What We Do
Western Alliance is Australia’s first rural and regionally-focused academic health science centre.
Western Alliance is comprised of 11 member organisations located across the Barwon/Southwest and Grampians regions of western Victoria. Members include eight public health services, a primary health network and two universities.
The two regions have a combined population of over 700,000 residents or approximately 44% of rural/regional Victoria’s population. Western Alliance supports the development of healthier rural and regional communities, in recognition of the significantly poorer health outcomes experienced by people living in the Barwon/South West and Grampians regions of Victoria compared to their metropolitan-living counterparts. The challenges that affect the health of people living in western Victoria include distance and major variations in access to healthcare, socio-economic status and infrastructure.
Through a program of training, education, funding and advocacy, Western Alliance supports its members to improve the health of their communities through research-based and evidence-informed health care.
Our vision
Healthy rural and regional western Victoria communities benefitting from evidence-based and research-informed healthcare.
Our purpose
To improve community health and wellbeing by supporting our members to generate translational research and apply research evidence in their practice.
Our strategic objectives
- Stronger partnerships and collaborations
- A strong enabling environment
- Greater team and individual capacity and capability
- Targeted support and funding to accelerate translation
Our values
Collaboration
Success requires positive and respectful relationships and ongoing collaboration between consumers, Aboriginal Community, clinicians, researchers, health services, primary care, universities and other organisations.
Access
Rural and regional communities deserve fair local access to research-enabled quality health care.
Excellence
To achieve the potential of our partnership, we must strive towards excellence in what we do and learn, grow, evolve and improve continuously.
Impact
High quality research and translation lead to measurable impact and improvements in community and individual health and wellbeing.
Our focus
Strengthening health sector-led collaborative research and research translation in the domains of:
- population and public health
- clinical care
- health systems
Western Alliance Academic Health Science Centre (Western Alliance) was established in 2014 and incorporated as a registered health promotion charity in 2016.