Healthcare during the pandemic: latest Australian research highlights lessons for 2022

Thursday, December 9, 2021

‘The latest issue of the Australian Health Review, the academic journal of the Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association (AHHA), reflects on the delivery of healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic and offers many lessons for 2022 and beyond,’ says Editor-in-Chief, Professor Sonĵ Hall.

‘As events over the last week have highlighted the need to achieve global vaccine equity, in a policy reflection, Jane Halton notes the need for immediate investment in pandemic preparedness to prevent a reoccurrence of the global effects of COVID-19.

‘A review of patients with COVID-19 referred to palliative care services by Ruwani Mednis et al found that well-integrated relationships between palliative care services and the diverse range of healthcare teams is necessary to providing optimal palliative care to patients, particularly during crisis situations.

‘Dr Rebecca Reay, Professor Stephen Kisely and Associate Professor Jeffrey Looi’s analysis of the uptake of telehealth for allied mental health services during the pandemic reveals that the pandemic greatly accelerated the adoption of telehealth by clinicians and maintaining telehealth mental health care has the potential to improve access to care.

‘In perspectives piece, Dr Ronal Dendere, Dr Monika Janda and Professor Clair Sullivan discuss the importance of evaluating approaches for implementation of digital health systems. Given the sensitive and complex nature of digital health systems, they highlight the need for more research to define evidence-based approaches delivering healthcare information technology,’ says Professor Hall.

This issue also features an evaluation of a complex intervention in the general practice setting aimed at increasing the uptake of long acting reversible contraceptives (LARC) in Australia. Milena Lewandowska et al found that LARCs were highly cost effective and had the potential to improve consumers’ quality of life.

Other articles in this issue focus on medicines utilisation, clinical governance and staff perceptions of quality of life in end-of-life care.

The December issue of the Australian Health Review is available here. More information on AHHA is available at ahha.asn.au.

 

Media enquiries:  Prof Sonĵ Hall, Editor in Chief, Australian Health Review, 0427 613 587