Health alliance project to improve pregnancy care

AN ALLIANCE of health organisations including Barwon Health and Deakin University has launched a research project that aims to improve maternal and infant health in western Victoria and beyond.

The Western Alliance’s Pregnancy Research and Translation Ecosystem (PTR-E) is a collaboration between Deakin University and health services in the region involved in pregnancy care.

PRT-E will collect data on pregnancy care and collaborate with the GenV initiative, which aims to recruit and follow 80 per cent of all infants born in Victoria over the next two years.

This data will create a world-leading and unique resource for future research. At the same time, PRT-E will establish a Pregnancy Stakeholder Working Group of consumers and health professionals that will be trained and supported by the established systems of Deakin University’s Institute of Health Transformation.

This working group will then co-design and co-produce the research program.

One of the starting priorities is to design a clinical trial and translation plan with the aim of safely reducing the caesarean section rate in the region, which has risen to about 40 per cent, which the Western Alliance describes as “a complex problem requiring design of a multifaceted intervention”.

“PRT-E will create a research, co-design and translation ecosystem that will drive continual improvements in mother and baby care,” chief investigator Professor Peter Vuillermin from Deakin University said.

“The program will be an exercise in people power meets cutting edge research methodology. We can’t wait to get the PRT-E started!”

The Western Alliance comprises six public health services, three private hospitals, a primary health network and two universities across the Barwon, south-west and Grampians regions of Victoria and is Australia’s first rural and regionally-focused academic health science centre. It will put $200,000 towards the collaboration.

For more information, head to westernalliance.org.au.