Frontline research to support primary health care

UNE researchers have been granted $1.7 million to investigate what primary health care models are most effective for treating chronic and complex conditions.

The team, led by Adjunct Professor Dimity Pond and Professor Stuart Wark from the School of Rural Medicine, will compare six general practices that have allied health professionals (including, psychologists, physiotherapists, podiatrists and optometrists) co-located (known as a multidisciplinary practice) to six that do not throughout Hunter New England Health. It will also use hospitalisation data to examine the continuum of care and patient outcomes.

"Our thinking is that if the allied health professionals that patients need are available within the general practice, this care will be more accessible and available to support preventative care," said Professor Dimity Pond, from UNE's School of Medicine. "If they are not so easily available, that can see rural and some regional patients travelling some distance to receive input from a referred practitioner."

The researchers are interested in five complex and chronic conditions: Type 2 diabetes, asthma, hypertension (ie, high blood pressure), Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and congestive heart failure.

Professor Pond - a part-time general practitioner - said these conditions can be difficult to treat without allied health input.

"Diabetes, for instance, is not just high sugar levels. That sugar can affect your eyes, your heart, nerves, kidneys and other organs, and treatment requires input from different allied health practitioners, including podiatrists and optometrists, in addition to medical practitioners."

If the researchers find evidence that multidisciplinary practices improve patient outcomes, this could have important policy implications for the funding and provision of primary and allied health care.

"This is important because preventative measures can stop the progression of many conditions and mean patients require less medication," Professor Pond said. "It's a huge opportunity for UNE to have input into health services and the way they operate, and how we might improve the communication and relationship between general practice and allied health services to improve service delivery."

In addition to the UNE researchers, the research team comprises collaborators from Newcastle, Flinders and Monash universities. General practices are now being recruited to take part. If you are interested, email [email protected]

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