The Business of Health

This aim of this paper is to identify the potential for a partnership arrangement in the local industry of the Business of Health. This partnership would use the same "Strategic Industry Approach" that the State Development Centre Townsville has already used successfully in Townsville for a number of other industries. This approach includes the development of an Industry Development Plan. The local benefits expected from such a partnership are similar benefits to those already obtained by the State Development Centre Townsville for the local industries with a larger overall contribution to gross regional product than the Health industry. We are currently (August 2006) focusing on preliminary work before we start working towards an Industry Development Plan for the Local Industry of the Business of Health. For some readers the most interesting part of this paper will be the last section on the Business of Health. However, because we are very interested in finding other interested parties at the SEGRA Conference with whom to explore collaborations, we have included other sections largely as background. The outcomes, learning experiences, planned future directions and actions and potential spill overs identified from our work are in themselves one of the main expected outcomes. At the end of the paper, we conclude that we are optimist about the future for the local industry of the Business of Health, because of the past successes of our local "Strategic Industry Approach" on the local industries of larger overall contribution to gross regional product.