Define models of care
Develop models of care that support safe, effective and patient-centred provision of genomic care across your hospital.
Genomics can be critical to many different specialties within a hospital: from oncology and paediatrics to cardiology, nephrology, neurology, infectious disease and more.
It will be important to determine a model of care for patients in each relevant specialty. This might involve identifying the right places for genomics within an existing care pathway or creating a new model entirely.
Defining models of care is one of the key actions in the Genomics and Your Hospital toolkit, designed with hospitals in Victoria.
- What is a model of care?
- What should a genomics model of care include?
- Tool: Defining and documenting your genomics model of care
- How was this tool developed?
What is a model of care?
A model of care describes the way health services are designed for patients as they progress through a specific health condition.
It includes:
- The processes of care
- An assessment of the resources required and the roles and responsibilities of everyone involved in the care pathway.
- An assessment of overarching considerations for the care pathway.
A model of care should:
- Be evidence based
- Be patient-centric, including consideration of specialty and priority populations
- Be developed in collaboration with clinicians, consumers and other healthcare partners
- Have robust outcome measures and evaluation processes
- Have considered costing, funding and revenue
What should a genomics model of care include?
Genomics has uncommon features that should be considered within your model of care. For example, you may need to consider:
- How patients will access genomic testing
- How and when patients are referred to specialist genetics service or expert centre
- What types of genomic tests will be provided
- How test ordering is managed and funded
- How test results are interpreted, and which specialists are involved
- How results are communicated to patients
- How results are used in care
- What follow-up may be needed for patients, including connections to support groups
- How the family implications of a test result will be managed
Your genomics leadership group can help identify the critical considerations and steps in your model of care.
Tool: Defining and documenting your genomics model of care
This guide will help you define and document your genomics model(s) of care, with key questions for you to consider at each step. This tool is meant to be a starting point for discussion, so please adapt it to suit your health service.
How was this tool developed?
This tool was developed as part of the Genomics and Your Hospital toolkit by the Melbourne Genomics Health Alliance, with ongoing input from Victorian healthcare leaders.
A review of published scholarly literature and existing guidelines on the conceptualisation, design, and implementation of models of care identified the need to develop a resource specifically for developing models of genomic care.
Through an iterative, co-design approach, this tool was developed to address a lack of visibility about and unwarranted inconsistencies in the models of care in genomic medicine. The tool was drafted and reviewed with members from the Melbourne Genomics Hospital Implementation Reference Group.
© MGHA 2024. These materials were prepared by the Melbourne Genomics Health Alliance (MGHA) and are protected by copyright. We would like to acknowledge the expertise and knowledge of those who have contributed to the development of these materials. Reproduction or distribution of these materials without this notice is prohibited.