A new facility in Alice Springs will help decrease the rate of chronic illness in Aboriginal communities, says the minister for Rural and Indigenous Health.

Flinders University and the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute are sharing the W and E Rubuntja Research and Medical Education building at the Alice Springs Hospital.

The new facility will house Flinders' new rural clinical school and Baker's research into Aboriginal health problems.

According to Minister Warren Snowdon, it will provide a base for efforts to tackle some of the chronic diseases affecting Aboriginal health.

Here in central Australia we know the importance of research into cardiovascular disease, diabetes, renal failure, he said.

He added that, These are the sorts of things that Baker's crucially engaged with and if we want to improve the outcomes, the health outcomes, we've got to be able to enable people to manage the health of their patients better.

Students will be able to gain remote practice experience and there will also be benefits for doctors and nurses working in central Australia, says Mr Snowdon.

As a result of them being here, and as a result of Flinders being here, I think we're going to attract professionals to come here who might not otherwise have come, he said.

I think they'll be attracted to coming to work at the hospital, for example, because they can see an opportunity to research at the same time as they're working.

Australia