The Evaluation & Consultancy Unit

The Evaluation & Consultancy Unit within the Department of General Practice at the University of Adelaide was established in 1998. It provides a Consultancy service throughout South Australia, working in a variety of general practice areas such as:

• The evaluation of Divisional and General Practice Primary Care Projects
• The development and implementation of Continuing Medical Education Programs (such as clinical audit)
• Advice on data collection; data analysis and statistical modeling
• Database management
• Development and analysis of surveys within general practice
• The design and completion of research projects.

Recent Evaluation Unit Projects include:

• The Development of a Framework for the Evaluation of Systematic Care in Diabetes in General Practice
• The Qualitative Evaluation of the Pilot Program for the 3+ Visits Asthma Plan
• The Evaluation of the Mental Health Case Conferencing Project (using both qualitative and quantitative methods)
• The development and implementation of the Servier Australia National Diabetes Audit (for Type 2 Diabetes)
• An Urban GP Questionnaire reviewing the attitudes of urban GPs to rural general practice

In 1999, the Evaluation & Consultancy Unit entered into a Consortium Agreement with the South Australian Centre for Rural and Remote Health (SACCRH) to provide academic and evaluation support to all Rural Divisions of General Practice. This has provided an exciting opportunity for general practitioners, divisional staff and academics to work together to determine practical and effective ways of developing and evaluating programs across the whole spectrum of general practice.