Dr Miriam Levy

Gastroenterologists at Liverpool Hospital in NSW are using video technology to act as mentors to rural GPs prescribing DAA cures for hepatitis C.

The Project ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) service links metropolitan specialists with primary care doctors in rural areas and allows them to engage in case-based learning sessions, to give GPs the skills and confidence to use new DAA treatment regimens for patients with hepatitis C without referral to specialists.

The project is based on a cloud-based video communication system called Zoom that enables video and audio conferencing, content sharing across mobile devices, desktops, telephones, and room systems.

“In these Zoom meetings, specialists at Liverpool together with a complete multi-disciplinary team provide support for GPs and other healthcare providers by discussing (de-identified) cases on line,” says Dr Miriam Levy, Specialist Gastroenterologist and Hepatologist, and Head of Department at Liverpool Hospital.

“Having the opportunity to see each other during a teaching session, makes it more personal and successful, this is so much more effective than webinars, where those learning cannot be seen.

“We can share materials, such as blood tests or imaging, using the Zoom platform. This saves the patient from coming into see the specialist, and empowers the primary care doctors to become involved in hepatitis C treatment, as well as learn about other elements of liver disease that might assist their practice,” she says.

Project ECHO is run out of Liverpool Hospital in Sydney and is currently help treat patients hundreds of kiometres away in regional NSW, but has the potential to reach anywhere in Australia,. Specialists and staff on Project ECHO volunteer their time, joining Zoom calls between office appointments or outside of office hours. Over the Zoom platform, GPs and specialists discuss individual patient cases to provide better care to patients who otherwise would not seek care or are unable to travel to a major metro hospital for a diagnoses or treatment.

Figures released in July 2018 showed 58,280 people have have begun hepatitis C therapy since DAAs were listed on the PBS in March 2016, but more than 170,000 people are still living with the virus in Australia.

At the time, Professor Greg Dore said the slowing uptake of DAAs showed the need for “continued development of treatment models for marginalised populations, to ensure that everyone in Australia living with hepatitis C can access these treatments.”