In a therapeutic partnership, physicians rely on patients to describe their health conditions, join in shared decision-making, and engage with supported self-management activities. In shared care, the patient, primary care, and specialist services partner together using agreed processes and outputs for the patient to be [...]
Increasing harms related to prescription opioids over the past decade have led to the introduction of a range of key national and state policy initiatives across Australia. These include introducing a mandatory real-time prescription drug–monitoring program in the state of Victoria from April 2020 and [...]
Although NSAIDs are recommended as a first line analgesic treatment, opioids are very commonly prescribed to patients with low back pain (LBP) despite risks of harms. This study aimed to determine factors contributing to general practitioners’ (GPs’) prescribing choices to patients with chronic LBP in [...]
Primary care practitioners (PCPs) play a key role in cancer screening decisions for older adults (≥ 65 years), but recommendations vary by cancer type and jurisdiction. The purpose of this study is to examine the factors influencing PCPs’ recommendations for breast, cervical, prostate, and colorectal cancer [...]
This paper provides expert-derived best practice recommendations for designing and evaluating peer comparison A&F for antibiotic prescribing in primary care. These 13 statements can be used by A&F designers to optimize the impact of their quality improvement interventions, and improve antibiotic prescribing in primary care.
The burden of MSK complaints at the primary care level is high as evidenced by the prevalence of people with musculoskeletal complaints presenting to a general practitioner, the preponderance of comorbidities and the numerous consultations per year. Identification and evaluation of strategies to reduce this [...]
Reporting guidelines can improve dissemination and application of findings and help avoid research waste. Recent studies reveal opportunities to improve primary care (PC) reporting. Despite increasing numbers of guidelines, none exists for PC research. This study aims to prioritise candidate reporting items to inform a [...]
General practice is integral to the Australian healthcare system. Outcome Health’s POpulation Level Analysis and Reporting (POLAR) database uses de-identified electronic health records to analyse general practice data in Australia. Previous studies using routinely collected health data for research have not consistently reported the codes [...]