Investigators: Jessica Ramsay, Julie Marsh, Tom Snelling
External collaborators: Professor Matthew Bellgard (Queensland University of Technology), Margaret Hellard (Burnet Institute), Wendy Cheng (Department of Health WA), Steve Webb (Monash University), Nikolajs Zeps (Epworth HealthCare), Alisa Pedrana (Burnet Institute), Richard Norman (Curtin University of Technology), Nada Andric (Homeless Healthcare)
New funded treatment options for hepatitis C are highly effective and have few side effects compared to previous interferon therapy. Maximising access to treatment and keeping people on treatment is key to making Australia the first country to eliminate hepatitis C infection. In this project, we are working with primary and tertiary care providers to test novel ways of delivering hepatitis C treatment.
Managing the complications associated with chronic hepatitis C infection is looming as a major future burden to state and Commonwealth health departments as the Australian epidemic matures. Australia has committed large sums on new high-cost antiviral treatments for chronic hepatitis C. Here we propose a paradigm-shifting approach; to simultaneously evaluate and optimise the effective and cost-effective use of these medications through PLATINUM C, a response-adaptive, embedded, multi-arm platform (REMAP) tool.