Dr. Cate Howell is the 2020 RACGP Foundation / ANEDGP Innovation Research Grant winner for her proposal, ‘Bridging the divide between primary care and mental health professionals: Scoping analysis to inform the implementation of an e-mental health solution.'
Dr. Howell, a GP with a long history of interest in behavioral health and well-being, first encountered the usage of e-mental health services when on a 12-month Churchill Fellowship in 2000 to research primary care treatment of anxiety and depression.
Dr. Howell said that she still recalls being impressed by the [e-mental health] use, and on my return introduced the use of e-mental health in community mental health services we were delivering at the Adelaide North East Division of General Practice.
Since then, she has had a particular interest in the usage of e-mental health services in primary care, leading her to become interested in similar studies and the grant-funded initiative to expand her expertise in the area.
Dr. Howell said that she was contacted by a team of researchers regarding this idea, and it struck a chord with her as a GP who has worked regionally for a number of years.
She added that she saw that this research has the ability to provide results that could aid GPs in assisting patients experiencing a variety of mental health issues, particularly pertinent for GPs operating in rural and regional areas.
She admitted that it was also energising to collaborate alongside a study unit again and brush up on some research skills.
Recognising the current barriers to accessing resources and resources for patients in rural and remote regions, Dr. Howell's research team is developing a novel online self-help intervention for Australians.
The intervention would include realistic, evidence-based solutions for better stress management, adapting to transition, and improving mental health. It seeks to close treatment disparities found by GPs from the time patients present to primary care and the time they will receive specialist mental health resources.
Dr. Howell said that it may be difficult for GPs to advise about the most suitable program for their patients with a mental wellbeing problem.
Self-help services have been seen to be well-received and successful, and they may provide patients with early access to psycho-education and coping interventions to help them heal.
The project reviewed grant included an incentive to do a scoping analysis of established resources to ensure that the initiative contributes to, rather than duplicates, existing resources.
Dr. Howell believes that the opportunity to benefit from relevant resources would result in the "best feasible" iteration of the new intervention and a greater understanding of accessible tools.
It seeks to support patients by integrating the most recent evidence on e-mental health services and to provide GPs with an up-to-date review of available programs to which they can refer.
She said that she is looking forward to disseminating the conclusions and putting them into effect.
Dr. Winnie Chen, a GP, discovered several advantages of applying for and obtaining her RACGP Foundation Grant.
Dr. Chen said that writing the grant proposal as the principal investigator was a valuable opportunity in and of itself, and it encouraged her to feel more confident in engaging in grant applications for future ventures.
The grant has enabled her to finance a research assistant, allowing her to extend the reach of the study to involve a number of chronic diseases, as well as to encourage me and my assistant in attending a week-long systematic review course prior to starting the review.
Dr. Chen, on the other hand, stated that prior comprehensive studies on clinical decision support programs have largely concentrated on a particular condition, such as diabetes decision support, owing to time and cost constraints.
She said that as GPs, we want to see what the evidence is for decision help in general, not only for a specific illness.
‘Using therapeutic decision help for chronic diseases?' is Dr. Chen's project. A thorough study of the previous decade won her a Chris Silagy Research Scholarship from the RACGP Foundation for 2020.
She said that the widespread usage of electronic health reports has created prospects for increased participation in data-driven clinical decision-making tools.
Patients always present to their GPs with many chronic conditions, [and] these patients have a wealth of knowledge in their electronic health reports – whether they are held in their GPs or with their medical records.
This comprehensive study examines research conducted in the last ten years to determine whether decision-support tools increase results for patients and clinicians.
Dr. Chen is part of a team at Darwin's Menzies School of Health Research that is improving Territory Kidney Care, a professional decision-support mechanism for chronic diseases.
The method started as a data-driven decision support tool for chronic kidney disease, but it has also been extended to help with the detection and treatment of a wide variety of common chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidaemia.
Given the importance of clinical treatment in chronic disease management, Dr. Chen hopes her research can be adopted into general practice to increase results for both GPs and patients.
She said that the findings of the systemic analysis assist her study staff in learning about the achievements and shortcomings of related programs.‘This allows them to change how we utilise our decision-support mechanism in regular workflows with Northern Territory GPs and hospital-based clinicians.
Dr. Chen urges general practitioners and general practitioners in training to qualify for a Foundation award.
She said that it doesn't hurt to apply for a grant if you have a good study idea in mind.
