AMA National Conference 2010 - The MJA/Wyeth Award
The Medical Journal of Australia/Wyeth Australia award for the best original research published in the MJA was tonight awarded to a research paper that examined the effectiveness of point-of-care testing for therapeutic control of chronic conditions.
The paper – authored by a team of researchers from the University of Adelaide, Flinders University and the Flinders Medical Centre – was published in the 1 June 2009 edition of the MJA.
The authors – Tanya K Bubner, Caroline O Laurence, Angela Gialmas, Lisa N Yelland, Philip Ryan, Kristyn J Wilson, Philip Tideman, Paul Worley, and Justin J Beilby – set out to compare the clinical effectiveness of point-of-care testing (PoCT) and pathology laboratory testing, as measured by therapeutic control in chronic conditions.
Between September 2005 and February 2007, they studied 53 Australian general practices in urban, rural and remote areas across three States.
The study involved 4,968 patients with established type 1 or type 2 diabetes, established hyperlipidaemia, or taking anticoagulant therapy.
In what is believed to be the first randomised controlled trial to investigate PoCT in general practice using non-inferiority tests, the results provide evidence that managing patients using PoCT for all tests except INR (international normalised ratio) and HDL (high-density lipoprotein) cholesterol results in the same or better therapeutic control than traditional pathology laboratory testing.
The authors say that the delivery of health care using PoCT provides an effective alternative to pathology laboratory testing which, in turn, can enhance good management of chronic disease.
28 May 2010
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