Interactive PDSA workbook Pilot version

National lung cancer screening

Fill this in as your practice works through a Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle preparing for the National Lung Cancer Screening Program. Your answers save automatically on this computer. Come back across the data collection periods and pick up where you left off. Written so the practice manager can drive it.

AuthorDr Chris Mitchell AM, FAICD

CPD hoursUp to 9 (EA 3 + RP 3 + MO 3)

TimelineThree data collection periods

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 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 lung cancer screening cycle, run in his practice of 14 GPs from February to May 2025 ahead of the program launch. 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 program specifications, then applying them during the cycle. Chris wants this background on hand in every practice that runs the cycle.

The full background sits in the lung cancer screening guide: the eligibility criteria, pack-year calculation, the four-step program process, results management, costs, the National Cancer Screening Register and smoking cessation support. Read it as a team at a practice meeting and log the time as EA.

Read the background for this cycle

Resources you can share with the team

Department of Health and Aged Care: National Lung Cancer Screening Program eligibility and specifications
National Cancer Screening Register (NCSR): enrolment and reminder support
RACGP smoking cessation guidelines and pharmacotherapy options
Quitline (13 7848) for patient cessation support
Your clinical software help pages on recall and reminder searches
Your PHN, for eligibility-search and referral pathway support

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

Topic: what is this PDSA about?

Example

Preparing the practice for the National Lung Cancer Screening Program: recording smoking histories, finding eligible patients and building a standardised reminder and referral pathway.

The idea you are testing

Example

The program launch in July 2025 created an immediate task: identify eligible patients and set up a referral pathway before program demand arrives. We needed a way to search the database by pack-year history and a recall and reminder system using one consistent name across all GPs. We started in December 2024 and collected data from February to April 2025 across 14 GPs.

Plan: what you will do and what you will count

Example

Three objectives, agreed with GPs and nurses: update smoking history at each consultation, recording pack-years where relevant; search the database to find patients already meeting the eligibility criteria; and set up a standardised recall and reminder in the clinical software using one agreed name, 'National Lung Cancer Screening Program'. Data collected across three periods, with database searches between them. Tracked per GP per period: smoking histories updated, program discussed, eligible patients identified, reminders added, enrolled in program.

Aims: what does success look like, in numbers?

Example

Increase the proportion of patients with an up-to-date smoking history and recorded pack-years. Identify the patients who already meet the eligibility criteria. Add a standardised reminder for every eligible patient, using the single agreed name so the database search stays reliable. Have the referral pathway ready before the program launch.

Meeting and data-collection schedule

Chris's practice ran the activity across three data collection periods, with a planning meeting beforehand and database searches in between. Type your dates in as each one happens. These dates become part of the CPD evidence, so keep them accurate.

Milestone	Date
Planning meeting: agree the approach with GPs and nurses
Data collection period 1
Data collection period 2
Data collection period 3
Database searches for eligible patients
Review meeting: review results with the team
RACGP portal upload (GPs log their hours)

Study

Data collection

Each GP records on a paper tally sheet during their consultations. Enter the totals for each collection period here. Numbers only in the period boxes (48, not '48 patients'). The change column works itself out.

Example

Across 14 GPs over the three collection periods, the practice recorded 602 smoking histories updated, 48 program discussions, 25 eligible patients identified and 13 reminders added. Enrolments were 0, because the program had not yet launched at the time of data collection. Paper tally sheets worked well as consultation reminders to update smoking status, and the reminder list was practical for tracking patients once a reminder was entered.

What you are counting	Period 1	Period 2	Period 3	Change

What we learned

Example

Pack-years is not a concept patients or many clinical staff calculate without a structured prompt, so software support to automate it would lift the identification yield. Eligible patient numbers were lower than we expected: most patients in the age range had insufficient pack-year history or had quit more than ten years ago. A single, consistent reminder name was essential for the database search to work, minor variation means patients are missed. The zero enrolments reflected the pre-launch timing, not patient refusal.

Act

What to keep and make permanent

Example

Pack-year recording at each relevant consultation is now standard practice. Lung cancer screening is on the preventive care checklist. 'National Lung Cancer Screening Program' is the required reminder name across all GPs, with no variation permitted, so the database search stays reliable. Reminders are actioned at each consultation where a patient appears on the reminder list.

CPD hours

Count the hours each GP spent. Reviewing the program specifications and eligibility criteria counts as EA. Reviewing smoking history recording and eligibility identification against targets counts as RP. Tracking the numbers across the collection periods 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 program specifications session
Reviewing performance (RP)		The tally sheets, the eligibility searches and your review of them
Measuring outcomes (MO)		This completed workbook, the three collection periods, meeting dates
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 program specifications 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.

Culturally safe practice Professional and health inequities Ethical practice

Participating doctors

One per line. This is for your records so nobody has to reconstruct it at portal-upload time.