A key Government advisory body has recommended radical changes in the way Ireland conducts health research. It calls for a significant increase in funding, a streamlining of ethical controls on clinical trials and new structures to co-ordinate work done by universities, hospitals and Government departments on health research.
The Advisory Council for Science Technology and Innovation yesterday launched a comprehensive set of proposals aimed at making Ireland a world leader in medical research. It calls for sweeping changes in the way health research is funded, administered and commercialised, arguing that investment in health research serves patients and national economic development.
Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Micheál Martin and Minister for Health and Children Mary Harney attended the event, held in the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland in Dublin. They welcomed the report, which will go to the interdepartmental Cabinet committee on research before being presented at Cabinet in January.
It is understood the Ministers have accepted the report and its recommendations. Neither would be drawn yesterday, however, on what level of State funding might be provided to implement the recommendations.
Mr Martin said it would be funded "as appropriate", with significant funding already reaching medical researchers via existing funding programmes.
Ms Harney said the necessary funding would be provided but would be used only in support of the best research proposals as judged by international peer review.
The report makes 21 key recommendations on how investment in health research can help deliver better treatments for patients and build Ireland's knowledge economy. Ireland will spend about €140 million on health-related research this year, stated the council's chair, Mary Cryan.
"This represents 1 per cent of the total health budget, but if the ambitions in this report are to be realised this will have to be increased substantially," she said.
Funding is a key issue within the report, the first to be published by the advisory council since its establishment by Government in April 2005. It calls for increased funding "in line with that in similar benchmarked health systems", without specifying an amount. Chair of the task force that produced the report, NUI Galway's Prof Tim O'Brien, said the council was not prescriptive about the amount needed.
The report does, however, provide funding levels as a percentage of GDP, figures that indicate Ireland would have to triple medical research spending to match the EU average for health research, spend 4½ times as much to equal Finland or multiply spending by eight to reach average OECD levels.
The report calls for much greater integration between universities and major teaching hospitals and funding to reward joint initiatives promoting basic and clinical research. It also seeks to streamline the ethical committee controls on medical research and patient trials. It suggests the existing 13 ethics committees adjudicating on medical research should be reduced to four regional committees.
It also wants the appointment of dedicated, full-time medical researchers, seeks more investment in facilities available for biomedical research and calls for greater co-ordination between the various Government departments. Significantly, it argues that the Health Research Board should become the co-ordinating body for research and training.
Significantly increase funding for health research
Designate an assistant secretary as head of health research policy within Department of Health and Children
Immediately appoint 30 extra clinical scientists with protected time for research
Streamlining of ethics committee procedures, reducing from 13 to four the number of committees involved in ethical approvals for research
Create an integrated electronic medical records system with "unique patient identifiers" so every patient's records are immediately available
Establish an interdepartmental health research group to formulate policy
Expand the remit of the Health Research Board to help co-ordinate health research
Create an international expert advisory group to review health research priorities