LSTM has played host to a delegation from North Queensland in Australia today, who are in Merseyside as guests of Liverpool Health Partners (LHP). The fact finding party is looking at how LHP works as a strategic partnership in order to explore the potential for establishing a Tropical Australia Academic Health Science Centre.
As one of the founding members of LHP, Professor Janet Hemingway welcomed the delegation to lunch in LSTM’s new Wolfson Building, before taking them on a tour of the facilities across LSTM. LHP is an umbrella organisation able to bring together clinical and scientific expertise to develop and promote world-leading research, education, healthcare and innovation. It is made up of 12 founding partners, all based in Merseyside, including LSTM, the University of Liverpool and a number of NHS trusts, while working with a wider network of members who share a vision to further develop and utilise the skills in the region to help to deliver a direct impact to the health of people throughout the UK.
LHP’s Chairman, Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, led the tour, which included the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospital Trust’s Clinical Research Unit, the University of Liverpool’s Pancreas Biomedical Research Unit, LSTM, the centre for Genomic Research and Wolfson Centre for Personalised Medicine.
The visiting delegation was made of five members and headed up by Associate Professor Andrew Johnson, Executive Director of Medical Services of the Townsville Hospital and Health service and included Professor Ian Wronski, Deputy Vice Chancellor for the Division of Tropical Health and Medicine in James Cook University. The two institutions are exploring the potential to establish a Tropical Australia Academic Health Science Centre, partnering with several other health services and the Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine. They have identified LHP as sharing focus areas and characteristics with the proposed North Queensland Partnership, particularly in the areas of Tropical Medicine.