Stella Talic

• Senior Clinical Epidemiologist | Senior Lecturer | Pharmacoepidemiology Research Fellow at Monash University (Australia)

Historical data strongly supported the benefits of beta-blocker therapy following a myocardial infarction (MI) for its efficacy in reducing mortality and morbidity. However, in the context of the progressive evolution of treatment strategies for MI patients, the apparent benefit of beta-blocker therapy is becoming less clear. In particular, its eff...

Background and Objectives Lipid metabolism in older adults is affected by various factors including biological aging, functional decline, reduced physiologic reserve, and nutrient intake. The dysregulation of lipid metabolism could adversely affect brain health. This study investigated the association between year-to-year intraindividual lipid vari...

Introduction Diabetes has been shown to influence the individual’s work productivity in terms of both presenteeism (reduced productivity while at work) and absenteeism (absence from work because of illness). We sought to estimate the potential productivity gains associated with the modification of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in type 2 diabete...

Objective To identify latent clusters among urological patients by examining hospitalisation rate trajectories and their association with risk factors and outcome quality indicators. Materials and methods Victorian Admitted Episodes Dataset, containing information on all hospital admissions in Victoria from 2009 to 2019. The top twenty ICD-10 prim...

Background: Lipid metabolism in older adults is affected by various factors including biological ageing, functional decline, reduced physiological reserve, and nutrient intake. The dysregulation of lipid metabolism has been suggested to adversely impact brain health. This study aims to investigate the association between year-to-year lipid variabil...

Background Global insulin requirements for type 2 diabetes were predicted to increase by more than 20% from 2018 to 2030. However, this did not anticipate the rapid increase in use of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists and sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors that has occurred over recent years. The current study aims to examine changes...

Risk adjustment is often necessary for outcome quality indicators (QIs) to provide fair and accurate feedback to healthcare professionals. However, traditional risk adjustment models are generally oversimplified and not equipped to disentangle complex factors influencing outcomes that are out of a healthcare professional's control. We present VIRGO...

Aims To quantify the productivity burden of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in type 2 diabetes and the potential benefits of improved CVD risk factor control. Methods and results We designed models to quantify the productivity burden (using the productivity-adjusted life-year; PALY) of CVD in Australians with type 2 diabetes aged 40–69 years from 202...

Objectives To investigate the utilization and costs of non‐insulin glucose‐lowering drugs (GLDs) in Australia from 2013 to 2023. Materials and Methods We conducted a retrospective analysis of the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) administrative dataset of 118 727 494 GLD prescriptions. The main outcome measures were the annual number...

Aim To assess the effectiveness of Clinical Decision Support Tools (CDSTs) in enhancing the quality of care outcomes in primary cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention. Methods A systematic review was undertaken in accordance with PRISMA guidelines, and included searches in Ovid Medline, Ovid Embase, CINAHL, and Scopus. Eligible studies were rando...

Background: Outcome quality indicators (QIs) are often used to measure quality of care, particularly when disease-specific QIs are underdeveloped, an example being urological interventions. Without risk-adjustment, outcome QIs cannot be used for feedback and benchmarking. Administrative data captures multiplediseases and risk factors at a populatio...

A foundational component of digital health involves collecting and leveraging electronic health data to improve health and wellbeing. One of the central technologies for collecting these data are electronic health records (EHRs). In this commentary, the authors explore intersection between digital health and data-driven reflective practice that is...

Context In health care, monitoring of quality indicators (QIs) in general urology remains underdeveloped in comparison to other clinical specialties. Objective To identify, synthesise, and appraise QIs that monitor in-hospital care for urology patients. Evidence acquisition This systematic review included peer-reviewed articles identified via Emb...

Objective Attainment of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) therapeutic goals in statin-treated patients remains suboptimal. We quantified the health-economic impact of delayed lipid-lowering intensification from an Australian healthcare and societal perspective. Methods A lifetime Markov cohort model (n = 1,000) estimating the impact on c...

Background: Stringent public health measures have been shown to influence the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 within school environments. We investigated the potential transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in a primary school setting with and without public health measures, using fine-grained physical positioning traces captured before the COVID-19 pandemic. Met...

Providing electronic health data to medical practitioners to reflect on their performance can lead to improved clinical performance and quality of care. Understanding the sensemaking process that is enacted when practitioners are presented with such data is vital to ensure an improvement in performance. Thus, the primary objective of this research...

Background : The health and environmental impacts of bushfires results in substantial economic costs to society. The present analysis sought to estimate the burden of bushfires in Australia over ten years from 2021 to 2030 inclusive. Methods : A dynamic model with yearly cycles was constructed to simulate follow-up of the entire Australian populat...

Background Optimism is a psychosocial asset associated with healthy ageing. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) tremendously impacts people’s lives and health. This study explored what optimism means to older Australians and how the pandemic may have affected their perceptions. Methods Eleven adults (55% female), aged 68-74 years, living in metrop...

Background: The attainment of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) therapeutic goals in real-world settings among patients receiving combination lipid-lowering therapy (LLT, statins plus non-statins) is not well characterised. Objective: To evaluate LDL-C levels and LDL-C goal attainment in patients treated with combination LLT in real-world...

Background Socioeconomic status has an important effect on cardiovascular disease (CVD). Data on the economic implications of CVD by socioeconomic status are needed to inform healthcare planning.Objectives The aim of this study was to project new-onset CVD and related health economic outcomes in Australia by socioeconomic status from 2021 to 2030.M...

Background: There is an increasing amount of electronic data sitting within the health system. These data have untapped potential to improve clinical practice if extracted efficiently and harnessed to change the behavior of health professionals. Furthermore, there is an increasing expectation from the government and peak bodies that both individual...

Objective To review the evidence on the effectiveness of public health measures in reducing the incidence of covid-19, SARS-CoV-2 transmission, and covid-19 mortality. Design Systematic review and meta-analysis. Data sources Medline, Embase, CINAHL, Biosis, Joanna Briggs, Global Health, and World Health Organization COVID-19 database (preprints)....

UNSTRUCTURED A foundational component of Digital Health involves collecting and leveraging electronic health data to improve health and wellbeing. One of the central technologies for collecting these data are Electronic Health Records (EHRs). In this Viewpoint we argue that EHRs are a rich source of information on the performance of health professi...

Objective : Little is known about the attainment of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) targets in patients treated with statins in Australian primary healthcare setting that are at increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Methods : A retrospective cohort study was conducted using data from electronic medical records of patients treated b...

Objectives This study aimed to explore the patterns of switching, adherence and persistence among the Australian general population with newly dispensed statins. Methods A retrospective cohort study was conducted using a random sample of data from the Australian national prescription claims data. Switching, adherence to and persistence with statin...

Background: Lipid-lowering medications comprise standard of care in the prevention of cardiovascular disease. This study examined the trends in the utilisation of statin and non-statin medications in the Australian general population between 2013 and 2019. Methods: Pharmacoepidemiological analyses were performed using pharmacy dispensing data from...

Aims To estimate the health and economic burden of new and established cardiovascular disease from 2020 to 2029 in Australia. Methods and results A two-stage multistate dynamic model was developed to predict the burden of the incident and prevalent cardiovascular disease, for Australians 40–90 years old from 2020 to 2029. The model captured morbid...

BACKGROUND There is an increasing quantity of electronic data sitting within the health system. This data has untapped potential to improve clinical practice if extracted efficiently and harnessed to change the behavior of health professionals. Furthermore, there is an in-creasing expectation by government and peak bodies that both individual healt...

Background: There is an increasing amount of electronic data sitting within the health system. These data have untapped potential to improve clinical practice if extracted efficiently and harnessed to change the behavior of health professionals. Furthermore, there is an increasing expectation from the government and peak bodies that both individua...

Objective: To investigate whether a range of previously identified biopsychosocial risk factors were associated with poorer health-related quality of life after transport-related injuries. Methods: This study involved 1,574 participants who sustained a transport-related injury, claimed compensation through the Victorian compensation scheme (in t...

Background: The aim of this systematic review is to examine patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs), their attributes and application in patients with pancreatic cancer (PC). Method: A systematic literature search was undertaken of articles published to June 2018 to identify PROMs applied in primary studies in PC. Characteristics of the includ...

Objective The aim of the study was to understand the recovery phenomena and to explore participants' perspectives on the biopsychosocial facilitators and barriers affecting their recovery after a minor transport injury. Methods A qualitative method was used involving semi‐structured interviews with 23 participants who sustained a minor transport i...

Introduction Understanding the impact of comorbidity on health outcomes is important given that comorbidities can affect survival, morbidity, service delivery costs and healthcare utilisation. However, little is known about the types of comorbidities affecting specific health outcomes after minor to moderate road trauma. Methods This study involve...

Background Globally, road transport accidents contribute significantly to mortality and burden of disability. Up to 50 million people suffer a transport-related non-fatal injury each year, which often leads to long-term disability. A substantial number of people with minor injuries struggle to recover and little is known about the factors leading t...

Objective: To understand clients’ experiences of the recovery journey through the compensation system and to identify areas and strategies for quality improvement. Methods: A qualitative study of 23 participants with physical or mental disabilities caused by traffic accidents, which occurred, on average, 4 years ago. Purposive sampling of long-term...

Background Globally, road transport accidents contribute significantly to mortality and burden of disability. Up to 50 million people suffer a transport-related non-fatal injury each year, which often leads to long-term disability. A substantial number of people with minor injuries struggle to recover and little is known about the factors leading t...

Final search strategy. (PDF)

Introduction Globally, road transport accidents contribute substantially to the number of deaths and also to the burden of disability. Up to 50 million people suffer a transport-related non-fatal injury each year, which often leads to long-term disability. It has been shown that substantial number of people with minor injuries struggle to recover a...