Clinical research and trials in global health contribute to the development of effective treatments and interventions for global health challenges, such as infectious diseases and non-communicable diseases, improving healthcare access, outcomes, and equity on a global scale.
Clinical research and trials in the Australia and New Zealand region offer foreign companies an opportunity to collaborate with local institutions, tap into diverse patient populations, access high-quality healthcare infrastructure, and gain regulatory approvals, enabling them to expand their market reach and accelerate the development of innovative medical interventions.
ARCS Australia and NZACRes have signed an MoU to collaborate and share information to support clinical trials in both countries. This agreement create a mechanism for joint activity and sharing of knowledge particularly around education.
In this Global Health Talk Dr Shanny Dyer, CEO ARCS Australia and Dr Meghan McIlwain, President, The New Zealand Association of Clinical Research (NZACRes) discuss the clinical research environments in both countries,
ARCS is an Australian based professional organisation which focuses on career long professional development for its members in the therapeutic goods sector. ARCS provides education, competency building and information sharing within communities of practice, and targeted advocacy and collaboration with a range of stakeholders.
NZARes is a professional association for clinical researchers, and was formed to foster and promote clinical research in New Zealand.
Dr McIlwain talks about New Zealand having a straightforward regulatory and ethics approval process for clinical trials, and with Australia’s medical research infrastructure and similar standard of care to New Zealand, it makes it easy for organisations to work seamlessly across both countries.
In this Global Health Talk, Dr Shanny Dyer, CEO ARCS Australia talks about building competency frameworks for therapeutic development. Announcements were made to attendees at its recent major annual conference in Australia for industry, regulators, and clinical colleagues to discuss important issues.
The conference also discussed the need to review the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) process and National Medicines Policy, which are crucial for the development of therapeutics.
Other highlights from the conference included Australia’s efforts to streamline HREC approval and increasing patient ethnic diversity in clinical trials, with a focus on innovative ways to communicate the importance of clinical research to potential participants.
Across Tasman Sea, the biennial conference for clinical research in New Zealand is happening after a four-year hiatus. As mentioned by Dr Meghan McIlwain, in attendance will also be representatives from ARCS.
Clinical trials continued in Australia and New Zealand during lockdown, thanks to collaboration between industry and government, allowing the region to attract trials from other countries.
Both Dr Shanny Dyer and Dr Meghan McIlwain stress how New Zealand and Australia being an attractive countries for clinical trials due to active medical research groups, strong health systems, and diverse patient populations.
As Dr McIlwain states, “Our diverse and altruistic patient populations in this region are open to clinical research, which offers access to new patients and R&D tax incentives for sponsors, while ensuring top quality healthcare and high standards at clinical sites”.
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New global network into Pulmonary Research
Pulmonary fibrosis is a lung disease that occurs when lung tissue becomes damaged and scarred. The debilitating and fatal disease ended the life of an Australian man 8 years ago.
His son led philanthropic efforts to establish the connection between 2 Australian organisations; Lung Foundation Australia and Centre for Research Excellence in Pulmonary Fibrosis and the US based, Three Lakes Foundation. The three organisations recently announced a collaboration to create a global network for PF research.
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Technology to reach global health equity
Dr Terry Knapp, MD as a plastic and reconstructive plastic surgeon, has given back to medicine and global health through over 35 overseas trips as a volunteer surgeon. He is also an inventor with 16 medical device and technology patents to his name. His entrepreneurial spirit has led to founding 6 successful companies, leading to today being the Founder and Chief Medical Officer of CareSpan Health.
Health equity, in technology driven health care delivery, is determined by access to the clinician, specifically communications medical technology. CareSpan Health developed an integrated digital care ecosystem. The architecture of which became, Clinic in the Cloud.
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Global effort to reduce postoperative infection risk
Infection rates following surgical procedure vary across countries, however the causes and the ranges of variation are not well understood.
The causes of the infections are not as high as would be assumed on the surgical procedure, but co-morbidity and lifestyle choices including alcohol consumption may exacerbate risk. As Dr Edmiston states, there are a myriad of causes, and funding is limited in many countries. However there are some solutions, where goals, performance tracking against the goals and better communication is needed.
