Future Health Today
Changing the course of chronic disease
Future Health Today is a software platform designed by primary care for primary care. It streamlines the identification and management of chronic disease so that doctors and nurses can support patients to live healthier, longer lives.
The tool provides guideline concordant care recommendations relating to the identification and management of chronic diseases including chronic kidney disease, cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes and will be expanded in the future to include additional chronic conditions.
A robust program of work underpins the tool and consists of quality improvement opportunities, consumer resources, general practice and consumer advisory groups and significant research capability and experience.
Note: Click the images to enlarge.
2025 Facts and Stats
114
Practices currently using FHT
19
Health condition areas
82
Guideline concordant care recommendations
11
Current research projects
5
States across Australia
30
Practices using FHT as part of standard clinical care
84
Practices using core chronic disease recommendations for care
56
Practices using core undiagnosed cancer risk and chronic disease recommendations
>2,000,000
Patients potentially benefiting from FHT care recommendations
Future Health Today Leads
A/Prof Craig Nelson
Director of Nephrology, Western Health A/Professor, The University of Melbourne
Management Committee
A/Prof Craig Nelson
Director of Nephrology, Western Health A/Professor, The University of Melbourne
Dr Natalie Lumsden
Clinical Liaison
Leadership Team
Clinical and Implementation Team
Dr Natalie Lumsden
Clinical Liaison
Caroline McBride
GP & PhD Candidate
Technical Team
Sean Lo
Lead Developer
Cathy Zhang
BA/Support
Joel Launder
Developer
Bill Karanatsios
Harin Karunajeewa
How it works
Future Health Today is a technology platform which is co-designed with end-users to support optimised care for patients at risk of, or diagnosed with, chronic diseases in general practice.
The platform utilises innovative technology and primary care data to optimise appropriate testing, diagnosis, treatment and management by providing proactive clinical decision support for primary care practitioners and their patients.
It uses data from patient records to automate the identification of patients who: a) are at risk of chronic disease; b) have a chronic disease but no recorded diagnosis; or, c) are living with chronic disease and may benefit from optimised management.
The tool provides guideline concordant care recommendations relating to the identification and management of chronic diseases including chronic kidney disease, cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes and will be expanded in the future to include additional chronic conditions.
Featured content
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Program of Work
A robust program of work underpins the platform, consisting of quality improvement opportunities, consumer resources and advisory groups as well as significant research capabilities and experience. -
Software
The Future Health Today tool consists of a Dashboard, Point of Care support, resources, guidelines, reporting and quality improvement functionality. -
Co-Design
Seventeen health professionals and five consumers participated in co-design sessions to conceptualise the technology platform for Future Health Today.
FHT Health Conditions and Recommendations
FHT provides practitioners with 80 health recommendations for more than 14 health conditions.
Point of Care Prompts
Here are some examples of the Point of Care prompts that a GP may see during a consultation when using a computer with FHT software installed. Click on the thumbnail to enlarge the image.
Project ECHO® presentations available to view:
Funders
We acknowledge the generous support of:
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We wish to express our thanks and gratitude for their investment in the work of Future Health Today as we work to change the course of chronic disease.
Partners
Future Health Today is a partnership between The University of Melbourne and Western Health.
Western Health provides acute tertiary services in Footscray, Williamstown and Sunshine public hospitals in addition to services at Melton and Sunbury, using innovative research to help redesign health care services to meet the needs of its rapidly growing and diverse population.
Collaborators
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With Thanks
The Future Health Today team and their project collaborators would like to thank all the general practices, GPs, practice nurses, managers and their teams for their support of the FHT software and projects using that software. Our goal is to provide support to general practices to improve outcomes for patients, with feedback from those who will use and benefit from the tool and supporting infrastructure.
Every project taken up by practices enhances the capability of FHT to provide useful, appropriate and accessible support for general practice. We humbly thank you for your contributions and honesty.
General Practice Staff Feedback
Real quotes from health care staff who have used FHT
"… it's simple, it's not complicated."
You don't really have to think about it, you just have to open up the thing and do what it tells you to do.
"It's subtle"
I like that it’s just on the side and prompts if in a different colour to tell me to review.
"I quite liked the little pop-up tool."
I liked the pop-ups in the end, especially how they’re related to the clinical guidelines and that people can access them from the pop-up.
"The exposure to this kind of software was new to us"
I’ve never worked with a program that could give us that much information about our patients.
"I don’t think it adds much time at all - just to have a look."
It’s just a prompt. It’s easy. It tells you there and then what you need to do which - that’s why I actually am a fan of it.
"I still think like a Future Health person now - that's what's really changed."
Like, I keep thinking 'oh, what's their renal function? etc It's amazing!.
Consumer Feedback
Real quotes from consumers whose GPs have used FHT
"She informed me of something, which I hadn’t known about..."
The role of statins and the beneficial effect in the kidneys.
"I said 'But the hospital gave me the OK!"
My doctor said 'Well I’m telling you they are not OK.'
"I thought my kidneys were alright now..."
But when I had a blood test, my GP said they’re not really!
The Data Governance Framework outlines the Future Health Today governance procedures, the legal and ethical environment within which the system operates and provides a framework for the identification and management of privacy risks related to Future Health Today.
This Data Governance Framework is dynamic and will change over time to remain fit for purpose. It is overseen by the Future Health Today Management Committee.
Publications
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Manski-Nankervis, J. A., Hunter, B., Lumsden, N., Laughlin, A., McMorrow, R., Boyle, D., Chondros, P., Jesudason, S., Radford, J., Proctor, M., Emery, J., Amores, P., Tran-Duy, A., Nelson, C. (2025). Effectiveness of Electronic Quality Improvement Activities to Reduce Cardiovascular Disease Risk in People With Chronic Kidney Disease in General Practice: Cluster Randomized Trial With Active Control. JMIR Formative Research, 9. doi:10.2196/54147
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Chima, Sophie; Hunter, B; Martinez-Gutierrez, Javiera; Lumsden, Natalie; Nelson, Craig; Manski-Nankervis, Jo-Anne; Emery, Jon (2024) Adoption, acceptance, and use of a decision support tool to promote timely investigations for cancer in primary care Family Practice, Volume 41, Issue 6, December 2024, Pages 1048–1057, https://doi.org/10.1093/fampra/cmae046
Chima S, Martinez Gutierrez J, Hunter B, Laughlin A, Chondros P, Lumsden N, Boyle D, Nelson C, Amores P, Tran AD, Manski-Nankervis JA, Emery J. Future Health Today: A pragmatic cluster randomised trial of quality improvement activities in general practice for patients at risk of undiagnosed cancer. Br J Gen Pract. 2024 Nov 20:BJGP.2024.0491. doi: 10.3399/BJGP.2024.0491. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 39567181.
Hunter B, Goller J et al (2024) Development and acceptability of a digital tool for promoting syphilis testing in Australian general practice: qualitative study using the Theoretical Framework of Acceptability Sexual Health 21, SH24097. doi:10.1071/SH24097
Beccia C, Hunter B, Manski-Nankervis and J White M (2024) Exploring the user acceptability and feasibility of a clinical decision support tool designed to facilitate timely diagnosis of new-onset type 1 diabetes in children: A qualitative study among general practitioners. JMIR Formative Research 2024;8:e60411, DOI: 10.2196/60411
McBride C, Hunter B, Lumsden N, Somasundaram K, McMorrow R, Boyle D, Emery J, Nelson C, Manski-Nankervis JA. Clinical Acceptability of a Quality Improvement Program for Reducing Cardiovascular Disease Risk in People With Chronic Kidney Disease in Australian General Practice: Qualitative Study. JMIR Hum Factors. 2024 Nov 13;11:e55667. doi: 10.2196/55667. PMID: 39535290
Hunter B, Davidson S, Lumsden N, Chima S, Martinez Gutierrez J, Emery J, Nelson C, Manski-Nankervis J (2024) “Optimising a clinical decision support tool to improve chronic disease management in general practice” BMC Primary Care, 25(1) https://doi.org/10.1186/s12875-024-02470-w
Wallace H, Wang Q, Botha T, Hunter B, Lumsden N, Nelson C. (2024) Optimising diagnosis and management of kidney disease: an implementation trial of a clinical decision support system future health today. BMC Nephrology. 2024;25(1):57. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12882-024-03489-y
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Hunter B, Alexander K, Biezen R, Hallinan CM, Wood A, Nelson C, Manski-Nankervis JA. The development of Future Health Today: piloting a new platform for identification and management of chronic disease in general practice. Aust J Prim Health. 2023 Feb;29(1):8-15. https://doi:10.1071/PY22022. PMID: 36318973.
Gezer M, Hunter B, Hocking JS., Manski-Nankervis J, Goller JL. (2023) Informing the design of a digital intervention to support sexually transmissible infection care in general practice: a qualitative study exploring the views of clinicians. Sexual Health, https://doi.org/10.1071/SH22191 -
Chima S, Martinez-Gutierrez J, Hunter B, Manski-Nankervis J, Emery J
Optimization of a Quality Improvement Tool for Cancer Diagnosis in Primary Care: Qualitative Study. JMIR Form Res 2022;6(8):e39277 https://formative.jmir.org/2022/8/e39277 DOI: 10.2196/39277 -
Manski-Nankervis JA, Alexander K, Biezen R, Jones J, Hunter B, Emery J, Lumsden N, Boyle D, Gunn J, McMorrow R, Prictor M, Taylor M, Hallinan C, Chondros P, Janus E, McIntosh J, Nelson C. Towards optimising chronic kidney disease detection and management in primary care: Underlying theory and protocol for technology development using an Integrated Knowledge Translation approach. Health Informatics J. 2021 Apr-Jun;27(2):14604582211008227. doi: 10.1177/14604582211008227. PMID: 33853414.
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Hunter B, Biezen R, Alexander K, et al. Future Health Today: codesign of an electronic chronic disease quality improvement tool for use in general practice using a service design approach BMJ Open 2020;10:e040228. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-040228
Future Health Today: Exploring barriers and facilitators to implementation of a new technology platform for quality improvement in general practice. Cindy Hsin Tien. 14 August 2020
Delivered at the AAAPC 2020 conferenceData Driven Quality Improvement in General Practice. J A Manski Nankervis 28 May 2020
General practice research: an investment to improve the health of all Australians. Jo‐Anne E Manski‐Nankervis, Elizabeth A Sturgiss, Siaw‐Teng Liaw, Geoffrey K Spurling and Danielle Mazza
Med J Aust 2020; 212 (9): doi: 10.5694/mja2.50589Co-designing technology to improve Chronic Kidney Disease in general practice
(Poster presented at the 8th Annual NHMRC Symposium on Research Translation) -