Toolkit for Independence- A stronger voice for Australian health consumer organisations

The Toolkit for Independence project aims to strengthen and support an independent health consumer voice in Australian health policy. This project will develop, test, and apply strategies to operationalise these principles through practical tools. This work builds on the 2020 national workshop 'Trust and Transparency', where representatives from health consumer groups co-developed a set of core principles for managing sponsorship. Bringing together expertise in policy, public health, bioethics, sociology, law, and consumer rights, our project will produce up–to–date evidence on patient group–industry relationships and governance approaches practiced by health consumer organisations. In close partnership with the health consumer sector our initiative will propose and test solutions to a commercial determinant of health challenge often considered intractable.