The Australian Government's Innovation Report

Interest in ITOL and e-business remains strong as evidenced by the high number of applications received
(146 in rounds 13 and 14), high number of people (67 339) visiting the ITOL website and increase in the
number of subscribers (3015 people) to ITOL news.
Since the programme’s inception, a number of new e-business systems have been developed and are now
commercial ready including:
• an anomalous behaviour detection system – a prototype to detect and reduce online banking fraud now
being used in the financial and banking sector; and
• an online hazard and critical control point portal and chemical database – a system to assist the
Australian wine industry meet and satisfy both local and international stringent quality assurance as well
as food safety and environmental standards.
The ITOL programme will conclude in June 2007.
More information about the ITOL Programme can be found at: www.dcita.gov.au/itol
Improved reporting on cancer for improved results
An electronic cancer notification system is set to streamline cancer incidence and mortality data for doctors,
health service planners and researchers.
The eNotification project was selected by the Information Technology Online Programme because it has the
potential to make significant productivity improvements and introduce efficiencies in business operations.
It involves the Cancer Institute of New South Wales, in partnership with Symbion and SEALS laboratories,
piloting an electronic cancer notification system at the institute’s Central Cancer Registry.
Under New South Wales law, all cases of cancer are notified to the registry. This provides cancer incidence and
mortality data to doctors, health service planners and researchers. Symbion and SEALS laboratories reconfigured
their systems to send pathology reports electronically to a receiving system installed by McCauley Software.
Reports are transmitted virtually and instantaneously between the registry and the laboratories.
The introduction of such a system has increased the speed of notification, enhanced the security of confidential
patient information and reduced manual data processing. The electronic cancer notification system will
facilitate improved reporting and analysis of cancer incidences.
Professor Peter Russell of Symbion Laboratory said electronic cancer notification was the first step toward
more structured pathology reports of cancer cases.
‘We expect this technology to drive quality and consistency in reporting and allow better analysis of data
over large samples, as well as easier integration into new clinical systems in hospitals,’ he said.
Pharmaceuticals Partnerships Programme
The Pharmaceuticals Partnerships Programme (P 3 ) is a $150 million, five-year programme designed to increase the
level of high quality pharmaceuticals R&D undertaken in Australia.
It provides companies selected through a competitive process with funding for every additional dollar of
pharmaceuticals R&D undertaken in Australia, up to a $10 million cap. P 3 encourages partnerships between
local firms, multinationals, biotechs and research organisations. The programme has had two competitive entry
rounds to date (1 July 2004 and 1 July 2005) and funding under the third round will commence on 1 July 2007.
The programme concludes on 30 June 2009.
P 3 funding has helped establish several new research collaborations. Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD) entered
into a collaboration in August 2005 to license CSL’s Iscomatric Adjuvant technology. The deal will complement
MSD’s development of vaccine products and will give CSL distribution rights in Australia to certain vaccines
developed using the technology. Furthermore, MSD has a number of ongoing Australian research collaborations
including a collaboration with Benitec to use its gene-silencing technology.
In 2005, ChemGenex entered into collaboration with British biopharmaceutical company Vernalis to discover and
validate novel depression and anxiety genes. This collaboration is expected to be worth $2 million in its first year.
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