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Research
Volume 12 No 4 I September 2016 17
Research is a strategic priority of the
College and is one of the seven college-
wide strategic pillars:
Clinical Radiology and Radiation
Oncology are recognised as
professions characterised by
a research ethic, and Australia
and New Zealand become
more research competitive
internationally.
This priority addresses the risk that
insufficient and low quality research
adversely affects the perceived role of
radiology in patient care and radiation
oncology in cancer care. If the College
fails to demonstrate research leadership,
then reliance on overseas research and
the perception that College members
are more ‘technicians not clinicians’ will
grow. Despite research being a priority,
it has been the least supported of the
priorities.
The College position is that developing
a research strategy would be an initial
step towards increasing resources for
the research priority as it would outline
key research areas for targeting.
A research strategy forum was held
on 26 July at the College office in
Sydney. Invitations were sent out to
members who represented a cross-
section of the College membership. In
total 23 participants attended. These
included seven members from clinical
radiology, 11 members from radiation
oncology and four RANZCR Staff. The
members represented various College
committees, including four Board
members and the College President.
The mix was to provide a balance
of ideas from across the College
membership. The forum was facilitated
by Philip Pogson from The Leading
Partnership.
The objective of the forum was to gain
member input into the development of
a College-wide Research Strategy. Some
of the discussions points raised were:
• Research is an integral component
of clinical activity and a culture of
research needs to be embedded
from training. There are challenges in
measuring research output, especially
in clinical practice.
• The current College grants are small
and should be considered as seed
funds for bigger projects, which
the College can later support with
bigger grants or source funding from
elsewhere.
• Clinical radiology needs more
support. It is a very technical
discipline. The research component
of training may not contribute much
to change the research culture in
clinical radiology unless a different
approach is taken. Private radiology
practices are difficult to engage in
research.
• Early career and mid-career
researchers in Australia and New
Zealand may need different
strategies to address the challenges.
Preliminary priorities identified include:
• Promoting and facilitating basic
and applied research across the
career cycle of professions in
order to provide evidence for
best practice, decision-making
and policy formulation. Promotion
should start with embedding research
in the training curriculum of both
clinical radiology and radiation
oncology as a way of providing
lifelong competence and stimulating
interest in research. The College will
consider including research training
as part of the accreditation process.
• Enhancing partnership and
collaboration internally across the
two Faculties and with external
organisations to ensure that
the College does not work in
isolation from other organisations,
institutions or the community.
We need to forge links with other
national international research
bodies, and organisations to promote
research projects and secure funding
for research for collaboration on
College membership.
• Providing a governance framework
and administrative support for the
implementation of the research
strategy and measurement of
performance against set objectives
for the research plan.
• Effective internal and external
communication will be a key
ingredient to the success of the
strategy.
The next steps are work on the strategy
before circulating it to members for
comment. Then it will be presented to
the two Faculty Councils and finally the
Board.
Development of RANZCR
Research Strategy
Priorities identified at recent forum
If you have any questions about the
RANZCR Research Strategy, please
contact Prof Patricia Desmond or Dr
Keen-Hun Tai c/o Chilandu Mukuka,
Manager, Research Co-ordination
on