Seminar on secure messaging for allied health and specialists

Written by Kate McDonald on 28 January 2015.

The Victorian branch of the Australian Association of Practice Management (AAPM) is organising a seminar next month for specialist and allied health practices on using secure messaging services to connect with GPs.

The seminar will be held in Melbourne and broadcast live by video link to sites in Geelong, Warrnambool, Ballarat and Gippsland.

AAPM Victoria state president Brett McPherson said the aim of the seminar was to provide all potential users with practical information on how secure message delivery (SMD) can be set up in a practice and be used for better patient and business outcomes.

Mr McPherson said it would help practices gain an understanding of secure messaging and why it is important, how secure messaging works and how it provides the foundation for further eHealth initiatives.

Presenters will include representatives from the National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA), secure messaging service provider Argus (HealthConnex), AAPM and practices using SMD.

Expert representatives will then take part in a panel discussion and a Q&A session. Delegates attending the regional sites will also be able to participate.

The main session will be hosted from the Telstra building on Exhibition St in Melbourne, with other sites including Berwick, Ballarat and Traralgon.

The event will be held from 1pm to 4pm on Friday, February 27. See www.aapm.org.au/Education-Events/Events-Calendar for more information.

Posted in Australian eHealth

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Comments

# Carolyn Ingram 2015-01-29 10:24

This is a fabulous initiative from AAPM. Specialist and Allied Health Practice Managers would truly benefit from a greater understanding of secure message delivery and e-health. Congratulations Brett and the AAPM Victorian committee.

# David kay 2015-01-29 11:24

We scan in excess of 70 letters from Specialists, Allied Hlth, etc a day and then have to allocate them to the GPs via the clinical software. A major headache for GP Practices. It is an unnecessary cost to practices in this age of technology and I think govt should have spent money on this ahead of the EHealth record fiasco. Make it a requirement of Hospitals, Specialist, etc accreditation to force the take up of secure messaging. There are also to many service providers in the market. What has happened with the HlthLink and Argus polarity to deliver emessage regardless of service provider?

# Keith Heale 2015-01-29 13:14

Until the dozen or so incompatible messaging platforms can interwork seamlessly with each other it is a waste of breath trying to promote Secure Messaging. I work in general practice, and our experience has been similar to that of David Kay (comment #2). If there's been a breakthrough in interworking, I'm surprised that the vendors haven't been shouting from the rooftops about it - it's been a long time coming! Last time I checked, one still had to do manual directory updates to synchronize the clinical software with the messaging software, and any interworking between practices with Medical Objects, Healthlink, Argus etc etc still eludes us.

# Shirley Marendaz 2015-01-29 14:15

Good initiative from AAPM. We are an anaesthetic group and receive our patient info via fax, email, hand, and some ReferralNet. We were about to sign up with ReferralNet, but need to be sure the expense would be justified and solve our attempts to do secure messaging. Maybe not. I will be interested to see this AAPM seminar. Where is the Geelong site for the videolink?

# Brett McPherson 2015-01-29 16:31

All valid comments, but why not take the first steps and arrange with your "preferred" Specialists / Allied Health that they are set up with SMD. Yes will still get some hard copies - but will also have significant number referrals sent / reports received electronically via SMD.
Also agree with the initial set-up in address books; having said that though once it's done it's done - as opposed to having to scan a letter every time received from a "NON-SMD" provider.
Locations for venues are available via the AAPM link at the bottom of Kate's story.

# Shirley Marendaz 2015-01-30 11:35

Quoting Brett McPherson:

All valid comments, but why not take the first steps and arrange with your "preferred" Specialists / Allied Health that they are set up with SMD. Yes will still get some hard copies - but will also have significant number referrals sent / reports received electronically via SMD.
Also agree with the initial set-up in address books; having said that though once it's done it's done - as opposed to having to scan a letter every time received from a "NON-SMD" provider.
Locations for venues are available via the AAPM link at the bottom of Kate's story.

Thanks Brett. There is reference to a Geelong videolink site in the article, but the "flyer" does not mention a Geelong location. So just trying to clarify if I will be able to attend this event in Geelong? Shirley

# Keith Heale 2015-02-02 16:37

@Brett McPherson
I won't be exhorting any specialists or Allied Health professionals to subscribe to an SMD supplier because a) some of them already subscribe, but to a different product; b) I couldn't determine whether it would be a good value proposition for them - even though it might improve communication betwenn them and us, it might only give them access to a small subset of the general practices that they work with; c) the address book issue which you dismiss as a one-time setup is in fact an ongoing maintenance requirement - practices subscribe and unsubscribe, change email addresses etc, and these changes have to be maintained manually.

Let me ask "How many people would carry a mobile phone, if Optus mobiles could only call other Optus subscribers, and likewise for Vodaphone, Telstra etc? Or if iPhones could call other iPhones, but not Nokia, or Samsung or LG? Not many. So why is it that half-way through the second decade of the 21st century, after the expenditure of a lot of money, and after many years of broken promises, medical practices cannot all communicate with each other electronically? Perhaps in the long run it would be more productive if we all boycotted the products completelly until there exists a workable and complete sttandard and a set of compliant products that wil send and receive communications seamlessly .

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Seminar on secure messaging for allied health and specialists

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