An innovative program is helping GPs in South Western Sydney deliver enhanced care to patients and subsequently better health outcomes.
Lumos is a partnership between the NSW Ministry of Health (MoH) and SWSPHN to assist practices to gain a stronger understanding – through data – of a patient’s journey across the health system.
The Federal Government funds the Lumos program through the Health Innovation Fund.
Lumos securely links data, which has undergone an independent privacy impact assessment, in line with best practice, across primary, ambulatory and acute care.
Once consent has been received from practices to allow de-identified clinical data to be extracted about their patients, Lumos links that data with other health service data to provide a more comprehensive view of patient pathways.
This can help GPs identify opportunities for a more targeted response to their patients’ health needs.
Lumos can:
- Generate insights into patient journeys across the healthcare system
- Identify current and emerging population health issues
- Improve patient experience and quality of care
- Inform data-driven quality improvement and system redesign responses
Some practices using Lumos data have been able to deliver specific targeted services to meet patient needs, including matching their opening hours with types of care, improving triage processes, and increased testing for chronic diseases relevant to their patients.
There are two ways of using Lumos: through practice-specific reports and through the Secure Analytics Primary Health Environment (SAPHE).
SAPHE allows access to the de-identified data asset for approved PHN, local health district and Ministry of Health employees.
Lumos data is available for approved users for the planning, monitoring, funding and evaluation of health services. It is not currently available for research purposes.
For SWSPHN general practices, Lumos reports are generated by linking the data from various sources in partnership with the Centre for Health Record Linkage (CheReL). Detailed reports are issued every six months and distributed to the participating general practices for tracking and improving care.
Lumos reports can answer:
- How often do my patients go to hospital?
- For patients of your practice, over an average 24-hour period, when do potentially avoidable Emergency Department (ED) visits occur?
- How many of your patients had any combination of ED presentations, admissions to hospital or even death?
These will enable general practices to:
- Better understand your patient and practice profile compared to your region
- Demonstrate and improve the quality of patient care your practice provides
- Support data-driven quality improvement activities and participation in related programs
- Create an evidence base to support areas of future investment in primary care
- Provide a better understanding of the patient experience with health services
- Improve provider experience through greater collaboration
As of September 2022, 607 general practices were participating in the Lumos program, which represents 23.2 per cent of 2,619 practices in NSW (National Health Services Directory September 2022).
The level of participation exceeded the 2023 target of 20 per cent set for the program. Of these practices, 470 contributed data in time for the April 2022 linkage. (Lumos Evaluation Report, 2 October 2022).
Currently, 144 SWSPHN general practices are participating in the Lumos program, the highest across NSW.
SWSPHN Chief Executive Officer, Dr Keith McDonald PhD, said an informed GP was better placed to provide more appropriate health care to their patients. He encouraged GPs to consider participating in the program.
“All that is needed is to sign the data consent form and the Polar data extraction tool installed (most practices will already have this),” he said
“(Lumos) results in a more positive experience, better health outcomes, and reduced cost to the health system.”
Contact our Digital Health team at digitalhealth@swsphn.com.au if you would like more information or would like to participate in Lumos. Alternatively, Practice Support and Health Services Improvement Officers can assist with your Lumos queries or get you registered with the project.