Project:
Professor Nicholas Zwar
Professor of General Practice, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of New South Wales

Funding:
National Health and Medical Research Council Primary Health Care Project Grant

In Australia, type II diabetes affects 7.5% of the population and is predominantly managed in general practice. Increasingly, diabetes care is delivered using multidisciplinary teams. This is particularly important in diabetes care because the presence of additional conditions is common but there is evidence that referral to other health providers is low relative to patient needs.

In 1999, the Australian Government introduced the Enhanced Primary Care program to specifically fund the development of multidisciplinary care plans for GP patients with chronic and complex conditions.

Subsequent research on this major policy reform had identified problems in uptake among GPs. However, there was limited research on their impact on chronic disease care.

This new study of GP patients with type II diabetes showed that one year after implementing a care plan there was a significant increase in the proportion of patients involved in multidisciplinary care and in the adherence to diabetes care guidelines. It also found improvements in patients’ metabolic control and cardiovascular risk factors.

In addition to revealing, for the first time, an association between care plans and improved diabetes care, the research was also important from a national policy perspective. Its findings came to the attention of Australian government policymakers and were influential in a review of the EPC program which resulted in care plans being restructured as part of efforts to improve uptake of their use.

View the project abstract on ROAR

References

Zwar, N.A., Hermiz, O., Comino, E.J., Shortus, T., Burns, J., Harris, M.F. (2007). Do multidisciplinary care plans result in better care for patients with type 2 diabetes? Australian Family Physician 36,1/2, 85-89.

Vagholkar, S., Hermiz, O., Zwar, N., Shortus, T., Harris, M.F. (2007). Multidisciplinary care plans for diabetic patients - what do they contain? Australian Family Physician, 36: 279-82.