The secondary use of general practice electronic health record (e-HR) data is evolving in Australia. While many universities have practice-based networks that collate small datasets a large national database is yet to evolve. Since 2000 the Australian federal government has sought to develop a shared electronic health record. This was recently changed from an opt-in to an opt-out system resulting in negative backlash.
In the meantime, the largest current nation-wide database is NPS MedicineWise’s MedicineInsight which has recruited 640 practices containing the records of 3.6 million active patients.
In 2016 my group obtained an early dataset from MedicineInsight. We have used chronic kidney disease to explore the use of Australian general practice e-HR for research. I will report some of our findings and hope the audience can tell me about their experience of using routinely collected general practice e-HR data in research too.
Brief biography for Jan Radford – visiting Churchill Fellow Sept-October 2018
Jan Radford is Assoc Prof of General Practice at the University of Tasmania based in Launceston. She has been a general practitioner for 32 years. She has a long history in curriculum development, delivery and assessment in medicine ranging from undergraduate to postgraduate training. She has an academic research interest in medical education, clinical audit within general practice, and the secondary uses of routinely collected electronic heath record (e-HR) data. She currently leads a group investigating aspects of chronic kidney disease using one of Australia’s first examples of a large general practice, e-HR data-set. She also leads a practice-based research network within northern Tasmanian general practices. She is currently a PhD candidate researching ways to enhance capacity to deliver medical, undergraduate learning and teaching in general practice. In 2017 Jan was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to investigate the factors involved in increasing the secondary use of routinely collected general practice EHR data for the greater good. She will travel to England, Scotland and the Netherlands in late 2018 to undertake her enquiry. Jan’s online profile at the University of Tasmania provides more detail on her academic position – www.utas.edu.au/profiles/staff/health/janette-radford
