The HCF Research Foundation awards more than $2 million for health services research projects

Sydney, 19 March 2014 - The HCF Research Foundation is proud to announce funding of a further 10 health service research projects ranging in value from $40,000 to $400,000, with a total value of $2.2 million. The grants are awarded to projects designed to support health services research, and advance the quality, safety and value of health care in Australia.

In 2013 the HCF Research Foundation called for research applications that were aimed at implementing evidence based medicine to reduce unplanned and/or unwarranted variation in hospital care.

The successful 10 research projects that were awarded funding comprise:

• $400,000 to the Inner East Melbourne Medicare Local to support GP’s reduce emergency presentations.
• $370,000 to the University of Newcastle and Hunter Medical Research Institute to reduce unnecessary pathology tests in hospital.
• $300,000 to the Clinical Excellence Commission to improve the care of patients with dementia.
• $300,000 to Macquarie University Hospital to improve pre-admission processes and discharge pathways.
• $190,000 to the Australia and New Zealand Breast Cancer Trials Group to evaluate a decision support tool for women with breast cancer.
• $150,000 to The Children’s Hospital at Westmead to help children who present with appendicitis.
• $140,000 to Hammondcare and South West Sydney Local Health District to compare inpatient and home-based rehabilitation following knee replacement surgery.
• $120,000 to the Royal North Shore Hospital to evaluate fracture risk calculators for osteoporosis.
• $50,000 to the Royal Hobart Hospital to aid families of children and adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes.
• $40,000 to Hammondcare and South West Sydney Local Health District to better understand consumer and clinician preferences for rehabilitation following hip and knee joint replacement surgery.

HCF’s Managing Director, Shaun Larkin, said of the research projects: “We would like to congratulate those that were awarded with research grants from the HCF Research Foundation. We are confident that many Australians will benefit from the research work for many years to come.”

“The 10 successful projects were chosen from 236 applications, and importantly each of the winning projects has the potential to improve the safety and quality of health service delivery for all Australians,” Mr Larkin said.”