Researchers: Dr Jacqueline Murdoch Kimberley, Dr Carole Reeve (Kimberley Population Health Unit)
Funding:
Project summary: The Western Australian Rheumatic Heart Disease Register was created in 2009 to provide best practice care to WA patients diagnosed with acute rheumatic fever with or without rheumatic heart disease. The register currently uses a passive case finding technique to identify patients to consent once notifications are received. It is expected that due to this technique, and the recency of the register, there are a significant number of patients who are eligible to be on the register but have not yet been given this opportunity. This project aims to use the discharge data from Kimberley region hospitals to ensure that eligible patients are offered the chance to consent to the register in order to assist with the coordination of their care and the delivery of antibiotic prophylaxis, if necessary. This project is expected to be extended to a state-wide project to improve the accuracy and therefore utility of the WA RHD Register.
Progress: Completed