Content
NHMRC Newscast January 2010
Minister for Health and Ageing Nicola Roxon announces $487 million in health and medical research funding.
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Transcript of newscast
Newsreader: In this newscast
- xenotransplantation research gets the go-ahead
- Australia’s researchers present their findings on H1N1 swine flu
- and while the government announces $500 million in research funding, the NHMRC calls for more grant applications.
Hello and welcome to this NHMRC Newscast. I’m Simon Tidy.
Xenotransplantation
Newsreader: The five-year recommendation against research into animal-to-human transplants has been lifted. Clinical trials involving xenotransplantation will go ahead in Australia once stringent regulatory and surveillance frameworks are in place.
NHMRC’s Council recommended the change at its December meeting. In a statement, Council said that science and technology had developed greatly since 2004, particularly in evidence related to transmitting animal viruses to humans.
NHMRC’s CEO, Professor Warwick Anderson, said NHMRC would now develop guidance for the researchers and ethics committees involved in animal-to-human studies.
H1N1 workshop
Newsreader: Australian researchers have reported their findings on H1N1 swine flu at an NHMRC workshop in Canberra. The two-day workshop brought together leading researchers and scientists, public health experts, and Chief Health and Medical Officers from around the country.
Some of the issues discussed included
- the potential impact of H1N1 on the Australian economy
- how to improve detection
- and the best strategies for anti-viral use, as well as containment strategies for rural, remote and Indigenous communities.
Summing up the event, WA Chief Medical Officer and NHMRC Council member Dr Simon Towler said the workshop showed just how well the research community could collaborate when an important issue was at stake.
Dr Simon Towler: “Fostering coalition support and partnerships seems to be a very clear element of what makes this stuff work.”
Grants announcement and calls
Newsreader: The Australian Government has announced more than $500 million in funding to boost the nation’s health and medical research effort.
The Prime Minister announced $21 million in Partnership Grants during a visit to Tasmania, and Minister for Health Nicola Roxon announced a further $487 million funding at a special event at Parliament House in Canberra.
Health Minister Nicola Roxon: “In this year’s Budget the Rudd government allocated $703 million to health and medical research. And today I’m announcing a diverse range of new grants which have been awarded through rigorous, expert, peer review processes of the NHMRC.”
Newsreader: The Minister’s announcement covers Project Grants, Enabling Grants and Standard Equipment Grants, as well as Research and Practitioner Fellowships and funding for Australia’s membership of the Human Genome Organization.
Following these announcements, NHMRC put out a call for applications for the next round of funding. You can find out more about the next round of grants and their closing dates on our website.
RGMS
Newsreader: NHMRC has introduced a new online Research Grants Management System known as RGMS.
It replaces a number of old, outdated systems and will, from now on, be the only way to lodge most grant applications, manage their assessment, and manage the grants themselves once they’ve been awarded.
NHMRC staff have been travelling the country explaining the RGMS to Research Administrative Officers.
We provided detailed information on the RGMS in a special edition of our Tracker newsletter on 4 December 2009. If you missed it, you can view a copy on our website.
Guidelines
Newsreader: Health practitioners now have four new sets of guidelines to help them care for their patients.
- Doctors can now disclose genetic information to a patient’s genetic relative without the patient’s consent, but only where the Doctor reasonably believes that disclosure is necessary to lessen or prevent a serious threat to the life, health or safety of the patient’s relative.
- ADHD – Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder – has concerned medical professionals and parents alike for some time. Updated draft guidelines have now been released pending the NHMRC Council’s final decision.
You can get more information on both these documents and keep yourself up-to-date with ADHD developments at the NHMRC website.
The National Institute of Clinical Studies, or NICS, has released two more sets of guidelines. NICS is part of NHMRC. It works to improve healthcare by getting health and medical research into practice.
- NICS has released recommendations on how to prevent VTE, or Venous Thromboembolism, in people admitted to hospital. VTE is also known as Deep Vein Thrombosis or DVT. The recommendations are useful to doctors, nurses, pharmacists and allied health professions, as well as consumers.
- Clinicians in emergency departments will welcome a new Stroke Care Package from NICS. The package provides recommendations in a concise and useable format to improve care for people presenting to an emergency department with acute stroke and transient ischaemic attacks.
These guidelines and recommendations can be downloaded from the NICS website, www.nhmrc.gov.au/nics.
Prostate cancer Parliamentary Breakfast
Newsreader: And finally, here’s a story about teaching our politicians a lesson.
During MOvember, men’s health awareness month, NHMRC staged a Parliamentary Breakfast to educate Commonwealth Members and Senators about an all-too-common disease – prostate cancer.
Several of Australia’s leading prostate cancer researchers and members of the Australian Prostate Cancer Foundation came to Canberra to play the role of educators.
Opening the event, Parliamentary Secretary for Health Mark Butler outlined the enormity of the problem. He said about 20,000 new cases of prostate cancer are diagnosed every year and more than 3,000 men die from it every year.
Parliamentary Secretary for Health Mark Butler: “We’re committed to making serious inroads into the sorts of treatments that people with prostate cancer can avail themselves of and bringing those numbers very, very steadily down into the future”.
Newsreader: And that’s all from this NHMRC Newscast. A reminder that you can find more information on all our stories on our website, www.nhmrc.gov.au. I’m Simon Tidy, thank you for listening.