The Australian Institute of Health Innovation (AIHI), currently based at the University of New South Wales, will join our new Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences following the signing of an agreement last week. Institute staff, led by Professors Jeffrey Braithwaite, Enrico Coiera, and Johanna Westbrook, are internationally regarded researchers in health systems, e-health, patient safety and implementation science.

Professor Sakkie Pretorius, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), said the Institute’s decision to join Macquarie was a sign of our emergence as a major force in medicine and health.

“While we have long had research and teaching strengths in areas of allied health such as psychology and audiology, it is only in the last decade that we have begun to establish our credentials in medicine,” he said.

“The creation of a postgraduate medical research and teaching school – the Australian School of Advanced Medicine (ASAM) – and Australia’s only high-technology private hospital owned and operated by a university, were significant milestones.

“In more recent times we have announced the creation of a Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, which will be bolstered enormously by the addition of the AIHI.

“Our stated ambition is to become the leader of integrated clinical care, and medical and health research and education in Australia,” he added.

Approximately 75 leading researchers from three of AIHI’s four research centres – the Centre for Clinical Governance Research, the Centre for Health Informatics, and the Centre for Health Systems and Safety Research – will move on campus by January of next year.

“These researchers have an exceptional track record of peer-reviewed grant funding – especially from NHMRC and ARC – as well as with national and international industry organisations,” Professor Pretorius said. “When considered with their success in supervising many PhD students and their publication record in the most eminent journals, the relocation of AIHI represents an exciting new growth step in an area of such strategic importance to Macquarie.

“They will be a valuable addition to our research effort, and – more importantly – will continue to provide an in-depth understanding of healthcare that will lead to major improvements for all Australians,” he added.