A five-year study into how IT can be harnessed to improve the communication, management and follow-up of pathology test results to clinicians and patients kicked off last week with praise for the capabilities of GP software systems but gloom for the systems used in the hospital sector, where hybrid EMRs can often make things worse than the days of paper-only.

Led by the well-known team from the Australian Institute of Health Innovation (AIHI) at Macquarie University, the study is an international first and will be conducted by the AIHI in partnership with the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (ACSQHC), the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia (RCPA) and public pathology service South Eastern Area Laboratory Services (SEALS), part of NSW Health Pathology.