Latest Work and Updates from PEP-Aus
Last updated May 2026
PEP-Aus is underway – here’s where we’re at.
Building a first-of-its-kind program takes time, care, and the right foundations. Since PEP-Aus was established in 2024, the team has been doing exactly that – laying the groundwork for a rigorous, community-led adaptation of the Partnership Enhancement Program for Australia.
Here’s a snapshot of where we’ve been, where we are, and what’s coming next.
What we set out to do
CF care is evolving rapidly, but communication between healthcare teams, patients, and families hasn’t always kept pace. PEP-Aus aims to change that – by systematically adapting the US Partnership Enhancement Program (PEP) for Australian CF clinics, and piloting it here in Western Australia.
The hypothesis: that PEP-Aus will be acceptable and feasible to deliver, will improve clinician confidence and skills, and will enhance the experience of care for people with CF and their families – building the case for nationwide rollout.
How we’re approaching it
PEP-Aus follows a Plan–Do–Study–Act (PDSA) framework, designed to support careful, structured adaptation of a complex program to a new healthcare context.
Plan – Community consultation with healthcare professionals, people with CF (aged 10 and over), and family members, to understand current clinical care experiences and what PEP-Aus needs to address.
Do – A multi-stakeholder co-design process to adapt and develop the PEP-Aus program, followed by a pilot across two WA hospital-based CF clinic teams — representing around 11% of people with CF in Australia.
Study – Qualitative interviews and validated surveys, collected before and after the pilot, to assess whether PEP-Aus is acceptable, feasible, and effective in improving clinician skills and consumer experience.
Act – Results feed directly back into the program, guiding any further adaptations before national rollout.
[Want to know more about our approach? Contact the PEP-Aus team →]
What have we achieved so far?
Phase 1, part 1: Planning
✓ Complete
The first phase focused on building the right foundations before anything else.
What we did
- Established a multidisciplinary project team, including people with CF, a medical education consultant, and allied health, nursing, and medical clinician-researchers.
- Conducted 16 structured stakeholder meetings to date, to set up governance, define roles, and develop the project protocol.
- Achieved patient partner representation in 73% of all meetings to date – a deliberate commitment to co-production from day one.
- Completed PEP training for six team members (50% of the working group), with plans underway to train other working group members and patient partners as PEP-Aus facilitators.
- Secured funding in the form of an Innovations Grant from Cystic Fibrosis Western Australia (CFWA), Conquer CF and The Western Australian Future Health Research and Innovation Fund for a two-year period (2025–2027).
- Submitted an ethics application to the University of Western Australia (outcome pending).
- Developed community consultation phase resources, including participant information sheets, consent forms, and participant recruitment materials in preparation for the next phase of the project.
What we learned
- Embedding patient partners from the very beginning of the project is not only feasible – it’s foundational.
- Early investment in governance and structured stakeholder engagement was essential to progressing a complex intervention adaptation.
These early lessons are already shaping how we approach the phases ahead.
What’s coming next?
Phase 1, part 2: Community Consultation
About to Start/Underway
We are preparing to launch a national consultation with healthcare professionals, people with CF, and family members – gathering real experiences of CF care communication to directly inform the design of PEP-Aus. Findings are anticipated by late 2026 and will inform the co-production and pilot stages of the project.
Phases 2 and 3: Co-Production, Pilot and Evaluation
Coming in late 2026–2027
Using consultation findings, the PEP-Aus team and selected community stakeholders will co-produce the adapted PEP-Aus program together – then pilot it across two CF centres in WA. Study completion is expected by late 2027.
What’s the long-term goal for PEP-Aus? To offer PEP-Aus training to every CF centre in Australia – building a national model of care where communication and partnership are embedded into practice from the first consultation onwards. And we’re well on our way to achieving that.
Publications and conference presentations
The PEP-Aus team is actively sharing this work with the Australian and international CF research community.
Coming soon
Glazner J, Bailey J, Burr C, Douglas T, George C, Hauser J, Mulrennan S, Sappl P, Van Dongen L, Woodward P, and Harrigan M. Co-designing and piloting the Partnership Enhancement Program for Australia. Abstract submitted for oral and poster presentation at the Australasian CF Conference (ACFC), 6–9 August 2026, Geelong, VIC.
Glazner J, Bailey J, Burr C, Douglas T, George C, Hauser J, Mulrennan S, Sappl P, Van Dongen L, Woodward P, and Harrigan M. The work before the work: Coproduced planning and pre-implementation of the Partnership Enhancement Program–Australia (PEP-Aus). Abstract submitted for poster presentation at the North American CF Conference (NACFC), 7–10 October 2026, Atlanta, Georgia, US.
Published
Glazner J, Bailey J, Burr C, Douglas T, George C, Hauser J, Mulrennan S, Woodward P, and Harrigan M. Co-designing and piloting the Partnership Enhancement Program for Australia. Abstract published in Journal of Cystic Fibrosis. 24:S487–S488. Poster 799 presented at the North American CF Conference (NACFC), 22–25 October, Seattle, Washington State, US.
Partner With Us
PEP-Aus draws on lived experience and multidisciplinary, cross-sector collaboration – because to truly empower those impacted by CF, we need to work together.
If you’re a person with CF, a caregiver or a family member, a CF healthcare professional, or if you represent an organisation working in the CF space, we’d love you to be part of this initiative. Check out how you can partner with us and get in touch.
[Explore how you can be the PEP-Aus community →] [Complete the Partner Contact Form →]