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Towards integrated care: Australia’s new model of care for patients with glaucoma

Christine Y Lu, Vicky H Lu, Ivan Goldberg and Richard O Day
Med J Aust 2010; 193 (4): . || doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2010.tb03867.x
Published online: 16 August 2010

Using shared care to tackle the complexity of optimal patient management

Globally, the burden of disease has shifted from acute to chronic illnesses and the management of multiple comorbidities. To address the challenges this creates, integrated care has received growing attention as a means of improving health care delivery and outcomes.1 Integrated care (frequently equated with “disease management” and “shared care”) is defined by the World Health Organization as


  • 1 School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences, Sansom Institute, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA.
  • 2 Sydney Eye Hospital, Sydney, NSW.
  • 3 Eye Associates, Sydney, NSW.
  • 4 Discipline of Ophthalmology, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW.
  • 5 Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW.
  • 6 Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney, NSW.


Correspondence: christine.lu@unisa.edu.au

Acknowledgements: 

Christine Lu is supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council fellowship (456438).

Competing interests:

Ivan Goldberg has received payment as a consultant and educational presenter, as well as grants and/or honoraria and reimbursement for expenses, from Alcon Laboratories, Allergan Australia, Ellex Australia, Merck Sharp and Dohme and Pfizer Australia. He is a member of the advisory boards of these companies.

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