COVID-19 Crisis Means Medical Research is Needed More than Ever

COVID-19 Crisis Means Medical Research is Needed More than Ever
30.03.2020

RPH Research Foundation is dedicating all donations it receives in April and May 2020 to helping Western Australia’s medical researchers combat the global COVID-19 crisis.

RPH Research Foundation is dedicating all donations it receives in April and May 2020 to helping Western Australia’s medical researchers combat the global COVID-19 crisis.

The Foundation will work closely with the WA Health Translation Network (WAHTN), which includes consumer representation through the Consumer and Community Health Research Network, to allocate all April and May 2020 donations to the vital COVID-19 clinical trials and other relevant research currently being conducted at Royal Perth Hospital (RPH) and within the wider East Metropolitan Health Service.

Foundation CEO Joce Young said funding medical research was essential now the COVID-19 pandemic had stopped the world in its tracks.

“Funding medical research is no longer a need, it’s a must,” she said.

“However, it is critical we work together as a state, calmly and purposefully, to ensure the best and most efficient use of our resources. We will continue to liaise with WAHTN to assess how much research funding is needed on a month-by-month basis.

“Supporting the doctors, nurses, health workers and scientists who are on the frontline of this health crisis to conduct essential patient-centred research at this unprecedented time will, hopefully, help save lives now and prevent history from repeating itself.”

Ms Young said all donations the Foundation receives at this time will have an immediate impact on advancing the health and wellbeing of Western Australians as well as people around the nation, and the globe.

“We are proud to be working with world-class researchers who are working exceptionally hard to tackle this virus in real time, but we need all the public support we can get for our efforts to have significant effect” she said.

“We are also acutely aware that economic hardship is at an all-time high, which is why I’d like to reassure the community that any amount they can spare will be put to the greatest use for the greater good.”

WAHTN Executive Director, Professor Gary Geelhoed, commended the RPH Research Foundation on its commitment to community health.

“The urgency with which we need to combat COVID-19 means medical research cannot be viewed as a long game. We need to act now and are grateful to organisations like the RPH Research Foundation for collaborating with us to make this happen,” Professor Geelhoed said.

“Our immediate priority is to provide the infrastructure to expand existing trials that will allow as many West Australians as possible to access potentially effective or even lifesaving treatments.

“There are dark days ahead, but if we all invest in medical research, there will be good things that come out of this.”

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