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2. Guide to the Faculty

Objectives

The primary objectives of the faculty are:

  • Research in the clinical and disciplinary aspects of the health sciences.
  • Teaching in the clinical and academic aspects of the health sciences at both undergraduate and graduate levels.

The supporting objectives are:

  • Facilitation of interdisciplinary study, research and discussion with academic and clinical colleagues through continuing education programs, symposia, workshops, conferences and staff and student exchange activity.
  • Provision of specialised services and advice to disabled and disadvantaged people and agencies (both voluntary and government) within the context of the faculty's academic, teaching and research expertise and purpose.
  • Provision of advice, consultancies and applied research programs to government, commercial and business organisations which share the faculty's common interest in health and health sciences.
  • Development of relationships with international agencies and governments which seek to utilise the expert service and advice of the faculty, within the context of the faculty's teaching mission and purpose.

Academic governance

The faculty operates under the following portfolios and services units:

  • Dean's Unit
  • Faculty Services Unit
  • Research and Innovation
  • Learning and Teaching
  • International and Development
  • Staff Development
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Structure

The faculty's academic structure encompasses the following disciplines:

  • Behavioural and Social Sciences in Health
  • Exercise and Sport Science
  • Health Informatics
  • Indigenous Health Studies
  • Medical Radiation Sciences
  • Occupational Therapy
  • Orthoptics
  • Physiotherapy
  • Rehabilitation Counselling
  • Speech Pathology

The Health Sciences Library provides facilities and information services to support all academic programs run on this campus and is networked to other research libraries.

Centres

Australian Stuttering Research Centre (ASRC)

The ASRC was established in January 1996 and is supported primarily by Federal Government research grants and also by internal funding from the Faculty of Health Sciences. The aims of the ASRC are to:

  • conduct internationally recognised research into stuttering
  • establish international collaborative research relationships
  • translate research into policy and evidence-based practice
  • mentor stuttering treatment researchers
  • serve the professional community by conducting continuing education programs
  • supervise and mentor higher degree research students
  • research the effects of research training on tertiary cohorts
  • inform the wider community of available evidence-based stuttering treatments.

ASRC research interests draw on several disciplines relevant to stuttering including speech acoustics, linguistics, physiology and psychology.

Staff within the ASRC are currently engaged with researchers from Bankstown Stuttering Unit, Macquarie University, Charles Sturt University, University of Newcastle, La Trobe University, Royal Children's Hospital (Melbourne), Murdoch Children's Research Institute (Melbourne), University of Queensland, University of Canterbury (NZ) and the Montreal Fluency Centre.

National Centre for Classification in Health (NCCH) Sydney

The NCCH is a centre for excellence in health classification theory and clinical terminologies. The NCCH creates, maintains and publishes the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision, Australian Modification, a disease classification, which is adapted from the World Health Organization classification ICD-10. The Australian Classification of Health Interventions (ACHI), a comprehensive classification of health procedures and interventions is developed by the centre.

The centre creates Australian Coding Standards (ACS) through a consultative process with clinicians and clinical coders to create best practice guidelines to apply the classification. The Fifth Edition of ICD-10-AM/ACHI/ACS was published in 2006.

The centre has expertise in clinical terminologies, health data quality systems, education for segments of the health data and information sector, and publication of large and complex documents.

The centre's activities include:

  • development and biennial publication of ICD-10-AM, ACHI and ACS
  • development and publication of classification subsets
  • development and production of health classifications in electronic media including ICD-10-AM/ACHI/ACS eBook
  • development and production of ICD-10-AM/ACHI/ACS Electronic Code List and MS Access database
  • convening the Coding Standards Advisory Committee
  • designing and delivering education resources and events for clinical coders and users of coded data
  • planning and delivering biennial conferences
  • creating quality improvement tools and programs for use in coded data collections
  • researching and producing a chronicle of the developments and enhancements made to ICD-10-AM, ACHI and ACS since their inception
  • creating and publishing ICD-10-AM mapping tables
  • producing a quarterly newsletter, Coding Matters, for coders and users of coded data
  • providing consultancies on behalf of the World Health Organization
  • providing consultancy services in Australia and internationally
  • researching and developing various clinical term sets
  • contributing to the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing's Australian Refined Diagnosis Related Groups (AR-DRGs)
  • assisting the Clinical Casemix Committee of Australia and the Clinical Classification and Coding Groups
  • research in classification, terminology and related health information and statistics.

The NCCH also has a site at the Queensland University of Technology (Brisbane).

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Inter-institutional agreements and links

The faculty has developed links with the following institutions:

  • Hanoi Medical University, Vietnam
  • Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
  • Indian Institute of Cerebral Palsy (IICP)
  • Karolinska Institutet, Sweden
  • Massey University, New Zealand
  • McGill University, Montreal, Canada
  • Ministry of Health, Government of Solomon Islands
  • Nanyang Polytechnic, Singapore
  • National Healthcare Group and Singapore Health
  • Singapore Institute of Management
  • Sun Yat-Sen University of Medical Sciences, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China
  • The Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, People's Republic of China
  • The University of Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia
  • University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
  • University of Essex, United Kingdom
  • University of Missouri, United States of America
  • University of Otago, New Zealand
  • University of Philippines System, Philippines
  • University of Washington, Seattle.

The inter-institutional links are designed to strengthen the bonds between academic communities and, in the process, contribute to greater understanding and communication between cultures.

Programs of cooperation involve exchange of information between faculty and where appropriate students, in a variety of educational development and research initiatives.