Background
Introduction
Geographic GP datasets: what are we measuring?
Geographic GP and physician datasets in the USA, Canada and Europe
Geographic GP and physician datasets in Australia in the context of Australia’s healthcare system
Research on geographic GP and physician datasets
Aims and objectives
Methods
General description of relevant datasets
Dataset source | Geographic resolution | Coverage | Pros | Cons | Cost/Free | Source of information | Year of data used in analyses |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Surveys: Australian Health and Welfare (AIHW) Medical Workforce Survey | SLA (Statistical Local Area). SLA level data are available through special request only and at cost. | FTE GPs GP Headcounts | Extensive yearly survey of medical workforce. Sampling frame is all registered physicians and approximately 58,000 physicians answered the survey in 2007. | In SLA level data Estimates are missing/suppressed, either from non-response or privacy concerns from a small number of responses from large sections of rural Australia. | Cost | Survey (70% response rate in 2007) | 2007 |
Primary Health Care Research and Information Service (PHCRIS) Annual Survey of Divisions (ASD) | DGP (Divisions of General Practice) | FWE GPs GP Headcounts | The survey had a 100% response rate from the 111 DGPs it was sent to in 2010. | DGPs occupy large geographies, thus requiring additional datasets to analyze within DGP variation. | Free | Survey (100% response rate from divisions in 2010). GP FWE Data is from DoHA | 2010 |
Mailing List: Australasian Medical Publishing Company (AMPCo) “doctor Lists” | Individual points/ addresses/coordinates | Headcounts Full time or Part time | Excellent geographic resolution | Workloads of part time GPs are not known | Cost | Data acquisition method is not published. | 2010 |
Indirectly Derived: DoHA/Social Atlas of Australia from Public Health Information Development Unit (PHIDU) | SLA | Number of services provided by GPs | Data provided by data custodian, thus valid and of good quality. | FWE has to be indirectly derived by diving the total number of services provided with the average number of services provided in a given year. | Free | Data obtained by PHIDU from DoHA | 2009 |
Specific description of datasets
Mailing list data
Survey data
Indirectly derived FWE data
Baseline custodian data for comparison
Analysis
Attribute correlated | |||
---|---|---|---|
Headcounts | FWE/FTE | ||
Geographic Scale of correlation
| |||
SLA
| AMPCo doctor list, | AIHW survey, | |
AIHW survey | AMPCo doctor list, | ||
Indirectly derived FWE | |||
DGP
| AMPco doctor list, | AIHW survey, | |
AIHW survey, | AMPco doctor list, | ||
PHCRIS survey | Indirectly derived FWE | ||
PHCIRS survey |
Results
Comparing GP headcounts by rurality and states
Overall | Metro | Inner regional | Outer regional | Remote | Very remote | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Headcount | FTE/FWE | Headcount | FTE/FWE | Headcount | FTE/FWE | Headcount | FTE/FWE | Headcount | FTE/FWE | Headcount | FTE/FWE | |
AMPCo doctor list (FTE) | ||||||||||||
Summed total
| 23,118 | 21,518 | 17,245 | 15,959 | 3,984 | 3,752 | 1,633 | 1,558 | 205 | 199 | 51 | 51 |
% Difference from DoHA
| −13.13 | 30.55 | −5.14 | 36.69 | −22.41 | 17.36 | −30.77 | 16.88 | −60.95 | 1.53 | −87.68 | −37.65 |
AIHW survey (Overall from registers, FWE from survey) | ||||||||||||
Summed total
| 21,817 | 18,623 | 16,538 | 13,813 | 3,711 | 3,306 | 1,321 | 1,259 | 192 | 191 | 55 | 55 |
% Difference from DoHA
| −18.02 | 12.99 | −9.03 | 18.31 | −27.73 | 3.41 | −44.00 | −5.57 | −63.42 | −2.55 | −86.71 | −31.62 |
Indirectly derived FWE | ||||||||||||
Summed total
| 19,688 | 14,593 | 3,426 | 1,443 | 162 | 63 | ||||||
% Difference from DoHA
| −0.21 | 2.42 | −6.56 | −5.36 | −22.10 | −21.67 | ||||||
PHCRIS (Headcount from survey, FWE from DoHA) | ||||||||||||
Summed total
| 24,688 | 20,049 | ||||||||||
% Difference from DoHA
| −7.23 | −0.02 | ||||||||||
DoHA | 26,613 | 16,482 FTE | 18,180 | 11,675 FTE | 5,135 | 3,197 FTE | 2,359 | 1,333 FTE | 525 | 196 FTE | 414 | 81 FTE |
19,729 FWE | 14,248 FWE | 3,667 FWE | 1,525 FWE | 208 FWE | 81 FWE |
Correlations between counts of GPs
AMPCo doctor list FTE
| ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
AMPCo doctor list and AIHW survey
|
AIHW survey FTE
|
Metro
|
Inner Regional
|
Outer Regional
|
Remote
|
Very Remote
|
Overall
| |
Metro
| 0.97(0.95,0.99) | |||||||
Inner Regional
| 0.93(0.81,0.99) | |||||||
Outer Regional
| 0.95(0.79,0.98) | |||||||
Remote
| 0.83(0.55,0.99) | |||||||
Very Remote
| 0.60(−0.89,1.00) | |||||||
Overall
| 0.98 (0.96,0.99) | |||||||
Indirectly derived FWE and AIHW survey
|
AIHW survey FTE
|
Indirectly derived FWE
| ||||||
Metro
|
Inner Regional
|
Outer Regional
|
Remote
|
Very Remote
|
Overall
| |||
Metro
| 0.87(0.81,0.93) | |||||||
Inner Regional
| 0.88(0.77,0.97) | |||||||
Outer Regional
| 0.91(0.64,0.97) | |||||||
Remote
| 0.82(0.56,0.99) | |||||||
Very Remote
| 0.78(0.26,1.00) | |||||||
Overall
| 0.90 (0.86,0.94) | |||||||
AMPCo doctor list and Indirectly derived FWE
|
Indirectly derived FWE
|
AMPCo doctor list FTE
| ||||||
Metro
|
Inner Regional
|
Outer Regional
|
Remote
|
Very Remote
|
Overall
| |||
Metro
| 0.82(0.74,0.90) | |||||||
Inner Regional
| 0.95(0.93,0.98) | |||||||
Outer Regional
| 0.97(0.84,0.99) | |||||||
Remote
| 0.97(0.80,1.00) | |||||||
Very Remote
| 0.47(−0.80,0.98) | |||||||
Overall
| 0.87(0.81,0.92) |
AMPCo doctor list FTE
| ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
AMPCo doctor list and AIHW workforce survey
|
AIHW survey FTE
|
Metro
|
Inner Regional
|
Outer Regional
|
Remote
|
Very Remote
|
Overall
| |
Metro
| 0.85(0.81,0.89) | |||||||
Inner Regional
| 0.87(0.78,0.94) | |||||||
Outer Regional
| 0.74(0.64,0.82) | |||||||
Remote
| 0.58(0.38,0.93) | |||||||
Very Remote
| 0.52(−0.42,0.91) | |||||||
Overall
| 0.88 (0.85,0.91) | |||||||
Indirectly and AIHW workforce survey
|
AIHW survey FTE
|
Indirectly derived FWE
| ||||||
Metro
|
Inner Regional
|
Outer Regional
|
Remote
|
Very Remote
|
Overall
| |||
Metro
| 0.83(0.79,0.88) | |||||||
Inner Regional
| 0.79(0.70,0.89) | |||||||
Outer Regional
| 0.74(0.64,0.82) | |||||||
Remote
| 0.63(0.49,0.89) | |||||||
Very Remote
| 0.38(−0.64,0.83) | |||||||
Overall
| 0.84 (0.81,0.88) | |||||||
AMPCo doctor list and Indirectly derived FWE
|
Indirectly derived FWE
|
AMPCo doctor list FTE
| ||||||
Metro
|
Inner Regional
|
Outer Regional
|
Remote
|
Very Remote
|
Overall
| |||
Metro
| 0.74(0.69,0.78) | |||||||
Inner Regional
| 0.86(0.80,0.93) | |||||||
Outer Regional
| 0.86(0.77,0.92) | |||||||
Remote
| 0.86(0.52,0.97) | |||||||
Very Remote
| 0.35(−0.48,0.96) | |||||||
Overall
| 0.77 (0.74,0.81) |
AMPCo doctor list headcount
| ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
AMPCo doctor list and AIHW survey at DGP scale
|
AIHW survey headcount
|
Metro
|
Inner Regional
|
Outer Regional
|
Remote
|
Very Remote
|
Overall
| |
Metro
| 0.98(0.96,0.99) | |||||||
Inner Regional
| 0.94(0.80,0.99) | |||||||
Outer Regional
| 0.97(0.82,0.99) | |||||||
Remote
| 0.81(0.52,0.99) | |||||||
Very Remote
| 0.38(−0.90,1.00) | |||||||
Overall
| 0.98 (0.95,0.99) | |||||||
AMPCo doctor list and AIHW survey at SLA scale
|
AIHW survey headcount
|
AMPCo doctor list headcount
| ||||||
Metro
|
Inner Regional
|
Outer Regional
|
Remote
|
Very Remote
|
Overall
| |||
Metro
| 0.85(0.81,0.90) | |||||||
Inner Regional
| 0.89(0.79,0.95) | |||||||
Outer Regional
| 0.74(0.61,0.83) | |||||||
Remote
| 0.57(−0.16,0.76) | |||||||
Very Remote
| 0.30(−0.72,0.89) | |||||||
Overall
| 0.87 (0.84,0.90) |