Enhancing preventative care through My Health for Life (MH4L)
In Australia, 57, 000 heart attacks are recorded every year with one Australian dying from cardiovascular disease (CVD) every 12 minutes. CVD costs the Australian health system an estimated $12.7 billion each year — the second highest expenditure in healthcare. [1]
Assessing your patients’ CVD risk is one step towards helping reduce the incidence of coronary events and strokes within the community.
About the My Health for Life (MH4L) program
My Health for Life (MH4L) is a free lifestyle intervention program designed to help Queenslanders 18 years and older live and age well while also reducing their risk of chronic disease.
Eligible patients who enrol in the MH4L program receive support from health professionals to adopt and sustain healthier lifestyle habits, leading to improved long-term health outcomes.
Brisbane South PHN encourages healthcare providers to refer eligible patients to the My Health for Life (MH4L) program and support self-referral where appropriate. Evidence suggests that participants referred to the program by a health professional are more likely to complete the program.
How to refer your patients into MH4L
Use the Australian cardiovascular disease risk calculator to assess your patient.
Record their smoking status, fasting glucose test result, blood pressure and cholesterol results in their patient file.
Refer eligible patients to MH4L to support them with behaviour interventions.
Please note: Participants can self-refer to the program by completing an online health check or health professionals can refer eligible patients via practice software or the MH4L website.
Helpful tips
Encouraging patients to complete the MH4L online health check while waiting for their appointment creates a valuable starting point for discussions during their consultation.
To streamline the referral process, practitioners can refer patients directly from their practice software while completing clinical notes. The referral form can be accessed via Medical Objects (My Health for Life referral form FM4064000RY).
Benefits for your patients
Beyond the individual patient benefits, integrating preventative care measures like MH4L into routine practice, strengthens overall general practice outcomes. As patients become healthier, general practices can allocate more resources toward prevention rather than reactive treatment, fostering a proactive healthcare environment.
Early intervention is far more effective than managing a coronary event or stroke after it occurs.
Additional support for your practice
Brisbane South PHN has developed a self-paced activity to encourage you and your practice to refer participants to the MH4L program and encourage self-referral (where appropriate). To undertake this activity, please contact the Brisbane South PHN Quality Improvement (QI) Team via support@bsphn.org.au.
For insights on CVD risk data and other clinical information, contact the Digital Health team at ehealth@bsphn.org.au.
Visit Brisbane South Health Pathways for more information on a range of lifestyle modification programs for your patients.
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