Research is integral to Ambulance Victoria achieving its vision for better health in our community and to improve its care and the outcomes for patients. Ambulance Victoria offers a unique opportunity to conduct research in the prehospital environment across the full spectrum of health and social issues. Over the past several years, provision of care by ambulance services has come under increased scrutiny. There is mounting pressure for evidence-based practice, meaningful benchmarking and cost-effective treatment strategies. Research can support this via assessment of decision-making in clinical care, resource utilisation, new technology and system efficiency. AV is supportive of all types of research, provided benefits outweigh the associated risks. Participation in current and future research projects needs to be coordinated and appropriately governed. Coordination helps to ensure that: • Participation in projects can be prioritised to align with the AV Strategic Plan; • AV plays an active role in identifying priority areas and initiating research into these areas; • Risks are identified and appropriately mitigated; • Projects have appropriate ethics approvals; • Projects are of high quality; • Proposed projects / funding submissions adequately cost the use of AV resources; • Projects demonstrate a cost-benefit; • AV has appropriate recognition and input into publications involving AV data; • Individual patient / staff groups are not “over sampled”.
The Manager of Research and Evaluation coordinates AV research activities and ensures that the appropriate governance is applied. There is a standard application form and guidelines to apply for AV data access and research approval, which are available by emailing the Research Development Manager Amee.Morgans@ambulance.vic.gov.au.