IDEAL Care Trial: Identifying Advanced Liver Fibrosis in Primary Care

Did you know that one in four Australians have a fatty liver!

People with chronic liver conditions such as advanced liver fibrosis have a greater risk of developing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and liver failure, which are in turn responsible for an increasing number of deaths in Australia.

IDEAL Care is a new, innovative trial in partnership with urban and rural general practices across Western Australia and Victoria that is looking to test the real-world effectiveness of an integrated, general-practice-based diagnostic pathway to detect advanced liver fibrosis in the community.

Led by Professor Leon Adams (The University of Western Australia) and Professor Jon Emery (The University of Melbourne), a multidisciplinary research team will work with 24 general practices across metropolitan, regional and rural Victoria to test a novel digital intervention.

Outcomes from this study will provide the evidence to introduce clinical pathways to identify at-risk patients who may benefit from specialist review and avoid needless referral for those not at risk. As the intervention is designed to consist of current and available technologies incorporated into existing software platforms, the research team anticipate that the implementation of findings will be rapid.

The trial will commence recruitment in the upcoming months.

GPs across collaborating practices will participate in a CPD education module (accredited for two CPD hours) and each practice will be re-imbursed $1500.

For further information, please contact:

• Eliza Zmislja (National Trial Coordinator of the IDEAL Care Trial): eliza.zmislja@unimelb.edu.au or
• VicREN: vicren-enquiries@unimelb.edu.au

The IDEAL Care Trial has received funding under the Australian Government’s Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) and human research ethics approval from the The University of Western Australia (2023/ET001136)