Why research matters
March 2021
Most people will need to attend a hospital emergency department at least once in a lifetime, placing their lives into the hands of emergency clinicians at a time when they are most vulnerable.
During a medical emergency, patients trust that the clinical care they or their loved ones receive is the best available, and that it is based on the most up-to-date information.
Driven by our commitment to continually improving patient care, the Emergency Medicine Foundation leads by example, investing in research that can change clinical practice.
With 8.2 million public hospital emergency department presentations nationally in 2019-2020, evidence-based knowledge is vital to establishing new and improved clinical systems and processes.
EMF offers grants to all clinicians providing care to patients within public hospital emergency departments, the Queensland Ambulance Service and Retrieval Services Queensland.
Since our first grants were awarded, the EMF Queensland Research Program has distributed around $1.3 million annually, totalling almost $18 million.
Last year, the EMF Board announced an additonal funding round in response to COVID-19, awarding five grants to help clinician-researchers to address new questions and issues arising from the pandemic.
With funding from Queensland Health, EMF distributes the only research grants entirely dedicated to emergency medicine in Australia. To date, EMF has supported 200 research projects that aim to develop better diagnostic tools, improve treatments, and translate innovative ideas into practice.
“Recently, we invited our Board and committee members, as well as some of the clinician-researchers we support, to tell us in their own words why this work is so important,” said EMF General Manager, Beth Chapman.
“Some of the reasons highlighted were our ability to support all frontline emergency clinicians including nurses, allied health, paramedics and rural generalists, as well as strong economic returns for the health system.”
For clinicians, the opportunity to contribute to creating change in the treatment they deliver, and to increase research capacity within the public hospital system were especially important.
EMF Board Chair Dr Kim Hansen described the unique ability for frontline clinicians to create sustainable change.
“We fund clinician-led research because we know clinicians are best placed to develop practical solutions for our healthcare system, so that emergency medicine practice continues to improve,” Dr Hansen said.
Watch the full Transforming Emergency Healthcare video.
SHARE
