Auckland 2012

U21 Health Sciences Group Annual Meeting - 2012

September 3-7, 2012 - University of Auckland, New Zealand

THE UNIVERSITY AND THE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM

(click to open as a PDF file)

The program will be structured around three main strands:

Leadership in health care, the role of the university:
Health care and healthcare delivery, across the globe, is undergoing a period of kaleidoscopic change; facing continuing pressure to work differently, increase quality and access whilst simultaneously meeting cost efficiency goals. Such a mix means that the quality of health care leadership will be critical in ensuring services continue to deliver high quality healthcare. While the leadership of doctors is often seen as key to achieving this goal the role of other clinicians is frequently overlooked by policy makers. However, contemporary health care requires a multiprofessional approach to health care leadership. Traditional models of leadership development employed in university programmes may not be adequate to meet health sector demands.

Relating research to clinical activity:
A health sciences faculty requires a strong faculty workforce contributing to the tripartite mission of education, service and research in health and life sciences. Health research encompasses excellence in the biomedical sciences, clinical research, population and public health and health services research. A strategy to optimize and balance the workforce in each of these four domains is unique to each and has different considerations. Support of biomedical sciences requires recruitment of high quality scientists, graduate students and post doctoral fellows. The development of an optimal workforce in clinical research requires the engagement of practitioners together with an infrastructure that provides support and access to high content clinical trials. The development of a strong faculty in the domain of population and public health requires the opportunity not only to recruit excellent researchers but also an engagement with the public health system and a direct link to policy makers within the jurisdiction. Finally, health services research requires the recruitment not only of scientists and social scientists but also direct engagement with the health services delivery unit and the environment in which the care is delivered. A successful health sciences faculty requires a strategy in each of these areas in order to meet the mandates of social accountability and contribute to the health of the population it serves.

Developing a clinical academic workforce:
The rapid pace of technological advancements and scientific discovery, across all the health care professions, are and will continue to transform clinical practice. It is, therefore, incumbent on health care faculties to ensure that these changes are reflected in health care curricula. Through, translational and clinical research and as the interface between practice, policy-makers and clinical academics are pivotal to this process. However, recruiting and retaining clinical academics has proven to be an issue over the years. In part this is because the provision of opportunities and pathways for clinicians to undertake advanced academic and research qualifications and then enabling these graduates to combine research and education with a clinical career is a challenge. It is unlikely that such a challenge will be met without partnerships between universities and clinical sites and also amongst professional associations, colleges, regulatory bodies, funding agencies and those responsible for postgraduate training to facilitate movement between academia and clinical practice.

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