Welcome from Professor Sir John Savill

Welcome to the first MACH newsletter of 2023, and I hope the first few months of your year have been successful and productive.

Reflecting on the celebrations of International Women’s Day yesterday – I’m hopeful our MACH committees and Future Leader Programs can play a role in addressing the disparity in gender equality.

This includes our 2023 MacHSR Fellowship program, which I’m excited to announce is open for applications. The program, now in its second year, supports front-line clinicians to upskill in health services research by focusing on an evidence-based solution to a practical healthcare problem. Projects that address aspects of healthcare sustainability, or the healthcare of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds are strongly encouraged.

Read about the first intake as participants share reflections of their journeys, and learn how you can participate in the program before applications close on 20 March. 

Last week capped off an extraordinary first year for the Victorian Clinical Trials Education Centre (V-CTEC), supported by the Victorian Research Translation Centre Collaborative and many other valued partners. At the inaugural V-CTEC Annual Conference, it was announced the resource will be relaunched nationally as the Australian Clinical Trials and Education Centre (A-CTEC) – its rapid growth a success story of a local collaboration scaled nationally.

It is also great to report we recently finalised a suite of MACH projects funded through the MRFF Rapid Applied Research Translation scheme, designed to accelerate translation of research findings into health care. Pleasingly, many of the projects have received additional funding, which will support their sustained impact.

One of these projects is Future Health Today, a point-of-care tool for front-line clinicians that was successfully piloted by Western Health and the University of Melbourne. It aimed to optimise the early detection and management of chronic kidney disease in general practice and is now expanding into diabetes and heart disease. You can read about this work below and explore the range of MACH RART-funded projects on our website.

And while it’s still relatively early in the year, I’m pleased to say we’re well into our events season, including a big turnout to the very popular EMCR-Research Design series presented in collaboration with the MISCH Hub. We also have an upcoming Education and Workforce Symposium looking at ways to 'Rethink, Renew and Retain' the workforce, and My Life as a Biomedical Scientist – sharing experiences, challenges and opportunities on pathways for early and mid-career researchers. You can read more and register for future events below.

I thank you all for your continued support of MACH and wish you all the best until we speak again.

Regards,

Professor Sir John Savill
Executive Director

Increasing HSR skills at the frontline

In 2022, our first cohort of doctors, nurses and allied health professionals commenced their MacHSR Future Leaders Fellowship journey. With the 2023 intake open until 20 March, current MacHSR Fellows and hospital leads share insights into how the Fellowship is creating opportunities and bringing health services research (HSR) skills to the clinical frontline.

Detecting and managing chronic disease early

Upcoming MACH Events

EMCR Workshop Series: Accessing MRFF Funding – 
Seminar 5. The 2023 Early to Mid-Career Researchers Grant Opportunity

This seven-part workshop series is for University of Melbourne-affiliated and MACH-partner EMCRs and focuses on how to prepare competitive MRFF funding applications.
 

My Life as a Biomedical Scientist

Open to EMCRs from across MACH partners, this workshop is an opportunity engage with industry leaders and discover various pathways to a successful career in a biomedical science.
 

This online seminar features experts in medical education and workforce development giving their insights on how to rethink, renew and retain staff.

Aimed at non-statisticians, this seminar is the second in our five-part webinar series and will present several common approaches to analysing change in outcomes from baseline in randomised controlled trials.

Implementation Science Health Conference Australia 2023

ISHCA 23 will be held in Sydney, bringing together leaders in implementation science and practice to share successful innovations and insights on how to sustain evidence-based healthcare improvement at scale. This year's theme is ‘Scale. Sustain. Success.’

Are you following MACH on social media?  

Between newsletters, keep up to date with the latest news in translational health research by following MACH on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Featuring the amazing work happening right across our partnership – we look forward to connecting with you!

        

Thank you for your continued support