Impact of alternative diagnostic labels for melanoma in situ on management choices and psychological outcomes: protocol for an online randomised study.

Introduction: A diagnosis of melanoma in situ presents negligible risk to a person's lifespan or physical well-being, but existing terminology makes it difficult for patients to distinguish these from higher risk invasive melanomas. This study aims to explore whether using an alternative label for melanoma in situ may influence patients' management choices and anxiety levels.

Methods And Analysis: This study is a between-subjects randomised online experiment, using hypothetical scenarios.

Toward value-based care using cost mining: cost aggregation and visualization across the entire colorectal cancer patient pathway.

Background: The aim of this study is to develop a method we call "cost mining" to unravel cost variation and identify cost drivers by modelling integrated patient pathways from primary care to the palliative care setting. This approach fills an urgent need to quantify financial strains on healthcare systems, particularly for colorectal cancer, which is the most expensive cancer in Australia, and the second most expensive cancer globally.

Methods: We developed and published a customized algorithm that dynamically estimates and visualizes the mean, minimum, and total costs of care at the patient level, by aggregating activity-based healthcare system costs (e.

Using an SMS to improve bowel cancer screening: the acceptability and feasibility of a multifaceted intervention.

Background: The Australian National Bowel Cancer Screening Program sends an immunochemical faecal occult blood test to Australians aged 50-74 years to screen for bowel cancer, but uptake is low (40.9%). The SMARTscreen trial demonstrated that sending a short messaging services (SMS) prompt from the participant's general practitioner (GP) increased the proportion of kit returns by 16.

Offering reproductive genetic carrier screening for cystic fibrosis, spinal muscular atrophy and fragile X syndrome: Views of Victorian general practitioners.

Background And Objectives: The Royal Australian College of General Practice recommends that all women contemplating pregnancy or in early pregnancy should be offered reproductive genetic carrier screening (RGCS). In November 2023, a new Medicare item number was introduced for RGCS to detect cystic fibrosis (CF), spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) and fragile X syndrome (FXS) carrier status. The role of general practice in offering RGCS is recognised as being of crucial importance, but only a minority of general practitioners (GPs) are offering such screening.