Centres and Units
A major strength of our School is our close relationship with a range of associated Research Centres and Units. Their staff are research-focused but are also often involved in policy and practice in areas related to their research. Staff in Research Centres also contribute to our teaching programs and are actively involved in research supervision.
The National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research is one of Australia's leading medical research centres and is recognised internationally as a leader in the field of research into HIV/AIDS and viral hepatitis. It was founded in 1986 as the NH&MRC Special Unit in AIDS Epidemiology and Clinical Research. The current name was adopted in January 1990 to reflect its expanded role under the National HIV/AIDS Strategy. The Centre is advised by a Scientific Advisory Committee, who report to the Australian National Council on AIDS, Hepatitis C and Related Diseases (ANCAHRD).
The National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC) was established at the University of New South Wales in May, 1986 and officially opened in November, 1987. It is funded by the Australian Government as part of the National Drug Strategy (formerly the National Campaign Against Drug Abuse). NDARC is situated on the UNSW Randwick campus.
The Centre for Health Informatics engages in research, development and commercialisation of advanced information and communication technologies for health care delivery. CHI pursues research into clinical decision-support, clinical communication, home telecare and evaluation.
The Centre for Clinical Governance Research in Health is an international research facility with the core focus and mission to investigate and provide new knowledge about policy, governance, organisation, work and leadership in the health sector. Staff secure research funding from national and international sources and publish in international journals such as British Medical Journal, The Lancet, Social Science & Medicine, Health Services Management Research, International Journal of Health Planning and Management, Journal of Health Services Research and Policy, and Organization Studies.
The Centre for Primary Health Care and Equity (CPHCE) is part of the Faculty of Medicine and is associated with the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of New South Wales. In 2005, the CPHCE was recognised as an official Research Centre of the University of New South Wales. The development has been pivotal in formalising and consolidating the research we conduct and strengthens our reputation as a leading research centre here and overseas.
The CPHCE brings together four exisiting research groups:
The Centre for Primary Health Care and Equity is committed to intervention research that has an impact on policy and practice. Our research falls into three broad streams of work, each of which has key program areas within them:
Stream 1: Prevention and Management of Chronic Diseases
Stream 2: Primary Health Care System Development
Stream 3: Understanding and Intervening to reduce Health Inequalities
These streams reflect our belief that the organisation and management of health services is critical for effective clinical care and health improvement programs, and that this must reflect the needs of communities and the particular barriers they may face in maintaining good health.
We are also actively engaged in building capacity for research in primary care linked to these streams of work, particularly through our
Primary Health Care Research Network (PHReNet) which provides research skills training and mentoring for primary health care practitioners and organisations.
Our work includes projects that address policy, practice and infrastructure development. The focus is on health equity and primary health care, but also includes links to other parts of the health system (such as hospital care and the community sector) and other non health sectors that are essential for effective primary health care and tackling health inequalities. We conduct national, state and local projects. This enables us to address large system issues while at the same time seeing their impact at a community level.
The
Muru Marri Indigenous Health Unit works to develop culturally and contextually-appropriate curricula, partly by fostering links between Medicine, students and Indigenous communities. In consultation with the community-controlled health sector, the unit aims to auspice research and expand the options for post-graduate training in Indigenous health.
NSW Hospital Infection Epidemiology and Surveillance (HIESU) Unit is located in the School of Public Health and Community Medicine, at UNSW. Research from the Unit includes research into the behaviour and clinical practices associated with infection management, the epidemiology of pressure ulcer and its prevention, and general hospital epidemiology. Currently, activities include collaboration into an examination of crisis management issues and infection control during the SARS outbreak in Hong Kong and a post-SARS debriefing workshop in Hong Kong on behalf of the Hospital Authority. Current work includes collaboration into an evaluation of surveillance methodologies for healthcare associated infections and healthcare workers' handwashing behaviour. Previous work undertaken by the Unit was the development and implementation of the first standardised surveillance system for hospital infection for NSW public hospitals on behalf of the NSW Health Department. The pilot was fully funded by the NSW Health Department between 1998 to 2001 and was call "Hospital Infection Standardised Surveillance" (HISS) program. Several objectives of this research were to develop cost-effect standardised surveillance protocols which focused on patients with the highest risk for sentinel preventable infections that included surgical site infection, bloodstream infection and infection with a multiple resistant microorganism; and to determine whether reliable benchmark rates for these sentinel infections could be achieve through aggregation.
The Population Health and Use of Medicines Unit (PHUM) was established in June 2004 for the purpose of researching the health outcomes related to the Australian community’s use of prescription medicines and is situated in the Therapeutics Centre at Sydney’s St Vincent’s Hospital. The PHUM Unit's principal objective is to conduct policy relevant research to advance knowledge relating to the population health outcomes associated with changes in drug use in specific health priority areas such as mental health, cardiovascular disease, arthritis and diabetes. As well as investigating adverse effects of medicines, the PHUM Unit also investigates the positive effects medicines have on the health of Australians, any unanticipated effects of prescription medicines that arise after they have been on the market for some time, and whether the benefits of prescription medicines outweigh the harms. The PHUM Unit aims to disseminate research results to Australian health policy makers in a timely manner.
The
Health Professional Education Group (HPEG) is a group of staff in the School of Public Health and Community Medicine, who are interested in the scholarship of learning and teaching.