McKeon Review Released for Public Access

The report of the McKeon Review – Strategic Review of Health and Medical Research – Better Health through Research has been released by Minister for Health Tanya Plibersek.
In 2011, the Federal Government commissioned Mr Simon McKeon and a panel of experts, including Elizabeth Alexander AM, Professor Henry Brodaty AO, Bill Ferris, AC, Professor Ian Frazer AC and Professor Melissa Little, to conduct a major independent review of health and medical research in Australia.
According to Ms Plibersek, the review focuses on maximising Australia’s capacity to produce world class health and medical research across the research spectrum, from discovery through to translation.
“It found that Australia has one of the world’s best performing health systems,” Ms Plibersek said. “But we need new strategies and processes to drive improvement in healthcare delivery through a renewed and fully integrated health and medical research sector.
“The overarching vision of the report is embedding health and medical research into all aspects of the health system. This is because health services that conduct research deliver better health outcomes for patients.
“The review recommends a 10 year strategy with 21 recommendations across a number of themes to achieve the vision.
“Some of the recommendations directly impact on the running for the public hospital system which is managed by the states and territories and I intend to take the report to the Standing Council on Health and to seek feedback from my state and territory counterparts.
“There are many people and organisations from researchers, health professionals and consumers who have already provided input in the review process and will be interested in its conclusions.
“The government will engage with relevant parties in formulating its response,” Ms Plibersek said.
The report can be accessed at: http://www.mckeonreview.org.au