possibly all three. IFIs focus on a client’s needs and difficulties, rather than an esoteric disease process. Although the Allied Health Minimum data set adequately describes the characteristics of the client and of the care provider, it does not provide information on why the allied health professional is intervening. Collecting this data will help in understanding the demand for the service a...

BACKGROUND In many countries, the referral-consultation process faces a number of challenges from inefficiencies and rising demand, resulting in excessive wait times for many specialties. We collected referral data from a sample of family doctors across the province of Ontario, Canada as part of a larger program of research. The purpose of this study is to describe referral patterns from primar...

OBJECTIVE To quantify utilisation of allied health care services by diabetics in rural NSW and explore reasons for any underutilisation. DESIGN Self-administered mail survey of 268 patients with diagnosed diabetes identified from practice registers. SETTING Two rural general practices. PARTICIPANTS One hundred seventeen respondents with diabetes. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Annual frequency of...

Physical therapy is a fast growing profession because of the aging population, medical advances, and the public's interest in health promotion. This study is part of the Medical Library Association (MLA) Nursing and Allied Health Resources Section's project to map the allied health literature. It identifies the core journals in physical therapy by analyzing the cited references of articles in t...

BACKGROUND Comorbid chronic illnesses, such as cardiovascular disease, respiratory conditions, and type 2 diabetes are common among people with serious mental illness. Management of comorbid illness in the mental health setting is sometimes ad hoc and poorly delivered. Use of a cardiometabolic health nurse (CHN) is proposed as one strategy to improve the delivery of physical health care to this...

Background Occupational therapists form a significant proportion of the allied health workforce in developed countries. Demand for occupational therapists in Australia is growing due to the rapidly expanding population of people living with chronic and complex conditions. Recent Australian government initiatives conducted through Health Workforce Australia have been implemented to enhance train...

BACKGROUND Many patients with acute stroke do not receive recommended care in tertiary hospital settings. Allied health professionals have important roles within multidisciplinary stroke teams and influence the quality of care patients receive. Studies examining the role of allied health professionals in acute stroke management are scarce, and very little is known about the clinical decision ma...

Competency frameworks are an increasingly popular clinical governance, performance management, and professional development tool in health care. However, to date there is a dearth of information relating to competencies for allied health professionals (AHPs) working in remote and rural environments. This project aimed to develop a competency framework for senior level AHPs across a core of alli...