Written by academics from the Master of Healthcare Innovations(CRICOS 099578F).
News about innovations in healthcare is all around us, with headlines reading:
“Cancer patient can't wait to become first to undergo 'revolutionary' treatment.”
“Christmas prawn shells helping to fight antibiotic-resistant super bugs, trial shows.
Innovation has become a real buzzword. While some people rush to accept these claims of innovative breakthroughs, others approach these with caution. Innovation in healthcare has many faces; referring to new treatments, new surgical procedures, new devices, new tests, new patient or clinician education interventions, or even new models of service delivery. But new is not necessarily better. With the persistent challenges of rising costs, growing demand, the rise of the consumer, and rapid advances in technology, the healthcare industry is on the brink of disruption, and is under pressure to innovate.
Some innovations in healthcare are rapidly taken up and diffused, without proven efficacy or safety, an issue identified in an article published in 2010 titled “Problems and promises of innovation: why healthcare needs to rethink its love/ hate relationship with the new.” Alternatively, sometimes innovations are designed without input from the professionals expected to implement the new technologies, therapies or tests; or the patients who will be receiving them.
Finally, there is an ongoing issue with the time taken to implement new innovations in the healthcare sector, a complex environment, with some researchers estimating that it takes an average of 17 years for research to be adopted into clinical practice, but this average ranges from months to several decades.
Professor Paul Glasziou from the Institute for Evidence-Based Healthcare at Bond University stated in a recent BMJ opinion piece that “innovation is vital, but must go hand-in-hand with careful evaluation.” Examples of innovations that have gone wrong in recent times include breast implants and pelvic mesh implants.
Bond University is launching Australia's first Master of Healthcare Innovations in 2020. The Master of Healthcare Innovations has been carefully designed to ensure that the program is focused on evidence-informed innovations. The program is designed for doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, health administrators, academics, and health journalists who want to problem solve healthcare challenges within their local or larger health systems.
In addition to three nested programs - a Graduate Diploma in Healthcare Innovations, a Graduate Certificate in Evidence Based Practice and a Graduate Certificate in Health Systems - the Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine has released single subject offerings for 2020. These are a great professional development opportunity for those wanting to only complete one subject in an area of interest, try before they buy, or for those not currently able to enrol in a full program.
In January, our single subject offering is Evidence Based Practice and Policy, a subject designed to support professionals working in the health field integrate the principles of evidence-based practice into real life. Through this subject, professionals will develop essential skills in evidence-based practice and policy, including framing relevant clinical questions and searching electronically to find studies to answer these questions.
One of the biggest challenges for health professionals can be keeping up to date with the huge volume of research evidence, and being able to critically appraise and interpret the evidence to decide if and when we should alter practice. These subjects will equip professionals with the skills to interpret evidence and progress in their career development.
Master of Healthcare Innovations | Single Subject Offerings 2020
Our Master of Healthcare Innovations Single Subject Offerings provide an exciting professional development opportunity for students to enrol in a subject of their choice.