Private to this computer. Everything you type stays in this browser on this computer. Nothing is sent to Medius Global or any server.
Interactive PDSA workbookPilot version
BMI measurement and intervention
Fill this in as your practice works through a Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle on BMI recording and weight management. Your answers save automatically on this computer. Come back over weeks or months and pick up where you left off. Written so the practice manager can drive it. Nothing here needs clinical training.
AuthorDr Chris Mitchell AM, FAICD
CPD hoursUp to 9 (EA 3 + RP 3 + MO 3)
TimelineOne measurement week per quarter, about six months
Last savednot yet
Before you start: how this workbook saves
Type into the dashed magenta boxes. Each one shows an example answer above it. If you are not sure what to write, say the same kind of thing about your own practice.
Your answers save by themselves as you type, on this computer, in this browser. Close the tab, come back next week, everything will still be here. Check the 'Last saved' date on the cover.
Use one computer for the whole cycle, usually the practice manager's. If someone else needs to add their part, click Save to file, email them the file, and they click Load from file on their computer. Then they save to file and send it back.
Click Save to file at the end of every session. It downloads a small file. Keep it in your practice records folder. It is your backup if this computer is cleaned, replaced or reset.
When the cycle is finished, click Print / Save as PDF and choose 'Save as PDF'. That PDF is what the GPs upload as evidence to the RACGP CPD portal, and what you keep for accreditation.
One caution: clearing the browser's history or cache can delete your saved answers. The Save to file backup protects you.
This workbook is a pilot. If something is confusing or does not work on your computer, tell us via the contact page so we can fix it.
Your progress
0%
0 of 0 fields completed. This is a long activity. Do a section, close the tab, come back next week.
The four stages
PlanPick the problem. Decide what you will count and who does what.
DoRun the change. Hold the meetings. Record the numbers as you go.
StudyCompare the numbers across the weeks. Write down what you noticed.
ActKeep what worked. Drop what did not. Make the good changes permanent.
The shaded boxes show you what to write
Every question carries the answer from Dr Chris Mitchell's own BMI cycle, run in his practice across 2025. You do not need to invent anything: read the example, then write the same kind of answer about your practice. The dashed magenta boxes are yours.
The learning: where your educational hours come from
Three of the nine hours are educational activities (EA). Your team earns them by reading and discussing the weight management evidence, then applying it during the cycle. Chris wants this background on hand in every practice that runs the cycle.
The full background sits in the BMI guide: obesity and its comorbidities, structured lifestyle intervention, dietary approaches, physical activity, medication review, GLP-1 pharmacotherapy (semaglutide and tirzepatide) with current PBS status, other agents and bariatric surgery. Read it as a team at a practice meeting and log the time as EA.
RACGP guidelines for preventive activities in general practice (the red book)
Therapeutic Guidelines: Endocrinology
NSW Government Get Healthy program (free telephone health coaching)
Active and Healthy NSW (find local exercise programs)
Healthdirect service finder (find dietitians and exercise physiologists by area)
My Community Directory (community services and social prescribing)
For the practice manager
Email the guide page to every GP and nurse before the education meeting, so the reading is done by the time everyone sits down. The hours they spend reading and discussing it count toward EA, and this workbook records the rest.
Plan
Topic, idea and plan
Example
Improving BMI recording in adults, and offering intervention to patients with a BMI over 35.
Example
Our BMI recording was below our PHN peers. BMI is the most practical office-based tool to identify patients who are overweight and to monitor them over time. We agreed to focus on measuring BMI in adults and offering appropriate intervention, with a focus on patients with a BMI over 35 and more aggressive intervention for those over 40.
Example
We held practice meetings with GPs and nurses and agreed: each doctor records for one week per quarter using a paper tally sheet. Three things tracked each week: BMIs recorded, weight management discussions held, weight reviews scheduled. Data entry standards: enter figures only, no units (kg or cm) in the data fields, and keep height and weight in their own fields. Run active-patient searches only, excluding inactive and deceased patients. Submit tally sheet results every two weeks for collation. Intervene for all patients with a BMI over 35, with priority follow-up over 40.
Example
Increase the proportion of active adult patients with a recorded BMI across the measurement weeks. Increase the rate of documented weight management discussions for patients with a BMI over 35. Increase the rate of weight reviews scheduled for patients with a BMI over 40. Improve data entry accuracy in the height and weight fields so the clinical software extraction is reliable.
Do
Meeting and measurement schedule
Chris's practice ran one measurement week per quarter, with a planning meeting at each end. Type your dates in as each one happens. These dates become part of the CPD evidence, so keep them accurate.
Milestone
Date
Planning meeting 1: agree the approach with GPs and nurses
Each doctor records on a paper tally sheet during their measurement week. Enter the totals here. Numbers only in the week boxes (34, not '34 patients'). The change column works itself out.
Example
Each GP recorded on a paper tally sheet during consultations, tracking BMIs recorded, weight management discussions and reviews scheduled across each of the three weeks. The tally sheet method gives reliable practice-level data regardless of how good your software extraction is, which mattered here, because ours was not reliable.
What you are counting
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Change
What we learned
Example
We found it harder to shift total BMI recordings than we expected, and with a large database it is hard to move an average. Structuring our practice approach to weight management was rewarding. It is easy to damage the database through poor coding: heights and weights mixed up, extra units typed in beside the figure, a missing digit. We could not extract reliable BMI data from the software because of incorrect data entry, so the tally sheets carried the measurement. Moving the scales closer made them easier to use.
Act
What to keep and make permanent
Example
Quarterly BMI recording weeks are now part of the practice calendar. Patients with a BMI over 40 are flagged for priority follow-up. Data entry standards are embedded in the team protocols: figures only, no units, height and weight in their own fields. We keep sharing the learnings month to month.
CPD hours
Count the hours each GP spent. Education meetings and reviewing the weight management material count as EA. Collating and checking the tally sheets counts as RP. Running the cycle itself counts as MO. The total adds up automatically. When in doubt, the GP lead decides what to claim.
Activity type
Hours
Evidence you already have
Educational activities (EA)
Practice meeting attendance, the weight management education session
Reviewing performance (RP)
The tally sheets and your collation of them
Measuring outcomes (MO)
This completed workbook, meeting dates, outcome numbers
Total
0
GPs submit as a GP-led activity via RACGP myCPD Home
In-house education is the easiest EA time to claim, and the easiest to forget
Reviewing the weight management evidence in the guide as a team, at a practice meeting, is the most direct source of EA hours in this cycle. Log the time while you are there, because it is the part practices most often forget to claim.
Reflections (the GPs write these)
The RACGP asks each GP to reflect on three areas. Hand the computer to the GP lead for this bit, or collect a sentence or two from each GP at the follow-up meeting and type them in. There is no worked example here: these have to be your own.
Participating doctors
One per line. This is for your records so nobody has to reconstruct it at portal-upload time.