Improving QOL At The End Of Life: A Randomised Controlled Trial Of A Doctor-nurse-patient Intervention.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$687,655.00
Summary
This project aims to promote mutual understanding between patients with incurable disease, carers and clinicians about prognosis, end of life issues and treatment goals in order to improve the quality of remaining life. Currently many patients do not understand their prognosis and make poor decisions about treatment, receiving costly, futile and invasive treatments just days before death. This project will empower patients and doctors to better discuss these issues.
Can Self-management Education Programs Improve Outcomes Of People With Osteoarthritis?
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$343,874.00
Summary
Arthritis is a very common disease associated with pain, disability and poor quality of life. An important way that people with arthritis can deal with the disease is through using a variety of self-management behaviours and coping strategies as well as becoming well informed about the best available treatments. A specific course was developed in he US to help people self-manage. It has been available in Australia for 20 years through Arthritis Foundations and has become their core business. Tre ....Arthritis is a very common disease associated with pain, disability and poor quality of life. An important way that people with arthritis can deal with the disease is through using a variety of self-management behaviours and coping strategies as well as becoming well informed about the best available treatments. A specific course was developed in he US to help people self-manage. It has been available in Australia for 20 years through Arthritis Foundations and has become their core business. Treatment guidelines used by doctors to treat people with arthritis regularly recommend that patients should be referred to such courses. Although the course is widely distributed, the evidence scientific evidence regarding its effectiveness is patchy, and some overviews suggest it is not useful at all. Confusion exists regarding the value of the course. While treatment guidelines advise doctors to refer patients to the program by very few GPs, Rheumatologist or Orthopaedic surgeons do refer. The proposed study is a large controlled trial which will provide essential evidence to inform patients, doctors and policy makers on the benefits of the course. It will involve people with well defined moderate to severe arthritis who have consulted a surgeon or rheumatologist. People will be randomised to receive the intervention (two hours per week, six session course including an 'arthritis self-help' book) will be compared with people in a control group (who only receive the book without instruction). People will be followed for 1 year to see if the course improves quality of life, health behaviours, and whether less health care resources (ie attendance at doctors or less medication use) are used. The results of this study will be influential in determining government policy as the number of people with chronic diseases like arthritis is rapidly growing and the acute healthcare system, including hospitals, are poorly equipped to deal with this growing problem.Read moreRead less
Understanding And Preventing Avoidable Readmissions: Development Of A Patient Centered And Disease Specific Screening Tool
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$100,000.00
Summary
This study aims to develop a screenings tool to prevent unplanned re-admissions, based on specific patient centred and disease specific factors. We will include index admission data (367,782 in 2015) of five MACH hospitals. The cohort will be divided into a group for index derivation and a group for internal validation. Variables on patient and admission characteristics are based on literature. After internal validation we will validate the tool externally and implement it in clinical practice
Fundamental flaws in the design and reporting of research outcomes can undermine evidence-based medicine, impede patient-centred care, cause harm to patients, and result in a waste of research dollars. Our 3-year multinational project engages with patients, caregivers, clinicians, researchers and policy makers, to establish core outcomes in haemodialysis. This will ensure that patient-centred outcomes are consistently measured and reported in haemodialysis trials and other forms of research.
Caring For Clinician Health And Wellbeing; Protecting Patients From Harm
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$1,281,125.00
Summary
Doctors and other clinicians care for the health of others but their own health can also suffer. In turn, unwell clinicians may place patients at risk of harm. My research will analyse ten years of data from the Medical Board and other regulators, interview clinicians who have had a serious illness, and work with international experts to develop solutions. Together, this work will help hospitals and regulators to better protect the health of clinicians and safeguard patients from avoidable harm.
Centre Of Research Excellence: Partnering With Patients With Chronic Kidney Disease To Transform Care And Outcomes (CRE-PACT)
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,500,000.00
Summary
CRE-PACT will partner with patients to generate and translate new high-priority evidence to improve outcomes that are important to people living with chronic kidney disease (CKD). We will address the topics and questions most important to patients. We will build the next generation of research leaders and a community of research-ready patient-partners. There will be an integrated pathway for evidence translation and implementation at a global scale to improve patient-centred outcomes.