We spoke with Dr Lucy Rowlands, a GP at Medical One Richmond, about her experiences as a HealthPathways Melbourne user.
Could you tell us a little about your general practice and how long you’ve been a GP there?
I work at Medical One Richmond. I commenced working here in April 2019 after gaining my general practice fellowship.
Can you share an instance where you looked up a pathway on HealthPathways during a consultation to help manage a patient?
What was the case?
- 35-year-old woman presented with a new breast lump of six weeks.
- No family history of breast, ovarian or prostate cancer. No previous breast lumps or breast imaging. No change with menstrual cycle. No medications.
- Examination showed a 1cm rounded non-tender breast lump in the left breast upper outer quadrant at 2 o’clock 3cm from the areolar.
- I accessed the Breast Symptoms pathway to use as a checklist in my consultation to make sure I had covered all relevant history, examinations and was arranging the right investigation.
How did this help your patient?
The patient had an ultrasound which showed the lump was most consistent with a complex breast cyst. The radiologist suggested a fine needle aspirate (FNA) for further investigation. I did not agree with this recommendation so I accessed the Benign Breast Lesions pathway which confirmed that I should arrange a referral to a breast surgeon for review and consideration of a core biopsy of the lesion.
If you didn’t have access to HealthPathways, what would you have done instead?
Discussed the case with my colleagues or phoned a specialist for advice.
How did you come to know about HealthPathways Melbourne?
When I went through my GP training my mentors recommended HealthPathways. I have also attended many PHN education events which have been very beneficial and during these events the speakers have discussed HealthPathways.
Would you recommend HealthPathways to other GPs? What do you think would be most beneficial to other users?
I highly recommend HealthPathways to other GPs and GP registrars. I use it daily to access up-to-date clinical guidelines, referral pathways and patient information. We are very lucky to have free access to such a brilliant source of information for all family practitioners.
What has been the feedback from your team about HealthPathways?
- Easy to use
- Up to date
- Succinct
- Trusted guidelines
The breast pathways linked in this case study were created as part of the Optimal Cancer Care Pathways (OCPs) HealthPathways project. The aim of this project is to translate the select stages of the OCPs relevant to general practice into HealthPathways to support the adoption of OCPs in general practice. All OCPs available on HealthPathways Melbourne can be found here.
