Funding boost for WA researchers

The Western Australian Health Translation Network (WAHTN) has received $6.1 million to fast-track research results into disease prevention, better treatments and improved patient health.

The grant, from the Turnbull government’s Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF), was the WAHTN’s biggest single funding input since it was established in 2014, said Indigenous Health Minister Ken Wyatt AM.

The new three-year funding arrangement is in addition to the $222,222 already provided this financial year through the MRFF to the WA Health Translation Network.  Wyatt announced the extra investment at the 2018 Science on the Swan Conference in Perth.

The WAHTN represents a collaborative way for universities, hospitals, medical research institutes and health affiliated organisations to work together in Western Australia and to interface with the community.

“The WA Health Translation Network will work with health professionals, including frontline doctors and nurses, to identify areas of need and collaborate with expert researchers to find solutions tailored to patients.

“This is about conducting rapid transformation research that delivers real solutions to health service challenges,” said Wyatt.

The funding will enable the WAHTN to further improve healthcare responses, accelerate technology development and increase consumer involvement in research, said the Minister.

“WA already has a significant research and translation record, from world-famous discoveries in peptic ulcer and muscular dystrophy treatments to pinpointing the critical importance of folate in our diets, which has greatly reduced the number of babies born with spina bifida and other neural tube defects.

The WAHTN was accredited by the National Health and Medical Research Council in 2017 and is one of seven Advanced Health Research and Translation Centres across the country.

“These translation centres are a relatively new type of alliance in Australia but have international parallels,” Wyatt said.

“They build on a growing trend to formalise collaborations between health services, academia and patients to identify and solve healthcare problems.

The Medical Research Future Fund, with $20 billion of preserved capital, is dedicated to fuelling the rapid expansion of health and medical research.

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