ID-5184 Wonca Abstracts supplement A-K 13-10-23 - Flipbook - Page 172
WONCA 2023 Supplement 1: WONCA 2023 abstracts (A–K)
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Fidelity of a computerised model to identify patients with
unexpected weight loss and high risk of cancer in
primary care.
Dr Lucas De Mendonça, Phillip Ly, Alex Lee, Jon Emery, A/Prof Jo-Anne Manski-Nankervis,
Dr Javiera Martinez
The University of Melbourne
Background
Unexpected weight loss (UWL) can be caused by different conditions, including malignancy. Early
diagnosis of cancer is critical to optimise patient outcomes. Research conducted in the United
Kingdom has demonstrated that UWL has predictive value for cancer in the primary care (PC) setting,
especially when associated with other risk factors or clusters of symptoms. This has the potential to
prompt investigation for an undiagnosed cancer, particularly in PC where initial presentations of cancer
are commonly more non-specific than in other levels of care. We developed a risk prediction model
to identify patients at increased risk of cancer based on UWL in primary care and will implement the
model in a clinical decision support tool tailored for general practices in Australia called Future Health
Today (FHT).
Aim
To determine the positive predictive value of the weight loss algorithm by undertaking clinical audits of
patient records that are identified using FHT.
Method
Five general practices will be recruited to install the UWL module on FHT. Clinical files of patients
identified using the tool will have their electronic medical record data reviewed by a clinician and
data will be collected in a REDcap document. The resulting audit data will be reviewed by a clinical
team to reach consensus on patient categorisation (ie true positive or false positive) and positive
predictive value will be calculated for the algorithm to flag true UWL. Data collection is anticipated to be
completed by June 2023. The study was approved by an ethics committee in February 2023.
Goals
Results will be used to optimise the algorithm prior to implementation of the Cancer Risk in Patients
with Unexpected Weight Loss in Primary Care (CANARY) study, which aims to facilitate future research
and earlier detection of cancer in the PC setting in patients with UWL.
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