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The perception of the patients with chronic conditions about chronic disease care in Australian general practice was analyzed. The findings supported the call for GPs to recognize patients subjective experience of their condition in addition to its biochemical parameters.

Providing structured multi-disciplinary care for people with chronic conditions can be difficult. The importance of changes in policies and attitudes to enable general practitioners to move from episodic care to providing structured long-term care as part of a multi-disciplinary team is discussed.

Research undertaken in the Adelaide Western Division of General Practice in Adelaide, Australia, into the outcomes of a health assessment of people aged 75 years and over is presented. This randomized controlled trial did not show improvement in primary outcome measures in the intervention group a year after a health assessment compared with the control group.

Acupuncture is increasingly popular in Australia, and more commonly used by women, elderly patients, and the socially disadvantaged. Researchers reviewed Medicare claims data from 1984-1985 and from 1996-1997 and found that, most recently, about 1.6% of patients used acupuncture services. Women were 40% more likely than men to submit a claim for acupuncture, and the age group submitting the most claims was for elderly patients, aged 65-69. The increased likelihood of submitting acupuncture Medicare claims by lower social classes was an unexpected finding.

A significant number of general practitioners in Australia use acupuncture in their clinical practice. Based on medical claims data from the Health Insurance Commission, 15% of non-specialist physicians use acupuncture. Doctors aged 35-54 are substantially more likely to use acupuncture, perhaps because they have more clinical experience. Doctors trained outside of Australia and male doctors are also more likely to use the alternative technique.

Trials of providing costing information to Australian general practitioners in an effort to help them change clinical behavior and reduce medical costs are discussed relative to a systematic review of studies. It has been concluded that giving costing information can change GP behavior in all service areas, but sustainability of changes and the linkage of savings to health outcomes are not yet well studied.

The use of asthma management plans in South Australia has been studied through use of a cross-sectional questionnaire survey of 307 adults with current asthma. Less than half of those studied use the asthma management plans and more information on what elements of the plan model are useful and effective and likely to be used by general practitioners.

The article presents a comparative study of the level of adherence to medication of the pathology laboratory general testing and the point-of-care (PoCT) testing methods. The pathology testing method is shown to be less effective than the PoCT method with respect to the medication adherence of the patients.

A multicenter, cluster randomized controlled trial is undertaken to compare the effectiveness of point-of-care testing (PoCT) with that of pathology laboratory testing for therapeutic control of chronic conditions. Findings indicate that the PoCT approach is similar or better in clinical effectiveness to pathology laboratory testing for all tests except international normalized ratio (INR) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol.

A study attempts to evaluate the efficacy of the 'Keeping the blues away' (KBA), a manualised depression relapse prevention program in reducing the relapse of depression compared with normal care. The results conclude that though KBA did not achieve its primary outcome of reducing depression by 50%, it is a promising program for older patients with severe or persistent symptoms.

The study concluded that the overall job satisfaction was positive among the staff though certain areas required to be reviewed.

Electronic Decision Support Systems (EDSS) are defined as 'access to knowledge stored electronically to aid patients, carers and service providers in making decisions on health care'. In absence of a long-term strategy in Australia to drive the EDSS agenda forward, there is a need to establish a national EDSS coordinating center with substantial funding and expertise.

A research is conducted to determine the factors among Australian-trained general practioners. It is found that GP's and their partners' rural background influences choice of practice location, with partners' background appearing to exert more influence.

This study examines whether the practice of fundholding can be linked to improved patient health and well-being in Australia. Fundholding is a framework in which specified health resources are made available to a particular group of patients in a defined period of time. This funding framework can provide flexibility not found in existing funding structures. The results of the study are presented, along with suggestions on how fundholding will work best in the future.

The topics covered in the International Primary Care Respiratory Group in Melbourne were asthma, allergy and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and tuberculosis, community-acquired pneumonia, is discussed and quality-of-life measurement also received attention. The International Primary Care Respiratory Group (IPCRG) networks have developed innovative research programs, which are further discussed.

Narrative-based research may provide more guidance than algorithms and hospital-based trials in caring for patients. Given time, support and leadership, general practitioners will embrace the world of relevant research.