New UQ-led center focuses on improving health and economic costs after road traffic injuries

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 26 2021

Improving health and economic costs after road traffic injuries is the focus of a new University of Queensland-led Centre of Research Excellence (CRE) awarded $2.5 million by the National Health and Medical Research Council.

CRE Director Professor Michele Sterling from UQ's RECOVER Injury Research Centre said the aim was to ensure consumers received the best possible care as they recovered.

For some people the process of claiming injury compensation causes psychological distress over and above the injury itself and this can have a detrimental effect on their recovery.

Dealing with the various processes and seeing numerous practitioners who provide conflicting advice is distressing and can leave injured people feeling unsupported by the whole process.

Our vision is for an injured person to be validated and receive best-practice care so that they have confidence when navigating the health, compensation and legal systems.

The Centre will investigate the processes and implement best practice care models throughout the whole journey."

Professor Michele Sterling, CRE Director, UQ's RECOVER Injury Research Centre

Up to 50 per cent of people do not recover after road traffic injury, developing chronic pain, disability and mental health issues.

The focus will be on musculoskeletal injuries, the most common and costly, making up 75 per cent of survivable road traffic injuries in Australia.

Consumer focussed and co-designed digital resources will also be developed to assist injured people in navigating these systems and help facilitate recovery.

The CRE uniquely brings together researchers, injured people, health care providers, compulsory third-party (CTP) insurers, government regulators and legal professionals and is being delivered in partnership with University of Sydney, Monash University, and The University of Melbourne.

Advisory groups from the motor accident regulators in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia, the main CTP insurers in Australia, peak health care professional bodies, legal professionals and patient representatives will also be represented.