Decmember 2022: Issue 1
National guidelines recommend annual health checks for young people to improve their health outcomes; however, lack of consultation time is a key barrier to these checks in Australian general practice. RAd Health aims to determine whether a Medicare rebate payment, similar to other age-based health checks in Australia (eg: 45-49 year or 75+ check), 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 a rebate payment for an annual young person’s health check in general practice improves health outcomes, we will use this information as evidence for a submission to the Government requesting a Medicare rebate item for a young person’s health check.
RAd Health is being led by Professor Jane Hocking from the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health in partnership with Professor Lena Sanci at the Department of General Practice at the University of Melbourne. For more information about the trial and its investigators, click here.
We have received ethical approval from University of Melbourne (HREC # 2022-23435-29990-3) to conduct the trial.
Prior to commencing the trial, we held focus groups with general practice staff and young people to help us understand what resources and support are needed in general practice to conduct the health checks. We are using this information to design the resources necessary to facilitate the smooth running of the health checks in general practice to the benefit of both practice staff and patients.
We know that general practice is facing many challenges at the moment! Nevertheless, we have officially launched recruitment for the trial in partnership with VicREN who are helping us recruit general practices for the trial.
Thank you to all of our participants for their time and insights, and in particular, to the WH&Y commission for facilitating and recruiting for the young people focus groups.
Read on for more details and find out what else we have achieved recently and what we plan for what’s ahead.
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Up to 50 GP practices across Victoria will be recruited and recruitment has started! Consenting clinics will be randomised to either the intervention or control arm. Both groups will receive training and resources, and the intervention group will be able to claim a rebate payment for each young person’s health check conducted - one per eligible patient per year. The rebate payment is similar to that available for other age-based health checks (eg: 45-49 year old check). To be eligible participate in the trial, a clinic must see a minimum of 600 young people (aged 14-24 years) each year and use either Best Practice or Medical Director software. Are you interested or know of a clinic that might meet these requirements? Contact us at rad-health@unimelb.edu.au |
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We have formed an Advisory Group that includes adolescent health experts, GPs, nurses, parents, and young people. This Advisory Group is helping to oversee the progress of the trial and will receive six-monthly reports from RAd Health research team. The Advisory Group will meet every 12 months via Zoom for approximately one hour throughout the trial intervention period. The first meeting was held in June 2022 and chaired by Dr Caroline Johnson, who is also an investigator on the trial.
Results from our focus groups and interviews were presented at the AAAPC conference in August 2022 by RAd research officer Sara Newton (pictured to the right). You may view the abstract here.
A paper, 'Considerations for conducting a young person’s health assessment in the GP setting: Insights from key informants in Victoria,’ is currently in press with The Australian Journal of General Practice.
We have also drafted a Protocol paper which is under review in an international journal.
It is very exciting to see our hard work out in the world and we hope to publish much more as the trial progresses.
Project Lead Investigators
Professor Jane Hocking is an epidemiologist and implementation researcher and whose research interests include the epidemiology and control of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), sexual health and the implementation and evaluation of primary care interventions. She is a Dame Kate Campbell Fellow, holds an NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship and is the head of the Sexual Health Unit at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne.
Professor Lena Sanci is the Head of Department, Director of Teaching and Learning, and co-lead of the Children and Young People's Research Stream, Department of General Practice (DGP), University of Melbourne. She was also a Research Program Leader in the Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre (2011-2016) which researched the potential of technology to improve the mental health and clinical service system for youth.
To find our more about our staff and research team, click here.
Welcome to Valorie Tran who recently joined the RAd Health team as an administrative assistant. She will be providing administrative and financial support across the trial.
We have been working very hard with our design team to create a website to serve our participants and provide infomation to stakeholders. Check it out here:
The RAd Health team wishes you a happy holiday season!
| rad-health@unimelb.edu.au | https://radhealth.org.au/ |
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.
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