Australian Family Physician, the flagship journal of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP), features a range of clinical, viewpoint and research articles focusing on key issues in general practice today.
The theme for the March edition of AFP is bones and includes the following feature articles:
Vitamin D and the musculoskeletal health of older adults
Tania Winzenberg, Ingrid van der Mei, Rebecca S Mason, Caryl Nowson, Graeme Jones
The scientific literature related to vitamin D and bone health in older adults is extensive. This article aims to summarise key practice points regarding vitamin D and bone health in older adults, relevant to general practitioners, and to provide an overview of the background literature to enable GPs to appreciate the extent of the supporting evidence.
Paget disease of bone – an update
Cameron Britton, John Walsh
Paget disease of bone is the most common metabolic bone disease after osteoporosis, affecting 2–4% of adults over 55 years of age. Its aetiology is only partly understood, but includes both genetic and environmental factors. This article outlines the clinical features, diagnosis and management options for Paget disease of bone.
Osteoporosis – prevention and detection in general practice
Dan Ewald
Osteoporosis causes a large and growing health burden in Australia. Effective treatments are available, but these are inconsistently implemented. There is some inconsistency in expert advice on who should be recommended to have bone densitometry. This review draws on the available high level evidence for what works in prevention and discusses the rationale for using absolute risk estimations for decision making.
Osteoporosis – pharmacological prevention and management in older people
J Simon Bell, Natalie Blacker, Sue Edwards, Oliver Frank, Christopher P Alderman, Lesh Karan, Alan Husband, Debra Rowett
Osteoporosis remains undertreated in Australian primary care, with as few as 30% of postmenopausal women with a fracture and 10% of men with osteoporosis receiving pharmacological treatment. This article presents an overview of the pharmacological management of osteoporosis in older people in the general practice setting.
Also in this issue…
Contact tracing for STIs – new resources and supportive evidence
Siobhan Reddel, Natalie Edmiston
Contact tracing of sexual partners is an important part of the clinical management of sexually transmissible infections (STIs) and initiation of contact tracing is the responsibility of the diagnosing clinician. Research has shown that some general practitioners would like to improve their skills in this area. This article outlines new resources and evidence to assist GPs to initiate contact tracing when a patient is diagnosed with an STI.
The NSW Refugee Health Service – improving refugee access to primary care
Diana Milosevic, I-Hao Cheng, Mitchell M Smith
This article forms part of our 'Access' series for 2012, profiling organisations that provide primary healthcare to groups who are disadvantaged or have difficulty accessing mainstream services. People of refugee background living in Australia can have significant physical and emotional healthcare needs. However, their ability to access mainstream health services, including general practitioners, may be limited by factors such as lack of familiarity with the health system, language and cultural barriers, and cost. There are a number of ways in which GPs can be involved and various sources of support available.
Quality in general practice – definitions and frameworks
Karina Gardner, Danielle Mazza
In 2010, the federal government introduced the first comprehensive national policy statement for primary healthcare in Australia. This policy identifies key reform initiatives with the overall aim of improving the quality of healthcare. However, what constitutes quality and how to measure it is the subject of ongoing debate both nationally and internationally. This article explores the current experience of defining quality and implementing quality frameworks in general practice settings in New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Germany and Australia.