Evaluation of impact of Territory Kidney Care (TKC) systems on chronic kidney disease (CKD) identification and management in Northern Territory (NT)

 

Funders:
  • Ian Potter Foundation
Summary:

The evaluation project involves process and outcome evaluations to assess the implementation, usability, and impact of Territory Kidney Care (TKC) system on chronic kidney disease (CKD) service delivery in Northern Territory (NT). The project is aimed at addressing stakeholder requirements and expectations including funding organisations, Department of Health, participating primary health services and the TKC Steering Committee. TKC has been developed in response to stakeholder needs. The time frame of the evaluation (up to five years) accounts for this developmental process and the staged implementation of TKC across the Territory.

A comparative analysis of the impact of clinical decision support (CDS) systems on supporting adherence to chronic kidney disease (CKD) management guidelines (e.g. Kidney health Australia) across Northern Territory, Tasmania and Victoria under the CKD Consortium (hyperlink) will involve summative evaluation of TKC.

The objectives of the overall TKC evaluation project are to:

  1. Undertake a process evaluation to assess the barriers and facilitators to the implementation of TKC in NT
  2. Undertake a comparative summative evaluation of the contribution of clinical decision systems to CKD management in three separate jurisdictional programs
  3. Assess the impact of TKC in improving the efficiency of CKD service delivery (For example: earlier specialist advice, appropriate referrals, reduced face to face reviews, decreased outreach requirements and increased telehealth consults, reduced unplanned hospital admissions and unplanned dialysis treatments) and improving patient journey and awareness about CKD clinical care
  4. Assess the cost effectiveness of the TKC system on health service delivery.


The overall TKC evaluation will be conducted in five phases over five years -

Phase 1: A Process evaluation will be conducted in the NT and will involve interviews of clinical users of TKC to explore the implementation and usability of the system and outputs at primary and tertiary services.

Phases 2 and 3: Summative evaluation of TKC will commence in year three under the CKD Consortium project which includes quantitative analysis of the pre-existing de-identified datasets and a high-level costing study which will help inform the full economic evaluation. Clinical users and health service managers will be interviewed and/or sent surveys regarding the usability and benefit of the system.

Phase 4: Outcome evaluation of TKC will commence with a three-pronged approach of qualitative, quantitative and economic evaluation methods.

Phase 5: A consolidated report of the process and outcome evaluations of TKC will be fed back to stakeholders. After validation and endorsement, a final report will be submitted, and findings disseminated to key stakeholders, participants and communities.

The findings of this evaluation will be beneficial for all patients with CKD and related chronic conditions and will contribute to improving overall health outcomes of vulnerable populations. This will also support appropriate resource allocation, service planning and delivery of interventions in high-risk communities.

Chief investigator:

Contact information:

For information for study participants or to get involved with this project contact James Harley. 

Project dates:

The project commenced in November 2020 and is due to be completed in November 2025.