HARC Past Events, Presentations & Downloads
HARC Forums
The purpose of our HARC Forums are to bring clinicians, managers, researchers and policy makers together to discuss the latest research and analysis about important issues facing our hospitals.
HARC is a statewide collaborative network to improve hospital services through research. The Alliance is a partnership between the Sax Institute and the Clinical Excellence Commission and the Agency for Clinical Innovation.
For information on past events and presentation downloads please click on the forums below for corresponding information.
Further details can be obtained from Bea on 02 9514 5950 or email bea.brown@saxinstitute.org.au
6th Forum 12 April 2010
"Building health literacy - the evidence base to improve care for people with low health literacy"
Professor Don Nutbeam
Vice Chancellor, University of Southampton, UK
5th Forum 4 November 2009
"Monitoring variation in healthcare quality - an evidence base to improve healthcare"
Professor Elliott Fisher
Professor of Community and Family Medicine at Dartmouth Medical School and Director of the Center for Health Policy Research at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, US
4th Forum 29 April 2009
"Public confidence in the hospital system"
Dr Diane Watson
International Visiting Health Services Research Fellow at the Sax Institute from the University of British Columbia, Canada
3rd Forum 1 April 2008
"Capitalising on opportunities for hospital reform"
Professor Kieran Walshe
Professor of Health Policy and Management, Centre for Public Policy and Management, Manchester Business School, UK
2nd Forum 29 January 2008
"How can we rigorously evaluate system-level changes in hospital policy?"
Professor Nicholas Mays
Professor of Health Policy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK
1st Forum 2 May 2007
"How can we strengthen policy-relevant health services research in NSW?"
Professor Chris Ham
Professor of Health Policy and Management, University of Birmingham, UK
5th HARC Forum - Warwick Anderson, Chris Baggoley, Louisa Jorm & Richard Matthews | Elliott Fisher
6th HARC Forum
Topic: "Building health literacy - the evidence base to improve care for people with low health literacy "
Keynote speaker: Professor Don Nutbeam
Vice Chancellor, University of Southampton, UK.
Date: 12 April 2010
The purpose of this forum, chaired by Dr Norman Swan, a multi-award winning broadcaster and journalist, is to consider how we can improve health care delivery for people with low health literacy.
Professor Don Nutbeam, an international thought leader in the field of health literacy, gave an overview of the development of the health literacy concept and presented the latest policy and research initiatives focused on improving patient health literacy.
The keynote presentation was followed by two brief presentations providing perspectives from a researcher and a policy maker who work with low health literacy patients.
Following the presentations, Norman Swan engaged the speakers and the audience in a lively and provoking conversation about what the evidence says we can do to improve care across the system for patients with low health literacy.
Speakers were:
- Dr Kirsten McCaffery, Senior Research Fellow, School of Public Health, University of Sydney
- Mr Kieran Pehm, Commissioner, NSW Health Care Complaints Commission
Presentation Downloads
- Listen to the podcast
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Download the Powerpoint presentations:
5th HARC Forum
Topic: "Monitoring variation in healthcare quality - an evidence base to improve healthcare"
Keynote speaker: Professor Elliott Fisher
Professor of Community and Family Medicine at Dartmouth Medical School and Director of the Center for Health Policy Research at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice.
Date: 4 November 2009
The purpose of this forum, chaired by Professor Carol Pollock, Chair of the Governing Committee of the Greater Metropolitan Clinical Taskforce was to consider how we can create and use new evidence about the health system performance so as to inform policy and practice.
Professor Elliott Fisher from the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care gave an overview of the internationally leading Dartmouth Atlas Project which has documented glaring variations in how healthcare is delivered in the United States and has radically changed the way we think about effectiveness and efficiency of health care, shaping the thinking and actions of US policymakers, clinicians, health service managers and researchers.
The presentation was followed by a panel discussion facilitated by Professor Sally Redman, CEO of the Sax Institute. The panellists were:
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Professor Warwick Anderson, Chief Executive Officer, National Health and Medical Research Council
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Professor Chris Baggoley, Chief Executive Officer, Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare
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Professor Louisa Jorm, University of Western Sydney and the Sax Institute; Project Director, Population Health Research Network (PHRN) NSW ACT
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Dr Richard Matthews, Deputy Director General, Strategic Development, NSW Department of Health
Professor Cliff Hughes, CEO NSW Clinical Excellence Commission, closed the Forum by reflecting on the main points discussed.
Presentation Downloads
ABC Health Report
In this ABC Health Report podcast provided by ABC Radio National, Professor Fisher outlines his ideas about health care reform in the US and Australia.
See: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/healthreport/stories/2009/2740753.htm#transcript
4th HARC Forum
Topic: "Public Confidence in the Hospital System"
Keynote speaker: Dr Diane Watson
International Visiting Health Services Research Fellow at the Sax Institute from the University of British Columbia, Canada
Date: 29 April 2009
The purpose of this forum, chaired by Professor Cliff Hughes, CEO of the NSW Clinical Excellence Commission was to consider how we can strengthen public confidence in the hospital system through research and analysis.
In November 2008, Peter Garling SC released his final report of the Special Commission of Inquiry into Acute Care Services in NSW Public Hospitals (the Garling Report) that outlined a series of recommendations to improve the NSW health system. At the heart of this report was a recommendation to shift the culture within the health system in order to improve public confidence that patient's needs will be addressed. One of the opening statements in the Garling report was …
"In the months before and since this Special Commission of Inquiry commenced, there has been public disquiet over the state of the NSW hospital system. This has been the result of highly publicised incidents which cast doubt in the public mind on how safe our public hospitals were and whether quality of care they provided was what patients and their families and friends were entitled to expect".
Dr Diane Watson from the University of British Columbia presented her latest research focusing on what underlies Canadians confidence in their healthcare system, patient ratings of overall quality of care and public priorities for performance reporting. The presentation was followed by a panel discussion facilitated by Dr Hunter Watt, CEO of the NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation. The panellists were:
- Karen Crawshaw, Deputy Director General, Health System Support, NSW Health
- Quentin Dempster, Senior Journalist and ABC broadcaster who presents Stateline NSW
- Kieran Pehm, Commissioner for Health Care Complaints
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Carol Pollock, Chair of Medicine, Royal North Shore Hospital, University of Sydney Research, Chair Northern Sydney Area Health Service
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Terry Tobin, Senior Counsel Assisting Peter Garling SC, Special Commission of Inquiry into Acute
Care Services in NSW Public Hospitals -
Cath Whitehurst, General Manager Central Network, St George and Sutherland Hospitals.
Presentation Downloads
3rd HARC Forum
Topic: Capitalising on Opportunities for Hospital Reform
Keynote speaker: Professor Kieran Walshe
Centre for Public Policy and Management, Manchester Business School, UK
Date: 1 April 2008
This forum chaired by Professor Cliff Hughes, CEO of the NSW Clinical Excellence Commission, challenged researchers, clinicians, managers and policy makers to debate the issue of how can we capitalise on recent opportunities for hospital reform.
The keynote speaker was Kieran Walshe, Professor of Health Policy and Management at Manchester Business School, UK. Kieran presented examples of turn around in UK healthcare organisations, citing examples of financial failures in North Bristol NHS Trust and large scale governance and clinical failures. He added that "public service failures are important - functionally and symbolically as part of a wider political narrative", and that analysis of these may help organisations to learn and improve performance.
The panel of local experts shared their views on the ways evidence can contribute to current reforms so that they deliver better health outcomes and provide sustainable improvements in hospital performance. The panel was facilitated by Dr Mary Haines, Health Services Research Director at the Sax Institute and included:
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Judith Healy, Regulatory Institutions Network, Australian National University
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Christine Jorm, Senior Medical Advisor, Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care
- Greg Stewart, Director of Population Health, Planning and Performance, Sydney South West Area Health Service
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Kieran Walshe, Centre for Public Policy and Management, Manchester Business School, UK.
Presentation Downloads
2nd HARC Forum
Topic: "How can we rigorously evaluate system-level changes in hospital policy?"
Keynote speaker: Professor Nicholas Mays
Professor of Health Policy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK
Date: 1 April 2008
The international keynote speaker at the second HARC Forum, chaired by Professor Cliff Hughes, CEO of the NSW Clinical Excellence Commission, was Professor Nicholas Mays, who gave a presentation entitled "Evaluating current market reforms in the UK National Health Service".
Using the experience of Professor Mays' team's efforts to evaluate the recent reforms in the NHS, a panel of senior policy makers and researchers debated how hospital reforms in NSW could be evaluated. The panel was facilitated by Robert Wells, Co-Director of the Menzies Centre for Health Policy and included:
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Jeffrey Braithwaite, Professor and Director Centre for Clinical Governance Research, University of New South Wales
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Peter Castaldi, Chief Executive, Greater Metropolitan Clinical Taskforce
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Philip Harris, Head of the Department of Cardiology, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital
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Ken Hillman, Professor of Intensive Care, University of New South Wales
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Nicholas Mays, Professor Health Policy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK
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Katherine McGrath, Deputy-Director General Health System Performance, New South Wales Health
- Rick Sondolini, Acting Director Human Services Branch, New South Wales Treasury.
Presentation Downloads
1st HARC Forum
Topic: How can we strengthen policy-relevant health services research in NSW?
Keynote Speaker: Professor Chris Ham
Professor of Health Policy and Management, University of Birmingham, UK
Date: 2 May 2007
Professor Cliff Hughes, CEO of the Clinical Excellence Commission opened and chaired the inaugural HARC Forum in May 2007.
The keynote international speaker Professor Chris Ham gave a presentation entitled "Building a strong base for health services: linking research to policy making". Professor Ham outlined the relationship between research evidence and policy making based on his experience in the UK and the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation.
Using Professor Ham's presentation as a springboard a panel of senior health professionals, facilitated by Professor Sally Redman, CEO of the Sax Institute, considered ways of strengthening policy relevant health services research in NSW. The panel were:
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Teresa Anderson, Director of Clinical Operations, Sydney South West Area Health Service
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Bruce Armstrong, Professor of Public Health, The University of Sydney and Research Director, Sydney Cancer Centre, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital
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Marion Haas, Secretary, Health Services Research Association and Associate Professor of Health Services Research, Centre for Health Economics Research and Evaluation, UTS
- Chris Ham, Professor of Health Policy and Management, University of Birmingham, UK
- Tony O'Connell, Director of Health Services Performance Improvement, NSW Health
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Jane Young, Executive Director, Surgical Outcomes Research Centre, University of Sydney.
Presentation Downloads