General practitioners (GPs) and practice nurses are ideally placed to identify patients at risk of, or in the early stages of, chronic disease and to implement prevention and early intervention efforts to reduce disease progression and subsequent hospitalisation.
Data which can identify patients at risk of developing, or who already have, chronic disease is already collected and held within general practice electronic medical records (EMRs). This data can be leveraged and used for audit, feedback, quality improvement and facilitating evidence-based interventions at the point of care. These elements are incorporated in the Future Health Today platform, which has been co-designed by GPs, practice nurses and practice managers. The development of the platform is informed by ongoing evaluation and the guidance of our general practice and consumer advisory groups.
The Future Health Today team will work with the CRE to develop innovative ways to engage consumers with digital technology and to develop integration platforms to facilitate the sharing of data between consumers and health services.
Future Health Today is a collaboration between the University of Melbourne and Western Health. More information about the program is available at futurehealthtoday.com.au
Funding
Paul Ramsay Foundation, NHMRC, Melbourne Academic Centre for Health, Cancer Research UK
Project Team Members
Jo-Anne Manski-Nankervis is an academic GP and lead of the Data Driven Quality Improvement Research Theme at the Department of General Practice University of Melbourne
Douglas Boyle is the Director of the Research Information Technology Unit (R2) at the Department of General Practice, with expertise in health informatics and ethical acquisition of record-linkable data for audit, research and health surveillance
Rita McMorrow is a GP currently undertaking her PhD exploring the collection and use of patient reported outcome measures for use in consultations with people with type 2 diabetes in general practice
References
Read more here.