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More patients who have undergone hip and knee arthroplasty in Queensland will have access to a digitally enabled post-operative care pathway, which enabled faster recovery times in a recent pilot.
The nurse concierge service, called Panacea Pathway, has been developed through a collaboration between Fortius Institute for Musculoskeletal Research (FIMR), Sunshine Coast Orthopaedic Group, and the University of the Sunshine Coast (UniSC).
HOW IT WORKS
Panacea Pathway delivers virtually-supported post-hip replacement care directly at home. It is managed through proprietary software that generates predictive analytics and AI-driven insights to further assist clinicians in remotely monitoring patient progress and identifying risks early. Developers assembled a comprehensive dataset to train the Panacea AI.
Those AI-generated insights, according to Dr Stephanie Chaousis, head of Digital Innovation at FIMR, are validated through "rigorous testing on datasets the models have not previously been exposed to, complemented by human-in-the-loop training built into our systems to gather in-situ input from clinicians."
Incoming anonymised patient and clinical data are utilised to continuously iterate and improve the software, she told Healthcare IT News in an interview.
The software features APIs, allowing it to integrate seamlessly with patient management systems commonly used in Australian orthopaedic clinics.
Dr Chaousis said they have secured funding to expand the Panacea Pathway. The team, according to her, is now focusing on increasing its capacity and expanding services to "support thousands of patients across Queensland" in the next 12-18 months.
UniSC Professor Nick Ralph also told this publication that they are preparing to train more nurse practitioners to deliver post-op care. "We have plans underway to expand our nurse practitioners and advanced practice training if the demand continues to build."
Panacea Pathway currently onboards five surgeons, with three more joining shortly, Dr Chaousis also shared.
There is also a plan to extend the digitally enabled home-based care pathway to knee replacement procedures.
Additionally, the collaborative is in talks with potential partners – health funds and medical device manufacturers – to explore opportunities for co-delivering the service across Queensland and nationwide.
WHY IT MATTERS
Dr Chaousis claims patients report an "outstanding experience" and participating clinics "saving hundreds of hours per month in administrative time."
To date, Panacea Pathway has facilitated over 3,000 at-home clinical appointments, caring for around 1,000 patients. UniSC's initial analysis of these appointments showed potential for reducing the length of stay from the usual five to seven days to same or next-day discharge in eligible patients.
"This aligns with what we see clinically: these patients are not necessarily unwell; they have a joint problem that is fixed surgically. And they recover faster, safer, and better when supported at home rather than being kept in hospital unnecessarily," said Prof Ralph.
"We are also seeing that early discharge does not hinge solely on clinical indicators, such as baseline fitness or preparedness for surgery. It depends heavily on what patients return home to: the strength of their social support, the quality of the education they receive beforehand, and the level of clinical support available during the first few days."
Significant reductions in patients' travel time and missed appointments were also observed.
CSIRO facilitated the collaboration for Panacea Pathway through the Queensland government-funded Regional University Industry Collaboration program, launched in June 2024. The agency, in a statement, notes the potential of the virtually supported post-op care service to scale across hospital networks and inform clinical guidelines.
However, "we are not planning to expand into other surgical lines yet," said Prof Ralph. "The focus is on solving one of the biggest surgical problems in Australia – hip and knee arthroplasty – and proving the model deeply and properly before taking it anywhere else."
Primarily, he added, the project aims to demonstrate that "same-day, nurse-supported arthroplasty can be cost-effective, safe, and better for patients who do not need prolonged hospital stays."
THE LARGER TREND
St John of God Murdoch Hospital in Perth, Western Australia, has also digitalised its post-surgery care pathway. Powered by Personify Care, the Healthcare at Home platform delivers post-op care with community-based clinical support.
Meanwhile, in South Korea, researchers at Seoul National University Hospital recently introduced an AI model for predicting common post-surgery complications, including acute kidney injury, respiratory failure, and in-hospital death. It is planned to be incorporated into an EMR-linked digital tool.
