Pulse+IT Blog

When the virus is over

Written by Kate McDonald on 03 April 2020.

After the virus, are we ever going back? We've been chatting to a number of experts in the field of telehealth this week and the consensus seems to be that now that the dam has broken, it is highly unlikely that we will revert to business as usual after the pandemic is over. Healthcare professionals will see that it is not always necessary for patients to present themselves in person, and we live in hope that funders like Medicare will no longer fear that the system will be rorted and instead embrace the savings and quality of care that can be achieved.

We are closely watching how things are panning out for the healthcare system in locked-down New Zealand, where some general practices simply will not see a patient unless they have been triaged by phone first. Hospitals are doing that for outpatients too, telling patients not to present unless specifically asked to. One DHB has even launched a fundraiser to buy remote monitoring devices for chronically ill patients to try to keep them at home. As Australia's CSIRO showed four years ago, widespread remote monitoring could save billions every year if fully embraced. Now would seem the time to seriously consider it. Things have changed utterly and we don't think they'll ever go back.

FHIR engines roll out for COVID-19

Written by Kate McDonald on 27 March 2020.

The quick response from the health IT sector in Australia and New Zealand to the coronavirus pandemic has been pretty impressive, with software vendors rolling out COVID-19-specific applications at a rate of knots if our technology resources page page is anything to go by.

Vendors are either tailoring new functionality to help with the crisis or in some cases waiving fees to ensure the technology is used when it's needed. An example is online appointment booking service Healthsite, which has very quickly managed to roll out a complete telehealth solution, in association with Tasmanian telehealth provider GP2U, that is integrated with Healthsite's booking system. HealthEngine also provides a similar service and both allow practices to offer private billing as well as bulk billed consultations.

Telehealth in the time of coronavirus

Written by Kate McDonald on 20 March 2020.

Despite the release last Friday by Australia's Department of Health of new item numbers for telehealth, lobbying continued this week by a number of doctors' groups as well as the Consumers Health Forum to allow any patient consultation to be handled by telehealth if clinically appropriate.

There was a slight relaxation of the rules this week to remove the term “usual GP” from the requirements, allowing a doctor from the same practice to see a patient remotely if their usual doctor isn't available. Midwives and obstetricians have also been given item numbers to use telehealth to monitor women remotely, but there is still a great deal of confusion out there.

Go hard, go early

Written by Kate McDonald on 13 March 2020.

As the Australian government ups the national response to the coronavirus outbreak by banning non-essential gatherings of more than 500 people from Monday, the federal Department of Health on Friday released a package of welcome measures to try to help manage the coronavirus outbreak and the massive pressure it is destined to place on our healthcare system.

The department has made available 30-odd new MBS items that will allow GPs, specialists, nurse practitioners, psychologists and occupational therapists to treat patients remotely, either by video or telephone. The items cover not just those diagnosed with COVID-19 or requested to quarantine themselves, but vulnerable groups like the elderly and those with chronic illnesses.

Rivers of Babylon gold

Written by Kate McDonald on 28 February 2020.

This week kicked off with the official go-live of the Australasian Institute of Digital Health and ended with a bit of controversy over SA Health's policy on sharing diagnostic reports and discharge summaries with the My Health Record for people under the age of 18. We congratulate our old HISA and ACHI friends on the successful rebranding to the new AIDH in what looks like a very smooth transition.

Another big story this week was the launch of a new index on the Australian stock exchange that covers the highest performing technology stocks, including six from the healthcare sector. The idea of the index is to draw attention to emerging companies and to widen interest in technology stocks beyond just information technology.

Past time for government to move on telehealth

Written by Kate McDonald on 06 March 2020.

As the coronavirus outbreak continues to escalate amid personal protective equipment shortages and indecorous scuffles over rolls of dunny paper, we find ourselves asking a simple question. If now is not the time for the Australian government to finally drop its intransigence and introduce an MBS item number for GP telehealth, then when is?

Doctors' groups have been calling for the capability for years, particularly for housebound patients and those in residential aged care, but so far GPs have only been allowed to claim for remote consultations under very limited circumstances. This week, Australia's chief medical officer Brendan Murphy finally admitted that the government had listened and was considering the option, telling a Senate estimates hearing on Wednesday that it was also considering the possibility of allowing video consults with elderly patients and those with chronic diseases who would prefer not to venture out at the moment.

When no news is good news

Written by Kate McDonald on 21 February 2020.

This week, we checked in with South Australia to see how it was faring with the roll out of the state's electronic medical record in its largest hospital, the architectural marvel that is the new Royal Adelaide. We hadn't heard much from SA since the independent review into the much maligned EPAS system recommended early last year that the roll-out be paused while the system was optimised, so we thought we'd check on progress.

What we found was newly appointed chief medical information officer Santosh Verghese, who gave us an update on how he was overseeing the change in the roll-out schedule following the recommendation that EPAS be split into an EMR separate from the PAS. He also told us about the change in focus he was taking, moving from IT projects led by SA Health to projects led by clinicians.

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