Our vision is to provide strong leadership within the medical profession, focused on continuous improvement in safety and reducing risk for both doctors and patients.
The grants aim to provide funding to charities that support research, leadership training and education projects designed to make a real difference to how medicine is practised – in particular, the systems and processes. We believe this is key to creating sustainable changes, enhancing patient care and continuous medical improvement.
How will you make an impact on the future of medical practice?
The Avant Foundation Grants fund charities that are Deductible Gift Recipients (DGR).
Priority research topics for 2023
- Doctors’ health and wellbeing
- Telehealth and virtual care
- Fragmentation of care
- Medical leadership/quality improvement leadership
- Understanding patient complaints
- Prescribing, including drugs of dependence and e-prescribing
In 2022, the Avant Foundation distributed grants to charities supporting research or quality improvement projects designed to make a real difference to how medicine is practised. Learn more about our Avant Foundation grant program here.
Avant Foundation Grant Applicants
Avant Foundation Grant applications are open to entities that are charities within the meaning of the Charities Act 2013 (Cth) and are endorsed as a Deductible Gift Recipients (DGR) (Charity Criteria).
Avant Foundation Grants are not available for individuals.
- Expressions of interest: Closed
- Detailed applications: Closed
Stage one criteria include:
- Relevance of the project to the objectives and purpose of the Avant Foundation Grants
- The project type (e.g. research, education)
- The project topic area (e.g. domains of quality improvement, professionalism)
- The leadership experience of the project team
- The design of the project
For more information please email avantfoundation@avant.org.au.
Avant Foundation Grants - Project funding 2022
A/Prof Mark Howard – Victorian Respiratory Support Service (VRSS) Director VRSS, Austin Health.
Grant Recipient: Austin Health
___
Dr Andrew Casamento – The use of home spirometry to monitor and manage rural and regional patients with airway stenosis during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.
Grant Recipient: Austin Hospital
___
Dr Anthony Rotman – The PARTNER study: Delivering timely, best care using remotely collected patient reported outcome measures.
Grant Recipient: Monash Health
___
A/Prof Vincent Pellegrino – A Multi-Platform Clinical Training Suite To Improve Artificial Heart-Lung Therapy Safety and Effectiveness.
Grant Recipient: Monash University
___
Professor Jennifer Philip – The PARTNER study: Delivering timely, best care using remotely collected patient reported outcome measures.
Grant Recipient: Royal Melbourne Hospital
___
Dr Nicole Ghedina – Does introduction of an electronic triage kiosk system with direct patient data entry improve access to clinical care for patients attending an Australian Emergency Department?
Grant Recipient: St John of God
___
A/Prof Jess Howell – Delivering best practice liver cancer surveillance and care: The PRECISE study.
Grant Recipient: St Vincents Hospital Melbourne
___
Professor Richard Turner – Teaching telehealth for tomorrow: A telehealth simulation program for Australia’s future healthcare work force.
Grant Recipient: University of Tasmania
Australian Indigenous Doctors Association | 2022 bursary recipient, Shontae Coyne
Monash Health | 2022 recipient, lead researcher Dr Anthony Rotman
The Royal Melbourne Hospital | 2022 recipient, lead researcher Professor Jennifer Phillip
Austin Health | 2022 recipient, lead researcher Associate Professor Mark Howard
St John of God | 2022 recipient, lead researcher Dr Nicole Ghedina
University of Tasmania | 2022 recipient, lead researcher Professor Richard Turner
The University of Newcastle | 2022 recipient, lead researcher Associate Professor Lisa Lampe
Monash Health | 2021 recipient, lead researcher Professor Meredith Allen
Children’s Hospital at Westmead I 2021 Recipient
George Institute for Global Health | 2021 recipient, lead researcher Professor Christine Jenkins
Eastern Health | 2021 recipient, lead researcher Dr Philip Choi
Brain and Mind Centre, University of Sydney I 2019 recipient
An evaluation of peer review groups in psychiatry | Project lead – Associate Professor, Louise Nash
The Avant Foundation grant supports research to evaluate psychiatrists’ peer review groups and explore participants’ perception of the role the peer review group has on their practice, professionalism and wellbeing.
Associate Professor Nash and her team aim to explore how psychiatrists experience peer review groups.
The study will collect the perceptions of psychiatrist members of peer review groups through qualitative and quantitative methods including online surveys, interviews and focus groups.
A/Prof Nash believes a well-running peer review group provides educational and collegial support for practitioners, which in turn may improve clinical practice, professionalism and personal wellbeing.
Flinders Adelaide Indigenous Medical Mentoring/Australian Indigenous Doctors’ Association I 2019/2018 recipient
To finance an Indigenous medical student through the challenging first years of study | Project lead – Dr Helen Sage/ AIDA Australian Indigenous Doctors Association
Australia’s first independent mentoring program for Indigenous medical students, Flinders Adelaide Indigenous Medical Mentoring (FAIMM), was set up in 2008 in response to the high number of drop-outs of Indigenous students from medicine, particularly in their first year.
The program has also grown to include dentistry students.
The Avant Foundation grant will support an Indigenous student through their first two years of medical school, with mentees regularly meeting one-on-one with their mentor and as a group, once a term. In 2019, funding was extended to enable FAIMM to continue its work.
University of Technology Sydney I 2018 recipient
Advancing knowledge of drivers of defensive practice in Australia | Project lead - Associate Professor Nola Ries
Defensive practice drives low-value care, with harm to patients and health systems. Yet, little work has been done in Australia to explore what is driving this behaviour or how change can be instigated at the doctor-patient relationship level.
Associate Professor Ries, a researcher with the Law, Health, Justice Research Centre at the Faculty of Law, University of Technology Sydney, alongside colleagues in behavioural science, received an Avant Foundation grant to investigate what drives low-value care.
This will eventually deliver online CPD-training resources to educate clinicians and ultimately reduce low-value, defensive practices.
University of Melbourne I 2018 recipient
Study to improve accuracy of pneumonia diagnosis in ED | Project lead - Professor Kumar Visvanathan
While treating patients in the emergency department (ED), Professor Kumar Visvanathan noticed more patients were being incorrectly diagnosed for pneumonia than he expected and got the idea for this study, which received an Avant Foundation grant.
Professor Visvanathan and his team of five researchers, who each represent a link in the chain of pneumonia diagnosis, are investigating the accuracy of pneumonia diagnosis in the ED.
The results of the analysis will help inform the development of strategies to improve diagnostic accuracy and effect real change and rapid improvement in a common area of diagnostic error.
Australian Orthopaedic Association Research Foundation I 2018 recipient
Development of tool to assess skills in obtaining informed consent | Project lead – Dr Ian Incoll
Dr Ian Incoll and his co-author, Jodie Atkin, are piloting a new formative assessment tool, in which trainees are observed performing informed consent in the workplace.
The Informed Consent Observation Tool is currently being validated and will be trialled with doctors in training. The tool will help identify any deficiencies and prompt the provision of targeted feedback on areas for improvement.
The Avant Foundation grant is delivering a funding boost to this pilot project. The team hopes this study will produce a reliable and valid tool that can be used to assess informed consent skills in surgical trainees and consultant surgeons.
The Avant Foundation (ABN 27 179 743 817) is administered by its trustee, Avant Foundation Limited (ACN 618 393 847). The Avant Foundation is a Public Ancillary Fund, endorsed by the Australian Taxation Office as a Deductible Gift Recipient.