More than 150 of Australia’s leading health and medical scientists recently gathered in Canberra for the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences’ (AAHMS) 2025 Annual Meeting, which served as a national discussion on how to strengthen trust in health and medicine at a time of rapid social and technological change.

Building on those discussions, the Academy has now released a new policy explainer, Understanding Trust, which explores how trust underpins the nation’s health system and scientific enterprise.

The explainer examines how trust shapes health behaviours, public policy, and clinical practice, and how its erosion can impact the uptake of evidence-based care and engagement with science. It finds that while most Australians continue to trust doctors and scientists, that trust is fragile and uneven: early childhood vaccination rates have fallen below 90% for the first time since 2016, and 61% of Australians worry that medical science is becoming politicised.

The Academy’s analysis shows that trust is dynamic and relational, built through everyday interactions between patients and clinicians, scientists and communities, and governments and citizens. It is also influenced by institutional transparency, communication, and the equity of systems and outcomes.

Academy President Professor Louise Baur AM FAHMS said the Canberra meeting made clear that trust is not a static asset, but something that must be continuously earned.

“Trust is the foundation of effective science, healthcare, and policy. It underpins every interaction across the health and medical sciences. When trust falters, misinformation spreads, engagement drops, and evidence struggles to find its way into practice. Rebuilding that trust requires openness, humility, and consistent commitment to the public good,” Professor Baur said.

“As technologies like artificial intelligence and personalised medicine transform how we deliver and communicate care, it is vital that we strengthen the social contract between science and society,” Professor Baur said.

“This means ensuring that Australians feel confident the institutions, systems and people guiding our health decisions are transparent, fair, and guided by evidence.”

The explainer sets the stage for further Academy work to measure trust in health and medical science and identify policy levers to strengthen it across Australia’s diverse communities.

The Understanding Trust explainer is the first in a new Academy series exploring key issues at the intersection of health, science, and society.

Read the full report here. 

Academy media contact: Khaled Chakli: [email protected] (0423 099 568)