Working Towards a Connected Frontline Health System

29 September 2009

Dr Kurt Stange

Commonwealth Government needs to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of Australia's health care system. Primary health care provides the first point of contact for patients and is touted as the cornerstone of a more effective health system, but it is undermined by fragmented services. Frontline clinicians need be able to provide comprehensive, coordinated and personalised care to patients, particularly those with multiple serious illnesses such as cancer, diabetes and depression.

Dr Stange looked at the challenges facing the primary care system in the United States that could inform the Australian health community as it grapples with a major reform process. The lecture was based on a series of editorials that will appear in the international journal Annals of Family Medicine, focusing particularly on understanding and organising health as a science of connectedness.

Broad Topics: Medicine and Life Science

Sub-topics: Medical & Health Science

Areas: ANU College of Medicine, Biology and Environment

Dr Stange is a family physician, scholar, an award-winning clinical researcher and Professor of Family Medicine, Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Oncology and Sociology at Case Western Reserve University. He holds a clinical research professorship for the American Cancer Society (2007-2012) and has held the Gertrude Donnelly Hess Professor of Oncology Research since 2002. He has also been editor of the Annals of Family Medicine since 2002. Dr Stange was an International Visiting Fellow at the Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute, ANU, when he gave this lecture.

This lecture was part of the ANU Public Lecture Series 2009, presented by the  Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute.