Affiliations

University of Wollongong

The Australian Health Services Research Institute's (AHSRI) relationship with the Sydney Business School, University of Wollongong and reflects the way the Institute's links have strengthened across faculties in areas such as management, information systems and health economics.

Several of our members come from other UOW faculties; we value the important contributions these members make and the important role they play in promoting cross-faculty collaboration. Some of our strongest links are with colleagues in our Faculty of Business and Law. We also have established links with the Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health and Faculty of the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities and are looking for opportunities to strengthen our links with the Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences.

Australian universities

AHSRI has collaborations with a variety of other health service research organisations. We have strong links with researchers at:

• University of Newcastle
• University of New South Wales
• University of Queensland
• University of Melbourne
• Queensland University of Technology
• Flinders University
• Edith Cowan University

The NSW-based Australian Mental Health Outcomes and Classification Network (AMHOCN) is a partner that shares the AHSRI interest in data and classification issues, and the use of nationally agreed mental health outcome measures. AHSRI also has links with The George Institute for Global Health (University of Sydney).

Several AHSRI members come from other Australian universities, and we work hard to identify synergies in our work and the work of other leaders in different fields, forming partnerships aimed at maximising the impact of efforts and fostering mutual support.

PCOC is a national palliative care program funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and is a collaboration between the University of Wollongong, University of Western Australia, Flinders University and the Queensland University of Technology. In July 2017, continued funding of the program through to June 2020 saw a change in collaboration partners – from Flinders University to the University of Technology Sydney.

Health industry

We continue to have strong connections to influential industry partners, particularly governmental health authorities including the Australian Government and state and territory departments, local health districts and primary health networks.

The research and information partnership between AHSRI and the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District (ISLHD) is a particularly significant example of our continuing development of strong local collaborations; the Centre for Health Research Illawarra Shoalhaven Population (CHRISP) was established in 2016 and provides a sophisticated information platform to connect data for health and medical research in the Illawarra.

Strong links have also been fostered with a wide range of non-government organisations (e.g. ACOSS), local government and industry groups like the Australian Healthcare & Hospitals Association, the NSW and ACT Aged and Community Services Association, private providers and health insurance groups. 

International links

AHSRI has a growing international reputation. Its staff are regularly invited to present papers at international conferences and to international organisations, e.g. the OECD (on measuring health system performance), the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation, consultancies and development projects on health financing for the World Health Organisation and AusAID; and Oxford Outcomes in the UK (to undertake the Australian language revisions of several health outcomes assessment instruments).

Links between our health outcome centres and New Zealand continue to be strengthened, with New Zealand rehabilitation units well represented in AROC's membership and pain services in New Zealand coming on board to ePPOC.

AHSRI also hosts several international visitors annually.

AHOC continues to collaborate with the MAPI Institute in France and the International Society for Quality of Life Research (ISOQOL) as well as the International Consortium Health Outcomes Measurement (ICHOM).

The education program offered by AHSRI also has an international reach. Members of AHSRI are part of an advanced school on the design and implementation of casemix-based funding models ran by Patient Classification Systems International, which provides programs to an international audience. Further, the course 'Health Economics from Theory to Practice', running since 2005, has been consistently rated by participants as the best course of its type internationally.

A range of groups and individuals with diverse areas of expertise from across the globe frequently collaborate on and participate in AHSRI's varied research projects.

Finally, AHSRI has been involved with the Health Services Research Association of Australia and New Zealand (HSRAANZ) since its inception in 2001, and we continue to subscribe as a corporate group member. The HSRAANZ supports and promotes the conduct and dissemination of applied research to improve the delivery and organisation of health services in Australia and New Zealand.