Earlier this year we welcomed Professor Stephen McDonald as the Clinical Lead of the Clinical Registries Priority Focus Area project.
Clinical registries provide valuable insights that help improve patient care and outcomes. The statewide initiative is focused on strengthening how registry data is developed, connected and used across South Australia.
In this Q&A, Professor McDonald shares his vision for the future of clinical registries and explains how South Australia’s size can support greater collaboration, innovation and improvement across the health system.
Could you tell us a bit about yourself and what drew you to this area of work?
I am a kidney specialist by trade, working across the Royal Adelaide, Queen Elizabeth and Whyalla hospitals. I have a long background of involvement in the Australia and New Zealand Dialysis and Transplant Registry, the National Indigenous Kidney Transplant Taskforce and more recently the formation of the SAHMRI Registry Centre. I now work across a clinical role as nephrologist at the Royal Adelaide Hospital and in an academic role with Adelaide University as Director of the Adelaide EpiCentre.
The key attraction for me has been the ability of Registries to transcend the “silos” which exist in healthcare and focus on access to and outcomes for people as they travel through the various elements of the health system. Underpinning this is the potential to use data to report and then drive improvement in access to and outcomes in healthcare.
Why does the Clinical Registries program of work matter right now in South Australia?
South Australia has a very strong background in Clinical Registries. We host the national headquarters of a number of major Clinical Quality Registries (CQRs) and have a strong track record of clinical engagement elsewhere. These CQRs often have a national and international reputation for driving change.
What’s the key challenge or opportunity you see in Clinical Registries across the SA health system?
Challenges? Changing thinking to incorporate a “longitudinal” view of people’s health and “journey” through the health system. We need to incorporate patient-relevant outcomes and think beyond length of stay of a single admission as the principal metric. Secondly, changing the way we think and use data. We are so highly protective of data that we have created processes that stop us using it for good. We need to create better processes to do this – at least in the Clinical Registry space.
Opportunities? Between the size of SA, the presence of a statewide EMR, the strengths of the existing Registry networks and a desire to change, there is a genuine opportunity to create a system where we can drive a “virtuous cycle” of using relevant data and information to understand and improve how we provide care and the outcomes people experience.
What motivated you to take on the Clinical Lead role for this Priority Focus Area?
The opportunity to bridge these gaps and try and tackle some of the structural issues.
How will you approach leading this work with clinicians, subject matter experts and consumers?
This is a complex area with many stakeholders. Understanding the reasons systems and processes have evolved is important – this will involve a lot of discussions and listening. Another element is a clear “roadmap”, which articulates what we are trying to achieve, and how the various elements and projects fit in.
What does success look like for this PFA?
Clear processes that make participation in, and utilisation of information and insights from Clinical Registries not just standard practice but the expectation in our health system.
Learn more about the Clinical Registries project.