To follow on from my comment yesterday that there was a lack of
awareness of the role of IT in care of patients. I am currently
preparing an ARC Grant proposal for research into an information
extraction system using semantic concepts rather than word strings to
retrieve medical case studies. I looked up the National Priorities
(included below) to categorise my application and to my consternation
found that not only could I not find a reference to something related to
my work but there are NO references anywhere in the priorities to any
aspect of IT in Health. No doubt my proposal will not get funded.
SO nowhere in the research bureaucracy does Helath IT rate a mention
cheers
jon
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Research Priority 2: Promoting and Maintaining Good Health
Promoting good health and well being for all Australians.
Average life expectancies have increased markedly in recent decades.
Australians also expect to lead longer and healthier lives in the
future, and to remain productive and independent over an extended period.
Enabling individuals and families to make choices that lead to healthy,
productive and fulfilling lives will yield economic and social benefits
and add materially to national well being.
Australians expect that their children and grandchildren should have a
healthy start to life.
Developing strategies to promote the healthy development of young
Australians, and addressing the causes and reducing the impact of the
genetic, social and environmental factors which diminish their life
potential will be critical.
53
A revolution is also underway at the other end of the life cycle.
Australia, like many other developed nations, is undergoing a major
demographic shift involving significant growth in the aged population.
To meet this challenge, it will be important to promote healthy ageing
by developing better social and medical strategies to ensure that older
Australians enjoy healthy and productive lives.
Informed insights into the causes of disease and of mental and physical
degeneration will contribute to the achievement of this goal.
All Australians stand to benefit from preventive healthcare through the
adoption of healthier attitudes, habits and lifestyles.
Evidence-based preventive interventions may help reduce the incidence
and severity of many diseases, including major health problems such as
cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases, mental ill-health,
obesity, diabetes, asthma and chronic inflammatory conditions. These
could include interventions that reduce exposure to contamination of the
physical environment (eg air pollution).
Improvements in the health and well being of the young, of older
Australians and in preventive healthcare will be underpinned by research.
However, while Australia has an enviable record in health and medical
research, the research effort is spread across the many universities,
hospitals and health and medical research institutes, resulting in
critical mass only in limited areas of research.
There is also a need to draw on multidisciplinary approaches that
include research contributions from the social sciences and humanities.
This priority is designed to promote health and prevent disease through
a more focused and collaborative effort.
Priority goals for research fall in the four areas of a healthy start to
life, ageing well, ageing productively, preventive healthcare and
strengthening Australia’s social and economic fabric.
Priority Goals
• A healthy start to life
Counteracting the impact of genetic, social and environmental factors
which predispose infants and children to ill health and reduce their
well being and life potential.
Human health in the developing foetus and in early childhood is critical
to the future well being of the adult. Research shows that health and
well being in early childhood is predictive of later positive outcomes,
and that health in middle and late childhood is also crucial. This goal
supports the Government’s National Agenda for Early Childhood initiative.
• Ageing well, ageing productively
Developing better social, medical and population health strategies to
improve the mental and physical capacities of ageing people.
Australia’s population is ageing, with a significant projected increase
in the number of people aged over 65 and over 85. While Australia is
relatively well placed compared with many OECD nations, major shifts in
cultural expectations and attitudes about ageing are necessary to
respond constructively, at both an individual and population level. A
healthy aged population will contribute actively to the life of the
nation through participation in the
54
labour market or through voluntary work. This goal supports the
Government’s National Strategy for an Ageing Australia.
• Preventive healthcare
New ethical, evidence-based strategies to promote health and prevent
disease through the adoption of healthier lifestyles and diet, and the
development of health-promoting products.
Preventive healthcare research will improve the prediction and
prevention of disease and injury for all Australians through the
adoption of healthier behaviours, lifestyles and environments. Research
will generate an improvement in the design, delivery and uptake of
programmes such as exercise-based rehabilitation. There are several
major disease targets amenable to immediate study, such as
cardiovascular health, neurodegenerative diseases, mental ill-health,
obesity, diabetes, asthma and chronic inflammatory conditions. Research
on prevention will emphasise interdisciplinary approaches, including
research on ethics, drawing on contributions from the social sciences
and humanities, as well as from the health and medical sciences. It will
also focus on developing new health promoting foods and nutraceuticals.
This goal supports the Government’s Focus on Prevention initiative.
• Strengthening Australia's social and economic fabric
Understanding and strengthening key elements of Australia's social and
economic fabric to help families and individuals live healthy,
productive, and fulfilling lives.
Living in today's society involves a complex web of choices, yet many of
the traditional support structures are weaker than they have been in the
past. Enabling people to make choices that lead to positive pathways to
self reliance and supportive family structures is more important than
ever. The interactions between the social safety net, social and
economic participation, financial incentives and community and private
sources of support are critical in helping people maximise their
potential and achieve good, healthy, lifetime outcomes. In the decade
ahead, it will be vital to understand and support the drivers for
workforce participation and the broader social and economic trends
influencing Australian families and communities. This goal supports the
Government's welfare reform and participation agendas. Research in this
area will emphasise interdisciplinary approaches, drawing on
contributions from the economic, behavioural and social sciences.
begin:vcard
fn:Jon Patrick
n:Patrick;Jon
org:Faculty of Engineering;School of Information Technologies
adr;dom:;;University of Sydney
title:Chair of Language Technology
x-mozilla-html:FALSE
url:http://www.it.usyd.edu.au/~jonpat
version:2.1
end:vcard
_______________________________________________
Gpcg_talk mailing list
[email protected]
http://ozdocit.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/gpcg_talk
