Models of health care for people with complex chronic disease may be enhanced by greater focus on patients' daily activities during assessment and intervention delivery. The range of significant predictors highlights the importance of an interdisciplinary team for managing complex chronic disease or targeted intervention strategies.

Faced with significant health and workforce challenges in the region, the Central Queensland Health Service District (CQHSD) commenced a student-assisted clinical service. The Capricornia Allied Health Partnership (CAHP) is an interprofessional clinical placement program in which pre-entry students from exercise physiology, nutrition and dietetics, occupational therapy, pharmacy, podiatry and social work are embedded in a collaborative chronic disease service delivery model. The model coordinates multiple student clinical placements to: address service delivery gaps for previously underserved people with chronic disease in need of early intervention and management; provide an attractive clinical placement opportunity for students that will potentially lead to future recruitment success, and demonstrate leadership in developing future health workforce trainees to attain appropriate levels of interprofessional capacity. The CAHP clinic commenced student placements and client services in February 2010. This report provides early evaluative information regarding student experiences included self-reported changes in practice.

Faced with significant health and workforce challenges, the Central Queensland Hospital and Health Service commenced an innovative student-assisted clinical model of care. The Capricornia Allied Health Partnership (CAHP) in 2010. The clinic supports pre-entry allied health student clinical placements to: (1) address service delivery gaps for previously underserved people with chronic disease; (2) facilitate hospital avoidance and early discharge from the local hospital; (3) provide an attractive clinical placement opportunity for allied health students that will potentially lead to future recruitment success, and (4) demonstrate leadership in developing interprofessional skills of future health workforce trainees. This case study details the conceptual background of the initial model, the key features of the clinical placement and service delivery model, and discusses the current and future evaluation of the clinic.

Objective This study examined the relationship between the number of comorbidities and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and between select physical conditions and HRQoL. Differences in HRQoL in comparison to a normative sample were also examined. Method A cross-sectional study among people with multimorbidity ( n = 401) attending a community-based, interdisciplinary health clinic was conducted. HRQoL was measured using the eight dimensions of the SF-36. Multiple linear regression and t-tests were used to analyse the data. Results A downward trend in HRQoL continued from 2 to 14 concurrent comorbidities. Patients with a higher number of comorbidities reported greater deficits in HRQoL, when age, gender, education and perceived social support were controlled for (beta = -0.11 to -0.31). The impact of the number of comorbidities was greatest for the bodily pain dimension of the SF-36 (beta = -0.31). Deficits were greatest for people with gastrointestinal conditions and back pain or sciatica. Moderate to large deficits in HRQoL compared to a normative population were found (Cohen's d = 0.54-1.16). Discussion Understanding associations between the number and type of physical comorbidities and HRQoL may assist clinical services to design broad but targeted interventions to optimize HRQoL in this group of people.

The CAHP clinic offers a unique student-assisted service model for interprofessional management of patients who are socioeconomically disadvantaged, have multimorbid chronic disease and live in regional areas. The description of baseline data in this paper is important to refine clinic services, to guide other chronic disease clinics and to inform future research study designs.