Health Research jobs in the Northern Territory

A rich environment for research led clinical innovation

Striving for excellence and a better future for our communities.

Australia’s Northern Territory has a unique culture – it has a rich narrative of human endeavour and communities that work together to produce outstanding results in the face of overwhelming odds. This includes a rich, vibrant and enduring Aboriginal history of connection to lands, water and seas. The Aboriginal culture is diverse with over 100 languages and 70% of Territorians living in remote locations and identify as Aboriginal.

The remoteness, the distances, the climate and the complex geographical, economic and social environment demand a level of resilience and creativity remindful of frontier stories. These are not stories of the past however, but of present and future achievements that are world firsts in health, technology and social responsibility.

In response to these challenges, we are home to innovative and productive thinkers, researchers and implementers, striving for excellence and a better future for our communities.

We believe our strongest characteristics that differentiate us from others is our immersion in our unique environment, and our persistence and resilience in optimising health outcomes for those affected by remoteness, climate and inequity.

The Territory has distinctive population characteristics compared with other Australian jurisdictions. Geographically, the Territory is the third largest of the states and territories, covering approximately 18% of the Australian land mass, yet it has only 1% of the national population, giving the Territory the lowest population density of any state or territory.

NT Health is committed to working with healthcare consumers, carers and communities to ensure a healthcare system that involves Aboriginal Territorians as active partners in their healthcare including improving access to timely, quality, culturally responsive, patient focused healthcare across the Territory.

NT Health is a rich environment for research led clinical innovation and relies upon evidence to inform improvements in healthcare. Our clinicians are an integral part of this knowledge development. They are not only experts in their chosen specialities but are experts who have developed world-first clinical treatments, models of care, and service delivery methods as necessary measures to overcome challenges inherent with remoteness, climate extremes and diversity, distribution, vulnerability and cultural complexity of the Territory population. Embedding research is central to the achievement of NT Health’s goals and Strengthening our Health System Strategy PDF (946.7 KB) to provide best practice health care that is effective, and evidence based because of our research. NT Health conduct research in a range of capacities and in partnership with a range of organisations.

Our focus

The following key focus areas drive our research partnerships to respond to real world needs of Territorians:

  • Respond to health needs: Intimately knowing how various health needs are impacted by remoteness, climate, culture and inequity.
  • Respond to challenges: Formulating culturally respectful responses to emerging health needs, service supply, and surge capacity that are contextualised to remoteness, climate and inequity.
  • Supply lines that work: Finding creative ways to provide continuity of health care delivery in the face of remoteness, climate and inequity challenges.
  • Creative healthcare: Developing creative healthcare solutions to achieve optimal health outcomes in the face of remoteness, climate and inequality challenges.
  • Event responses: Critical care and trauma response in the challenging context of remoteness, climate and inequity.

View the NT Health clinical trials register here.

Australian Teletrial Program

NT Health is a national partner of the Australian Teletrial Program, funded by the Commonwealth Government’s Medical Research Future Fund – National Critical Infrastructure Initiative – 2019 Rural, Regional and Remote Clinical Trial Enabling Infrastructure grant. This program will transform the clinical trials landscape in the NT by building clinical and technical capability to facilitate and expand clinical trials activity across the five regions so that Territorians can access clinical trials closer to home.

Vision

To improve health outcomes for Territorians, especially those living in rural, regional and remote regions, through access to quality clinical trials.

Mission

Building NT Health’s capacity and capability to undertake quality clinical trials by providing trained workforce, resourced sites, adequate infrastructure and an interconnected system locally and nationally.

See more information on the Teletrial program here.