About Us

The Tropical Australian Academic Health Centre is a collaboration between the five hospital and health services in northern Queensland - Cairns and Hinterland, Mackay, North West, Torres and Cape and Townsville - the Northern Queensland Primary Health Network, the Queensland Aboriginal and Islander Health Council and James Cook University, including the Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine.

TAAHC Members have a long history of service delivery, workforce training and innovation aimed at improving health and workforce capacity across a large region with unique health challenges. These challenges include a higher burden of non-communicable diseases including diabetes and cardiovascular disease; the impact of and public health responses to tropical and infectious diseases including tuberculosis and vector-borne diseases; disparities in access to health care and health outcomes; and the provision of health care over a large geographic area entailing a multidimensional practice environment requiring ‘generalist’ skills and training.

In 2020 TAAHC was accredited by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) via its Research Translation initiative. Research Translation Centres are collaborations between research organisations, health care providers and educational institutions, all working together to deliver innovative, research-based health care and training for the benefit of their communities.

TAAHC is the only Research Translation Centre serving rural, regional, and remote Queensland.