Those of you who have driven around the John Hunter Hospital circuit will have seen the HMRI Building nestled among the trees. It's there for a very good reason.
Positioning a world-class research facility adjacent to the region's major teaching hospital was one of many inspired decisions made when HMRI's founders pioneered our translational research model.
Also close by are the University of Newcastle's campuses.
It affords scientists and public health researchers a direct linkage to clinical service delivery. Similarly, clinicians gain access to the latest research-generated innovations and academic expertise.
The doctors you see working in the hospital will often swap their medical gowns for a lab coat. Research knowledge and technology permeate their daily clinical practice.
We like to call it the laboratory-to-clinic continuum as ideas flow back and forth, fuelling inspiration, exploration and innovation.
The big winners, of course, are the patients living throughout Hunter New England Health's geographically and demographically diverse region.
From asthma to cancer, stroke to cardio, we have some of NSW's biggest clinical trials and projects underway, bringing direct benefit to families and communities.
Please think of that, next time you visit your doctor at the hospital. And please continue to think of HMRI so we can support the doctors in return.