On research, Rann’s got it all wrong

Opinion piece by Dr Philip Harding, Emeritus Consultant at the Royal Adelaide Hospital and Past President of the Australian Medical Association.

Mr. Rann's amusing idea that spending $200 million building a research Institute will result in 675 internationally recruited scientists falling out of the sky to generate groundbreaking research is a further illustration of how out of touch he and his government are with the realities of medical research and education and their integration with clinical care in connection with the "new hospital project".

The discovery and development of penicillin was not the result of an injection of government funding. Nor was the unravelling of the structure of DNA. Pick a Nobel prize-winning piece of research and you'll mostly find that it was the result of a brilliant idea or chance observation, developed by collaboration between mutually interested individuals and driven by sheer hard work and determination; usually assisted by funding from some government or other institutional source, but certainly not directed by it.

The history of medical research has been marked by some notably unsuccessful attempts by governments to steer its course. Richard Nixon's 1971 "war on cancer" - oddly reminiscent of his more recent successor’s "war on terror" - was a piece of political grandstanding spectacular even by Mike Rann's standards and became much criticised for its achievements falling well short of its expectations. In the 1960s, successful research at London's Hammersmith Hospital was rewarded by the construction of a new centre by the Wellcome Trust. The level of achievement fell away because the researchers in their "ivory tower" were no longer in touch with each other or the hospital clinicians on a regular basis. This latter example, in particular, should be seen by Mr. Rann's government as a warning of what might happen if they persist with their plans for the railway yards hospital development while turning their back on the successful, internationally recognised track record of the Hanson Institute/Royal Adelaide Hospital/University of Adelaide affiliation at the Frome Road precinct.

Government funding of research should be provided to be competed for and earnt on the basis of merit and achievement, such as occurs through the grant funding programs of Australia's National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) or similar bodies. It should not be a political tool.