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Medicine and Health Sciences at ANU The ANU College of Medicine and Health Sciences is home to ANU's medical and health science teaching and research. World-class, scientific research is conducted in a number of areas and the College offers a medical degree, higher degree research and coursework programs, and postdoctoral research training. The College has around 430 staff (academic and general) and currently occupies four buildings on the ANU campus as well as teaching and research sites at the Canberra and Calvary hospitals and a rural clinical school at multiple sites throughout south-eastern NSW.

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ANU MEDICAL SCHOOL (ANUMS)
The ANU Medical School undertakes to create and maintain an educational environment that encourages its students to:

• practice medicine with compassion, conscience and professional excellence;

• understand the health problems and strive to alleviate the suffering of people in rural Australia and developing countries;

• extend the boundaries of medical knowledge through research and share this knowledge with patients and colleagues, locally, nationally and internationally.

AUSTRALIAN CENTRE FOR ECONOMIC RESEARCH ON HEALTH (ACERH)
ACERH is a newly established, multi-university research centre, constituted by researchers from The Australian National University (ANU), The University of Queensland (UQ) and the University of Western Australia (UWA).

The Centre’s focus is on applied health economics research initially concentrated in three main areas:

• health care financing and insurance;
• health costs and ageing; and
• the economic burden of illness and injury.

AUSTRALIAN PRIMARY HEALTH CARE RESEARCH INSTITUTE (APHCRI)
The Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute takes a new approach to primary health care research to develop policy.

A research commissioner and a centre for research, APHCRI operates a ‘hub and spoke’ model, with research teams based across Australia. The ‘hub’ is based at ANU, supporting the work of the spokes, and conducting research.

APHCRI aims to strengthen the knowledge-base of primary health care, facilitate the uptake of research in policy and by practitioners, and enhance the research capacity in primary health care through partnerships with relevant national and international groups.

CENTRE FOR MENTAL HEALTH RESEARCH (CMHR)
The Centre for Mental Health Research conducts research into mental health problems in the community. Staff study the risk factors, causes and outcomes of mental health disorders. They also develop and evaluate interventions designed to increase public knowledge about mental health, and to prevent and treat common mental health problems. Researchers interests include depression, anxiety, alcohol and substance use, suicide, post-traumatic distress, cognitive decline in the elderly, dementia, divorce and psychosis.

Staff at CMHR also aim to contribute to national policy in mental health and ageing. The Centre participates in public policy debates and informs policy development, especially in the areas of E-mental health, consumer participation in mental health research, cognitive decline, healthy and productive ageing, retirement and mobility.

THE JOHN CURTIN SCHOOL OF MEDICAL RESEARCH (JCSMR)
Australia’s national medical research institute, The John Curtin School has a long history of excellence in scientific research.

Created in 1948, the institute’s scientists have made major discoveries and contributions to world health and have been awarded two of Australia’s Nobel Prizes, among many other major international awards.

Researchers at the John Curtin School carry out fundamental study in the sciences underpinning the practice of medicine and bring clinically useful discoveries into application as soon as possible. The long term research strategy for which JCSMR is noted has produced several promising approaches to treating major diseases.

The school is heavily committed to research training and has more than 70 research students.

NATIONAL CENTRE FOR EPIDEMIOLOGY & POPULATION HEALTH (NCEPH)
NCEPH is a world-class, multi-disciplinary research centre, committed to furthering our understanding of the determinants of population health. NCEPH’s larger mission is to contribute to better health, nationally and internationally, through research and workforce-training contributions to epidemiology and other population health disciplines, and to public health policy and practice.

A broad multi-disciplinary approach is taken, encompassing the social, behavioural, environmental and genetic influences on health. Along with epidemiology and biostatistics, the disciplines of economics, demography, sociology and anthropology are essential to much of the Centre’s research, as staff and students study how to improve health across different groups in society, and how to use society’s health-care resources most effectively. Questions about the links between sustainable development and population health are also addressed.

MENZIES CENTRE FOR HEALTH POLICY (MCHP)

The Menzies Centre for Health Policy is an independent think-tank, established to examine the performance and community expectations of the nation’s health system. It is funded by a grant from the Menzies Foundation and is a joint venture between ANU and the University of Sydney.

It will undertake research in the fields of health systems financing and the effects of spending priorities on the equity and the appropriateness in health care, investigate what health care is provided in Australian hospitals and in primary care – and its effects for example in medication prescribing, with the aim of providing better patient care.

Education and communication will be key parts of the centre’s activities. It will sponsor regular seminars, lectures and education programs and will participate in masters degree coursework and PhD programs.

The centre will also provide expert commentary on government health spending priorities for the public and technical media.