Zedmed is set to release version 24 of its clinical and practice management software with a number of new features, including a re-released version of MIMS’ drug-health interaction clinical decision support module and an API that will interface with a new integrated online appointments booking service and a recall service Zedmed has built in association with fellow Melbourne firm HotDoc.
Zedmed CEO Richard Ireson said v24 will be available for general release at the start of next week, with the online appointments system to be released at the end of the month. The new release features a revamped version of the drug-health module that MIMS has worked on with Zedmed, which checks for interactions between a medicine about to be prescribed and a range of health conditions.
The drug-health module provides a rating of the potential severity of the interaction, as well as an indication of the level of documentation that supports the evidence and the references from which this has been derived.
While it is still up to doctors to use their clinical knowledge and expertise to make the best decision, MIMS said the drug-health module allows them to consider relevant information that may otherwise be missed in the mass of data available.
Mr Ireson said MIMS had an existing drug-health module but it did not contain the intuitive alerts functionality that is a feature of the re-release. The rating system for severity is similar to a traffic light indicator of green, amber and red, but the main feature is that it doesn’t require the user to have to remember to switch it on or to look for interactions.
“It works automatically in the background and that’s why MIMS is so excited about it,” Mr Ireson said. “You don’t have to enable it; they just put in the drugs that they want to prescribe and it comes up with the alerts.”
Mr Ireson said the module accesses the historical knowledge of the patient and once any new prescriptions is added, it will analyse it for adverse interactions and sent an alert.
“It’s a great feature,” he said. “It is taken quite a while to get right as there are several different types of improvements around it. The developers have made it more efficient, more intuitive and performance has been improved also.”
The drug-health module is also available in other GP and specialist software packages including Clinic to Cloud, Shexie and Stat.
Mr Ireson said Zedmed was also set to go live with an integrated online appointment booking system at the end of the month as well as a new recall service, both of which it has worked on with HotDoc.
Version 24 will have the API enabled but the service is still going through the final stages of beta testing.
Mr Ireson said the company chose to develop its own system rather than use a third-party product for security and privacy reasons, as well as performance.
“When we developed the API we were really trying to embrace those elements into our product,” he said. “We think that’s really important for our customers to have an enriched experience and relying on third-party providers that mainly use the directory model, accessing the database and potentially using patient information for marketing purposes, is something that we don’t really subscribe to.
“We felt that by developing our own API and collaborating with HotDoc, who share a common philosophy with our own strategic technology roadmap, that we could develop a really ground-breaking product together.
“We like the consumer base products they have and they like the fit that we provide in our practice management and clinician products. It’s a good symbiotic arrangement.”
The new SMART recalls system allows practices to send a secure notification to the patient’s mobile phone rather than having to print out and post a recall letter. The patient is sent a link to their recall information, which they can access after completing a three-point identity check.
The patient can then see their recall information and book an appointment online or on the phone. Zedmed is offering recalls and online appointments separately or as a bundle.
Mr Ireson said this sort of mobile technology is increasingly favoured by consumers and is leading the future development of Zedmed in terms of the interaction between practice, clinician and patient.
“Our aim is to provide efficient, integrated and secure mobile communication,” he said.
“Communication from the patient back to the practice or to the clinician needs to be smarter. These are the types of mobile solutions we are working on with HotDoc and other third-party providers to make the user experience more expeditious and more streamlined. That’s where the real power of efficiencies comes from.”
Zedmed v24 has a number of other features the company is set to reveal, including bulk billing integration with Tyro with batch processing.
It also resolved some time ago the error that caused a Zedmed user to be labelled a ”meat inspector” when writing a shared health summary for the PCEHR.
Mr Ireson said that problem occurred due to a mismatch between some codes delivered by the National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA) and similar codes that were developed in one of the earlier releases of Zedmed. It reappeared due to the use of templates by some users, but has since been fixed, he said.