Learn

There is a shift in focus in understanding vulnerability from individual traditional risk factors, including age and immunocompromise, to a combined effect of overlapping risk factors, known as ‘risk-stacking’.

By moving beyond traditional age-based paradigms and equipping clinicians to recognise hidden vulnerability, the program aims to strengthen respiratory protection among patients most likely to experience severe outcomes while embedding infection prevention as a routine component of comprehensive chronic disease management. This program is designed to support GPs to recognise opportunities to identify cumulative risk, communicate personalised respiratory risk, and implement evidence-based preventive strategies, including vaccination, before severe illness occurs.

Learning Outcomes

1. Describe the cumulative effect of overlapping risk factors, including comorbid chronic conditions, that compound to amplify the risk for severe respiratory illness
2. Explain the benefits of using risk-stacking as opposed to more traditional age-based assessments in assessing respiratory risk and identifying high-risk groups
3. Assess respiratory risk profiles based on the risk-stacking framework and identify patients at highest risk of severe respiratory infection
4. Apply preventive strategies and interventions, including vaccination, to chronic disease management workflows to integrate respiratory infection prevention into standard care

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