Diamantina Health Partners

Diamantina Health Partners
Geography
Location Brisbane, Australia
Organisation
Hospital type Academic health science centre
History
Founded 2011
Links
Website http://www.diamantina.org.au/
Lists Hospitals in Australia

Diamantina Health Partners is Queensland’s first Academic Health Science Centre (AHSC), bringing together the state’s leading hospitals and universities to improve care for patients in the community.[1][2]

Diamantina Health Partners unites eight of Queensland’s top hospitals, universities and research institutes:

Combined, the partner organisations treat one million patients per year, educate 100,000 students per year, including some 8000 in health sciences, and expend over $3 billion on their objectives, including over $300 million on research.[3] That means better and faster treatments for some of the community’s most devastating diseases and conditions. By bringing together scientists, educators, clinicians and the community, Diamantina Health Partners aims to improve the health of the population by taking the discoveries made in biomedical research labs and translating them directly to patient care. Diamantina Health Partners is based on the internationally recognised Academic Health Science Centre ‘tripartite’ model, which aspires to combine patient care, education and research.

On 24 July 2014, Diamantina Health Partners joined with Children's Health Queensland and the Mayne Health Science Alliance to form Brisbane Diamantina Health Partners: Queensland's first Academic Health Science System.

History

In early 2010 and 2011, a group of Brisbane hospital, university and community health care practitioners, administrators, educators and researchers had several meetings to consider the feasibility of establishing an AHSC.[2] On 18 July 2011, Diamantina Health Partners was officially launched,[4] bringing together eight Queensland institutions with a shared vision and mission to deliver better health outcomes by integrating innovation and excellence in health research, clinical education, and patient care. The partnership is named after Lady Diamantina Bowen. Born in 1833, Lady Bowen initiated and worked for several charities, including the Lady Bowen Lying-In Hospital, the Diamantina Home for Incurables, and the Sisters of Mercy — the Catholic order that established Mater Health Services in Brisbane.[5][6]
The Princess Alexandra Hospital Campus, on which Diamantina Health Partners is located, has a rich history in health care. It's predecessors on the site include:

The Translational Research Institute(TRI), which houses Diamantina Health Partners on the Princess Alexandra Hospital Campus, is the 1st institute in Australia conceived on the basis of the importance of translation in the field of medical research. The Translational Research Institute is a joint venture between The University of Queensland’s Diamantina Institute, Queensland University of Technology’s Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, Mater Research and the Princess Alexandra Hospital’s Centres for Health Research. With 650 researchers, clinicians and educators working together, the institute’s collective expertise across common and serious diseases such as cancer, diabetes, HIV, malaria, obesity, children’s health, and inflammatory, bone and joint diseases is improving public health and enhancing preventative treatments.[8]

Themes and Areas of Research

The collective work of Diamantina Health Partners (DHP) has been divided into seven themes. Within each theme sits a comprehensive set of integrated programs.[9]

Integrated and Comprehensive Cancer Care

The Diamantina Comprehensive Cancer Centre (DCCC) was established by Diamantina Health Partners to improve health outcomes for those affected by cancer through the integration of research, education and clinical care. The DCCC strengthens integration by harnessing the cooperation and strength of the DHP partners. As a theme within DHP, the DCCC espouses the vision, mission and values of DHP. The DCCC is described as comprehensive because it has the complete scope of capability for clinical care of people with respect to cancer diagnoses:

The DCCC seeks to discover new knowledge and capabilities, and it translates such discoveries to clinical utilisation.

Chronic Diseases and Ageing

The Chronic Diseases and Ageing Theme is well positioned to contribute to reducing the national burden of chronic disease. The Theme brings together the specialities of nephrology, hypertension, endocrinology, cardiology, cardiac surgery, and geriatric medicine. It also incorporates the Obesity and Metabolic Collaborative, established as an NHMRC-funded Centre of Clinical Research Excellence partnership between several of the speciality departments across the Princess Alexandra Hospital and Mater Health with research laboratories now co-located in the Translational Research Institute.

Integrated Trauma and Recovery

The Integrated Trauma and Recovery Theme aims to provide state of the art trauma care – from the time of the accident through to optimal recovery. This will be achieved through a holistic trauma patient management and treatment chain: prevention, pre-hospital, hospital and rehabilitation. The Integrated Trauma and Recovery Theme has defined three priority focus areas of clinic inspired research.

Each priority focus area has two coordinators — a clinician and a researcher.

Immunity, Inflammation and Infection

With a highly integrated approach of clinicians and basic scientists the Inflammation, Immunity and Infection Theme aims to elucidate disease mechanisms and develop new treatments that will make a real difference to patients.

Neuroscience, Recovery and Mental Health

The Centre for Neuroscience, Recovery and Mental Health (the Centre) was established to facilitate the utilisation of research and education to effectively inform and improve health care for people with mental health problems. The Centre’s vision is the provision of world class neuroscience research that translates to better clinical outcomes and education programs for mental health. The Centre’s mission is to implement a multidisciplinary framework that encourages and supports collaboration between our partners to maximise the rehabilitation and recovery for individuals, carers and the community that are impacted by mental health problems. The Centre pursues four strategic priorities to help achieve its vision:

Mothers, Babies and Early Development

The Mothers, Babies and Early Development theme encompasses the spectrum of health risks and clinical care of women and their infants before, during and after pregnancy. The interests also extend to later development through childhood and adolescence. The research expertise covers a spectrum from basic science to epidemiology, through clinical trials research to the implementation of basic and clinical discoveries into everyday practice. A key feature of the Theme is a strong link beyond the hospital sector into general practice.

Evidence and Innovation into Clinical Practice

New discoveries and subsequent clinical applications are continuously available for implementation into day to day health care practice. This final stage of application of new discoveries may require significant adjustment of health care practice, training, equipment and protocols. The focus of the Evidence and Innovation Theme is to improve health care delivery by applying and evaluating health care practice improvements to both assist in the implementation of new discoveries, and in the review of current practice.

Partners

Hospitals

Princess Alexandra Hospital
Mater Health Services

Universities

The University of Queensland
Queensland University of Technology

Research Institutes and Services

Translational Research Institute
Metro South Addiction and Mental Health Services
UQ Health Care
Inala Indigenous Health Service

Annual Forum

The Diamantina Health Partners Forum is an opportunity for clinicians, researchers, educators, managers, policy makers and community representatives to meet and discuss the advances being made through collaborative practice to improve health outcomes. The forum, which is held annually in May, presents a unique platform for the establishment of trans-disciplinary partnerships between researchers, educators, health professionals, industry and community.[10][11][12]

References

  1. ↑ Apr 30 – May 1 all-day. "Home | Diamantina Health Partners". Diamantina.org.au. Retrieved 2014-01-29.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Diamantina Health Partners: integrating leadership in research, research translation, education and clinical care | Medical Journal of Australia". Mja.com.au. Retrieved 2014-01-29.
  3. ↑ "Opening speeches | Diamantina Health Partners". Diamantina.org.au. 2011-07-21. Retrieved 2014-01-29.
  4. ↑ "Diamantina Health Partners launch". YouTube. 2011-07-21. Retrieved 2014-01-29.
  5. ↑ Apr 30 – May 1 all-day. "Home | Diamantina Health Partners". Diamantina.org.au. Retrieved 2014-01-29.
  6. ↑ Gilchrist, Hugh. "Biography - Diamantina Bowen - Australian Dictionary of Biography". Adb.anu.edu.au. Retrieved 2014-01-29.
  7. ↑ "Diamantina Health Care Museum | Princess Alexandra Hospital". Health.qld.gov.au. 2013-01-01. Retrieved 2014-01-29.
  8. ↑ "About TRI". Tri.edu.au. Retrieved 2014-01-29.
  9. ↑ Apr 30 – May 1 all-day. "Home | Diamantina Health Partners". Diamantina.org.au. Retrieved 2014-01-29.
  10. ↑ "Annual Forum | Diamantina Health Partners". Diamantina.org.au. 2013-05-02. Retrieved 2014-01-29.
  11. ↑ "2013 Diamantina Health Partners Forum — Australian-Canadian Prostate Cancer Research Alliance". Aus-canprostatealliance.org. Retrieved 2014-01-29.
  12. ↑ "Leading minds meet to revolutionise health care". www.CampusDaily.com.au. 2010-08-25. Retrieved 2014-01-29.

Further reading

External links