 PHCRED Queensland Research Informing Policy in Primary Health Care Forum
2 March 2010
Lily Cheung, PHCRED Queensland
Despite the downpour, over one hundred participants attended the Third Annual Research Informing Policy Forum hosted by PHCRED Queensland in Brisbane in March.
The event attracted professionals working in primary health care service delivery from private, public and non-government agencies. This year the Forum participants focused on building greater inter-sectoral approaches to improving the health and wellbeing of Queenslanders.
Vicki Murphy, Assistant Secretary, Service Access Programs Branch, Primary & Ambulatory Care Division, Department of Health and Ageing, in her keynote address outlined the key principles of reform stating that the current government reform agenda was the greatest scale initiative since the inception of Medicare. Other speakers also outlined their expectations of how the imminent reform package may impact on their agency and sector. Speakers including Director-General of Queensland Health, Mick Reid and Director of the Queensland Social Services Council, Jill Lang outlined their priorities for attaining closer professional collaborations with the primary health care sector.
 Ms Murphy made a key point about research informing policy, suggesting that policy makers were often not able to find relevant research on primary health care conducted in the recent Australian context. In addressing this problem, she suggested that a fruitful initiative from the research community would be to think about opportunities that might emerge from conducting a priority setting mapping activity that could situate current and proposed research areas.
A central theme of this year’s Forum related to translating current research into policy. Some suggestions focused on the importance of understanding the key product offering. Professor Nick Lennox, Murray Watt (MP) and Dr Cindy Shannon, all provided examples of how research is incorporated into policy when the drivers for action align. Their advice included looking broadly at the opportunity for evidence researchers are presenting, the political timing, and traction that may emerge from collaborating across sectors.
Later in the day, participants formed groups to workshop the themes raised in the Forum for future research collaborations. Professor Richard Murray from James Cook University, described this activity as an important undertaking that reflected the resource and opportunity investment of the Forum. He said that he believed the event was a hallmark of the collaborative activities in PHCRED Queensland and by including a commitment to developing a rapid research summary on themes that emerged from the day was one tangible outcome that captures our commitment to building the primary health care evidence base.
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