Using research to strive for allied health excellence

22 Jul 2022

Importantly in 2021, St John of God Health Care developed its Allied Health Research Framework 2021 – 2026 to enable our clinicians to foster and build a sustainable research culture within our allied health services.

This framework sets out the key focus areas for allied health research, and ensures the work will benefit patients and caregivers including through implementation and translation of research into practice.

St John of God Health Care Allied Health Group Manager Rachel Resuggan said creating this framework was a key step to enabling research projects to be undertaken in support of our overall strategic goal.

“The importance of undertaking research to improve patient and client care cannot be understated across all health care fields, this is particularly true in allied health where there are plenty of opportunities to add to the growing body of research,” she said.

“Some of the research projects we expect to be undertaking will look at areas such as the use of outcome measures within rehabilitation, the benefits of standardised rehabilitation programs to drive excellence in rehabilitation and benefits of rehabilitation in the home services.

“These will all go towards our organisational goal of becoming the best performing health care provider in Australia.”  

Two allied health research leads have been appointed to the organisation to assist in guiding our projects going forward.

Dr Sangeeta Rathi, a senior physiotherapist at St John of God Bendigo Hospital and experienced allied health researcher, has been appointed as the new Group Allied Health and Rehabilitation Research Lead.

Dr Dave Parsons, an occupational therapist, hand therapist and research fellow at Curtin University, has been appointed the St John of God Midland Hospital Allied Health Research Lead which is a collaboration with Curtin University. 

“Both Sangeeta and Dave bring a wealth of clinical and research experience to our teams and their insights and knowledge will be invaluable to not only guide the development of our research program, but also provide the hands-on support our clinicians need to get started and carry out research,” Rachel said.

“Furthermore, their understanding of clinical practice paired with their deep understanding of our strategic goals will enable them to support our caregivers to translate research findings into practice.”

 Key focus areas of the St John of God Health Care Research Framework

• To support strategic decision making, associated funding and workforce strategies by group services, hospital leaders and allied health services.  
• Ensure purposeful collaborative relationships with industry partners, higher education providers and consumers to enable integration of research and practice. 
• Facilitate increased engagement in allied health research, build greater research capacity and ensures processes that allows translation of research into everyday practice as St John of GodHealth Care strives for clinical excellence.
• Create alternative career pathways for allied health caregivers that incorporate research
• Promote research excellence and innovation as drivers of better health care and health outcomes.