HealthInfoNet celebrates 15 years

Edith Cowan University (ECU) recently recognised the Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet’s achievements during 15th birthday celebrations.

Established in 1997 by Professor Neil Thomson, a former GP, the HealthInfoNet is an innovative Internet resource that aims to provide knowledge and information on Indigenous health. The website is freely accessible to policy makers, researchers and health practitioners.

Two separate events were held to mark the occasion. The first event, attended by the Minister for Indigenous Health, the Hon. Warren Snowdon, was staged in Canberra on 13 September 2012 to acknowledge ongoing funding and support from the Department of Health and Ageing (DoHA).

Minister Snowdon commended the HealthInfoNet on its contribution to translational research in the sphere of Indigenous health. ‘If we are aware of the research and the science that are being undertaken around the country and across the globe, and if we can provide those learnings to health workers and policy makers in a way which they can readily understand and implement in their practice, then we’ll improve health outcomes for Indigenous people,’ he said.

A second event at ECU’s Mount Lawley campus in Perth, 26 September 2012, rounded off the celebrations. Attended by ECU Vice-Chancellor Professor Kerry Cox, HealthInfoNet Advisory Board member Professor Jonathon Carapetis, Helen Grinbergs (DoHA), special guests and staff integral to the success of the resource, the event celebrated the great work of the HealthInfoNet to date.

Professor Cox also acknowledged the HealthInfoNet as a leader in translational research, delivering research findings to health practitioners to improve health outcomes.

Professor Thomson said he is looking forward to a strong future for the online resource.

‘I hope that HealthInfoNet becomes an Australia-wide working partnership of universities, Aboriginal-controlled organisations, government and other agencies,’ he said.

‘Joining together is the only way that the HealthInfoNet’s crucial work in informing policy and practice in Indigenous health can address the knowledge needs for all health topic areas, across all health workforce types, in all parts of Australia.’