What is known about the topic? Scope of practice regulation in medicine is crucial for ensuring patient safety, standardisation and professional accountability. What does this paper add? This paper highlights the negative consequences of restrictive scope of practice regulation on medical negligence litigation, quality of care, flexibility of healthcare delivery, clinical innovation and professional autonomy. What are the implications for practitioners? A proactive, national, artificial intelligence-powered, real-time patient outcome monitoring system is proposed, which addresses some of the highlighted challenges and the associated blame culture that it helps to perpetuate.

What is known about this topic? Electronic health records, in common with business and healthcare data systems, are vulnerable to data breaches and have been recently targeted in Australia and internationally. What does this paper add? Electronic health records present particular cybersecurity data breach risks for patients and healthcare workers through the release of confidential information, identity theft, and associated psychological distress. What are the implications for practitioners? Electronic health record platforms need legislative regulation and personalised provision of support to patients and healthcare workers to mitigate the consequences of inevitable data breaches.

What is known about the topic? Numerous studies have investigated physician and nursing perspectives of health service electronic medical record (EMR) implementation, however, information on allied health professionals (AHPs) perspectives is limited. What does this paper add? This paper utilises a validated tool to investigate AHPs’ attitudes, perceptions and experience of an EMR, pre- and post-implementation and identifies changes after system utilisation. This is new information is specific to AHPs. What are the implications for practitioners? Understanding both the positive influences and barriers to EMR use and adoption by AHPs provides insights into how elements of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Usage of Technology framework can be leveraged to improve future system implementations by enhancing system suitability for AHPs and thus optimising adoption through change management and training strategies.

What is known about the topic? mHealth apps have the enormous potential to promote patient-centred care, provide a tool for patient self-management and effectively empower and improve users' health and health behaviour. What does this paper add? This paper complements existing adoption research models by identifying further influencing factors that specifically address the characteristics of mHealth apps and the needs of older adults. What are the implications for practitioners? This research shows that the requirements of consumers, regulators and health professionals need to be addressed to improve the relevance of mHealth and enable greater support for mHealth apps in the health system by understanding the perceived influencing factors for mHealth adoption.

What is known about this topic? The Medicare Benefits Schedule Review Advisory Committee has made recommendations to cease reimbursement of telehealth for initial consultations by non-general practitioner medical specialists. What does this paper add? The recommendations are contrary to the good medical practice guidelines on telehealth promulgated by the Medical Board of Australia. What are the implications for practitioners? The cessation of reimbursement will significantly impact private patient initial appointments and especially affect rural and remote patients.

What is known about the topic? Management of septic hip arthritis is optimised by expedient diagnosis. What does this paper add? Point-of-care ultrasound reliably identifies fluid in the hip joint and shortens the length of time to diagnosis when compared with ultrasound examinations performed in medical imaging departments. What are the implications for practitioners? The use point-of-care ultrasound for the diagnosis of septic hip arthritis may improve diagnostic efficiency and offer significant cost savings.

What is known about the topic? Suicide rates in Australia have increased over the past 10 years, with some sub-populations known to experience a greater risk of suicide. What does this paper add? A policy review was undertaken to examine the distribution of this suicide prevention funding across jurisdictions and years, the types of interventions funded, and whether funding is targeted toward groups with a recognised higher risk of suicide. What are the implications for practitioners? The findings of this paper may be used by practitioners to better understand the service funding priorities for suicide prevention in Australia.

What is known about the topic? The economic effects of the harms of e-cigarette use are unknown. What does this paper add? Based on the transition from e-cigarette use to cigarette smoking (among never smokers), high and avoidable healthcare costs are predicted with e-cigarette-initiated smoking, primarily for lung diseases, and are driven by small increments in e-cigarette uptake. What are the implications for practitioners? Strong support for regulating the use of e-cigarettes to limit use, other than for smoking cessation, is of paramount importance to reduce the economic burden on health care.

What is known about the topic? Increased length of stay has been described for hospital inpatients referred to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). What does the paper add? NDIS-referred rehabilitation inpatients had increased length of stay and lower Functional Independence Measure efficiency with reference to benchmarked expected length of stay predictions. NDIS-referred rehabilitation inpatients had increased length of stay compared with non-NDIS-referred patients. What are the implications for practitioners? Rehabilitation units managing inpatients referred to the NDIS incur a significant opportunity cost that is unaccounted for in current benchmarking and funding arrangements.

What is known about the topic? At present, residents in aged care are largely inactive and only 22% of facilities in Australia provide physiotherapy-based rehabilitation or short-term restorative care. What does this paper add? My Therapy is an allied health guided, co-designed rehabilitation self-management program for residents in aged care and has the potential to improve the rehabilitation reach of allied health services in this setting. What are the implications for practitioners? Through My Therapy, allied health teams in residential aged care can better align with the Royal Commission’s Aged Care Quality and Safety recommendation of providing resident rehabilitation.

What is known about the topic? Health services must engage with research to ensure evidence-based practice, but they often encounter barriers to facilitating research within this setting. What does the paper add? The research reveals that health service teams were perceived as barriers for research culture and were significantly lower than individual and organisational perceptions of research culture and capacity. This highlights the importance of investigating challenges faced by team leaders in facilitating research and providing support or training. What are the implications for practitioners? Health service organisations should focus on supporting and training team leaders to enhance research culture and capacity and enable clinicians to engage in research.

What is known about the topic? Health profession regulatory mechanisms have traditionally been slow to respond to evolution and change in professional scopes of practice. What does this paper add? This paper explores how individual practitioners may find themselves in a ‘grey zone’ between the new clinical frontier and the normative practice of their professional peer group. What are the implications for practitioners? We propose a theoretical approach providing a clear framework through which to guide the adoption of clinical innovations and profession-level scope of practice change, progression and evolution.

What is known about the topic? Working within the law is a central feature of quality care. There have been concerted efforts to support healthcare professionals’ knowledge of the law that applies to end-of-life decision-making. However, knowing the law is not the same as applying the law. What does this paper add? This paper describes how end-of-life decisions are made and documented in emergency departments and intensive care units in one Queensland health service. We found that healthcare professionals rely on clinical judgement about what is in the best interest of the patient when making end-of-life decisions, and compliance with the law may be coincidental. What are the implications for practitioners? In addition to seeking to achieve consensus on end-of-life decision-making, healthcare professionals need to ensure that consent for an end-of-life decision is provided by the legal decision-maker.

What is known about the topic? The concept of medical futility and its impact are disputed issues. What does this paper add? The paper places futility in its medico legal context, it offers definitions, costs of futile medical treatment and highlights recent legal developments which re-define futility. What are the implications for practitioners? Practitioners need to be aware of the ongoing impact of definitional disputes relating to futility, the cost of futile treatment and that the nature of futility is changing.