Pictured: Jessica Wallis, GP registrar at cohealth in Fitzroy (Image credit: Leigh Henningham)

After graduating, GP registrar Jessica Walls first worked in city hospital emergency departments. When she pivoted from emergency medicine to the much more diverse demands of general practice, during her first primary care placement, she relied on HealthPathways Melbourne for information and diagnostic support. 

Her first placement was at community health service cohealth in Fitzroy. 

“It’s been such a helpful tool for most presentations that I see, especially because there's a lot of things I've seen in the community here that I've never had to manage before in the hospital,’’ she said. 

Matters such as menopause or musculoskeletal issues are rarely reasons for emergency department presentations, but are common in general practice. 

Jessica first heard about HealthPathways Melbourne in medical school. Now that she has full access to it she can’t imagine practising without it. 

“I really like the structure,” she said. “I like how concise it is. I love how I can click on little bits and it drops it down instead of it being a huge dump of information all at once. So you can dive into it in as much depth as you need.’’ 

She didn’t think that the portal would cover so many topics and really appreciates its specificity. 

“I wasn't expecting it to be so helpful in the way that it's like region based, like the resources that I look at on there are exactly this region and exactly what I need,” she said. 

“And ... the different private and public pathways for things is very good as well. I think I'm going to use it a lot when I'm studying for my exams just on how to approach presentations because it's so comprehensive.’’ 

GP registrar Shannen D’Mello, who recently finished a placement at Utopia Refugee and Asylum Seeker Health in Hoppers Crossing and is now with Sage Medical in West Footscray, agrees that HealthPathways Melbourne is a unique resource. 

She said she found it particularly helpful for investigations. 

“It has a really nice flow … it’s tailored for GPs,” she said. “I would advocate for it to be available for all GP registrars.’’ 

In good news, North Western Melbourne and Eastern Melbourne primary health networks expanded access in 2024-25 so that all GP registrars in Victoria will be able to access HealthPathways Melbourne for the duration of their training. 

“The strength of HealthPathways Melbourne is that we have local GPs editing the pathways and ensuring that the referral pathways are local and up to date,” said the platform’s manager, Cherylynn Garner. 

“We’re thrilled that we are now able to offer access to this resource to every GP registrar working in Victoria to support capability building and professional development.’’