The George Institute has a highly skilled team which works to conceptualise, develop, and deliver innovative and impactful clinical trials, characterised by the following features: Reducing trial ‘waste’ Ensuring that clinical trials are efficient is crucial to minimising research ‘waste’, which most commonly results from the costs associated with poorly conceived research questions, inappropriate study design, failure to adequately report on all areas being analysed, and inefficient operational conduct. Trial efficiency can be improved via two key mechanisms- by design and by conduct. Trial design involves the development and application of innovative statistical methods including adaptive and pragmatic designs. The first involves adapting some elements of the design as the trial progresses (rather than waiting for the trial to end). A pragmatic trial evaluates a health intervention in a setting as close as possible to real-world conditions. Adaptive designs help to gener

Working together with consumers and community members helps the Institute achieve high-quality research that has the greatest impact on the health and wellbeing of Australian people. The Institute is guided by the work of peak bodies such as the National Health and Medical Research Council and Consumers Health Forum of Australia. When using the term ‘consumer’, we are referring to patients and potential patients, people who use health care services, and their carers or family members. When we use the term ‘community members’ we refer to those who share an interest in our research – including sub-groups of the Australian population, and healthy members of our community who want to prevent ill-health. Below are key ways that consumers are involved in health research. Consumer and Community Advisory CommitteeThe CCAC oversees consumer involvement at the Institute. The committee works with key staff, including the Executive team and research program leads

The 15th World Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion (Safety 2024) co-sponsored by the World Health Organization will be held between 2nd-4th September 2024 at Taj Palace, New Delhi (India). This event will focus worldwide attention on safety and injury prevention. The event is hosted by The George Institute for Global Health in collaboration with three other WHO Collaborating Centres in the region:  Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Center (TRIP) at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi Department of Emergency Medicine, All India Institute for Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Department of Epidemiology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) All the international experts in the field will gather at this event with a united goal of “Building a safer future for all: Equitable and sustainable strategies for injury and violence prevention”. Why is the George Ins

At The George Institute, we are committed to improving our research by making it more relevant, responsive, translatable, and accountable to our communities, including patients, consumers, people with lived experiences, carers, civil society groups, and the public. These groups have a right to have a say in what is researched and how, and our aim is to ensure their involvement is a fundamental aspect of all our projects, wherever applicable and feasible. Meaningful involvement ensures that research questions are aligned with community needs, improves the relevance and usefulness of findings, and promotes a sense of ownership and understanding among community members. Additionally, it provides a platform for advocacy and increases the likelihood of research findings being used by policy makers. Ultimately, it empowers communities, fosters equitable partnerships, and drives positive social change. Our Framework for Community Engagement and Involvement was developed to establish a common

What are clinical trials? Clinical trials are research studies with humans, designed to test new treatments to find better ways to prevent, detect or treat disease1. Clinical trials are also sometimes referred to as interventional trials. The sorts of treatments being investigated include medicines or drugs, cells and other biological products, surgical procedures, radiologic procedures, devices, behavioural treatments, process-of-care changes, preventive care, and other items.2 Clinical trials rely on having members of the general public agree to take part. What happens in a clinical trial? In a clinical trial, participants meet with researchers who go through what the clinical trial will involve. All participants must be advised about the objectives of the research, what is expected of them, as well as any risks that may be experienced during and after the trial. Trials must follow a carefully controlled protocol, which is a plan that describes what researchers will do in the stu

Researchers at The George Institute for Global Health, UK, led by Executive Director Professor Otavio Berwanger, are spearheading a programme of work to transform that way we deliver large-scale clinical trials. This programme is borne out of a recognition of the limitations of the ‘traditional’ clinical trial model – and the health gains (social, environmental and economic) – to be had in investigating pragmatic, innovative and efficient approaches. In both the so-called ‘traditional’ and innovative trial models, the gold standard of randomisation controls for both known and unknown confounding factors that could influence trials outcomes, and represents the optimal method to work out whether a healthcare intervention reduces the risk of patient-important outcomes and so inform clinical practice. Where the two models differ is that the traditional approach requires participants be screened and recruited in a trial site by a team of investigators, and so demands both a