Clinical Hubs

The CRE-ASH clinical network comprises five peak Aboriginal health agencies. These geographically dispersed CRE-ASH clinical hubs coordinate research and research translation, and implement capacity development initiatives at the local level.

The five clinical hubs are:

Aboriginal Health Council of South Australia – working with Aboriginal primary care services located in South Australia

Apunipima Cape York Health Council – working with health services in Cairns, the Cairns hinterland and Cape York

Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Service – working with health services in the east and west Kimberley

Institute for Urban Indigenous Health – working with health services in the greater Brisbane metropolitan area

Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council of New South Wales – working with health services in NSW.

Surveillance network

The cornerstone of the CRE is establishing the ATLAS project – an Aboriginal primary care surveillance network to track and interpret patterns of STI and BBV testing and treatment as well as complementary behavioural data across regions.

It is an expectation that all health services recruited will participate in the ATLAS project. In addition, each participating health service may elect to be involved with any number of the other CRE-ASH projects.

Involvement in other CRE-ASH studies will be based on the priorities and capacity of individual participating services. The agreements between SAHMRI and each of the participating health services provide a mechanism to enable the health services to “opt in” to individual optional projects.

Selection criteria for surveillance program participation

CRE-ASH aims to recruit up to 50 Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services and other primary health care services from a mix of urban, regional and remote settings into the studies. It is expected that each of the participating clinical hubs will assist SAHMRI in recruiting services located within their jurisdictions to participate in the CRE research.