Selected Projects

The Optimise Study

This study is funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council and tests a patient decision aid to help adults aged 50-70 years decide whether they should take daily aspirin to prevent cardiovascular disease and bowel cancer.

For more information please contact Prof Lyndal Trevena: lyndal.trevena@sydney.edu.au or A/Prof Rowena Ivers: rowena.ivers@sydney.edu.au or ph 9351 8367

This link will provide a PDF with further information about this project.

Contraceptive choice decisional needs assessment of Chinese women living in Australia

Decisions about contraceptive methods are preference sensitive and ideal for shared decision-making (SDM). Migrant and refugee women are vulnerable in terms of accessing evidence-based and culturally and linguistically sensitive contraception information and services. In Australia, Chinese is one of the largest, youngest and fastest growing overseas-born groups. However, research into Chinese immigrants’ sexual and reproductive health, and their unmet needs in contraception decision-making, is scarce.

The aim of this research project is to explore Chinese women’s information, communication and support needs in terms of contraception decision-making and provide evidence for future adaptation or development of decision support strategies that serve the decisional needs of Chinese women.

For more information please contact Hankiz Dolan: hankiz.dolan@sydney.edu.au

Question Builder

This project is part of the NHMRC funded Ask Share Know Centre for Research Excellence and a scholarship from Health Direct Australia. When people ask their doctors more questions about their health and treatments there are positive benefits for the patient, the doctor and the health system. We are evaluating a tool called Question Builder part of the Healthdirect.org.au website which aims to help people to create a list of questions to take to medical appointments.

For more information please contact Dr Marguerite Tracy: marguerite.tracy@sydney.edu.au

Communication needs of refugees and asylum seekers in general practice

Navigating a new healthcare system is a challenge for any new migrant but the additional challenges posed to people from refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds can make this task even more intimidating. Communication is a key aspect of healthcare and interventions to help with the linguistic and cultural aspects are scarce. The overall aim of the research project is to explore the challenges faced by clinicians and patients in effectively communicating key information and overcoming communication barriers. Additionally, to evaluate whether current toolkits are useful in facilitating effective patient clinician interactions, how to optimise their interaction and increase active patient involvement.

For more information please contact Pinika Patel : pinika.patel@sydney.edu.au

Joint Decisions: a shared decision-making implementation project at three demonstration sites across NSW

The purpose of this project is to better understand how patients and health professionals can be supported to work together to make decisions about managing knee and hip osteoarthritis. This project aims to pilot test the feasibility, acceptability and impact of new and adapted shared decision-making strategies and to develop a greater understanding of the ‘real world’ barriers and facilitators of implementing shared decision making. This study is being conducted by researchers at The University of Sydney and Bond University and is being funded by NSW Health Agency for Clinical Innovation.

For more information please contact Olivia Mac : olivia.mac@sydney.edu.au

Research findings will be available here mid to late 2020

CHAT-GP: Improving Communication about Heart Disease Risk Assessment using Translational Research Strategies in General Practice

The CHAT-GP project is a partnership with the National Heart Foundation of Australia, Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, and the Prevention Centre; with additional NHMRC and Federal government funding. It aims to improve communication about heart disease risk assessment in general practice. We are investigating this issue from three perspectives:

• • GP’s: This entails developing and testing implementing strategies for new eHealth tools to support evidence-based, shared decision-making about cardiovascular disease prevention. We have created a novel online version of the current Australian cardiovascular disease prevention guidelines, co-designed with General Practitioners, to automatically apply assessment and management guidelines to patients during a consultation, and provide patients with a tailored decision aid to more clearly explain their risk and management options.
  • Patients/consumers: We are developing and testing a new version of the national CVD risk and heart age calculators to address the needs of people with lower health literacy. The new tool enhances current versions with evidence-based behaviour change techniques and health-literate design principles. Furthermore, we have recently received funding to co-design a tailored version of the above resources to support shared decision-making in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, due to commence in 2021 with Australian National University. 
  • Primary Health Networks: To determine implementation strategies for these new eHealth tools, we are currently exploring the needs of PHN’s, mapping national activities in CVD prevention, and testing new strategies to include eHealth tools via clinical decision support software (e.g. HealthPathways, Pen CS clinical audit tools. 

Read more about this project here.

2 Week SR: How to complete a systematic review in 2-weeks

Systematic reviews are time- and resource-intensive to produce, taking on average 45 weeks to complete, and typically requiring 5 or more personnel. The Institute of Evidence Based Healthcare (IEBH) at Bond University recently developed and successfully piloted a process for significantly accelerating this timeline by integrating the use of Systematic Review Automation tools with the expertise of 4 experienced systematic reviewers (two researcher clinicians, an information specialist, an epidemiologist) to complete a full systematic review in less than 2 weeks.

For more information about the 2-week systematic review process and the automation tools involved click here and follow@2weekSR for live tweets of our 2-week systematic reviews.

The implementation of an inter-professional shared decision making intervention for older adults with polypharmacy in the context of Home Medicines Review: a pilot study

Researchers in the School of Public Health at Sydney University are studying polypharmacy in the older population with the aim to develop strategies to increase patient involvement in decision making about their medicines. They have developed the Medicine Conversation Guide to be used by a pharmacist in as part of their Home Medicines Review (HMR) with older people experiencing polypharmacy. This links to the Medicines Conversation Guide, Pharmacists Toolkit and training videos. The Guide is designed to facilitate a discussion around medications and what’s important to the patient in a structured format.