The Australian Council on Healthcare Standards collates data on measures of performance in a clinical setting in six-month periods. How can these data best be utilised to inform decision-making and systems improvement? What are the perils associated with collecting data in six-month periods, and how may these be addressed? Are there better ways to analyse, report and guide policy?

The Council for Aid to Education is one of many organisations internationally attempting to assess tertiary institutional performance. Value-add modelling is a technique intended to inform system performance. How valid and reliable are these techniques? Can they be improved?

Educational techniques and outreach activities are employed across the education system and the wider community for the purposes of increasing access, equity and understanding.

When new concepts are formed, a well-designed instrument to assess and provide evidence of their performance is required. Does immersion in professional experience activity enable pre-service teachers to achieve teaching standards? Do engagement activities for schools in remote and rural areas increase students’ aspirations and engagement with tertiary institutions?

Forensic anthropologists deal with the collection of bones and profiling individuals based on the remains found. How can statistics inform such decision-making?

Such questions and existing and potential answers will be discussed in the context of research collaborations with Taipei Medical University (Taiwan), Health Services Research Group, Australian Council on Healthcare Standards, Hunter Medical Research Institute, School of Education, Wollotuka Institute, School of Environmental Sciences and a Forensic Anthropologist.

[Yi-Fan's supervisors are Dr. Peter Howley and Dr. Frank Tuyl]

Peter's interests have seen him involved in several areas of research the past few years, these have included control charts using Bayesian methods, assessing the value-add of tertiary institutions, the use of clinical indicators in the hospital accreditation process, testing the effectiveness of educational programs, considering relationships between body parts and sex or height, as well as the development of a national poster competition for secondary school students. Peter will give an overview of these activities, which are at varying levels of development.

Yi-Fan has just completed his first year as a PhD student with Drs Peter Howley and Frank Tuyl as supervisors. Yi-Fan’s work focuses on the creation of control charts using Bayesian methods for the monitoring of clinical indicators. Yi-Fan will outline the new chart being tested, the current and intended comparisons with existing charts and his future work.