GPs can now add a new ‘360-degree’ tool to support patients experiencing eating disorders to their toolbox.\
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The InsideOut Institute recently launched its GP Hub and Practice Management Toolkit, funded by the Department of Health and Aged Care. The release comes following reports that GPs need more support in this area, and are ‘often ill-equipped’ to recognise the signs of eating disorders.\
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The GP Hub clinical decision support tool is designed to help address those gaps in care through early detection, aiding diagnosis and informing treatment to match stages of illness and individual need.\
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The comprehensive, evidence-based tool also supports GPs to construct appropriate referral pathways and care plans.\
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Dr Karen Spielman is a Sydney GP with a special interest in eating disorders and a consultant at the InsideOut Institute. \
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She told newsGP the new tool is a one-stop-shop created by GPs, for GPs.\
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‘We’re calling it a 360-degree point-of-care tool,’ Dr Spielman said.\
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‘It’s basically, absolutely everything that you might need at any stage of the patient and doctor journey.\
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‘If you suspect somebody might have an eating disorder, or comes in with an eating disorder, or a family member … at any stage from prevention right through to rehabilitation, you’ve got a whole suite of tools that can help, either in the moment or to go back and look up some resources.’\
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With more than 800 GPs already enrolled, the GP Hub has recently been approved by the RACGP as an ‘Accepted clinical resource’ and joins a resource library for healthcare professionals, including the Essentials training package.\
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It was co-designed with lived experience people, GPs and other healthcare professionals, and includes a suite of digital tools and information designed to streamline workflow and support diagnosis, assessment and treatment of eating disorders.\
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A GP Advisory Group tested the tool using a range of clinical scenarios to ensure the diagnostic algorithms are accurate. Now, an Advisory Committee for the implementation and the rollout of the new resource has also been established, which Dr Cathy Andronis, Chair of RACGP Specific Interests Psychological Medicine, sits on.\
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‘My role as RACGP representative on the InsideOut GP Hub Advisory Committee is to ensure the needs of all GPs are represented,’ Dr Andronis told newsGP.\
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‘Designing useful GP supports is looking at clinical presentations through a generalist and holistic lens that focuses quickly but expertly on what matters to the patient, while guiding the doctor through an evidence-based model of management.’\
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Dr Andronis says bridging this gap between the patient’s and GP’s agenda is often challenging, especially for time-poor GPs, but the GP Hub ‘proficiently’ navigates this issue.\
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‘The Advisory Committee is targeted towards making this resource easily accessible to the average GP working within time constraints,’ she said.\
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With many people with lived experience reporting that GPs lack understanding that their condition is not serious enough, referral to specialist services and evidence-based treatment are often delayed as a result.\
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The GP Hub and Practice Manager Toolkit is a whole-of-practice digital support tool, which also includes:

• links to InsideOut’s Treatment Services Database and Treatment Team Builder, facilitating appropriate referrals
• information about complex care support and escalation guidelines
• an option to link patients with InsideOut’s eTherapy platform for immediately accessible self-help treatment.

The Practice Management Toolkit supports practices to embed the Hub’s tools into existing practice software. Dr Speilman says practice managers can upload all care plan templates as well as information sheets, fact sheets, and the resources for each area to determine the dietitians, psychologists and psychiatrists in each area.\
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‘So you can get the support wherever you are, regionally or in the city, you can look up the team members in your area you can work with, and then you’ve got the care plans in order to communicate, because they can be confusing,’ she said.\
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‘There’s also patient information, for example, a mum has come in worried their child is at risk of developing an eating disorder, so there’s a guide on the kinds of language to encourage the family to use around body neutrality, or information on what the risk factors are for developing an eating disorder.’\
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For GPs who think a patient may have an eating disorder, it includes comprehensive information on how to screen, what to do in a medical assessment, and if a patient comes in with an emergency, what advice to give if they need to be sent to hospital, such as referral and admission guidance.\
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As rates of eating disorders rise across Australia, with many going undetected at a crucial time, Dr Andronis said the GP Hub is a valuable resource which will help drive early intervention and improve delivery of appropriate care.\
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‘Eating disorders are common and the number of different types of eating disorders and effective evidence-based treatment options have multiplied, as has the information available on social media,’ she said.\
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‘The GP Hub has been built with expert GP input that both guides and teaches the doctor about disordered eating while staying clinically relevant to the presenting patient in the consultation room.  \
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‘It’s a win-win for both GP and patient.’