Future Health Today

Project Details

Future Health Today is a collaboration between University of Melbourne and Western Health. It is a proactive digital health intervention that uses data from health records to automate the detection of chronic disease to provide new opportunities for early intervention and improved health outcomes.

Our Aim

To develop a technology platform to work in general medical practice so that chronic disease and chronic disease risk can be detected earlier, people at risk can have opportunity to address their risk sooner, and conditions can be managed earlier for improved health outcomes.

Why this is important

Chronic Disease is common. More than 11 million Australians have at least one major chronic disease. In Australia it accounts for more than 1 in 3 potentially preventable hospital admissions. The social and economic impact of this is enormous. The cost to the health system is estimated by the Grattan Institute to be between $322 million and $2 billion per year. As our aging population gets bigger, there are more people being diagnosed with one or more chronic conditions than ever before.

Changing the course of chronic disease in Australia is a priority

Through proactive screening and early intervention, Future Health Today is anticipated to reduce avoidable hospital admissions, increase quality of life, and reduce the overall burden of chronic disease.

What we are doing

Most Australians visit a GP; 2 million people visit a GP each week. Information is constantly being collected that can be analysed to identify patients at risk of developing chronic disease. Future Health Today is a research project being undertaken by The University of Melbourne and Western Health, in partnership with participating general practices, that analyses information from general practices to develop technology that can enable the automated detection of chronic disease and chronic disease risk. This will provide new information about how chronic conditions should be treated, and new opportunities for earlier treatment.

Future Health Today is initially focusing on cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and chronic kidney disease. The technological platform and tools integrate decision-support and pathways of care into a GP's everyday workflow. It is being developed to include other chronic diseases in the future.

Funding partners

Future Health Today has been made possible by philanthropic funding, and support from University of Melbourne and Western Health. If you are interested in being a partner so that this important work can continue, contact Research, Innovation and Commercial Engagement at The University of Melbourne.

Future Health Today is supported by a 2019 Melbourne Academic Centre for Health Medical Research Future Fund Rapid Applied Research Translation Grant and Fellowship (Dr Karyn Alexander).

Investigators

The Chief Investigators, from University of Melbourne and Western Health are nationally and internationally regarded researchers in conduct of radomised controlled trials, with expertise in general practice, nephrology, computer and data engineering, statistics and health economics.

Associate Investigators

Future Health Today is being undertaken with help from a team of people at the University of Melbourne, Western Health, and staff at general practices - we thank them all.

Contact us

A/Prof Jo-Anne Manski-Nankervis

Department of General Practice, Level 3 / 780 Elizabeth Street, University of Melbourne, Victoria, 3010 Australia

The University of Melbourne, in partnership with:

Research Group

Data Driven Quality Improvement




Key Contact

For further information about this research, please contact the research group leader.

Department / Centre

General Practice and Primary Care

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