Issue #3: 2023

Welcome to the third edition of the newsletter for the Rebate Adolescent Health (RAd Health) trial. If you have missed the previous editions, click here.

We are excited to update you on the latest developments! Special thanks to the 41 enrolled practices including the practice managers for organising onboarding, and the GPs and nurses who have completed the surveys and online induction training.

We appreciate your hard work, enthusiasm, and commitment to improving young people’s health outcomes.  

For those new to the study, RAd Health aims to determine whether a Medicare rebate payment, similar to that available for other age-based health assessments in Australia (e.g. 75+ assessment), is effective and cost-effective at increasing the detection and management of risk behaviours and health conditions among young people aged between 14-24 years.

If we find that rebate payments for an annual young person’s health assessment in general practice improves health outcomes, this will provide the necessary evidence to advocate to include a rebate payment for these assessments in the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS).

We are in the final stages of recruitment for the trial in partnership with VicREN.

If you are reading this and would like to get involved or if you know of a clinic that might be interested, here is a little reminder about the requirements:

• Practices must see a minimum of 600 young people (aged 14-24 years) annually;
• Practices must use either Best Practice or Medical Director software, and
• at least two GPs at the practice must consent to participate and complete the required surveys and training prior to randomisation

For more information, contact VicREN at  VicRENRes-Enquiries@unimelb.edu.au 

To help us design the RAd Health trial, we sought insights from GPs, nurses, and practice managers across Victoria. We conducted focus groups and interviews to understand providers’ needs and perspectives about implementing the young person’s health assessment in general practice. Please see our publication in the April 2023 issue of the Australian Journal of General Practice - Considerations for conducting a young person’s health assessment in the general practice setting: Insights from key informants in Victoria.

Click the image below to read the full article! 

Thank you to all the participants! 

We provide a range of resources on our website for all RAd Health participants: clinicians, young people, and parents. These resources can help you during a young person’s health assessment. For example, one of our most popular resources is this medico-legal chart, available for download here which provides a quick reference for health professionals for issues including confidentiality and mandatory reporting when working with young people.  

For those new to research, RAd Health is a randomised controlled trial, but what does that actually mean?

There are two groups (intervention and control - see flowchart below). While both groups have access to our training resources (including the RAd Health website and the template for young person’s health assessments), only the intervention group is able to claim a rebate for doing a young person’s health assessment.  The rebate payment is the intervention. The control group is encouraged to do young people’s health assessments, but will not receive a rebate payment during the trial. Both groups receive the same honorarium payment for participation.

(Sadly!) we can’t influence the randomisation, which is done using a program set up by statisticians. This process reduces the likelihood of bias in our data, ensures a fair process and will give us the most robust evidence with which to advocate for a new MBS item number.

Being in the control group is just as important as being in the Intervention group. We are very grateful for the enthusiasm and participation of all practices, and acknowledge the busy-ness of general practice. We need data from both intervention and control groups so we can compare health outcomes in both groups, providing the most robust research evidence possible. We hope in the future clinicians will be adequetely funded for their time and ALL GPs will be able to claim rebates for young people’s health assessments resulting in better health outcomes for young people.

Remember, GPs and nurses  who complete certain RAd Health activities such as training / induction can record CPD hours. GPs who choose to pursue hours must log earned hours in myCPD Home. 

Check out our website for suggested activities related to participating in the RAd Health trial that may further count towards your required hours.

RAd Health is unable to offer accredited CPD activities/hours.

For the latest news, your induction training, and other information related to the RAd Health trial check out our website by following this link radhealth.org.au or scanning the QR code below.

You are receiving this email because your clinic is participating in the RAd Health study or you have participated or expressed interest in the RAd Health study in the past. You can read more about the study here: https://blogs.unimelb.edu.au/radhealth/about-rad-health/, talk to your practice manager, or email us rad-health@unimelb.edu.au if you have any questions.

RAd Health is funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council (APP1184842) and is a collaboration between the University of Melbourne and our project investigators and partner organisations. See our collaborators here: https://blogs.unimelb.edu.au/radhealth/the-rad-health-team-and-affiliations/

We acknowledge and pay respect to the Traditional Owners of the lands upon which this research is being conducted.