May 2022 Edition
  • Pen CS Awards 2022 - Nominations Open Now
  • Heart Week with CAT Plus
  • Heart Health - Planned Care and Opportunistic Intervention
  • Heart Health Check Recipes
  • NEW Topbar Brochure - Request a Demo Now
  • Influenza Vaccinations and CAT Plus
  • Increase Influenza Vaccinations in Consultations
  • Influenza Reports - Plan, Monitor Uptake and Recall
  • Pen CS Learning: Free Webinars
  • Release Updates  
Pen CS Awards 2022 - Nominations Now Open
Recognising data-driven quality improvement in General Practices and Aboriginal Medical Services, through the use of health informatics.

After an exciting and successful launch in 2021, the Pen CS Awards are returning in 2022, providing an opportunity to recognise the continuous hard work and achievements of primary health care in Australia.

Become one of our 8 Award Category Winners. Nominate your practice and submit your application for the categories below.
  1. ‘Closing the Gap’ Award
  2. Quality Improvement Initiative of the Year Award
  3. Data-driven Clinical Excellence Award
  4. Research in General Practice Award
  5. Data Quality Award
  6. Digital Innovation Award
  7. Patient-centred Care Award
  8. CAT Plus Super User Award

Outcomes demonstrated from 2021 nominations included:

  • GP management plans improved from 2.4% to 42.1% at Faulconbridge Health Centre
  • Mandurah and Lakelands Doctors showed a 20.7% improvement in health assessments conducted for Indigenous patients
  • Chatswood Medical and Dental Centre increased the number of health assessments conducted by 74% in 18 months



Winners will be announced at a Gala Award ceremony in September and will receive a $500 cash prize along with their trophy.
Heart Week with Pen CS
Heart Week is 2nd to 8th May 2022. Heart Week aims to raise awareness on the importance of heart health and prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD) by highlighting the importance of delivering heart health checks to at risk Australians.

1.2 million Australian adults are affected by conditions related to heart, stroke or vascular disease and is the cause of 27% of deaths in Australia1.
Heart Wellness & CAT Plus - Planned Care and Opportunistic Intervention
To support practices with their focus on heart health, we have designed a CAT Plus and Heart Wellness flow. The below infographic provides a summary on how you can use CAT Plus to improve patient outcomes when it comes to heart health, including both planned care activities and opportunistic intervention.
Heart Health Check Resources
Pen CS has a range of resources to support your practice identify patients and take measures to increase Heart Health Checks. Resources are available here.

Heart Health Check templates in MyGPMPtool on Topbar. Heart Foundation's Heart Health Check Toolkit, including free Heart Health Check and My Healthy Heart Plan templates, available through MyGPMPtool on Topbar.

Heart Health Checks in MBS Topbar App. The MBS App will notify and show you if a patient in consultation is eligible for a Heart Health Check, based on age, existing CVD conditions and billing history at your practice. The App will show all required activities and their status.

CAT Recipes:
Pen CS developed Heart Health Check recipes with the Heart Foundation as part of their Heart Health Check Toolkit. The below recipes are designed to support planned care by targeting patients most at need.

Upcoming Webinar: Identifying and managing at risk patients of CVD
Date: Thursday, 5th May
Time: 1-1:30pm AEDT
Topbar Clinical Decision Support: self-driven QI
NEW Topbar brochure - available now

Topbar clinical decision support is designed to increase financial performance, productivity and improve patient experience. It helps you build a sustainable practice now and into the future.

Topbar is complimentary for general practices and Aboriginal Medical Services within the catchment area of a PHN with a Pen CS licence. It is safe, secure and adheres to all privacy requirements. For further information the Topbar Data Governance Framework is available on request.

The brochure can also be found at the
Increase Influenza Vaccinations In Your Practice Using CAT Plus
Help prepare your practice for flu season with a range of resources available from CAT Plus.
FLU App on Topbar - Increase influenza Vaccine Uptake in Consultations
The FLU app, now available on Topbar, is designed to help you identify patients while in consultation who are recommended for influenza vaccination but are yet to be vaccinated, including those for whom it is funded via the NIP.
Influenza Vaccination Reports - Plan, Monitor Uptake and Recall for Influenza Vaccinations
There are multiple CAT reports available for your practice to manage and track influenza vaccinations
  • Influenza Vaccinations Report - Overview of the total influenza vaccinations, showing the total number of vaccines received in the current year, previous year and prior to previous year, as well as those patients with nothing recorded.
  • Influenza Vaccination by Patient Group - Track and monitor vaccine uptake matched to NIP recommendations.
  • Influenza Vaccine Timeline Count - Shows amount of vaccines recorded at the practice in a rolling 12 month period. The intent is to inform how many vaccines were used last year so that the correct amount can be ordered for next year.
  • Cohort by MBS fee - View MBS items claimed for patients who have received the influenza vaccine.
Pen CS Learning: Free Webinars
Identifying and Managing at risk patients of CVD
Better identify and manage at risk patients of CVD using the CV Event Risk report in CAT.

Learning Outcomes:
  • Find patients at high risk of cardiovascular disease using CAT
  • Perform health assessments using CAT
  • Identify the percentage of patients with CV event risk in your practice as part of PIP QI
  • Access resources to assist in working with CAT Plus for CV Event Risk

Date: Thursday, 5th May
Time: 1-1:30pm AEDT
CAT for Beginners
This 30 minute session is designed to give new and existing users of CAT an overview of the functionality and showcase examples of the use of the tool in general practice.

Date: Tuesday, 17th May
Time: 1-1:30pm AEDT
More training?
Watch more webinars here.
View CAT recipes here.
Pen CS Release Updates
Topbar
Version 2.18 - April 2022
This release brings the following changes and improvements
  • Include Indigenous patients from age 30 in the Heart Health Check MBS item in the MBS App
  • Enable 'Automatic Start' as a default setting for Topbar
  • Improvement for showing indicated conditions in the Data Cleansing App
  • Improvement for CAT Plus Prompts to cover COVID-19 disease prevalence
  • Enhancement to Topbar logs to keep up to 30 log files
  • Fixed issue with permission manager role not being able to see any Apps
  • Fixed issue with Third Party Apps where a patient's medication records are showing incorrect status
  • Fixed issue with reset button in the Settings page
  • Added additional influenza vaccines under influenza mapping
  • Added new diagnosis items for heart disease and COVID At Risk
  • Added new Health Fund names that were previously not picked by Topbar
  • Added new diagnosis and pathology mappings for Best Practice CIS