How healthcare precincts aid big, ambitious research
Medical and healthcare innovation precincts in places such as Melbourne’s Parkville and Sydney’s Westmead are at the vanguard of Australia’s world-class research endeavours. But how can a nation of 26 million people compete with global heavy-hitters such as Johns Hopkins Hospital, the Harvard system or Toronto’s MaRS Discovery District?
“To try and compete against some of the big players offshore, you’ve just got to connect all your best components,” says Julian Clark, chair of Adelaide’s Biomed City.
Westmead health precinct now attracts talent from all over the world. Parramatta City Council
“What we’re seeing in Australia is that we have a lot of A-Class components, in terms of the technology and science, but we can have B-Class wiring.
“In other words, we’re not getting that connectivity of skill sets across disciplines and sectors, to actually get those synergies.”
Healthcare precincts bring together researchers, industry partners and healthcare practitioners to work on research problems and improve healthcare delivery.
Talk to people working in this space and one phrase frequently arises – critical mass. The idea is that by designing buildings and organisational structures that promote connectivity, the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts.
“Critical mass carries an awful lot of advantages when you want to do something big and ambitious,” says Professor James McCluskey, deputy vice-chancellor at the University of Melbourne. “You can have engineers, physicists, physicians, surgeons, public health and policy developers all sitting down and thinking about everything from responding to a pandemic to commercialising research to meet the needs of the health system.”
Precincts also help create a unified
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