Evaluation Of Multidisciplinary Care Plans For Patients With Diabetes
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$83,500.00
Summary
Care planning for patients with chronic illnesses and complex needs is a major part of the Commonwealth Enhanced Primary Care package. This initiative, announced in late 1999, provides access to Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) items to remunerate general practitioners, involved in developing multidisciplinary care plans in cooperation with other health care providers. An issue of importance, and the one that this project investigates, is whether disease specific care is addressed in care plans ....Care planning for patients with chronic illnesses and complex needs is a major part of the Commonwealth Enhanced Primary Care package. This initiative, announced in late 1999, provides access to Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) items to remunerate general practitioners, involved in developing multidisciplinary care plans in cooperation with other health care providers. An issue of importance, and the one that this project investigates, is whether disease specific care is addressed in care plans and whether the care planning process is associated with improved provision and outcomes of care for a specific chronic illness. The chronic illness that has been chosen for this research project is diabetes because of its prevalence in the community, importance in general practice and because there are accepted standards of process and outcomes of care against which diabetes care contained in EPC care plans can be bench marked. Diabetes is estimated to affect 7.5% of the adult Australian population with more than 85% of those affected having type 2 or mature onset diabetes. Increasingly care of type 2 diabetes is provided in primary care under share care arrangements with specialist diabetes services and in a multidisciplinary team approach involving the patient and their carer as well as relevant health professionals. A recent review has shown that there is a lack of evidence on whether multidisciplinary care is associated with improved process and outcomes of diabetes care. The project will involve 50 general practitioners and 200 of their patients with diabetes in South West Sydney. The design of the project involves audit of the care plans to examine the extent and quality of the diabetes care contained in comparison to accepted benchmarks. The project will also audit the patients' medical records for the year of care before and after the care plan. This care will be compared to published guidelines for process of care and goals for outcomes.Read moreRead less
Transdisciplinary Stroke Assessment: Can It Improve Allied Health Efficiency And Care On An Acute Stroke Unit?
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$106,268.00
Summary
This study will evaluate a new way of effectively delivering allied health assessment on Acute Stroke Units. It will compare current practice (multiple discipline-specific assessments) to a new transdisciplinary assessment (one allied health assessment) on the Mater Hospital Brisbane Acute Stroke Unit. It is anticipated that the transdisciplinary assessment will be more time-efficient, cost-saving, improve quality of care, increase patient/staff satisfaction, and build inter-professional trust.
To reduce Australia's future dementia burden, it is imperative to develop methods to identify those Australians at the very early stage of dementia. To achieve this goal, we are establishing multidisciplinary research projects to track disease progression from the very early stage. These projects use cutting-edge neuroscience technologies to examine how the mind and brain change in dementia. My goal is to discover novel methods for early detection, and develop early intervention strategies.
I have established and head the Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre within the University of Melbourne. My university position is a research chair with the specific aim of leading a team of researchers in neuropsychiatric research. One of the goals of the Centre is to deliver world-class neuroimaging research in psychiatric disorders. I head a team of researchers that have been undertaking neuroimaging and neuropsychological work on schizophrenia and psychosis since 1993 in Australia. My particular ....I have established and head the Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre within the University of Melbourne. My university position is a research chair with the specific aim of leading a team of researchers in neuropsychiatric research. One of the goals of the Centre is to deliver world-class neuroimaging research in psychiatric disorders. I head a team of researchers that have been undertaking neuroimaging and neuropsychological work on schizophrenia and psychosis since 1993 in Australia. My particular interest and impact on the field has been to define and understand progressive brain changes in schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders. Further work will place these changes within a brain maturational context, particularly examining trajectories of development in adolescence and young adulthood.Read moreRead less
Closing The Evidence-practice Gap For Non-pharmacologic And Non-surgical Osteoarthritis Care With An E-health Knowledge Translation Strategy
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$177,197.00
Summary
Painful conditions like osteoarthritis (OA) have an enormous impact on people’s lives and our health system. Despite effective treatments that do not rely on medications or surgical interventions, these treatments are not routinely or effectively provided to consumers. This Fellowship will address this problem by developing an online resource to build capacity among physiotherapists, nurses and trainee physiotherapists and doctors to deliver effective care for OA.
Do Additional Allied Health Services For Rehabilitation Reduce Length Of Stay Without Compromising Patient Outcomes?
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$238,424.00
Summary
This project will examine whether the provision of additional therapy services on a Saturday reduces health care costs, and improves the health of hospital inpatients receiving rehabilitation when compared to the usual Monday to Friday service. Preliminary information suggests additional Saturday rehabilitation services could reduce the time a patient stays in hospital by 3 days. This large clinical trial will investigate the cost effectiveness and patients outcomes of such a service.