Co-hosts Louise Campbell and Roger Green are joined by friend of the podcast, Naim Alkhouri, and new guest, Professor James O’Beirne, to discuss learning from liver disease in Australia and developing improved models for patient identification and risk stratification.
This conversation focuses largely on funding, starting with Louise’s question about Medicare payment for patients in Australia. James notes that all care was free to patients, and that this might skew results. As the conversation continues, Louise notes the importance for Australians of having Australian data to use in valuing medicines, diagnostics and procedures, given that NICE analyses rely exclusively on UK data. She goes on to ask about the quality of referrals from primary care, which prompts James to note that some primary care practitioners provided better data and novel referrals, while others appeared overwhelmed by the data. Roger asks the group how geographic dispersion will affect referrals as hepatologists push into primary care relationships. James suggests that geography is a challenge, leading Naim to comment that an inexpensive, hand-held device will be pivotal to mass screenings and that blood tests should be part of the mass screening armamentarium. James, followed by Louise, replies that nurses and some practitioners see imaging as a therapeutic event and an opportunity to engage the patient in a discussion of their numbers and how to improve lifestyles. As the conversation winds down, James and Naim discuss concerns around consistency of reads, and Louise, then Naim, provide tips on how to get a more accurate measurement.
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