australia_flag Kent Town, Australia

“The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons assesses new surgical technologies in Australia. The results are widely disseminated to ensure public and professional confidence in the quality of new surgical procedures.”

Guy_Maddern_2010
– Professor Guy Maddern, Director, ASERNIP-S

History and Structure

ASERNIP-S was set up in early 1998 and is a Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) program located within Research, Audits and Academic Surgery (RAAS). The program is managed by a Surgical Director, the General Manager of RAAS, the ASERNIP-S Manager and is overseen by an Advisory Committee. The team includes 15 research and project staff with expertise in information management, epidemiology, biostatistics, critical analysis of literature, scientific editing and health economics.

Mission

The ASERNIP-S mission is to provide quality and timely assessments of new and emerging surgical technologies and techniques. Services provided include systematic reviews of the peer-reviewed literature, economic evaluations, the identification of emerging technologies by horizon scanning and the production of clinical practice guidelines.

How ASERNIP-S Works

ASERNIP-S completes commissions for clients (usually Government Departments in Australia and overseas) to review specific health technologies to inform health funding decisions. ASERNIP-S staff collect, appraise, and analyze the best available evidence to form conclusions on the comparative safety and effectiveness of the technology. These results are then used in economic modelling to produce estimates of cost-effectiveness. Generally, ASERNIP-S produces complete clinical and economic evaluations within a 3-month timeframe; however, the team can tailor methodologies to meet client needs.

ASERNIP-S also provides research support to answer key questions of importance to Fellows and RACS. These are usually rapid reviews to address a specific issue promptly. Recently, we have produced a series of reports informing on surgery-specific issues relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. These reports are available at https://www.surgeons.org/en/media-centre/covid-19-information-hub

Dissemination Activities

We publish reports produced for RACS on RACS’ website and further disseminate them to the surgical community and other interested groups via social media announcements, newsletters, etc. ASERNIP-S disseminates reviews for external clients according to client policies. In addition, ASERNIP-S seeks to produce a peer-reviewed publication from each report to facilitate the wider dissemination of results.

Current Projects (A selection)

For our recently completed projects, visit http://www.surgeons.org/hta.

Future Plans

  • To contribute to the development of clinical practice guidelines
  • To establish further national and international links with relevant healthcare organizations
  • To facilitate research via further trials/audits on new surgical techniques
  • A rapid enquiry service to inform policy and decision making

Agency Information

Country: Australia
Description of population served: National
Population served (mil): 25.7
Current HTA budget (mil USD): 1.46
Permanent staff: 18
Consultants: variable
Ongoing TA projects: 2 (we are also conducting 2 projects for other organizations)

Contact Information

Director: Professor Guy Maddern
Contact person: Associate Professor Wendy Babidge

ASERNIP-S
24 King William Road
Ken Town SA 5067 Australia
Tel: +61 8 8219 0900
Fax: +61 8 8219 0999
Internet:http://www.surgeons.org/hta
Email: College.Asernip@surgeons.org