Dear ISPRNers,
We now have the results of the project “Weighing in general practice- does it have an impact on weight management”?
The researchers involved in this project were: Dr Duncan Mackinnon, Prof Andrew Bonney, Mr Darren Mayne, Dr Stephen Barnett and Ms Bridget Dijkmans-Hadley.
Please see the link below for the results.
Please feel free to contact me if you have any queries with regards to this project or any other ISPRN related matters.
Kind Regards
Alyssa Munkman
ISPRN Co-ordinator
Congratulations to the four following researchers who were awarded ISPRN project grants for 2015. These grants have been kindly funded by Grand Pacific Health.
Dr Dora von Conrady, Huon Valley Health Centre
Project Title: Do health literacy levels affect the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use in rural Australian communities?
The aims of this project are to assess the rates of CAM usage in a rural Australian population and assess whether there is a correlation between CAM use and health literacy levels. A pilot study has already been completed in a single rural practice in Tasmania and preliminary results are indicating certain trends that warrant investigation on a larger scale. This area has not been studied in a rural Australian population.
Dr Dora von Conrady will be recruiting ten general practices to distribute 100 surveys to patients, to ascertain whether there is a correlation between CAM use and health literacy levels.
Interested in getting involved?
If you are interested in involving your practice please contact ISPRN co-ordinator Alyssa Munkman on (02) 42215819 or amunkman@uow.edu.au
Dr Munther Zureigat, Milton Medical Centre
Project title: Rural GP referral process for Isotretinoin treatment in moderate to severe acne.
Acne Vulgaris is one of the most common Dermatological presentations in General practice. Acne Scarring is a known major consequence of late referrals for Isotretinoin treatment which is a drug that can only be prescribed by Dermatologists in moderate to severe acne. This has been shown to be very effective in preventing scarring if started at the optimal time. Acne scarring has a long term psychological impact on patients, mainly adolescents and is strongly related to poor body image, depression, and possibly suicide. The project will be looking into the barriers and facilitators for optimal GP to Dermatologist referral for Isotretinoin treatment in regional and rural areas. This research could provide a good assessment of the competency level of dealing with a very common dermatological problem and hopefully identify the barriers Rural GPs face in the management of this common presentation.
Dr Zureigat will be interviewing 20-25 GPs to ascertain the barriers and facilitators for optimal GP to Dermatologist referral for Isotretinoin treatment in regional and rural areas.
Interested in getting involved?
If you are a GP and are interested in participating in a telephone interview please contact ISPRN co-ordinator Alyssa Munkman on (02) 42215819 or amunkman@uow.edu.au
Dr Stephen Barnett/Dr Adam Hodgkins, Bowral Street Medical Practice/Junction Street Medical Practice
Project Title: Demonstrating the value of raw clinical Electronic Medical Data for primary care research: a benchmarking study on chronic disease prevalence in primary care.
Electronic Medical Data is a potentially powerful source of primary care research data which is under-utilised. The reasons for this are concerns about data validity and process and technical issues regarding access to this data. This study builds on the recent EMD project benchmarking GP EMD data against BEACH data. The pilot benchmarking study demonstrated a valid approach to accessing electronic medical data from GP databases (Best Practices), showing a high concordance between 6 ISPRN practices and the BEACH dataset for patient encounters, demographics and total prescription data.
The 6 ISPRN practices that participated in the first phase will be benchmarked against the BEACH dataset for the prevalence of chronic disease in primary care.
Interested in getting involved?
If you are interested in getting your practice involved with this project please contact ISPRN co-ordinator Alyssa Munkman on (02) 42215819 or amunkman@uow.edu.au
Ms Elizabeth Lyons, Connections Private Psychology Practice
Project title: Stage 2: The Trialling for General Practice of the Major Depression PDA
Stage one of this project has involved the development of a patient decision aid for major depression.
The second stage of this project will involve trialling the patient decision aid in three patient focus groups and incorporating feedback back in to the decision aid. The project will explore whether, when used within a shared decision-making framework, the depression decision aid may increase patient expectations of treatment adherence and depression recovery, by increasing the congruence between patients’ values, beliefs and expectations, the strength of their treatment preferences and the treatment option/s provided.
Interested in getting involved?
If you are interested in involving your patients in a patient focus group please contact ISPRN co-ordinator Alyssa Munkman on (02) 42215819 or amunkman@uow.edu.au