Front-line general practitioners and researchers from the University of Notre Dame Australia have created a life-saving digital tool to help doctors better identify and manage patients with breathlessness.
The BREATHE SMART clinical trial was officially launched in Sydney last night, at a special event attended by the investigator team, project partners and collaborators.
Breathlessness is a common symptom of heart and lung disease experienced by about one in 10 Australians, but it is a complaint often overlooked by patients and not picked up by GPs.
Notre Dame researchers and GPs, Professor Charlotte Hespe, Doctor Margot Woods and Doctor Katrina Giskes, have drawn on their clinical and medical expertise to develop an automated system that screens patients for the condition before their doctor’s appointment.
The screening is done on the patient’s smartphone, with the result sent automatically to the doctor through electronic medical records.
Advice will be provided to the GP ahead of the appointment on the best diagnostic and treatment pathways for the patient, helping reduce symptoms and minimise costs to the healthcare system.
The system will help patients get a timely diagnosis and appropriate treatment advice while minimising the need for unnecessary tests or treatments.
Professor Hespe said GPs were optimally placed to provide preventative healthcare but were experiencing increasing time pressure in clinics.
She said time spent on preventative care was a limited and precious resource, especially in rural and remote areas where people were more likely to suffer from heart and lung conditions and there were additional barriers to accessing doctors.
“This innovation will help GPs by using pre-consultation time to identify health issues that could otherwise go undetected and undiscussed,” she said.
“By taking the screening moment out of the GP consultation space, that time can be used more productively to diagnose the cause of the patient’s breathlessness and ultimately improve quality of life and health outcomes.”
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, breathlessness in patients with post-COVID symptoms has increased, putting an additional diagnostic and management burden on GPs.
According to the Lung Foundation, between 10 - 30 per cent of people infected with COVID-19 report ongoing respiratory symptoms such as breathlessness, and at least three per cent then report long-term respiratory distress.
Professor Hespe, Doctor Woods and Doctor Giskes received a $1.2 million Federal Government grant for the project through the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF), which provides Australia’s best and brightest researchers with funding for groundbreaking, life-changing health and medical research projects.
Media Contact: media@nd.edu.au