Customer Focus

Project Examples

Coral and Tom are shown here lobbying local MP Danny O’Brien

Advanced Care Planning

Talking about death – is part of life It happens to us all, eventually. The trouble is that we generally don’t discuss and prepare for it as well as we might.

A research project explored the considerations & decision-making that might occur as families, carers and individuals think about and plan for death.

 The project was sponsored by the Gippsland Primary Health Network. As Practice Support Officer Michelle Crosby said, “We need to understand how we can better support our communities address the issues surrounding death. We know the key is ‘having the conversation’ and we are looking for ways to better initiate these conversations by listening to doctors, nurses and citizens”.

It is sometimes hard to have these conversations in advance of the time of need. But by having these conversations with health professionals, family and friends early, it can help support a better death. Often, people plan about what will happen after they die and when they are living well. They can tend to ignore the time in between, particularly as they approach death. For example, most people say they would like to die at home but most people end up dying in a hospital. The reasons for this are complex but it can happen because the wishes of the dying person are not known and communicated well enough in advance. This approach to planning for end of life is known as Advance Care Planning.

Patient experience

Tom started driving patient centricity last century – and believes we still have a long way to go. Businesses lose their way but most health systems were set up for the convenience of clinicians and so addressing this imbalance is a challenge.


Tom has monitored government hospital patient experience, palliative care, primary care, specialist care, self-care and conducted 100’s of specific research projects into health limiting conditions.

Medical technology

Many projects that include monitoring industry performance, orthopaedics, sedation, sinuplasty, ophthalmology, general surgical, surgical training, procurement and relationship management.

The research has been global with specific qualitative work conducted by Tom in Ireland, UK, Germany, Japan, Canada, USA, Philippines, Korea, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia.

Men’s Sheds

A qualitative and quantitative research
project for beyond blue that demonstrated that Men’s Sheds do provide positive health outcome improvements in depression and anxiety.