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CareTrack: assessing the appropriateness of health care delivery in Australia

Annemarie Wright and Bruce Bolam
Med J Aust 2012; 197 (8): . || doi: 10.5694/mja12.11190
Published online: 15 October 2012

To the Editor: We support the recommendation of Runciman and colleagues for national agreement on clinical standards of health care,1 and highlight the importance of including routine health promotion activities as a core part of quality care in clinical practice. The indicators used by Runciman et al fail to consider core aspects of preventive care, such as screening and evidence-based behavioural interventions for lifestyle risk factors including smoking, poor diet, high-risk alcohol consumption and physical inactivity. Failure to include these aspects of preventive care is a missed opportunity for reducing the disease burden and promoting health. Indeed, the “health care encounter”1 presents a unique opportunity for changing health behaviours related to these risk factors, as medical practitioners are the most trusted source of health information.2


  • VicHealth, Melbourne, VIC.



Competing interests:

No relevant disclosures.

  • 1. Runciman WB, Hunt TD, Hannaford NA, et al. CareTrack: assessing the appropriateness of health care delivery in Australia. Med J Aust 2012; 197: 100-105. <MJA full text>
  • 2. Hesse BW, Nelson DE, Kreps GL, et al. Trust and sources of health information: the impact of the internet and its implications for health care providers: findings from the first Health Information National Trends Survey. Arch Intern Med 2005; 165: 2618-2624.
  • 3. Cadilhac DA, Magnus A, Cumming T, et al. The health and economic benefits of reducing disease risk factors. Melbourne: VicHealth, 2009. http://www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/Publications/Research/Health-and-economic-benefits-of-reducing-disease-risk-factors.aspx (accessed Sep 2012).
  • 4. McGlynn EA, Asch SM, Adams J, et al. The quality of health care delivered to adults in the United States. N Engl J Med 2003; 348: 2635-2645.
  • 5. Harris MF, Hobbs C, Powell Davies G, et al. Implementation of a SNAP intervention in two divisions of general practice: a feasibility study. Med J Aust 2005; 183 (10 Suppl): S54-S58. <MJA full text>

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