Student Placement Project Summary

Introduction:

Australia has been very successful in research and development as it produces 3% of the world’s research with only 0.3% of the population(Australia Chief Scientists 2014, WWW), however, research discoveries have not led to greater improvement in clinical practice as these breakthroughs are not fully translated into potential treatment for various reasons. As a result, Australia was ranked 107th on the global innovation efficiency index in 2012 , which suggests that Australia is inefficient in extracting the benefits from its research outcomes and there is an urgent need to accelerate the translation of research outcomes into useful clinical practice.

The aim of this placement project is to determine the current status of translational research in Australia by analysing the translational health research activity being conducted in medical research institutes and universities across Australia.

Definition:

The term ‘translational research’ has only come onto the scene in recent years and its definition is somewhat unclear to many. It is known as ‘from-bench-to-bedsides’, which simply means translating basic sciences into evidence-based clinical practice, and a more accurate description of translational health research would be ‘the process of applying ideas, insights and discoveries generated through basic scientific discovery to the treatment of prevention of human disease’. Despite the fact that ‘translational research’ is not clearly defined, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) ‘T1-T4 Research Translation Framework’ where research translation is divided into four phases, can be used to help us understand the essential steps involved in research translation. (Australian Government 2013, WWW)

Below shows the NIH Research Translation Framework:

T1 - Early Translation / Basic science, and Phase I and II clinical trials
T2 - Late Translation / Observational studies, phase III and IV clinical trials, and guidelines for clinical practice
T3 - Dissemination / Clinical education, conferences and marketing, and Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) approval, and Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) listing
T4 - Adoption / Studies assessing policy proposals

Table -1

Figure -1 (Australian Government 2013, WWW)

Funding sources:

The Commonwealth Government has been a consistent and the most important supporter of health and medical research through the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), Health and Hospitals Fund and other agencies such as the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and the Australian Research Council (ARC) (Department of Health 2013, WWW).

Below shows the funding sources for health and medical research (Research Australia 2014, WWW):

Australian
Government / States & Territories / Private
non-profit / Business / Total
Investment ($ million) / 3,297 / 776 / 259 / 1,220 / 5,552
% of total / 59 / 14 / 5 / 22 / 100

Figure-2

Asindicated clearly, The Government is the major source funding for health and medical research, contributing to over 50% of the total funding.

As can be seen from the above table, the investment in basic science research is enormous. It is estimated that while over $8 billion is spent annually in Australia on research across all sectors, the funding available for translational research is less than 1.5% of the total amount (Australian Government 2013, WWW). Compared to other countries such the US and the UK where translational research has been prioritized receive a huge amount of funding from the government and private sectors (Australia Chief Scientist 2014, WWW), translational research in Australia is underfunded.

Data Collection:

The main method of data collection used was email survey. We conducted an email survey in December 2013 to determine the translational health research activity being conducted in medical research institutes and universities across Australia. A generic email with two questionnaires attached (Questionnaire One - aiming to obtain the total number of projects in different technology streams; Questionnaire Two - aiming to determine the funding source. Please see Appendix for the questionnaires.)was sent to 100 medical research institutes and universities across Australia in December 2013.Despite many attempts of contacting those research institutes through various means, we only received 10 responses in mid-January 2014.

Besides that, online literature research was also conducted for data collection as some of project activities are available publicly online.

Limitations in data-collection:

Overall, we had a relatively low survey response rate from the email survey and were unable to collect adequate data for further analysis. There are a few factors that can contribute to this low response rate:

  1. Definitions and terms used in the questionnaires were not clearly explained.
  2. The email survey was sent out at the end of the year when many of the survey recipients were away and unable to respond to the survey.
  3. Some of the research institutes were unable to compile the data we requested due to time constraints.
  4. There seemed to be a lack of organization and cooperation within some of the research institutes/universities as some of survey recipients stated that it was impossible to collect and compile the data we requested.

Conclusion:

As a result of inadequate responses from the email survey, further analysisand definite conclusion can’t be made. A better way of data collection should be used in further investigation.

Despite the fact that we did not get to collect all the data we needed, this placement project gave me a lot of insight into translational research and helped to me appreciate the importance of effectively translating scientific discoveries from basic research into therapeutic applications. Considering that the burden of disease is Australia has changed over the last few decades, which leads to increased demand for new treatment and up-to-date therapeutic guidelines, translational research is therefore of great importance in improving the quality of healthcare and should be prioritized.

Appendix:

References:

  1. Research Australia 2014, Research Australia, viewed 25 Feb 2014,
  2. Australia’s Chief Scientist 2014, Australia Government, viewed 25 Feb 2014
  1. Dutta, S, The Global Innovation Index 2012 -Stronger Innovation Linkages for Global Growth

, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), France, viewed 15 Jan 2014

  1. Australian Government, Strategic Review of Health and Medical Research- Summary Report 2013, Australian Government (Department of Health and Ageing), viewed 15 Jan 2014
  1. Department of Health 2013, Review of Health and Medical Research in Australia, Australian Government (Department of Health), viewed 20 Feb 2014

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