The interruption of normal patterns of health care and the suspension of services during COVID-19 has meant that the pandemic has also had a major impact on the detection and treatment of many non-COVID-19 conditions. Electronic general practice data are a valuable resource which can be used to inform population and individual care decision-making.

This project is based on a collaborative relationship involving the Digital Health Cooperative Research Centre, Macquarie University, Gippsland, Eastern Melbourne, South Eastern Melbourne Primary Health Networks and Outcome Health.

The project will identify emerging trends related to COVID-19, its diagnosis, treatment and medications prescribed, and its impact on patients as well as monitor the impact of interventions/policy decisions. The project page can be accessed here.

Ethics approval for this project was granted by Macquarie University Human Research Ethics Committee (Ref No: 5201700872)

The implementation of strong social distancing measures by the Australian government triggered a rapid reform in Medicare, with the introduction of Medicare funded telehealth (video and telephone) services. These reforms were designed to maintain access to care and reduce risk of infection for vulnerable patients and health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.   However the impact of these reforms on general practice billings and therefore practice financial viability is unknown.  This research will provide insights into how telehealth has been adopted into general practices and the impact of telehealth items on general practice viability. Ethics approval for this project was granted by the University of Technology Sydney Human Research Ethics Committee (Ref No ET18-2507)

This project will design a comprehensive intervention to improve prevention of liver cancer in people living with chronic viral hepatitis. Read more. Ethics approval for this project was granted by Melbourne Health Human Research Ethics Committee (Ref No 2021.231)

General practice is a critical point of immunisation against COVID19 for a large proportion of the Australian population. This project will benefit GPs, PHNs, the community cared for by them, and the health system by helping to identify unsafe vaccines as early as possible and providing confidence vaccine safety is being closely monitored. Ethics approval for this project was granted by Monash Health Human Ethics Research Committee Ref No RES-18-0000-232A)

Survivors of stroke often have a range of impairments and are at an increased risk of subsequent vascular events. Researchers from Monash University will link a subset of Aurora data with data from the Australian Stroke Clinical Registry to better understand care delivery pathways and improve outcomes for stroke survivors. Ethics approval for this project was granted by the Monash University Human Research Ethics Committee (Ref No: 23553)

Australia has the 8th highest opioid prescribing rate in the world. Mortality from pharmaceutical opioids has doubled over the last decade. There is an urgent need to better understand opioid use patterns, outcomes and detection of harms. Researchers will use Aurora data to better understand opioid use patterns, identify risk areas around opioid supply and analyse the impacts of opioid-related policy decisions on prescribing. Ethics approval for this project was granted by the Monash University Human Research Ethics Committee (Ref No: 24139)

Researchers from Summer Foundation (a leading support organisation working to increase accessible housing for young people with disability) will lead an exciting project to conduct a three-way privacy-protecting linkage between general practice, the hospital setting and the National Disability Insurance Agency. The primary outcome is to better understand the pattern of health service use by National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) participants and to develop interventions to ensure equitable access to healthcare initiatives by people with disability. Ethics approval for this study was granted by Eastern Health Human Research Ethics Committee (Ref No E20/001/58261)

Common respiratory and gastrointestinal infections cause significant childhood illness in community, general practice and hospital settings.

The project aims to:

1. Create SNOTWATCH- a service mapping respiratory and gastrointestinal results in Victoria for clinicians and consumers to use to see current local activity in their area
2. Use these results from the past to estimate the contribution each organism makes in the burden of childhood illness and health-care utilisation. This will help provide the evidence for supporting treatment and vaccine decision making as well as identifying predictable patterns of spread to provide an early warning system for the future.

Ethics approval for this project was granted by Monash Health Human Research Ethics Committee (Ref No RES-19-0000-312A)

One in four adults aged >40 will develop Atrial Fibrillation (AF) in their lifetime. It is an important health problem associated with a 5-fold increase in stroke, more often disabling or fatal. While AF may give rise to palpitations or other symptoms, there are frequently none, especially in older people with the highest risk of stroke. The primary objective of this study is to determine if screening for AF is effective at reducing stroke (both ischaemic and haemorrhagic) compared to usual care and to quantify other potential benefits and harms of screening. Ethics approval for this project was granted by The University of Sydney Human Research Ethics Committee (Ref No 2021/825)

A summary of completed projects to date is available here.

An updated list of Aurora-supported publications is available here.