The TAC Clinical Panel is a group of highly experienced and qualified allied health and medical professionals.

Their role is to conduct clinical reviews and provide best practice, specialist clinical advice to TAC claims managers and healthcare providers, with the shared aim of delivering the best outcomes for TAC clients.

Disciplines of Clinical Advisors

Our Clinical Advisors are practicing clinicians from a range of public and private sector settings across the following disciplines:

  • Medical Practitioners (from the following specialties):
    • Addiction Medicine
    • General Practice
    • Geriatrics
    • Occupational and Environmental Medicine
    • Pain Medicine
    • Psychiatry
    • Rehabilitation Medicine
    • Sports and Exercise Medicine
    • Surgery
  • Audiologists
  • Chiropractors
  • Dentists
  • Neuropsychologists
  • Nurses (Continence and Mental Health)
  • Physiotherapists
  • Occupational Therapists
  • Osteopaths
  • Pharmacists
  • Prosthetists and Orthotists
  • Psychologists
  • Speech Pathologists

The clinical review process

The Clinical Panel supports the TAC’s internal claims management process by providing clinical advice on a referral basis. Clinical advice is focused on ensuring that a client’s treatment is informed by evidence and is clinically justified.

Clinical Advisors seek to engage and support health providers to apply the principles of the Clinical Framework for the Delivery of Health Services.

During a review, a Clinical Advisor may contact a treatment or service provider to discuss aspects of a TAC client’s recovery, including:

  • the effectiveness of treatment or services
  • provision of support in managing complex treatment and recovery barriers
  • return to work capacity and issues surrounding certification
  • clarification of medical issues, injury or prognosis
  • new or ongoing treatment/services requests
  • surgical requests, medical intervention or pharmacotherapy
  • independent medical examination findings or recommendations.

After completing a clinical review, recommendations are provided to the referring claims manager. The claims manager may use these recommendations to inform their decision-making.

Clinical Advisors do not possess any claims decision-making authority.

Clinical Panel support for healthcare providers

The Clinical Panel can provide healthcare providers with free support and advice related to the treatment of TAC clients.

They can work with you to discuss the most effective treatment options and pathways, support you with managing complex clients and address any concerns you have about your patient.

You can also access outcome measures that the Clinical Panel has identified as particularly useful in clinical practice. These tools can assess a person’s current or future health status and demonstrate the effectiveness of treatment.

To contact a member of the TAC Clinical Panel, complete the enquiry form via the link below or email clinical_panel@tac.vic.gov.au

Clinical Panel enquiry form

Paul Coburn: We’re encouraging providers at the moment, if you’ve got a question about a particular patient, please contact the Panel. We love getting enquiries from providers. We love talking to you about ways that you might be able to think about [how] you can manage things better.

Tania Gibbie: I think this resource that the Clinical Panel aims to provide to our providers in the community will be a really rich resource in terms of peer support.

Paul Coburn:  So, by having a panel, a group of people, we’ve got people like psychologists, we’ve got people who specialise in pain, we’ve got people who specialise in hip injuries, in back injuries, in neck injuries, and together, we can get information about how to manage particular client’s problems.

Hugh Steward: We want to actually be providing the treaters with advice. It’s very important that the providers to TAC clients understand that when they get a call from a member of the Medical team in the Clinical Panel, in fact all Clinical Panel members, they are practicing clinicians.

Kate Phillips: We’re really keen to provide education and guidance and mentoring. It’s really to support them to help the clients get what they want to get to.

Tania Gibbie: I’m working with a provider, a psychologist that lives in regional Victoria, and really doesn’t have access to a multi-disciplinary team around her. The client she was working with was really struggling with chronic pain, and some mood issues, some depression as well. And really being able to provide some input for that provider, she was the only person in that town, really being able to help her and upskill her with some chronic pain management and online resources, really had a great impact; one with her, as well as directly with the TAC client.