for primary care research is a positive step forward to improve patient care.
The RACGP is a member of the National Multidisciplinary Primary Care Research, Policy and Advocacy Consortium, which involves 100 primary care researchers from 20 universities from across the country.
RACGP President Dr Michael Wright said: “Every year more than 22 million Australians see a specialist GP for their essential health care, making general practice is the most accessed part of our health system.
“Yet research in general practice is vastly underrepresented and underfunded. General practice receives less than 2% of our national medical research funding.
“This new consortium is an important and exciting opportunity to design, test and innovate models of care to better meet the needs of patients across Australia, and I’m proud the RACGP is a member.
“The RACGP is calling for all political parties to commit to funding a national practice-based research network, like they have in Canada and the United Kingdom.
“These networks have proven to be immensely valuable overseas.
“We’re also calling for funding to test how multidisciplinary practice teams work at full scope in Australia, in order to improve access to care for patients.
“We know people get the best outcomes when their GP works together with their other specialists, and health professionals, and it’s especially valuable for people with chronic and complex illnesses.
Source: Highlights from RACGP media release
-
Victorian social prescribing program underway
n Part 2 of the Models of Care on Social Prescribing, Australian Health Journal spoke to 4 people involved in the Connect Local program under the Connecting Communities to Care 4 year program. The free program for over 65’s promotes wellbeing through social connection and is underway in the Glen Eira community in Melbourne.
– Deidre McGill, Executive General Manager, At Home Support, Bolton Clarke
– Ann Van Leerdam, Connect Local Community Connector, Bolton Clarke
– Dr Rajna Ogrin, Senior Research Fellow, Bolton Clarke Research Institute, Bolton Clarke - Dr Daniel Fineberg, Deputy Director General Medicine, Alfred Hospital, Victoria -
Patient-paramedic trust can help free up emergency departments
Dr. Robbie King is a Senior Advanced Care Paramedic with the Queensland Ambulance Service and a community paramedic. He is also a lecturer at the Australian Catholic University in Brisbane. After studying paramedicine and working as a student paramedic since 2009, he recognised that most patients attended by ambulance services did not require emergency interventions.
-
Surgeon-scientist path laid for medical device research
In 2022, Distinguished Professor Gordon Wallace AO and Professor Mukherjee jointly established Beyond Science as a clinician led, academically supported and clinician run Australian-first medical technology translation program.
The program is aimed at early career researchers and clinician-scientists working in medical device research specifically in otolaryngology (ear, nose, and throat), head and neck surgery.
