NICS has made significant contributions to health care in Australia through collaboration, developing guidelines and other materials, the provision of training, and helping policy development.
Australian access to the Cochrane Library
The Cochrane Library is an online resource containing systematic reviews of health and medical research evidence produced by the Cochrane Collaboration, an internationally-renowned collaboration of health professionals, researchers and consumers. It is widely acclaimed as the ‘gold standard’ in evidence of health care interventions, and is an invaluable tool for clinical decision-making.
NICS has ensured the expertise within the Cochrane Collaboration serves the wider Australian community with the establishment of a new satellite of the Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care (EPOC) Group, which is based at NICS and funded by the Australian Government.
EPOC produces systematic reviews of educational, behavioural, financial, regulatory and organisational interventions designed to improve health professional practice and the organisation of health care services, potentially spanning any clinical area. The Australian satellite also identifies and helps produce priority EPOC reviews relevant to Australia and the surrounding region.
Collaboration
In 2002 NICS ran the first national collaborative program to improve the quality of care in Australia’s emergency departments, a program involving over 50 hospitals from all mainland states and territories.
This program provided clinical teams with quality improvement methods to achieve and sustain change, and designed practical tools to support clinicians in implementing these changes.
The success of this program opened up many other collaborative opportunities:
Tackling under-treated cancer pain program 2004-2006
This was another Australian first, and involved some of Australia’s major cancer treatment centres.
Mental health-emergency care interface project 2004-2006
This initiative has been working to improve the care of people with a mental health problem who present to hospital emergency departments.
National venous thromboembolism prevention program
This program is a ‘world first’ that involves 40 hospitals throughout Australia working together to improve the treatment of patients at risk of developing life-threatening deep vein thrombosis.
Materials and resources
NICS has developed many high quality materials and resources to assist clinicians, managers, policy makers and consumers. As well as developing numerous printed materials, we've also made good use of the internet with targeted campaigns and program specific websites:
- FightFlu - a national campaign and website aimed at increasing influenza vaccination rates amongst people under 65 'at risk' of developing serious complications from flu, and amongst health care workers.
- Evidence Practice Gaps Reports - produced in two hard copy and online volumes, these brief and easy-to-read reports provide over 20 examples of important evidence-practice gaps including: smoking cessation, antiobiotics for the common cold, screening for lung cancer with chest x-rays and care for stroke patients. We undertook a review of the gaps identified in Volume 1 for the period 2004 to mid-2007. You can read the results of this review in the Evidence-Practice Gaps Report 1: A review of developments 2004-2007.
- Taking Action Locally - a printed guide to implementing guidelines on a local level were distributed to every cancer service in Australia.
- NICS Cochrane Library User Guide - developed by the Australasian Cochrane Centre to help users navigate their way around the Cochrane Library.
Partnerships
None of the work NICS undertakes can be managed alone, and by joining with others we’ve produced some very positive results from our efforts to connect evidence with best practice.
On a practical level, researchers, clinicians, allied health and nursing professionals are actively engaged, together with the universities and hospitals in which they work. In fact, 70 per cent of all major Australian public hospitals and 40 per cent of Divisions of General Practice have to date worked with NICS in our clinical programs.
We work at policy level with other important contributors to our work, including government departments, consumer organisations, professional bodies, colleges, and health insurers.
Policy development
NICS has helped shape many areas of Australian health policy.
- Our work on improving the prevention of venous thromboembolism in hospitalised patients has been used to develop performance indicators by the NSW Clinical Excellence Commission, NSW Therapeutics Advisory Group, Royal Australian College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards.
- Our work on defining evidence-practice gaps has been used by the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards to guide the national healthcare accreditation process.
- We are currently working with state and federal governments to explore opportunities for national adoption of NICS indicators in mental health.
Training
Through NICS, the NHMRC plays an important role in training Australian clinicians in the science and practice of evidence implementation. To date, NICS has trained over 1400 clinicians, managers and policy makers throughout Australia.
We have also invested significantly in the future of Australian health by actively identifying and supporting future leaders.
The NICS Fellowship Program was established in 2003 and has already trained and mentored over 30 Fellows and Scholars, offering them generous two-year, half-time stipends, professional development programs and access to experts in their field.