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Accelerating Research Translation in Healthcare: The Australian Approach

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Managing Improvement in Healthcare

Part of the book series: Organizational Behaviour in Health Care ((OBHC))

Abstract

Many health systems around the world are currently focused on how they might encourage and accelerate research translation activities. This is for the improvement of the health system and citizens, but also in search of commercial advantage. In this chapter we explore three of the organizational mechanisms being used to drive this agenda in Australia—Centres of Research Excellence, Advanced Health Research and Translation Centres, and Clinical Networks. For each we outline the nature of these mechanisms and the evidence available locally and internationally concerning their influence. We note an overall emphasis on governance and structural arrangements, rather than how these arrangements develop locally significant processes of culture change and collaboration or create original capabilities for research translation. Empirical research is needed to understand how these mechanisms operate in practice and interact in the Australian context, while large-scale evaluations could track the types of population health, economic and organizational outcomes that may result from these initiatives, and how they compare with other research translation programmes internationally.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of New South Wales, Canberra, Australia

    Helen Dickinson

  2. University College London, London, UK

    Jean Ledger

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  1. Helen Dickinson
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  2. Jean Ledger
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Correspondence to Helen Dickinson .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom

    Aoife M. McDermott

  2. Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom

    Martin Kitchener

  3. Health Services Management Centre, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom

    Mark Exworthy

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Dickinson, H., Ledger, J. (2018). Accelerating Research Translation in Healthcare: The Australian Approach. In: McDermott, A., Kitchener, M., Exworthy, M. (eds) Managing Improvement in Healthcare. Organizational Behaviour in Health Care. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62235-4_12

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