Future Health Today

Project Details

The overarching aim of this research is to evaluate the implementation and effectiveness of Future Health Today (FHT) to support the delivery of guideline concordant care in 90 general practices using a mixed methods approach guided by the Knowledge to Action cycle.

Patron ID: PAT051

Project Lead:

A/Prof Jo-Anne Manski-Nankervis

Future health today (FHT) uses a novel technology to unlock information held within electronic medical records systems of general practice to identify patients at risk of, or with, chronic kidney disease (CKD), cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancer and provide guidance to prevent or reduce disease progression and development of complications.

This project, which incorporates work with ninety general practices, aimed to use general practice data: (i) to determine the critical factors that influence the implementation of FHT, (ii) to optimise the FHT technology platform and (iii) to inform the development of a cluster randomised controlled trial. As part of this study, we used Patron data to undertake quantitative evaluation of the project, and to generate benchmarking reports for general practices as part of quality improvement activities. We also used the data to validate the algorithms deployed in the FHT platform by comparing counts of patients captured in the platform to those in the Patron data.

Research Outcomes

Future Health Today (FHT) is a quality improvement technology platform guided by a philosophy of co-design and education. The aim of the ‘FHT Program’ was to optimise the detection and management of conditions in general practice and facilitate research. It was developed with health professionals (including GPs, nurses, practice managers and non-GP specialists) and researchers (in health services, chronic disease, health informatics) and technical specialists including software designers. This project aimed to evaluate the expansion and further implementation of FHT and to examine the effect of use of FHT, in general practice, on the identification and management of chronic and acute physical and mental health conditions.

Over 90 practices were recruited to use FHT between 2020 and 2023 as part of the FHT Program, accessing clinical decision support for identification and management of: chronic kidney disease; type 2 diabetes; cardiovascular disease; and undiagnosed cancer risk (including, but not limited to, prostate, gastrointestinal, and lung cancer). The project identified that FHT is an acceptable and usable platform (to end users, including GPs, nurses and practice managers) for the identification and management of chronic and acute physical and mental health conditions. Feedback received from participating practice teams has been used to improve the platform and the educational supports surrounding it.

The project identified that although support is not required for general use of the platform, targeted improvements in targeted areas require additional practice support.  Models of care that rely on practice champions without continued interaction are not likely to succeed over time, primarily due to high staff turnover in general practices. Whilst PHNs, government and research bodies promote use of benchmarking and quality improvement exercises to facilitate performance improvement, general practitioners and their teams do not take up these activities without additional incentives.  Rather, they are inclined to utilise tools such as the clinical decision support pop-up as it provides timely, convenient and readily accessible support, without requiring additional activity or time.

Beyond this project, the platform continues to evolve as a result of rigorous evaluation, continuous improvement and expansion of the conditions hosted on the platform.  Over 180 practices have had FHT installed since 2020, and over 130 are currently (2026) using FHT for clinical decision support in over 18 condition areas.

  • Presentation at GP22 conference, preliminary results, academic and primary care

Research Publications

Chima S, Martinez-Gutierrez J, Hunter B, Laughlin A, Chondros P, Lumsden N, Boyle D, Nelson C, Amores P, Tran-Duy A, Manski-Nankervis J, Emery J.  Future Health Today and patients at risk of undiagnosed cancer: a pragmatic cluster randomised trial of quality-improvement activities in general practice. British Journal of General Practice 2025; 75 (754): e306-e315. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2024.0491

Research Group

Data for Decisions

Key Contact

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

Department / Centre

General Practice and Primary Care Research

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