Study shows ultra-low-dose 4-in-1 blood pressure pill would be cost-effective in Australia

Media release

Treating high blood pressure with a ‘quadpill’ tablet containing very low doses of four commonly used, low-cost medicines is not only more effective than usual care but is also comparably cost-effective, according to a new analysis by researchers at The George Institute for Global Health

New Lancet Paper by The George Institute for Global Health Advocates Accelerated Action for Global Drowning Prevention

Media release

Speaking of the challenges in devising strategies to prevent drowning accidents, Dr Jagnoor said, “Data on drowning are currently fragmented across various sectors, including disaster management, maritime agencies, the police, and the healthcare system. While a perfect national drowning registry is an ideal goal, non-health sector data that can provide contextually relevant insights can help in preventing drowning incidents

Cardiovascular Collaborative Grants program

New grant to help fix Australia’s blood pressure problem

A team of George Institute researchers, in collaboration with experts across the country, have been awarded almost $1m by the NSW Office for Health and Medical Research as part of the Cardiovascular Collaborative Grants program to look at new ways to transform blood pressure control.

One-third of Australian adults have raised blood pressure, or hypertension, and it is the leading cause of preventable death. Around half of those with hypertension are unaware of their condition and only a third have their blood pressure controlled with medication.

Chief Investigator Professor Alta Schutte explained that it is not a new problem, but it persists despite the ease of diagnosis, understanding of underlying causes, and the wide availability of effective medications for the condition.

“Our program of work aims to identify why current approaches to implementing multiple proven hypertension control strategies are not working in Australia,” she said.

Following on from the recently published call-to-action to improve blood pressure control in Australia, the National Hypertension Taskforce was launched by Minister Butler on December 8, 2022, with the goal of increasing control rates from 32% to 70% by 2030.

To achieve this ambitious target, the investigator team – who also lead the Hypertension Taskforce – has developed four collaborative research themes, each addressing a proven and high-potential opportunity to reduce blood pressure, that will be led by internationally recognised Australian leaders and multi-institutional, multidisciplinary teams.

1. Innovative approaches to community awareness and diagnosis

Screening sites will be located in-store at a popular retail chain and automated blood pressure devices will be used to identify people with raised blood pressure, who will then be encouraged to see their doctor for diagnosis and prescription of blood pressure lowering medication.

2. Switching Australia’s salt supply from regular salt to potassium-enriched salt

An experienced team of dieticians, lawyers, business analysts, and health economists as well as epidemiologists and clinicians will identify opportunities and barriers to the scale-up of potassium-enriched salt use in Australia.

3. Simplified treatment: Towards evidence-based prescribing in primary care

Major international guidelines now recommend single pill combinations (SPCs) as first-line therapy - this theme will support GP prescribing of SPCs through a simplified strategy and education on international best practice in blood pressure treatment.

4. Optimised monitoring using digital health tools

A team with high-level experience in digital tools, will evaluate the potential of mobile health strategies optimised with artificial intelligence, incorporating health monitoring data, to help motivate patients to keep up with their treatments and maintain the necessary lifestyle behaviours for better blood pressure control.

“Through this initial work we hope to establish a national blueprint for the successful management of hypertension to bring the nation’s blood pressure back under control and prevent numerous deaths from heart attacks, strokes, kidney disease and dementia,” Prof Schutte

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Further reading

Environmental

Submission on the National Climate and Health Strategy

The George Institute has been a strong advocate of a National Health and Climate Strategy to help Australia reduce the impacts of climate change on health and build a net zero emissions health system. The consultation paper issued by the Australian Government is an important step in shaping this strategy, and we are pleased to contribute to it through our submission and ongoing engagement.

Climate change is a health emergency. Heat stress attributable to climate change already contributes to 30-35% of deaths in Australia. Other health impacts include respiratory illness from worsening air quality, increased prevalence and wider distribution of vector-borne diseases, and increased mental illness. The development of this Strategy is an opportunity to effectively integrate health and climate policy, and reform our health system to meet our current and future challenges caused by climate change.

We recommend that the Strategy:

  • Set out a roadmap for the consideration of climate change impacts on health to be integrated into government decision-making and programmes across portfolios and jurisdictions.
  • Set a clear vision, mission and objectives focused on four key areas:
    • Health for all: prioritise developing climate risk and vulnerability assessments for high-risk communities and a framework of vulnerability indicators.
    • Net-zero emissions healthcare system: develop a decarbonisation plan for the health system in partnership with States and Territories. The first step should be to commission an emissions baseline report and marginal abatement cost curve for the health system.
    • Accelerate research and innovation: investment and support are needed to develop and scale up new, future-focused models of care to meet the challenges of climate change and intersecting pressures on health and the health system.
    • Climate positive public policy: renovate the policy decision making architecture to bring consideration of climate impacts into the centre of policy making and enable joined-up decision making across portfolios and jurisdictions.

To accelerate action we recommend that the Minister for Health is added to the Net-Zero Cabinet Committee and a Ministerial Council or similar body is created to bring together the Commonwealth, States and Territories to drive coordinated and effective action.

Please refer to our full submission on this page. 

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Further reading

Impacting Policy - 25/07/2023

Submission

Will climate change increase the risk of drowning in India?

Drowning is the third leading cause of unintentional injury-related deaths that kills nearly 2,36,000 people globally every year. However, these numbers are considered underestimates as they do not include intentional drowning events like suicides and homicide, transport related drowning deaths, and deaths during disasters.  Poor and rural communities bear a disproportionate burden when it comes to drowning incidents.

healthcare research

Submission to improving alignment between the Medical Research Endowment Account and the Medical Research Future Fund

The George Institute for Global Health responded today to the Australian Department of Health’s consultation on improving alignment between the Medical Research Endowment Account (MREA) and the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF).

These two funds provide around $1.5 billion in health and medical research funding each year, and we welcome the opportunity to provide feedback on how to improve the coordination, governance and administration of these two important funds.

We believe that these funds serve important but distinct, purposes and that they should be kept as separate funds and operate under separate legislation. This will help to ensure that there is a balance between investigator-driven, basic research and priority-driven implementation research.

We would like to see initial governance and administrative improvements implemented while the forthcoming National Health and Medical Research Strategy is developed. It’s important that the high-level priorities for health and medical research inform the priorities and streams of each of the funds to ensure a cohesive, fit-for-purpose medical research ecosystem.

We would also like to see improvements in transparency implemented to ensure that processes are open, transparent and clearly communicated.

We look forward to working with the Department further on improving our health and medical research infrastructure.

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Policy Papers - 14/07/2023

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