Dear ISPRN members,
Please find attached invitation to ISPRN’s annual research showcase & workshop which will be held at Nowra Golf Club on Saturday 3 November.
I hope to see you all there.
Kind Regards
Alyssa Horgan
Research Officer
Dear ISPRN members,
You are invited to attend presentations by the ISPRN team at Wollongong Hospitals’ Grand Rounds on Thursday 4 October.
The presentations will take place at Wollongong Hospital, TWH Auditorium, Level 8, Block C at 1pm.
Lunch is provided for attendees from 12:50pm
Presentation 1: Mr Tim Miller –
“A multidisciplinary case conference model for the conservative management of hip and knee osteoarthritis”
.
Presentation 2: A/Prof Joel Rhee –
“Integrating Advance Care Planning into routine care”
If you are interested in attending could you please let me know.
Kind Regards
Alyssa Horgan
Research Officer
Dear all
Please see media release attached for your information.
Dr Rebekah Hoffman is Andrew Bonney & Judy Mullan’s PhD student.
Kind Regards
Alyssa Horgan
Research Officer
Dear ISPRN members,
Please find story below on the Equip GP trial. This article was published by the RACGP.
The Flinders-QUEST and EQuIP-GP randomised controlled trials will involve thousands of patients and dozens of GP clinics. They are funded by a $5 million Federal Government grant given to the RACGP to support research into quality care.
The trials come after the RACGP withdrew its support for the Government’s Health Care Home trial.
At last weeks’ Primary Health Care Research Conference in Melbourne, the chief investigators of both projects told the crowd that recruited GP clinics had been very enthusiastic.
The trials, which are expected to begin next month, are focusing on older people, people with chronic or complex disease, and children and adolescents under the age of 17. These three groups are at higher risk of poor health outcomes.
The University of Wollongong (UOW)-led EQuIP-GP (Effectiveness of Quality Incentive Payments in General Practice) trial will test the efficacy of giving GPs quality incentive payments for an increase in quality indicators, such as longer consultations, rapid follow-up after hospitalisation, reduced prescriptions and same day access. The trial is intended to operate with up to 1800 patients, and will also run through Monash University and the University of Tasmania.
UOW Chief Investigator Professor Andrew Bonney told the conference there is a ‘perverse incentive’ at present, as undertaking longer consultations currently means a drop in income for GPs. He said the trial would ensure that no extra payment would be made without evidence that quality indicators were being met.
The Flinders University QUEST (QUality Enhanced general practice Services Trial) will test whether continuity of care, longer GP consultations, assertive follow-up of patients after hospital discharge, and same-day appointments for children with an acute condition are linked to better health outcomes, such as less use of pathology, imaging and medications, and a lower risk of hospitalisation.
The trial is aiming to recruit 1100 patients across 20 South Australian clinics.
There is emerging evidence overseas in favour of these four interventions, and the trial will test whether these can be generalised to the Australian context.
QUEST Chief Investigator Professor Richard Reed told the conference the GPs they have been recruiting were strongly positive about the test.
A researcher asked Professor Reed whether longer GP consultations might actually ‘open up a can of worms’ by discovering more and more health concerns.
Professor Reed said that was the point of a two-sided P-value.
‘We’re not sure what we’re going to find – that’s clinical equipoise,’ he said.
The trials are expected to run until December 2019. The RACGP will consolidate the findings and present a final report to the Department of Health.
Dear ISPRN members,
Please find attached invitation to ISPRN’s annual research showcase & workshop which will be held at Nowra Golf Club on Saturday 3 November.
I hope to see you all there.
Kind Regards
Alyssa Horgan
Research Officer
Dear ISPRN members,
We will be holding our annual research showcase on Sat 3 November at Nowra Golf Club. Members of ISPRN will be presenting on the research projects that they have been working on over the last 12 months.
We will also be holding a research workshop, the topic of which will be advised shortly.
We hope that you will be able to join us!
Kind Regards
Alyssa Horgan
Dear ISPRN Members,
We are in the process of arranging our next ISPRN workshop.
We want to seek your ideas on what would be of use to you? eg. analysing and interpreting results, critically reviewing the literature, publishing research, how to go about getting involved in research? etc.
Are there other research related topics that you would be interested in learning about?
It’ important to us that we tailor our research workshops to the needs of our members, so please email me your suggestions. I’d love to hear from you. amunkman@uow.edu.au
We are looking to hold this workshop in October/November. Could you also please advise whether there are dates within this period that don’t work for you.
If you have any other questions or comments please feel free to touch base with me.
Alyssa Horgan
Research Officer, ISPRN, UOW
(02) 4221 5819
A collaboration between the University of Wollongong, Monash University and the University of Tasmania has been successful in securing funding from the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners to run a trial investigating the Effectiveness of Quality Incentive Payments in General Practice. The project is known as the EQuIP-GP. More information can be found on the trial’s website:
Kind Regards
Alyssa Horgan
Research Officer
Dear all
Some of you may be aware that ISPRN are involved in a randomised control trial in collaboration with UTAS and Monash.
The team are undertaking a project titled “EQUIP-GP” which aims to ascertain whether longer patient consultations improves patient outcomes.
The team have just had an abstract accepted at GP18. They will also be participating in a plenary session at PHCRIS themed around “RACGP Quality Enhanced General Practice Services Trials”. Professor Bonney will be discussing the Equip GP project on behalf of the team.
You can find out further information about the Equip GP trial here:
https://equipgp.uow.edu.au/index.html
If you have any queries please feel free to contact me.
Alyssa Horgan
Research Officer
amunkman@uow.edu.au
Dear ISPRN members,
Please find article below that featured in the Illawarra Mercury yesterday, discussing the launch of a new ISPRN research project which is investigating a non-surgical approach to hip and knee osteoarthritis.
A University of Wollongong trial may help osteoarthritis patients delay hip or knee replacements, or even skip them altogether.
The six-month study will test whether a non-surgical approach – combining general practice care with a tailored diet and exercise program – can be just as effective.
There’s much research to suggest it can, but UOW team leader Professor Andrew Bonney is keen to translate the theory into practice.
Two general practices have signed up to conduct the trial, and researchers are currently looking for patients to take part.
“There’s very good evidence that many patients living with hip and knee osteoarthritis benefit from conservative management like weight loss and muscle strengthening,” Prof Bonney said.
“It suggests that some patients might even be able to delay or avoid surgery because of these types of interventions. So we want to translate that evidence into practice.”
The team will use a “case-conferencing model” whereby a multi-disciplinary team including a GP, nurse, exercise physiologist and dietitian work together to help the patient follow a tailored plan.
Prof Bonney said if the trial, supported by Peoplecare, proved successful it could be expanded to other general practices.
“The immediate benefit is that patients might not need to endure the risk, pain, rehabilitation – and cost – associated with having surgery,” he said. “And there’s the ongoing benefits of improving overall health. It’s win-win.”
Prof Bonney said it could also reduce the financial strain on the health system. For instance, in 2016 nearly 100,000 Australians received joint replacements to treat osteoarthritis of the hip or knee at an estimated cost of more than $2 billion.
“There’s a lot of health funding going into joint replacements, but very little funding around prevention,” he said. “So if this proves effective it provides some incentive to policy makers around the way health services are funded.”
The UOW research team also includes exercise scientist Dr Deirdre McGhee, and dietician Associate Professor Karen Charlton.
If you have any queries please dont hesitate to contact me.
Kind regards
Alyssa Horgan
amunkman@uow.edu.au