ARC success

The Health Informatics Research and Evaluation Unit has been successful in the latest ARC grant round, securing large Linkage and Discovery grants.

The ARC Linkage Grant totalling $2,306,000 ($1,550,000 from the ARC and $756,000 from the industry partner, Sydney South West Area Health Service), will investigate information technology and its capacity to support innovations in health care delivery.

Our analysis indicates this is the largest ARC Linkage grant awarded this round in Australia, of 218 national Linkage grants.

Project Details: Prof JI Westbrook; Prof J Braithwaite; A/Prof K Gibson; Dr RJ Paoloni

Use of information and communication technologies to support effective work practice innovation in the health sector: a multi-site study

Australia must develop and implement new models of health service provision to increase capacity and reduce errors within workforce and resource constraints. Working with one of the largest area health services in NSW this project will address this challenge. The results will directly benefit the community by creating and testing new models for how health professionals can use information technologies to improve the safety, quality and efficiency of health care services. The findings will underpin national efforts to improve the productivity and effectiveness of the health workforce and its ability to respond to hanging demands. The effective use of IT is a critical enabling factor for national productivity and growth.


The ARC Discovery Grant totals $1,580,000 over five years and will examine, across Australia, teams, communities of practice and clinical networks that are the building blocks in providing effective health services.

We are using novel and exciting research methods to do this, and will be developing a framework for future evaluation work. Internationally, this has not been undertaken previously. This also appears to be the largest ARC Discovery grant awarded this year in the country, of 845 grants funded Australia-wide.


Project details: Prof J Braithwaite; Prof JI Westbrook

Evaluating communities of practice and social-professional networks: the development, design, testing, refinement, simulation and application of an evaluation framework

Multiple national benefits are realized by this research, including addressing National Research Priority number 3, Promoting and maintaining good health. We will understand more clearly than previously the types of behaviours and attitudes that lead to or inhibit communities and networks, which means we can do something to improve these. Team based workplaces can be more productive, socially satisfying and professionally rewarding.

Educational programs will benefit from the results and organisations can improve the way they work and treat staff, customers and other stakeholders. We can transfer the results to other industries, Australia's trading partners and the international community.

This exciting new work aligns well with existing projects and will allow the Unit to extend this work in several new directions.