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GP study wins AMA Victoria’s Stawell Prize
26 May 2010.
AMA Victoria awarded its Stawell Prize for medical research to Professor Justin Beilby and his University of Adelaide research team at the association’s AGM last night for his study investigating the efficacy of point-of-care testing in general settings in improving patient medication adherence.
Executive Dean of the University of Adelaide and former National Health and Hospitals Reform Commissioner Professor Beilby was awarded the prize for leading a study which resulted in "practical and useful information for GPs that will be of benefit to patients".
The research compared the clinical effectiveness of point-of -care testing with pathology laboratory testing, as measured by patients’ adherence to medication. It found that point-of-care testing led to the same or better medication adherence compared with having test results provided by a pathology laboratory.
The research took four years to complete, from initial funding to publication, and included 53 GPs and general practices across Victoria, NSW and South Australia, in urban and rural locations. It also involved around 5000 patients – 3000 in the intervention and 2000 in the control group.
"It is a great honour to win the prize," says Profe ssor Beilby. "It is nice to be acknowledged. It shows that Australian general practice and primary care, with the input of pathologists and other researchers, can mount these types of studies.
"The ability to draw groups together across Australia was one of the big successes of the study. Normally these are small, localised studies done in hospitals or where you can control the environment much more easily. This was a natural research study conducted in regular general practices.
"We aimed for the broadest reach we could, and that was a key strength. We took both urban and rural areas, multiple practices of different sizes – we integrated the research with current practice and daily work."
Professor Beilby says the survey has a number of implications for primary care. "We showed that point-of-care testing improved medication compliance by five per cent," he says. "That is a significant factor when you consider that compliance and adherence to medications is such an issue.
"If five per cent of patients with chronic illness were to improve their medication compliance, the benefits for the system would be substantial."
The annual Stawell Prize is awarded for a piece of research "on a medical subject of clinical significance… which is original, evidence-based and which is likely to advance knowledge, influence clinical practice and improve the health of Australians."
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