Internal medicine journal
-
Internal medicine journal · Oct 2020
ReviewAn Overview of Healthcare Improvement: Unpacking the Complexity for Clinicians and Managers in a Learning Health System.
Given the pace of technological advancement and government mandates for healthcare and system transformation, there is an imperative for change. Health systems are highly complex in their design, networks and interacting components, and experience demonstrates that change is very challenging to enact, sustain and scale. Policy-makers, academics and clinicians all need better insight into the nature of this complexity and an understanding of the evidence-base that can support healthcare improvement (HCI), or quality improvement, interventions and make them more effective in driving change. ⋯ We aim to address these issues by summarising theories, frameworks, models and success factors for improvement in complex health systems to assist clinicians and others to engage and lead change. We integrate the field of HCI into the learning health system highlighting the key role of the clinician. We seek to inform stakeholders; clinicians and managers to guide the planning, enacting, sustaining and scaling of HCI.
-
Internal medicine journal · Oct 2020
Towards new models of cancer care in Australia: lessons from Victoria's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department of Health and Human Services Victoria (DHHS), the Monash Partners Comprehensive Cancer Consortium (MPCCC) and Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre (VCCC) pooled their combined infrastructure to establish the Victorian COVID-19 Cancer Network (VCCN) backed by a Taskforce of expert members. In a few short months, this state-wide clinical network implemented a number of new models of care including clinics to manage acutely presenting cancer patients away from emergency departments, chemotherapy in the home, telehealth models and addressing sustainability of clinical trials.
-
Internal medicine journal · Oct 2020
Addressing the challenges of artificial intelligence in medicine.
The application of artificial intelligence in medicine, particularly in relation to screening and diagnosis of disease through imaging analysis, will have a profound impact over the next decade. This communication discusses regulatory challenges that should be considered by physicians and how potential issues may be mitigated using a collaborative approach, drawing on the combined expertise of relevant stakeholders.