NHMRC is Australia’s peak body for supporting health and medical research; for developing health advice for the Australian community, health professionals and governments; and for providing advice on ethical behaviour in health care and in the conduct of health and medical research.
It’s been a great privilege to have been the head of NHMRC for going on a decade. That’s four governments, six health ministers, a funding increase from A$437 million in 2006 to A$859 million today.
The idea of research reducing health-care costs may seem counter intuitive because it often leads to the development of expensive drugs, technologies, and treatments.
EPA/ANGELIKA WARMUTH
Quality health care can be expensive and medical research has traditionally been thought to play a role in making it so. But research can also help cut the cost of medical care. The notion of research…
Judging the achievements of researchers should be much broader than just looking at their publications.
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Few things are changing faster in the research world than publishing. The “open access” movement recognises that publicly-funded research should be freely available to everyone. Now more than a decade…
If allegations of research misconduct are upheld, NHMRC can cease funding and recover previous funds.
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Scientific research requires a commitment to total honesty. This is a foundation upon which the country’s two major research funders’ Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research is based. Misconduct…
Few recommendations have changed since 2003 but the evidence has strengthened.
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After nearly four years in the making, around 55,000 research publications reviewed, nutrients modelled into food and food groups, independent expert review and several rounds of consultations, the National…
Guidelines help doctors decide on the best way to treat patients.
Jocelyn Augustino/FEMA News Photo
Elim Papadakis, National Health and Medical Research Council
TRANSPARENCY AND MEDICINE – A series examining issues from ethics to the evidence in evidence-based medicine, the influence of medical journals to the role of Big Pharma in our present and future health…
A boycott by researchers against the academic journal publisher Elsevier has reignited the debate about open-access to scholarly work.
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One of the important benefits that the public expects from publicly funded health and medical research is access to the published findings of that research. Patient groups, health consumers, advocacy groups…
Media messages about food and portion size are confusing and aren’t always based on sufficient evidence.
Floodkoff
When it comes to diet-related health claims, even the “good” newspapers are usually wrong, making recommendations about which foods people should eat (and avoid) that aren’t based on sufficient evidence…
Francis Crick (right) and James Watson (far left) started a revolution in medicine.
AAP
Medical science has changed the human health and lifespan in the last century and now another revolution is coming in health. This revolution will entail closing the chasm between what medical evidence…