Topic: QIPC

Our ageing population
Potentially preventable hospitalisation rates
How an ageing population affects providers
How GPACI can help your practice
Introducing POLAR Puffin
When QI and GPACI join forces
Walkthroughs and resources
Helpful tips for health professionals
Additional resources

“Every person living in a residential aged care home has the right to receive safe, timely, high-quality care.”
– Final Report, Royal Commission into Ages Care Quality and Safety (Royal Commission)

South Western Sydney and its ageing population

The World Health Organisation 2025 highlighted advances in social, economic and medical developments have resulted in longer life expectancies and lower mortality rates – ‘one of our most remarkable collective achievements’.

More than one million people reside in South Western Sydney, and it remains one of the fastest growing regions in NSW. Our rapid population growth is driven mostly by greenfield developments and urban intensification.

In response to our expanding community SWSPHN and the South Western Sydney Local Health District collaborated to create an in-depth health needs assessment. This in-depth analysis of the population prepares our community to be informed for future health planning and be able to successfully meet our region’s key health needs.

One of the key areas identified in this analysis was our rapidly growing and ageing population. The total population of people aged 65 years or older is expected to increase significantly between 2016 and 2031, from 127,000 to 221,000 (a total increase of 74 per cent). Additionally, those aged 85 years or older are expected to increase by 92 per cent – with an additional 14,660 people.

Figure 1 – Projected population growth in South Western Sydney by LGA, 2016-2031

South West Sydney – Our Health in depth

Current data predicts Camden and Liverpool local government areas (LGAs) are taking the lead in population growth rates. It is predicted by 2031 Camden will have the largest population growth by more than double, with increases from 81,000 to 186,000 people.

Figure 2 – Projected population growth (per cent) in South Western Sydney LGAs and NSW, 2016-2031

South West Sydney – Our Health in Brief

South Western Sydney has the highest potentially preventable hospitalisation rates in NSW

Potentially preventable hospitalisations (PPH) are determined by hospitalisations which may have been avoided with either preventative care or early disease management. This doesn’t mean the hospital admission wasn’t necessary at the time. It may have been prevented with the use of primary care services which were timely and appropriate.

Recent PPH data confirmed chronic, vaccine preventable and acute conditions were higher for South Western Sydney residents compared to the rest of the state, as seen in Figure 3. The most common reasons for PPH included but aren’t limited to; cellulitis, urinary tract infections, ear, nose and throat infections, and congestive heart failure.

Figure 3 – Potentially preventable hospitalisations, rate per 100,000 population NSW and South Western Sydney 2016-17 

How will an ageing population affect primary healthcare providers?

Primary healthcare providers play an essential role in caring for older people in the community, as general practices are often a patient’s first point of contact. Our primary healthcare providers’ contribution in early detection and treatment of chronic conditions is crucial in minimising the impact on both the healthcare systems and individual patients’ lives.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare recognised yearly GP service attendance rates increased from 3.8 to 6.2 visits per person in 2025.

Despite the expected demographic shift towards an ageing and rapidly growing population, the World Health Organisation 2024 raised the concern “care and support systems across the world are not yet prepared to meet the needs of older people”.

With an ageing population, chronic diseases and multiple comorbidities are likely to become more prevalent. Furthermore, the demand for permanent residential aged care and the number of people requiring this level of care is expected to almost double in 15 years from 5,947 to 10,894 people by 2031.

Figure 4 – Number of persons requiring or in residential aged care for South Western Sydney by LGAs and gender, 2016-2031 

What is GPACI and how can my practice get involved?

The General Practice in Aged Care Incentive (GPACI) was introduced in July 2024. GPACI aims to support continuity of care and reduce avoidable hospitalisations for older people living in residential aged care homes (RACH), through proactive visits and chronic disease management.

The introduction of GPACI incentives was in response to the Royal Commission into Quality and Safety in Aged Care and Strengthening Medicare, both of which identified the need to shift our focus towards our rapidly growing and ageing population.

For more information on eligibility and servicing requirements for GPACI – please refer to the General Practice in Aged Care Incentive program guidelines.

Introducing POLAR Puffin: less GPACI administration, more time for what matters

The Early Insights from the General Practice in Aged Care Incentive reported more than $14.3 million was distributed to general practices and providers with a strong initial uptake in GPACI. However, a common barrier identified was the complex and administrative workload in monitoring service requirements for ongoing participation – it was often described as overly burdensome through GP and practice surveys.

To overcome the common barrier of a high administrative workload in GPACI, Western Victoria PHN and Outcome Health worked together to create a solution – a new POLAR report called Puffin.

Puffin has been tailored to be used by GPs and practices to assist with visualising and meeting their GPACI quarterly reporting requirements, as well as optimising time spent on patient care. The new Puffin report was trialled with a small group of general practices in Western Victoria, with positive feedback overall. Puffin was successful in reducing the amount of time spent tracking GPACI servicing requirements and reducing errors previously made in manual tracking.

Puffin is readily available at no extra cost to all current users of POLAR. It is currently integrated with Best Practice, Medical Director and Zed Med users.

If you want to know more about Puffin or are thinking about getting involved in GPACI, please contact your Practice Advancement Officer (PAO)/Practice Support Officer (PSO).

How can Quality Improvement and GPACI join forces?

Quality Improvement (QI) plays a pivotal role in driving practice-based decisions to make changes, based on practice specific demographics and needs. POLAR Puffin is a user-friendly data extraction and analysis tool which can be utilised to support both QI-based activities and meet GPACI quarterly servicing requirements.

Some ways POLAR Puffin can be incorporated into your practice’s QI activities include:

• identify GPACI-registered patients in PRODA and update Puffin patient list accordingly (when first using Puffin)
• identify GPACI-registered patients who have not yet met the quarterly requirements for eligible regular services
• identify GPACI-registered patients who have not yet met care planning requirements over the 12-month period
• identify GPACI-registered patients eligible for a vaccination (COVID, shingles, influenza)
• track improvements in GPACI service delivery each quarter – by using the Model for Improvement, compare baseline and current data
• collaborate with SWSPHN in quarterly QI meetings for a team-based QI approach and assistance in using POLAR Puffin or to further improve practice data and service delivery

Helpful resources for health professionals:

Puffin Introduction | Western Victoria PHN
GPACI: Patient Information Booklet

SWSPHN walkthroughs and resources

SWSPHN has various resources to assist your practice with QI activities and introducing the use of the new POLAR Puffin report within your practice. If you are unsure how to access POLAR or need help with initial use of Puffin, contact your Clinical and Quality Improvement (CQI) Officer or your PAO/PSO for more information.

Model for Improvement (MFI):

Model for Improvement Template
Model for Improvement Walkthrough
Sample MFI – GPACI Care Planning
Sample MFI – GPACI COVID Vaccine Eligibility

POLAR Puffin Walkthroughs:

POLAR Puffin Walkthrough – Patient Management
POLAR Puffin Walkthrough – Applying Filter

Helpful tips for health professionals participating in QI

Maintain accurate data in patient files – POLAR extracts data from the practice’s clinical information software. POLAR does not obtain data from AIR, My Health Record or PRODA.

Using POLAR Puffin for the first time?

When first using Puffin, it is recommended you extract an accurate list of GPACI-registered patients from PRODA

• PRODA Walkthrough – Obtain list of GPACI registered patients

Using the GPACI-registered patient list from PRODA, update your Puffin patient list accordingly – adding/removing patients as appropriate

• POLAR Puffin Walkthrough – Patient Management

Private bookmark function

The private bookmark function in POLAR allows users to save searches created with specific filters for future reference.

• POLAR Walkthrough – How to create a private bookmark 

References and additional resources

Introducing POLAR Puffin | South Western Sydney PHN
South West Sydney: Our Health in depth
South West Sydney: Our Health in brief
Final Report – Care, Dignity and Respect: Volume 1 | Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety
Strengthening Medicare | Department of Health, Disability and Ageing
Early Insights from the General Practice in Aged Care Incentive | Department of Health, Disability and Ageing
Ageing: Global population | World Health Organization
WHO calls for urgent transformation of care and support systems for older people | World Health Organization
General practice, allied health and other primary care services | Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
General Practice in Aged Care Incentive program guidelines | Department of Health, Disability and Ageing

If you wish to find out more POLAR Puffin or SWSPHN’s QIPC program, please email cqisupport@swsphn.com.au  or visit our website Quality Improvement in Primary Care.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is one of the major health concerns in Australia; it remains the key cause of death and morbidity nationwide. According to the Heart Research Institute, CVD is contributing to more than 1.2 million hospitalisations each year and leads to long-term complications.
Source: Heart Research Institute, 2024.

Primary prevention in general practice plays a significant role in early identification and management of modifiable CVD risk factors such as blood pressure, cholesterol and smoking.
The National Preventive Health Strategy 2021-2030 and the RACGP Guidelines strongly recommend the use of absolute CVD risk assessments in the primary healthcare setting, which is also embedded as one of the 10 PIP QI measures.

National Preventive Health Strategy 2021-2030
RACGP Guidelines
10 PIP QI measures

Understanding and addressing modifiable cardiovascular risk factors

Many of the risk factors contributing to CVD are modifiable, meaning they can be influenced through lifestyle changes, medical intervention or both. Addressing these factors not only reduces the risk of CVD but contributes to improved outcomes in diabetes, kidney disease and mental health.
Key modifiable risk factors for CVD:

• tobacco smoking
• obesity (BMI)
• physical inactivity
• hypertension
• hyperlipidaemia
• unhealthy diet
• excessive alcohol consumption
• diabetes and impaired glucose regulation
• psychosocial stress

Among these, body mass index (BMI) and smoking status are particularly significant, as they directly contribute to the calculation of an individual’s absolute CVD risk.

Recording BMI is essential in identifying overweight and obesity, both of which are associated with increased blood pressure, adverse lipid profiles, insulin resistance and ultimately a higher risk of cardiovascular events. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, adults with elevated waist circumference have a five per cent higher risk of developing CVD.

Smoking remains one of the highly significant independent risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Current smokers are estimated to have three times the cardiovascular mortality risk compared to non-smokers.

Despite this, documentation remains suboptimal. The AIHW’s 2021–22 Practice Incentive Program – Quality Improvement (PIP QI) report revealed only 49.8 per cent of eligible patients aged 45 to 74 years (without known CVD) had sufficient data recorded to calculate an absolute CVD risk score. In South Western Sydney, POLAR data shows only 43 per cent of eligible patients have a documented CVD risk score.

Further data from AIHW (2014) highlights:

• Only 22.7 per cent of patients aged 15 years and older had a recorded BMI
• Only 64.7 per cent had a recorded smoking status within the previous 12 months

These figures demonstrate clear opportunities for improvement in routine risk assessment and documentation.

AIHW 2021–22 Practice Incentive Program – Quality Improvement (PIP QI) report

POLAR Explorer

How your practice can contribute

As a key part of the primary care system, general practice teams can play a pivotal role in CVD prevention by using tools such as POLAR to identify patients with incomplete risk factor data.

To ensure accurate CVD risk calculation:

• BMI (height and weight) should be updated annually, as per PIP QI Measures 2023-24
• smoking status, including confirming known non-smokers, should be reviewed at least annually, and updated immediately if a patient’s smoking behaviour changes

Accurate and up-to-date documentation:

• enables the calculation of absolute CVD risk
• facilitates the delivery of brief lifestyle interventions
• supports timely referral to appropriate services such as smoking cessation programs or the HEAL (Healthy Eating Activity and Lifestyle) program

Australian CVD risk calculator
HEAL (Healthy Eating Activity and Lifestyle)

How POLAR can support better CVD risk assessment

POLAR offers practical tools to enhance CVD risk assessment workflows:

• identify patients eligible for CVD risk assessment
• use Walrus or filters in reports to identify missing data (e.g. BP, cholesterol, smoking status)
• track improvements over time with baseline comparisons and quarterly monitoring
• collaborate with PHN staff via quarterly Model for improvement (MFI) sessions for a team-based QI approach
• collaborate with PHN team to apply a private bookmark for streamlined and quick access to relevant POLAR reports.

Visit POLAR Knowledge Base to learn about Walrus

Download the QIPC Model for improvement template

Download the Private Bookmark POLAR Walkthrough for instructions

There are a couple of reports which could assist practices in improving CVD risk data:

QIPC Clinic report – CVD module (At Risk cohort)

The CVD module in the report helps visualise patients’ risk documentation status for a certain time period and opportunities for improvement.

PIP QI report

This report supports practices to meet and track progress against PIP QI measures, such as CVD risk factors.

MBS items relevant to CVD risk – Heart Health Check

Notes:
Items can be claimed once per patient in a 12-month period and cannot be claimed if the patient has had other health assessments (e.g. items 701, 703, 705, 707, or 715) in that time.
Heart Foundation, NPS Australia

From 1 July 2023, the previous restriction preventing co-claiming with a First Nations health assessment has been removed, supporting more flexible care for First Nations patients.
MBS Online

How our PHN can assist you

• access to targeted training on CVD risk assessment and POLAR usage
• organise quarterly MFI meetings and six-week check-ins for Tier 3 practices
• offer Heart Health toolkit with step-by-step POLAR walkthroughs and editable sample MFIs
• assist practices to identify data gaps and track progress in CVD risk management using POLAR

Private bookmark

The Private Bookmark Function in POLAR allows the user to save searches of specific patient cohorts by creating a bookmark. The user can create these bookmarks by clicking the tab at the top right-hand corner of the page.

Useful resources

AIHW – Burden of CVD in Australia
Heart Foundation – Heart Health Checks
CVD Check Tool
CVD Guidelines for Health Professionals
NPS MedicineWise – Absolute CVD Risk in Practice
Relevant newsletter: How practices tackle cardiovascular disease using POLAR

If you wish to find out more about CVD in POLAR or SWSPHN’s QIPC program, please email cqisupport@swsphn.com.au or go to Quality Improvement in Primary Care.

This QIPC newsletter article outlines practical steps general practices can take to prepare for the changes to chronic disease management MBS items coming into effect from 1 July 2025. It includes a summary of the new items, the role of MyMedicare registration, and tips for updating workflows, improving data quality, and supporting continuity of care. It also highlights tools and resources available through SWSPHN’s QIPC program to help practices adapt smoothly.

Changes to chronic disease management aim to:

• simplify, streamline and modernise the arrangements for healthcare professionals and patients
• promote continuity of care
• encourage the regular review of chronic disease management plans
• support communication between a patient’s multidisciplinary care team
• ensure existing patients can continue to access the care they need

As part of the changes, the current GP management plans (GPMPs) and team care arrangements (TCAs) will be replaced with a single GP chronic condition management plan (GPCCMP). The existing MBS items for developing and reviewing GPMPs and TCAs will cease, and new MBS items for the GPCCMP will be introduced.

GPCCMPs are for patients with one or more chronic medical conditions who would benefit from a structured approach to their care. It is up to the GP’s clinical judgment to determine if their patient would benefit from a GPCCMP.

The changes will encourage regular chronic condition management plan reviews by equalising the fees for developing and reviewing GPCCMPs. The proposed new MBS item numbers are as follows:

More information about the upcoming changes to MBS Chronic Disease Management can be found at MBS Online.

Preparing for the proposed changes – MyMedicare registration

MyMedicare is a voluntary patient registration model available to all patients, practices and primary care providers who meet eligibility requirements. It aims to formalise the relationship between patients, their general practice, GP and primary care teams.

Why do we need MyMedicare registration?

Evidence shows seeing the same GP and healthcare team regularly leads to better health outcomes. MyMedicare registration enables a practice to access more information about their regular patients, making it easier to tailor services to fit the patient’s needs.

To support continuity of care for people with chronic and complex conditions, patients registered through MyMedicare will be required to access the GPCCMP and review items through the practice where they are registered. Patients who are not registered in MyMedicare may still access the services through their usual GP.

New telehealth items will be linked to MyMedicare registration, including:

• longer MBS-funded phone calls (Level C and D) with the patient’s usual practice
• triple bulk-billing incentives for longer MBS telehealth consultations (Levels C, D and E) for children under 16 years, pensioners and concession card holders.

Find out more – General Practice MyMedicare registration

Find out more – Patient MyMedicare registration

Find out more – Upcoming changes to the MBS Chronic Disease Management Framework

eLearning: MyMedicare – Health Professional Education Resources

To help your practice prepare for the transition to chronic conditions management (CCM), start by implementing small, manageable changes. Focus on raising awareness among your team about MyMedicare and the updates to CCM. Encourage your team to explore their roles in both MyMedicare and CCM.

QIPC and CCM

The SWSPHN Quality Improvement in Primary Care (QIPC) program has three main aims:

1. improve data quality
2. utilise practice data to improve patient care
3. identify potential business revenue for the practice

In line with these three aims, a quality improvement (QI) focus area often chosen by practices is identifying patients with a chronic disease who are potentially eligible for care plans.

In preparation for the proposed CCM changes, practices can ensure their current patients with a chronic disease are registered with MyMedicare. The SWSPHN Clinical and Quality Improvement (CQI) team has prepared resources to assist practices with this:

POLAR walkthrough – You can check how many of your patients with a chronic disease are registered/not registered for MyMedicare

MFI – A sample QI activity to register current chronic disease management patients with MyMedicare

Best Practice and MedicalDirector Clinical software guides – Where to document MyMedicare registration in the patient file to enable POLAR to pick up

Helpful tips for GPs, managers and nurses

Private bookmark:

The Private Bookmark Function in POLAR allows the user to save searches of specific patient cohorts by creating a bookmark. The user can create these bookmarks by clicking the tab at the top right-hand corner of the page.

Download Private Bookmark Walkthrough

Correct documentation:

For POLAR to obtain precise and reliable data, every item should be documented correctly in the patient’s file. To assist clinicians and practice staff in documenting care items in the appropriate location in their clinic’s medical software, data mapping is available via the Help menu.

Practice checklist

To help your practice get ready, we’ve put together a simple Practice Checklist you can utilise and ensure a smooth transition. It outlines some steps to align your current chronic disease management workflow with the updated MBS items and highlights practice actions your team can take now to stay ahead.

Preparing Your Practice for Chronic Condition Management Reform Checklist

To find out more about SWSPHN’s QIPC program, please email cqisupport@swsphn.com.au or visit our website Quality Improvement in Primary Care.

Resources for practices

MBS Online – Upcoming changes to the MBS Chronic Disease Management Framework

MyMedicare Program Guidelines

MyMedicare GP toolkit

Changes to chronic disease management MBS items begin 1 July

Quality improvement (QI) activities improve clinical care and patient outcomes in general practice. The RACGP defines continuous quality improvement as an ongoing activity undertaken within a general practice with the primary purpose of monitoring, evaluating or improving the quality of healthcare delivered to practice patients.

What are QI toolkits?

Due to the complexity and time constraints in primary healthcare settings, completing QI activities can be a daunting task for healthcare providers. QI toolkits are structured sets of tools, methods and resources designed to help organisations in improving health outcomes, such as increasing the rates of early diagnosis or optimising treatment pathways.

South Western Sydney PHN (SWSPHN) has created a range of QI toolkits tailored to assist your practice in identifying and planning data-driven QI activities, on selected clinical topics. The toolkits are designed to make implementing measurable and sustainable improvements easier and will help your practice complete QI activities using the Model for Improvement (MFI).

Who can use the toolkits? How do they benefit your practice?

Practices participating in the Quality Improvement in Primary Care program (QIPC) or anyone interested in knowing more about QI in the general practice setting can utilise the QI toolkits. The activities in the toolkits can assist in maintaining continuing professional development (CPD) requirements, and help your practice meet the requirements for the Practice Incentive Program Quality Improvement (PIP QI).

How to use the toolkits?

The QI toolkits provide guidance with various QI ideas, walkthroughs and resources to assist your continuous QI activities on different topics e.g. heart health and hepatitis C. Each QI toolkit is presented in a similar format for easy navigation, including:

1. Foundation of Quality Improvement
2. Quality Improvement Activities
3. Tips and Tricks
4. Helpful Resources

Practices can use any resources from the above sections of the QI toolkits which best meet your needs and adapt them for your purposes.

1. Foundation of Quality Improvement

This section is the same for all the QI toolkits and can be accessed to find out more information on the foundations of QI. It has an easy-to-follow walkthrough on how to complete the MFI to keep track of your QI activities progress, and also an MFI template to utilise for your selected focus areas.

2. Quality Improvement Activities

In the QI activities section of each toolkit, you will find categories such as:

• Data Cleansing – Update and improve your patient’s medical records.
• MBS – Increase revenue for your practice by billing the associated item numbers.
• Pathology – Maintain patient pathology records.
• Screening – Identify patients who may benefit from certain types of screening.
• Management – Treatment options and management of certain health conditions.

This area of the QI toolkits may differ depending upon the toolkit topic, however, under each of these categories you will find suggested focus areas for improvement. Every suggested focus area will have tools to enable your practice to achieve improvement in this area. These tools include:

• • • Sample MFI – An example of how to record the progress of your selected focus area.
    • POLAR Walkthrough – This is a guide to assist you in extracting lists of patient cohorts for the selected focus area.
    • Clinical Software Guides (Best Practice and Medical Director ONLY) – These are step-by-step guides to show you how and where to document to ensure patient records for your practice are maintained.

3. Tips and Tricks

This area of the toolkit contains helpful hints such as:

• Private bookmark – How to create a private bookmark in POLAR to save a search for a selected patient cohort.
• Data mapping – This shows where and how POLAR picks up the data from within your clinical software and enables you to ensure you are documenting in the correct location, therefore no important data is missed.

4. Helpful Resources

Each toolkit has a selection of helpful resources for the selected toolkit topic. These resources have different headings for ease of use, some of the headings include:

• Clinical resources – These are resources which provide information for clinicians.
• Patient resources – These are resources directed at patients.
• CPD/Webinar – These resources can contribute to your CPD requirements and are specific to the toolkit topics.

Assistance and resources

We are continuing to develop new QI toolkit topics, and you can see our latest additions here on the Quality Improvement Toolkits page on the SWSPHN website.

• Hepatitis C Toolkit
• Heart Health Toolkit

For any enquiries or further information on the QI toolkits please email CQIsupport@swsphn.com.au 

Cancer and its prevalence in Australia

In Australia, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), three out of every 10 deaths are caused by cancer, and it is estimated there were 162,163 new cancer cases diagnosed in 2022.

The treatment of cancer can become increasingly challenging as the disease progresses and spreads.

In numerous instances, cancer only presents symptoms after it has metastasised.

Therefore, early detection and screening of the asymptomatic population is crucial in preventing the disease’s advancement and achieving successful outcomes.

What is cancer screening?

Cancer screening detects early signs or risk factors for cancer, increasing treatment success and may prevent cancer.

However, further investigation is necessary for confirmation of positive findings.

There are three different approaches to screening:

• Population-based screening: This involves testing of an entire target population.
• Targeted risk screening: This involves screening high-risk individuals, such as those with a strong family history of certain types of cancer.
• Opportunistic screening: This involves screening conducted during a medical check-up, such as tests which may be ordered by a healthcare professional during an appointment for medication review or a yearly immunisation like the flu vaccine.

Three population-based cancer screening programs in Australia are free for eligible people:

• BreastScreen Australia Program: Women over 40 can have a free mammogram and women aged 50 to 74 are actively invited to screen every two years.
• National Bowel Cancer Screening Program: The Australian National Bowel Cancer Screening Program (NBCSP) provides population screening for bowel cancer free of charge to eligible people every two years for ages 50 to 74.
• National Cervical Screening Program: Women and people with a cervix aged 25 to 74 years are invited to have a Cervical Screening Test every five years through their healthcare provider.

Each program aims to detect pre-cancerous abnormalities or early-stage cancers before symptoms occur, maximising the chance of successful treatment.

Primary healthcare and its role in cancer screening

Primary healthcare providers are essential collaborators and drivers in the promotion and implementation of cancer screening programs.

Patient-centred care and participation in cancer screening programs are critical factors in decreasing cancer-related morbidity and mortality.

Studies from Cancer Institute NSW suggest the recommendation or endorsement of cancer screening programs by a primary healthcare provider elevates the participation rate in cervical, breast and bowel screening programs.

Furthermore, healthcare providers play a pivotal role in encouraging individuals to seek and engage in cancer screening programs by providing educational resources and accessible tools.

How can QIPC cancer screening module in POLAR be useful?

Outcome Health and SWSPHN have collaborated to develop a cancer screening module.

This module can be accessed through the POLAR QIPC report and is located under the “Clinical” tab.

Its purpose is to help general practices identify high-risk patients who are due for screening, in order to improve their management and health outcomes.

The module has five tabs covering information and trends, cervical screening, breast screening, bowel cancer screening and skin cancer screening.

SWSPHN has created a set of POLAR Walkthroughs to assist in utilising the Cancer Screening Module effectively: 

• POLAR Walkthrough – patients due for SCC or BCC review
• POLAR Walkthrough – non-urgent patients now due for bowel screen with a history of polyposis
• POLAR Walkthrough – non-urgent first nations patients due for breast screening
• POLAR Walkthrough – identifying URGENT patient cohorts in cancer screening module

Helpful tips for GPs, managers and nurses

• Private bookmark: The Private Bookmark function in POLAR allows the user to save searches of specific patient cohorts by creating a bookmark. The user can create these bookmarks at the top right-hand corner of the page. This enables the user to recall specific patient cohorts without having to re-apply filters. This can be a very effective function as it only requires the user to open the bookmarks tab and select their desired saved search.

Download Private Bookmark Walkthrough

• Correct documentation: In order for POLAR to obtain precise and reliable data, it is crucial to ensure every item is accurately documented in the patient’s file. To assist clinicians and practice staff in documenting care items in the appropriate location in their clinic’s medical software, data mapping of each tab is accessible in the Help menu.