Performance Information for Administered Items -
Health research, ethics and advice including:
research in all fields relevant to health and health services in accordance with applicable ethical and scientific standards; and
development of authoritative health advisory guidelines.
Measure
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Result
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Quality:
Review of annual progress reports for project and program grants and evaluations of commissioned research programs.
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From 2003 all project grants are required to report their progress annually and with the redeveloped and comprehensive final grant report for all NHMRC grants. All programs are generally progressing satisfactorily.
The NHMRC is also currently developing a comprehensive performance report covering the 2000-03 triennium, which will report on efforts to reshape and strengthen funding programs and provide qualitative data on research outcomes.
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Quantity:
More than 500 new research awards and maintenance of more than 1,200 continuing research grants and awards.
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911 new research awards were awarded across all schemes in 2002, with a further 1,526 awards from previous years continuing. In 2003, 827 new awards were awarded, with 1,656 awards continuing from previous years.
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Quality:
Timely production of evidence-based guidelines to support policy development.
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The NHMRC’s Health Advisory Committee (HAC) continued its work program of developing a range of high quality, evidence-based health advice and information for the community. During 2002-03 the committee issued or approved 11 new or revised guidelines (and other information media were released), including 5 clinical practice guidelines (dealing with blood, skin cancer, prostate cancer, drinking water and dietary guidelines). In addition, a Guidelines Assessment Register was established to support external developers of guidelines to ensure the development of high quality clinical practice guidelines that meet NHMRC standards.
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Workforce
Development of projects to improve the training and distribution of the health workforce, including:
tabling of a medical training and review panel report in Parliament;
trialing of community based specialist training; and
monitoring of vocational training opportunities for medical graduates through the Medical Training Review Panel under section 3GC of the Health Insurance Act 1973.
Measure
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Result
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Quantity:
Distribute approximately 3,000 reports on the Medical Training and Review Panel.
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Target met. Approximately 3,000 reports were distributed by direct mail-out to stakeholders.
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Quality:
Evaluation of trials to be submitted to the Australian Health Minister Advisory Council working group.
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Trials continue to operate successfully and will conclude at the end of 2003. Regular reports have been provided to the working group and the final evaluation report is due in 2004.
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Timeliness:
Report to Parliament by December 2002.
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Target met. The Annual Report of the Medical Training Review Panel was tabled in Parliament on 17 October 2002.
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Rural Clinical Schools.
Measure
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Result
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Quality:
All Rural Clinical Schools operating with long term placements.
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Measure met. All Rural Clinical Schools are operating with a range of short and long term clinical placements for medical students.
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Quantity:
Ensure that 25% of medical students undertake 50% of clinical training in a rural area by 2004.
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Nationally, Rural Clinical Schools are making significant progress in achieving this target. Achievement of the target will be assessed in early 2004 in accordance with the requirements for Funding Rural Clinical Schools.
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Progress reports received on nine funding agreements with Australian universities to establish rural clinical schools.
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Target met.
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National Health Priorities and Quality
Support for the Australian Council for Safety and Quality in Health Care.
Initiatives to improve the safety and quality of patient care.
Strategic action on National Health Priority Areas.
Strengthening the involvement of consumers.
Peak community organisations’ input into policy and program development and delivery, through the Community Sector Support Scheme.
National Institute of Clinical Studies to identify best clinical practice for a range of clinical conditions.
Measure
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Result
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Quality:
A high level of satisfaction of the Council members with the relevance, quality and timeliness of policy, advice and management.
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The Office of the Safety and Quality Council regularly receives strong endorsement for the support, direction and quality of work it receives from the Office in progressing the Council’s work plan.
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Agreement by all Health Ministers to activities and plans.
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All Health Ministers agreed on the National Health Priority Areas (NHPA) criteria and to review the status of the NHPA in 2005.
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Development of National Health Priority Action Council Strategic Directions Report.
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Report agreed by the Australian Health Ministers Advisory Council in October 2002.
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Implement the National Asthma Management Program, including GP asthma management and other key activities targeting the needs of specific population groupings.
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Measure met. An Asthma 3+ Visit Plan Resource Kit (including consumer information) was distributed to all GPs. A total of 25 Asthma Innovative Management (AIM) Initiative Grants were funded to examine ways to overcome the barriers to optimal asthma management in disadvantaged groups. Further funding of $1.3 million was approved in May 2003 to enable the continuation of the National Asthma Friendly Schools Program.
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Develop guidelines and improve the detection, management and monitoring of cancer care and diabetes mellitus.
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Over the last twelve months, substantial efforts have been made to improve the detection and treatment of diabetes in general practice with the continued implementation of the National Integrated Diabetes Program. Two of the nine clinical practice guidelines for Type 2 diabetes have been completed, with two others submitted for approval. The remaining five guidelines are under development.
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Progress models to demonstrate measurement and improvements of the quality of acute stroke and cardiac procedures.
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Measure met. A core set of clinical process indicators have been developed for use within acute stroke care settings as part of the National Stroke Unit Program. A business plan of how a cardiac procedures register could operate is under development for consideration by the Safety and Quality Council.
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Support and advice on consumer participation available to stakeholders through the National Resource Centre for Consumer Participation in Health.
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Measure met. A range of material was provided to stakeholders.
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High level of satisfaction of program areas with input by peak community organisations into policy and program development and delivery as evidenced by feedback at annual review sessions.
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Senior staff from relevant programs participated in the annual review meetings. Conclusions were then provided to the Minister for approval of continued funding.
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The National Institute of Clinical Studies implements its 2002-03 Business Plan.
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Measure met. Notable activities included the negotiation and management of a national subscription to the Cochrane Library and the successful emergency department breakthrough collaborative that focussed on reducing time to analgesia.
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Information Management/ Information Technology, including:
Health information management.
Measure
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Result
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Quality:
Develop common information and communication infrastructure to support electronic health information exchange.
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As part of the Health Online Strategy, Healthlnsite provides easy access to quality health information on the websites of an increasing number of authoritative government and non-government organisations.
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Quantity:
Development of standards and other building blocks, and the establishment of at least two trial sites to test the value and feasibility of HealthConnect.
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Australian Standards relating to health care client identification, immunisation and prescription messaging, information security and supply chain management are being developed.
Projects to develop national approaches to the electronic representation of clinical concepts and unique identification of health care providers have been initiated. Two HealthConnect trials have commenced operation in October 2002 in the Clarence District, Hobart, Tasmania and the Katherine region in the Northern Territory.
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Performance Information for Departmental Outputs -
Policy advice relating to:
National Health Priority Areas and quality and safety;
health workforce development;
ethical standards (human research);
health information and advice;
health and medical research;
information management, development and delivery across and within the health sector; and
the Community Sector Support Scheme.
Measure
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Result
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Quality:
A high level of satisfaction of the Ministers, Parliamentary Secretary and Ministers’ Offices with the relevance, quality and timeliness of policy advice, Question Time Briefs, Parliamentary Questions on Notice and briefings.
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The Minister and Minister's Office were satisfied with the relevance, quality and timeliness of policy advice, Question Time Briefs, Parliamentary Questions on Notice and briefings.
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Agreed time frames are met for responses to ministerial correspondence, Question Time Briefs, Parliamentary Questions on Notice and ministerial requests for briefing.
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Agreed time frames were met for:
96% of ministerial correspondence;
96% of Question Time Briefs;
73% of Parliamentary Questions on Notice; and
83% of ministerial requests for briefing.
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A high level of stakeholder satisfaction with the quality and timeliness of departmental/portfolio inputs to national policy, planning and strategy development and implementation.
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Measure met, through constant feedback from expert and consumer participants in the Expert Advisory Groups to the NHPAC.
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Timely production of evidence-based policy research to inform and engage stakeholders in meaningful policy and program discussions.
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Measure met. The National Medication Safety Report, detailing issues around medication safety in Australia, led to the development of the National Medication Safety Collaborative and other improvement programs and the NHPAC strategic directions report.
To assist in identifying research priorities for targeted research, the NHMRC conducted extensive stakeholder consultations (through workshops, expert committee representations and ongoing contacts) to develop research programs that will enable the NHMRC to devise programs responsive to sectoral needs.
In response to Australian Government’s National Research Priorities (announced late in 2002), NHMRC took steps to establish Strategic Research Networks (SRNs) which will bring together a broad range of stakeholders including researchers, research agencies, policy and delivery agencies, government and consumers. The SRNs will provide a collaborative mechanism for identifying the most effective strategic responses to achieve desired health and other outcomes.
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Quantity:
1,250-1,300 responses to ministerial correspondence, 160-180 Question Time Briefs, 15-25 Parliamentary Questions on Notice and 110-130 ministerial requests for briefing.
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There were approximately:
1,509 items of ministerial correspondence items processed;
190 Question Time Briefs prepared;
11 responses to Parliamentary Questions on Notice; and
162 ministerial briefings prepared.
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Quality:
A high level of stakeholder satisfaction with relevance, quality and timeliness of information and education services.
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Measure met. Close collaboration with stakeholders on the development of information such as the GP resource materials on asthma and public information on depression.
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High level of satisfaction of program areas with input by peak community organisations into policy and program development and delivery as evidenced by feedback at annual review sessions.
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Senior staff from relevant programs participated in the annual review meetings. Conclusions were then provided to the Minister for approval of continued funding.
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Program Management in relation to:
Contracts for:
workforce education, training and development;
National Health Priority Areas;
consumer participation;
quality improvement issues;
performance information issues;
health and medical research grants;
international research program grants;
fellowship grants;
training awards grants; and
block grants.
Consultancies to assist in the development of Health Advisory guidelines.
Financial management and reporting on Outcome 9.
Measure
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Result
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Quantity:
Number of contracts and research grants administered.
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In 2002-03 there were:
92 Contracts;
3,006 Funding Agreements; and
41 Consultancies.
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Quality:
A high level of stakeholder satisfaction with the timely development and implementation of national strategies.
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Target met. For example:
Stakeholders satisfied with major achievements against the National Health Priority Action Council Business Plan 2002-03.
Regular stakeholder consultation and feedback informs the Healthlnsite planning process and the Healthlnsite Editorial Board ensures the quality of information partner websites accessed via the Healthlnsite portal.
The Department has been collaborating with key stakeholder groups to develop a framework for electronic health record systems in Australia. Stakeholders have acknowledged key pieces of work including:
HealthConnect Trials;
HealthConnect Business and Systems Architecture; and
Policy development in the areas of consent, privacy and consumer participation for electronic health record systems.
MediConnect field test.
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Budget predictions are met and actual cash flows vary less than 5% from predicted cash flows.
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Target met. The NHMRC’s lower than expected expenditure was due to doubling of funding over six years which involves the transition to substantially larger, longer, and more collaborative funding arrangements. Negotiations in establishing these funding arrangements are complex and have led to some short-term delays in committing funding against planned expenditure. The NHMRC’s current budget projections show these funds as fully committed now for expenditure by 2007-08.
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100% of payments are made accurately and on time in accordance with funding agreements.
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Target met. All payments were made accurately and on time.
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A high level of stakeholder satisfaction with relevance, quality and timeliness of information and education services.
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Target met. For example:
In 2002 a survey of stakeholders was undertaken to determine their level of satisfaction with the NHMRC’s advisory and ethics functions. 93% of respondents who had received health advice from NHMRC believed that the advice provided was either very useful (63%) or somewhat useful (30%). The satisfaction of respondents with a range of NHMRC advisory products ranged from 98% finding the Immunisation Handbook very useful to 90% of GPs and 80% of specialists for the Guidelines on the use of blood and blood products. 83% of Human Research Ethics Committee members found the NHMRC’s Human Research Handbook to be either very useful or somewhat useful; and
Healthlnsite’s regular market testing with stakeholders indicates a high level of satisfaction with the site. This is also evidenced by:
ongoing positive feedback from users via email and at conferences;
strong upward trend in number of users accessing Healthlnsite daily; and
ongoing interest in becoming approved information partners from the range of health related organisations.
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Individual contracts to ensure that each Community Sector Support Scheme (CSSS) funded organisation is appropriately focussed on portfolio objectives.
Measure
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Result
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Quality:
Annual review of each CSSS funded organisation (15) including at least one face- to-face meeting with each organisation.
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Measure met. Annual reviews of each CSSS funded organisation were undertaken in April and May 2003. Mid-year face-to-face meetings were conducted in November and December 2002.
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Quantity:
15 national organisations to receive CSSS funds.
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Measure met. 15 national organisations received CSSS funds.
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Research and development work to test and evaluate the feasibility of a national health information network.
Measure
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Result
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Quality:
Undertake research and evaluation activities to determine the feasibility of implementing e-health initiatives nationally and develop infrastructure necessary for proposed e-health initiatives to proceed.
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Measure met. Extensive research activities have been carried out in relation to HealthConnect, the proposed national health information network, including commissioned research into: the value and technical feasibility of HealthConnect; privacy and governance arrangements; the role of the private sector; a preferred implementation model; international approaches to electronic health records; and costs and sustainability.
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Development and application of an agreed research/evaluation strategy for HealthConnect.
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Measure met. A research/evaluation strategy for HealthConnect, has been developed and approved by the HealthConnect, board. Using the agreed methodology, a draft Interim Research Report has been prepared. The first phase of the evaluation of the HealthConnect Trials in Tasmania and Northern Territory has been completed.
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