General description of the articles included in the qualitative meta-synthesis
| Study | Description of participants | Service explored/assessed topic | Method | |||
| (n) | Pt | N | GP | |||
| McMillan et al 33 | Patients with a chronic condition, diverse culture and socioeconomic background from three geographical locations in Queensland (Logan-Beaudesert and Mount Isa), New South Wales (Northern Rivers) and Western Australia (Greater Perth) (n=89) | X | Disease management and medication management (ie, chronic management service) | SSI | ||
| Rieck and Pettigrew34 | GPs working in practices in low, medium or high socioeconomic status suburbs across Perth (Western Australia) (n=22) | X | Disease management (ie, chronic disease management service) and interprofessional collaboration | SSI | ||
| Barbara and Krass35 | Patients who are immigrants of Maltese ethnicity, residing in Australia, with a confirmed diagnosis of T2DM, >50 years of age, able to adequately communicate verbally in English or Maltese, located in Sydney (n=24) | X | Disease management and medication management (ie, diabetes self-management service) | SSI | ||
| Bereznicki et al 36 | Patients (n=6) and GPs (n=10) previously involved in a community pharmacy-based asthma intervention in Tasmania | X | X | Disease management (ie, asthma management service) | SSI | |
| Cvetkovski et al 17 | Patients >18 years of age with a diagnosis of asthma (n=10) and GPs in small rural centres (n=8) from different locations based on the Australian Standard Geographical Classification | X | X | Disease management (ie, asthma management service) | SSI | |
| Saba et al 67 | Patients >18 years of age, English speaking, current smoker, medical diagnosis of asthma and/or any other condition alongside asthma in Sydney Central Business District and South Western suburbs (n=24) | X | Disease management (ie, smoking cessation service for patients with asthma) | SSI | ||
| Shoukry et al 45 | Patients who had bought/hired/trialled a continuous positive airway pressure machine (or accessories) through their pharmacy in the previous 12 months in the greater Sydney region (n=20) | X | Disease management (ie, obstructive sleep apnoea services) | SSI | ||
| Um et al 37 | GPs with large expertise in weight management (n=3) | X | Disease management (ie, weight management service) | SSI | ||
| Snell and White44 | Patients >18 years of age, English speaking, enrolled in a specific weight loss programme for >2 weeks from different urban and regional suburbs in Sydney (n=20) | X | Disease management (ie, weight management service) | SSI | ||
| Maher et al 38 | Women who have at least one child <5 years old are able to read and speak English from different locations based on Australian Standard Geographical Classification (n=28) | X | Condition management (ie, maternal nutrition service) | SSI | ||
| Mey et al 46 | Patients living independently, experiencing a mild to moderate mental illness (and carers) in Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia (n=74*) | X | Medication management (ie, service for patients with mental health conditions) | FG/SSI | ||
| Hattingh et al 39 | Patients with a mental health condition (and carers) (n=74*) and healthcare professionals (n=13) located in urban, regional, rural and remote regions in Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia | X | Disease management (ie, service for patients with mental health conditions) | FG/SSI | ||
| Clark et al 52 | Refugee women (n=38)**† | X | Medication management (ie, primary healthcare service) | FG | ||
| O’Connor et al 68 | Palliative care nurses working in community-based palliative care, residential aged care adopting a palliative approach or working in a dedicated hospice or palliative care unit in a hospital (n=44) and practising GPs (n=10) in Australian metropolitan and regional areas | X | X | Disease management and medication management (ie, services to community-based palliative care patients) | FG/SSI | |
| Carter et al 51 | Patients who are English, Mandarin or Arabic speaking, who had received a home medicines review service within the last 6 months or had not received such a service but were eligible for it in metropolitan or rural areas in Australia (n=80) | X | Medication management (ie, home medicines review) | FG | ||
| Lee et al 40 | Patients living in retirement villages in Victoria who were using prescribed medicines (n=25); GPs (n=9) and nurses (n=1) with experience with home medicines review services and/or providing care to retirement village residents. | X | X | X | Medication management (ie, home medicines review) | FG/SSI |
| White and Klinner47 | Patients of Chinese or Vietnamese origin who had never received a home medicines review service but were eligible for it in two suburban areas in Sydney (n=17) | X | Medication management (ie, home medicines review) | FG | ||
| White et al 18 | Patients who had received a home medicines review service in the past 6 months or who had never received such a service but were eligible for it in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia (n=77) | X | Medication management (ie, home medicines review) | FG | ||
| Dhillon et al 20 | GPs practising in metropolitan medical centres in Perth (n=24) | X | Medication management (ie, home medicines review) | SSI | ||
| Swain and Barclay69 | Patients taking multiple medications, with a reasonable understanding of English and linked to an Aboriginal Health Service in urban, regional, rural and remote settings in Queensland, Northern Territory, South Australia, New South Wales and Victoria (n=101) | X | Medication management (ie, service aimed at enhance the quality use of medicines) | FG | ||
| Du Pasquier and Aslani70 | Patients >18 years of age, fluent in English, taking one prescription medication on a daily basis in Sydney (n=22) | X | Medication management (ie, adherence support service) | SSI | ||
| Gilmartin et al 19 | Nurses who worked at residential aged care facilities and used dose administration aids in Victoria (n=5) | X | Medication management (ie, dose administration aids service) | FG | ||
| Bui et al 41 | Nurses working in public, opioid substitution therapy clinics in New South Wales (n=9) | X | Disease management (ie, opioid substitution therapy services) | SSI | ||
| Van et al 42 | GPs practising in private/medical/specialised settings in rural/suburb/city areas in Sydney (n=23) | X | Interprofessional collaboration in the context of disease management and medication management (ie, professional pharmacy services) | SSI | ||
| Van et al 48 | GPs in metropolitan and rural areas in New South Wales (n=15)† | X | Interprofessional collaboration in the context of a disease management (ie, diabetes medication assistance service) and medication management (ie, home medicines review service) | SSI | ||
| Dey et al 50 | GPs working in Western Sydney (n=7)† | X | Interprofessional collaboration in the context of disease management (ie, asthma management services) | SSI | ||
| Chong et al 53 | GPs (n=4) and nurses (n=7) working with mental health consumers in a healthcare setting in New South Wales | X | X | Interprofessional collaboration in the context of disease management (ie, mental health services) | SSI | |
| Cheong et al 49 | Patients >18 years of age, English speaking, with a diagnosis of asthma in inner-west Sydney metropolitan region (n=16) | X | Interprofessional collaboration in the context of disease management (ie, asthma management service) | SSI | ||
| Bajramovic et al 43 | Patients >18 years of age, taking at least one medication (n=7) and GPs (n=10) in Brisbane | X | X | Medication management (ie, concordance based healthcare services) | FG/SSI | |
*Total number of patients and carers. Opinions of carers were clearly differentiated in the article and excluded from this review.
†No further description of participants was provided in the paper.
FG, focus group; GP, general practitioner; N, nurse; Pt, patient; SSI, semistructured interview; T2DM, type 2 diabetes mellitus.