Fellow author Dr Katie Groom says: “Ongoing research is essential for healthcare professionals to be confident that they are doing the best they can for patients. It is crucial to use treatments that have been shown to be effective - and, equally, not to use treatments that do not have proven benefit or, worse, have been proven to be ineffective, even though this still occurs.”
Dr Groom is a senior lecturer in obstetrics and gynaecology at the University of Auckland’s Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences and maternal fetal medicine specialist at National Women’s Health. She says the dramatic difference in savings between 10 percent and 100 percent uptake highlights the importance of communicating new research findings to patients and getting clinicians to change their practice. “This ‘translation’ work is a major focus for us, too.”
Medical researchers routinely rely on philanthropic donations to top up or replace government funding. This week, the Liggins Institute received NZ$1 million over four years for maternal health research from the Hugo Charitable Trust.
“We are hugely grateful for this generous gift, and to all our philanthropic donors,” says Professor Bloomfield. “The research it funds promises to lead to improved care for mothers and babies in the future and considerable savings to New Zealand’s health-care system.
“Hopefully analyses of cost-effectiveness like this one will help demonstrate to funders that their investment in clinical research is well spent.”
The other study authors were Research Fellow Clarabelle Pham, Professor Jonathan Karnon and Professor Ben Mol from the University of Adelaide, Philippa Middleton from the Robinson Research Institute, and Professor Caroline Crowther from the Liggins Institute.
The analysis follows one published earlier this year by the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care and the Australian Clinical Trials Alliance (ACTA). It found that if the results of 25 trials, including those in maternal and perinatal health, were implemented in just two-thirds of the relevant groups of patients for one year, AU$1.4 billion (NZ$1.5 billion) would be saved through improvements in patient outcomes, and a further AU$580 (NZ$641.8) million in health cost savings. For each $1 invested in clinician-driven clinical trials in Australia, the estimated potential benefits was $5.80.
Contact:
Nicola Shepheard Media Adviser, Liggins Institute, University of Auckland
Tel: +64 9 923 1515 Cell: +64 27 537 1319 Email: n.shepheard@auckland.ac.nz
Associated articles:
Medical Journal of Australia: Randomised clinical trials in perinatal healthcare: a cost-effective investment