Artificial Intelligence

The revolution changing the face of healthcare delivery

International health IT week in review: March 5

5 March 2023

Google testing AI in health, remote patient monitoring takes off, £450m EMR at Guy’s, Pixel watch falls detection, India’s digital health system, AI in healthcare survey, telehealth prescribing, AI medical scribing, US VA EHR, digital therapeutics Google’s big health care play Politico ~ Ruth Reader, Erin Schumaker, Ben Leonard ~ 03/03/2023 They’re working with India’s […]

Blog: my health app comes to the rescue for My Health Record

3 March 2023

It has been a long time coming – over a decade in fact – but the Australian Digital Health Agency finally released a mobile app for the My Health Record this week. We won’t go as far as saying it was worth the whole wait, but we will say the app is pretty good and […]

eHealth NSW’s eMR Connect program comes to an end

3 March 2023

eHealth NSW says its eMR Connect program is nearing completion after six years, which saw it leverage its Cerner and Orion Health electronic medical record systems to introduce improvements in more than 187 sites and roll out electronic medication management software across 200 facilities. eHealth NSW now plans to remove the existing EMR solutions and […]

Health API gateway in action for my health consumer app

2 March 2023

The first mobile app that can directly download and display key information from My Health Record has been released by the Australian Digital Health Agency, using its Health API gateway to allow consumers to download their health data as soon as it’s available on the main system. Other mobile apps such as Healthi and HealthNow […]

Digital training passport for aged care workforce rolling out to providers

28 February 2023

A free digital passport developed by CPD education provider Ausmed to reduce staff training costs for aged care providers is rolling out across Australia. The tool was launched at the Aged and Community Care Providers Association conference in October 2022 with more than 50 aged care providers from residential and home care signing up. There […]

Cyber tsar, more power for ASD on the cards as Medibank hack details released

28 February 2023

The federal government will appoint a national coordinator for cyber security next month and is also touting the potential for the Australian Signals Directorate to widen its powers to allow it to step in to assist organisations that are under cyber threat under new moves to tighten the nation’s defences in the face of last […]

Leigh Donoghue heads to NZ as new chief data and digital officer

28 February 2023

Accenture’s long-standing ANZ health practice managing director and Australasian Institute of Digital Health board member Leigh Donoghue has been appointed as Te Whatu Ora – Health New Zealand’s new chief data and digital officer. Mr Donoghue has been responsible for leading Accenture’s health business in Australia and New Zealand for 13 years and has been […]

EpiSoft provides cancer treatment cycle summaries on My Health Record

27 February 2023

Cloud-based medical oncology and administration platform vendor EpiSoft has developed new functionality that allows treatment event summaries covering a full cycle of cancer care to be uploaded to the My Health Record system. In contrast to encounter summaries that are generated for each day of the cancer treatment, EpiSoft’s treatment cycle summary provides clinicians using […]

Perth hospitals using NZ-developed digital wound imaging system for diabetic foot ulcers

27 February 2023

A New Zealand-developed digital wound imaging platform to improve treatment of diabetic foot ulcers is being used in Perth hospitals and rural clinics, as well as health facilities across Australia, NZ and the world. The electronic wound assessment system monitors and manages wound healing, aiming to reduce diabetes-related foot complications and ultimately reduce amputations. NZ […]

International health IT week in review: February 26

26 February 2023

Big uptake in health apps and wearables, mainstreaming NLP, Livongo purchase crashes Teladoc’s balance sheet, US grocery and pharmacy delivery company enters digital health sector, Amazon’s plans for bricks-and-mortar primary care, inadequate digitisation of NHS, Doximity’s AI-powered chatbot tool, tech for ageing and aged care Over a third of adults use health apps, wearables in […]

Blog: Victorian HIE takes shape as privacy and security debate continues

24 February 2023

Public debate on the Victorian government’s plans for a health information sharing platform has restarted as the legislation from last year is reintroduced into Parliament, as we foreshadowed a couple of weeks ago. The nature of the debate is similar to last year, when the bill passed the lower house easily but became lodged in […]

Te Whatu Ora expands access to telehealth for cyclone-affected areas

23 February 2023

Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand has expanded access to the free Healthline telehealth service run by Whakarongorau to people living in cyclone-affected areas. People in the affected areas can connect directly with a GP and get new prescriptions if needed through Healthline. Te Whatu Ora is also covering the cost of prescriptions at pharmacies […]

Altera wins $9m contract for first phase of Victoria’s health information sharing platform

23 February 2023

Altera Digital Health has won a $9 million contract to implement a new health information exchange (HIE) for the Victorian Department of Health’s pathology reform program, which is expected to form the basis of its statewide electronic patient health information sharing system. Legislation for the full information sharing program is currently being debated in the […]

Falls prevention system using ceiling sensors implemented in Australian first study

23 February 2023

In an Australian first study, an AI falls and incident prevention and monitoring system using ceiling sensors has been implemented by WA aged care provider Curtin Heritage Living. Unsatisfied with traditional methods that alert staff after a fall, Curtin embarked on a worldwide search for a better system which could prevent falls when it was […]

eScript token SMS subsidy to continue as Health finalises EPS tender

22 February 2023

The Department of Health and Aged Care has extended the subsidy it is paying for electronic script tokens sent by SMS due to a delay in making a decision on its controversial electronic prescription service (EPS) tender. The department has been subsidising the cost for both the original electronic prescription tokens sent by SMS through […]

Strengthening Medicare GP grants for digital health expected to open in April

22 February 2023

Grant applications for the $220 million Strengthening Medicare general practice grants program, which includes funds to enhance digital health capability, are expected to open in April. The one-off grants of $25,000 to $50,000 can be used by general practices and Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services (ACCHS) to invest in innovation, training, equipment, and minor capital […]

ACT Health’s digital health journey to headline Australian Healthcare Week

22 February 2023

A deep dive into the ACT’s territory-wide Digital Health Record (DHR) is one of the headline presentations at Australian Healthcare Week, being held in Sydney on March 15 and 16. The conference will also feature a specialist technology innovation in aged care event, along with extensive sessions on the patient experience, start-ups in healthcare and […]

Regional hospitals linked to Zeus for stroke care in the cloud

21 February 2023

Eight hospitals in regional South Australia are set to directly link brain imaging to the Zeus telehealth platform rolled out last year for the SA Telestroke service. The technology has been developed by Australian contract research organisation and digital health developer Titan Neuroscience in association with the Australian Stroke Alliance and delivered in partnership with […]

St John of God Midland progresses with Kyra Clinical progress notes

21 February 2023

St John of God Midland Public and Private Hospitals has implemented the progress notes module in its electronic medical record, allowing clinicians to capture and view clinical notes and access information across the patient journey. St John of God Midland uses the Kyra Clinical EMR solution from Telstra Health, which allows clinicians to electronically provide […]

SA’s remote health monitoring service goes 24/7

20 February 2023

South Australia’s health monitoring service for rural and remote patients is now being supported 24/7, allowing patients to measure their vital signs at home using a monitoring kit and be assessed by a nurse or doctor via live video link at any time of the day or night. The service has been developed by the […]

International health IT week in review: February 19

19 February 2023

China’s plans for health information, argy-bargy over US veterans’ affairs EMR continues, only one in 20 UK scripts on paper, US national TECFA ready for lift-off, nurses as ‘telesitters’ for remote monitoring, Northern Ireland’s integrated care system, first ChatGPT tool for doctors, will AI eventually replace doctors? Digitisation no magic pill for China’s ailing public […]

Blog: Ceasefire in turf wars over online scripts

17 February 2023

Fresh from a long, drawn-out battle over pharmacist prescribing rights for UTIs that has spread from state to state, the pharmacy lobby and doctors’ groups came to a consensus this week in their opposition to online prescription services that use asynchronous methods such as questionnaire and text to prescribe medications. The drama is part of […]

NSW Health moves to standardise communications on MS Teams

16 February 2023

eHealth NSW has revealed plans to standardise its unified communications platforms for clinical and non-clinical collaboration on Microsoft Teams, include the statewide platforms Skype for Business, Avaya and video conferencing platform Pexip. The move comes as eHealth NSW rolls out a new function within Teams called MedSync, developed in association with Microsoft, that allows clinicians […]

Opinion: We cannot afford to wait for the rural specialist workforce to improve

16 February 2023

I’ve seen the challenges faced by rural communities when it comes to accessing specialist healthcare. While improving infrastructure and attracting more doctors to these areas can help long term, a solution that brings about immediate change is desperately required. We simply cannot afford to wait. It’s not practical for many specialists to service regional areas […]

AI-powered falls detection technology to be tested in Victorian aged care

15 February 2023

Falls detection technology developer HomeGuardian has partnered with aged care provider Villa Maria Catholic Homes (VMCH) and Deakin University’s Applied Artificial Intelligence Institute to run a three-year, $10 million project to try to predict and prevent falls. The study will see more than 1000 devices installed in aged care facilities across Victoria in the first […]

Queensland Pharmacy Guild claims “online prescribing cowboys” compromise patient safety

15 February 2023

The Pharmacy Guild of Australia’s Queensland branch has slammed online prescription services and apps, claiming “online prescribing cowboys” are compromising patient safety. Branch president Chris Owen is calling for better patient safety and regulation of solely online prescribers and apps. He said Australia was seeing “more and more online scripts written with virtually no consultation […]

BestMed to launch electronic controlled drug register for aged care facilities

15 February 2023

Medication management software vendor BestMed is in beta testing for its new secure electronic controlled drug register BESTtrack, which is aimed at replacing traditional paper-based recording methods for residential aged care facilities. BESTtrack will be available as a standalone system but is also integrated into BestMed’s technology, which gives care teams access to a real-time […]

Northern Health offering virtual consult service to local GPs

14 February 2023

Northern Health has set up a virtual consult service giving GPs access to hospital-based specialists to discuss complex patient management in the community. The Medical Community Virtual Consults (MCVC) service offers 20-minute pre-booked appointments that GPs can attend alone or with patients, families or allied health practitioners, using HealthDirect’s video call system. Consults are billable […]

Tasmania on the market for statewide EMR, ambulance PCR

13 February 2023

The Tasmanian Department of Health has issued a request for proposals for a statewide electronic medical record (EMR) and an ambulance electronic patient care record (AePCR). The Tasmanian government allocated $150m in the May 2022 budget for the procurement, which is the first tranche of a 10-year, $475 million plan to modernise the health system […]

Video calling device simplifies connecting aged care residents to families

13 February 2023

Inspired by their late father, a South Australian brother and sister have helped develop an iPad-sized video calling device to help people in aged care communicate easily with relatives. Several prototypes of the CareWindow passive video device, which enables two-way visual and audio communication, have been developed and are being trialled in an aged care […]

International health IT week in review: February 12

12 February 2023

Wearables data overwhelming docs, US veterans’ affairs EHR troubles, US DoD EHR rolls out, Ontario promises to axe the fax again, website tracking codes and health information, smartphone app for stroke, Amazon’s move into healthcare probed, Israeli patients can WhatsApp their doctor Buried in data: A doctor’s lament Politico ~ Ben Leonard, Ruth Reader, Carmen […]

Blog: Victoria ploughs ahead with data sharing platform strategy

10 February 2023

Victoria was in the news this week with its resurrected plans for a statewide health information sharing platform to give clinicians access to health data from across the public health system. The legislation enabling the system was introduced two years ago but was subject to an upper house inquiry in 2022 and the bill lapsed […]

Victoria’s plans for health information sharing platform resurrected

9 February 2023

Legislation to allow for Victoria’s planned electronic patient health information sharing system has been reintroduced to Parliament, which if passed will enable the development of a centralised platform operated by the Department of Health to share medical data across the public system. The bill originally passed Victoria’s lower house in 2021 and was the subject […]

Sydney Children’s Hospitals live with Consultmed eReferral system

8 February 2023

Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network (SCHN) has gone live with a new electronic referral system from Sydney-based start-up Consultmed, aiming to replace fax and paper for outpatients referrals to Sydney Children’s Hospital Randwick and the Children’s Hospital at Westmead. Consultmed has been trialled at SCHN since 2021 and is also being used by paediatric specialist clinics […]

Bendigo Health leading remote patient monitoring roll-out across Loddon Mallee

7 February 2023

The virtual home monitoring system rolled out across the Loddon Mallee region in just two weeks in 2021 to monitor COVID-19 patients at home is being expanded to include home monitoring of patients with chronic conditions. Funding for the initiative has been secured through the Victorian government’s $698 million Better at Home package, which has […]

Emergency Q redirecting low acuity patients from ED to GP

7 February 2023

Mobile hospital wait time app Emergency Q has helped to ease pressure in the emergency department at Southland Hospital since its introduction last September, and is also helping to encourage patients not enrolled with a general practice to do so. Emergency Q is able to generate an electronic voucher to streamline the registration process and […]

Medicare taskforce recommends modernising “clunky” My Health Record

6 February 2023

Modernising the My Health Record system to significantly increase the health information available is one of the key recommendations of the Strengthening Medicare Taskforce report, along with providing “an uplift” in primary care IT infrastructure. Regulation of clinical software is also on the cards in an effort to better connect health data across all parts […]

DHCRC project to develop care navigation platform for mental health services

6 February 2023

A new collaborative research project coordinated by the Digital Health Cooperative Research Centre (DHCRC) aims to design and develop a care navigation platform for mental health services. The platform will be implemented and tested in the ACT before being scaled up and adopted nationwide. Service mapping has already begun in a number of Primary Health […]

Propell adds Wellysis ECG patch to distribution portfolio

6 February 2023

Remote patient devices and solutions specialist Propell has partnered with Samsung SDS spin-off Wellysis to distribute its single lead, lightweight ECG patch in Australia and New Zealand. The Wellysis S-Patch Ex is a reusable patch-based ECG sensor that provides a convenient alternative to traditional Holter monitors for ambulatory 24-hour monitoring. Wellysis uses a Samsung bio-processor […]

International health IT week in review: February 5

5 February 2023

NHS Digital swallowed up, Nova Scotia signs with Cerner, $16b VA EHR contract in trouble, telehealth in south-east Asia, telehealth in the US, former Oracle exec to head up FDA, Russian nuisance hacking group KillNet, Teladoc loses big on Livongo purchase, FBI disrupts Hive ransomware, gaming for cognitive challenges, health data exchanges Farewell to NHS […]

Blog: Sharing by default: data and digital in the Strengthening Medicare report

3 February 2023

The much anticipated Strengthening Medicare Taskforce report was released this afternoon following a national cabinet meeting that put healthcare reform firmly at the top of the political agenda for 2023. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese gave it the report a big thumbs up but very little detail in his press conference before handing over to Health […]

Newcastle urgent care centre to use CareRight for emergency patients

3 February 2023

Newcastle’s HEAL Urgent Care will use Clintel’s CareRight software for patient administration, billing and claiming as well as an electronic medical record when it opens its doors later this month, hoping to relieve pressure on local emergency departments by seeing category four and five patients. The CareRight EMR and PAS are able to send correspondence […]

Infectious diseases expert appointed new NZ health minister

2 February 2023

New Zealand’s associate minister of health Ayesha Verrall has been promoted to the top ministerial health job in Prime Minister Chris Hipkins’ new cabinet, with former minster Andrew Little moving to defence. Dr Verrall is a graduate of the University of Otago’s famed medical school where she specialised in tropical medicine, bioethics and international health. […]

Provider Connect Australia to begin staged roll-out in practices and pharmacies

1 February 2023

The Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) plans to begin a staged roll-out of its new Provider Connect Australia (PCA) system in general practices and pharmacies that provide vaccines services from March, following a nationwide pilot. The pilot has been extended by two weeks and is due to finish in mid-February, with 160 healthcare organisations having […]

Northern Queensland PHN piloting Inca shared care platform for First Nations CQI

1 February 2023

General practices in northern Queensland are being funded to implement Precedence Health Care’s Inca shared care planning platform for the region’s First Nations continuous quality improvement (CQI) program. The platform helps health professionals to create and monitor Medicare-compliant general practice management plans (GPMPs) and team care arrangements (TCAs) and share them with the care team […]

Pandemic saw “more change in 48 hours than in 10 years” to general practice but may be reverting: study

1 February 2023

General practice in New Zealand may be starting to retreat from some of the elements of digitalisation successfully adopted in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, a researcher says. PhD candidate Nargis Mashal investigated the digital transition initiated at the pandemic’s onset and factors that enabled or were barriers to digitalisation of general practice […]

Teams-based approach to telestroke sees full roll out to 23 regional NSW hospitals

31 January 2023

The $21.7 million NSW Telestroke Service, which features the innovative use of Microsoft Teams, the AWS cloud and the state’s Sectra picture archiving and communication system, has completed its roll out to 23 regional and rural hospitals. The service provides 24/7 access to stroke diagnosis and treatment by connecting patients and local doctors with a […]

Northern Health live with FHIR-enabled ePrescribing from MediRecords

31 January 2023

Mental health teams at Melbourne’s Northern Health now have access to the MediRecords ePrescribing platform following integrations with key clinical information systems using the FHIR interoperability standard. The ePrescribing capability was first rolled out in a standalone integration with Northern Health’s Victorian Virtual Emergency Department (VVED) in July 2022, and is now being implemented in […]

SA automating patient consent pathways for clinical genomics

31 January 2023

South Australia’s Commission on Excellence and Innovation in Health (CEIH) has partnered with digital health specialist Personify Care and Adelaide animation studio Motion by Design to automate a genetic test consent forms for genomic screening. Personify Care’s platform is also being used to simplify collection of the personal and family history information needed for a […]

HSC partners with FallCall for iPhone and Android-based medical alert system

30 January 2023

ASX-listed HSC Technology Group has partnered with US firm FallCall Solutions to integrate its 24/7 emergency monitoring system for Apple Watch, iPhone and Android with HSC’s Talius smart care platform and Bluetooth medical alert devices. If a fall is detected and a help call is activated on the medical alert, HSC can connect to 24-hour […]

International health IT week in review: January 29

29 January 2023

Ireland’s HSE struggles with electronic health records, Ontario privacy commissioner calls for end to faxes in healthcare, Amazon’s Prime $5 service for generic drugs, Microsoft to invest $10b in OpenAI, Philips-Masimo RPM partnership, US prescription drug monitoring Digitisation of health service is being impeded by ‘bad actors’, former department head says Irish Times ~ Paul […]

Blog: policy on online scripts and telehealth is anything but permanent

27 January 2023

Our top stories this week concerned the ongoing stoush over the permanence or otherwise of MBS-funded telehealth in primary care and new moves by the Medical Board to restrict patient access to online healthcare through a recommendation on online scripts. Pulse+IT has whinged at length in the past about the constantly changing goalposts of MBS […]

Duckett, Kilpatrick, Taggart join Healthdirect board

27 January 2023

Health economist Stephen Duckett, Royal Melbourne Hospital CEO Chris Kilpatrick and Sydney LHD CIO Richard Taggart have all been appointed to the board of national telehealth provider Healthdirect Australia. Healthdirect provides access to free health information and advice to Australian consumers through a range of digital and virtual services including the 24/7 nurse healthdirect helpline, […]

DoHAC told to up its game with permanent telehealth expansion

27 January 2023

The Department of Health and Aged Care has been told to improve governance arrangements and to develop an evaluation plan for its telehealth expansion program, which saw MBS-funded telehealth move from a temporary measure during the COVID-19 pandemic to a permanent part of the system. An Australian National Audit Office report into the expansion of […]

Virtual cardiac rehab featuring Cardihab app rolls out in North Queensland

25 January 2023

Mater Private Hospital Townsville is rolling out a virtual heart rehabilitation program across North Queensland featuring an app that is able to boost cardiac rehabilitation participation rates. Under the program, North Queensland patients recovering from heart events and procedures or living with heart disease are accessing rehabilitation care and monitoring from home, no matter where […]

Medmate says medical board crackdown on online scripts will disadvantage millions

24 January 2023

Millions of Australians would be denied care under a Medical Board of Australia proposal that could restrict access to online scripts for new patients, according to online prescription and pharmacy delivery service Medmate. The board has proposed new guidance on telehealth prescribing for patients with whom a doctor has never consulted. The new section in […]

NSW, SA join Vic in rolling out GoodSAM app to improve cardiac arrest survival

24 January 2023

Ambulance services in NSW and South Australia have joined Victoria in rolling out a smartphone app that alerts off-duty medical professionals and first aiders to perform CPR on people nearby having a cardiac arrest at home or in the community. The program has already saved lives in Victoria where more than 30,000 volunteers, including nurses, […]

MoleMap to use AI for early screening of melanoma in practice

23 January 2023

New Zealand-headquartered melanoma diagnostic service MoleMap plans to use its AI algorithm to help screen patients in the early stages of melanoma, rolling the technology out to its 50 clinics in NZ and potentially its Australian sites. MoleMap has developed the AI in partnership with cancer researchers from Melbourne’s Monash University, with a local trial […]

Regis rolling out Bestmed eNRMC meds management system to 64 facilities

23 January 2023

ASX-listed aged care provider Regis Group is currently rolling out Bestmed’s electronic National Residential Medication Chart (eNRMC) medication management system across all of its 64 residential aged care facilities. The roll-out commenced in late October, with all 64 Regis homes to move over to the new system by April 2023. The implementation has been supported […]

DoHAC to add more data sets as aged care star ratings system goes live

23 January 2023

The Department of Health and Aged Care plans to add further data sets over time to its new aged care star ratings system, the first iteration of which went live on December 19 on the My Aged Care website. Star ratings were a recommendation of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety to […]

International health IT week in review: January 22

22 January 2023

ChatGPT in healthcare and mental health, Google Research and DeepMind develop AI medical chatbot, digital health workforce, wearables to track trauma, digital health and VC funding, Canadian ransomware attacks, FHIR apps surveyed, EMR inboxes and burnout Health entities should vet risks of ChatGPT use Healthcare Info Security ~ Marianne Kolbasuk McGee ~ 18/01/2023 Clinicians should […]

Blog: The sun rises on South Australia’s digital health

20 January 2023

The 2023 in digital health kicked off with some pretty big news, not the least of which was the decision by ACT Health CIO Peter O’Halloran, fresh from the go-live of the territory’s Digital Health Record, to make a move to the Australian Digital Health Agency as its new chief digital officer. Mr O’Halloran has […]

Lyell McEwin Hospital live with Sunrise EMR and PAS

19 January 2023

Adelaide’s Lyell McEwin Hospital (LMH) is now live with the Sunrise electronic medical record (EMR) and patient administration system (PAS) from Altera Digital Health, with the remaining clinical implementation at Modbury Hospital due to be complete early this year. Full clinical activation at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital, the last of Adelaide’s metropolitan hospitals that […]

SA to implement ZEDOC platform for statewide patient reported measures project

19 January 2023

Auckland-headquartered digital health company The Clinician has won a $2.6 million contract to roll out its ZEDOC digital solution to support South Australia’s statewide patient reported measures (PRM) project. The project is being led by SA’s Commission on Excellence and Innovation in Health (CEIH) and aims to implement a standardised approach to the systematic collection, […]

HammondCare rolling out virtual restorative care program to at home clients

18 January 2023

An innovative virtual program trialled in rural NSW that was able to reduce the time older people living at home waited for a consultation with an allied health specialist is being expanded nationwide to any person on a Commonwealth home care package. Developed by residential aged care and home care provider HammondCare, the program saves […]

Allied health professionals less likely to use video conferencing for telehealth

18 January 2023

A survey of telehealth use in Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic has found that allied health workers were less likely than nurses or doctors to use video conferencing for consultations. The nationwide online survey of 217 professionals working in primary healthcare, conducted from December 2020 to March 2021, revealed allied health workers were not as […]

POLAR harnessed for long COVID analysis in general practice

18 January 2023

Melbourne-based general practice research network Outcome Health will use its POLAR data extraction and analysis tool as part of a new Digital Health Cooperative Research Centre (DHCRC) research project looking at the emergence and management of long COVID in primary care. The project involves de-identified general practice data from over 700 practices in the catchments […]

SA govt approves $31m to complete statewide roll-out of Sunrise EMR

17 January 2023

The South Australian government has approved $31.1 million to complete the statewide roll-out of its Sunrise electronic medical record, taking in a number of regional hospitals still using the 1990s-era Chiron system. Sunrise, developed by clinical software vendor Altera Digital Health, formerly known as Allscripts, is in use at all metropolitan hospitals except for Modbury […]

Acacia EHR live at Gove Hospital and renal dialysis services

17 January 2023

The Northern Territory’s Acacia electronic health record is now live at Gove Hospital in Arnhem Land along with four Top End renal dialysis services as part of the $259 million territory-wide implementation. Acacia, built using InterSystems’ TrakCare clinical and patient administration software, first went live at the 60-bed Katherine Hospital in August 2022 and is […]

No out-of-pocket Adeney Private Hospital to open with InfoMedix DMR

17 January 2023

The $75 million Adeney Private Hospital being built in Melbourne’s Kew under an innovative financial and clinical model will use the cloud-enabled InfoMedix digital medical record (DMR) when it opens in 2024. The 30-bed short-stay hospital is a joint venture between a 42-strong group of specialist doctors and Medibank’s Amplar Health business. It aims to […]

NZ telehealth chief Andrew Slater heads to Te Whatu Ora

17 January 2023

Long-term national telehealth service head Andrew Slater has been poached by Te Whatu Ora – Health New Zealand as its new chief people officer. Mr Slater spent almost eight years with the telehealth service, originally known as Homecare Medical and now Whakarongorau Aotearoa – New Zealand Telehealth Services. Homecare Medical was a joint venture set […]

Acclivis Group takes a stake in DI exchange vendor Zed Technologies

16 January 2023

Healthcare technology specialist investment firm Acclivis Group has acquired a majority stake in Australian diagnostic imaging exchange provider Zed Technologies. Zed allows radiology clinics to share diagnostic imaging results digitally to patients, doctors and other healthcare professionals, and boasts Australia’s largest radiology groups as customers. It is the third standalone investment for Acclivis Group, which […]

Peter O’Halloran to jump ship from ACT Health to ADHA

16 January 2023

ACT Health CIO Peter O’Halloran is leaving the organisation after six and a half years and is heading to the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) as its new chief digital officer. Mr O’Halloran most recently oversaw the massive implementation of the ACT’s new Digital Health Record (DHR), which went live in November 2022, as well […]

NZ telehealth service invests in homegrown virtual reality app for phobias and social anxiety

16 January 2023

The reach of a virtual reality smartphone app that treats phobias and anxiety looks set to expand after its developers partnered with Whakarongorau Aotearoa/New Zealand Telehealth Services. Christchurch-based health tech start-up oVRcome is developing VR exposure therapy delivered on smartphones to help people overcome phobias and social anxiety. A recent clinical trial with the University […]

Clintel Systems integrates CareRight with My Health Record

16 January 2023

South Australian-headquartered clinical software vendor Clintel Systems has integrated its flagship CareRight platform with My Health Record. CareRight is a fully integrated patient administration, electronic medical record and billing solution with modules for medical specialists, medical case management, hospitals, mental health clinics and drug and alcohol rehabilitation providers. Users will now be able to access […]

2022: Dawning of the age of virtual health (and the resurrection of EMRs)

16 December 2022

Pulse+IT has been running its annual look back on the year in eHealth in Australia and New Zealand this week and totting up the most popular stories. Not surprisingly, NSW Health’s announcement of its potentially billion-dollar flip from Cerner to Epic was the most read, but moves in the electronic medical record market in general […]

The hot top 20: most-read stories on Pulse+IT in 2022

16 December 2022

The news earlier this month that NSW Health would replace its Cerner and Orion Health electronic medical records with Epic blew every other story out the park this year, and was one of the most read stories on Pulse+IT of all time. It illustrated the dominance of stories about EMRs this year as the theme […]

The 2022 Australian eHealth year in review: part four

16 December 2022

The final quarter of the year in digital health in Australia featured three of the biggest stories of the year: the cyberattack on Medibank’s systems that saw sensitive health claims data released, the big bang go-live of ACT Health’s ambitious Epic-powered Digital Health Record, and the extraordinary news that NSW Health plans to rip out […]

The 2022 Australian eHealth year in review: part three

15 December 2022

2022 represented a pivotal year in IT for the aged care sector as a number of recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety began to be realised and money became available to fund improvements in digital health for residential aged care. The annual ITAC conference covered a lot of this ground […]

The 2022 Australian eHealth year in review: part two

14 December 2022

Virtual care continue to be a highlight of the second quarter of the 2022 year in digital health, with the Australasian Institute of Digital Health (AIDH) calling for a fully funded, national virtual care strategy in its 2022 federal election statement. Melbourne’s Northern Health continued the expansion of its virtual ED service, the Aged Care […]

The 2022 Australian eHealth year in review: part one

13 December 2022

Year three of the COVID-19 pandemic was still a dominant theme in the 2022 eHealth year in Australia, but as restrictions eased and life began to get back to normal, attention turned to other issues, most notably the severity of demand on GPs and emergency departments. For digital health, it was a year in which […]

The 2022 New Zealand eHealth year in review

12 December 2022

The ongoing struggle to manage the COVID-19 pandemic in the community continued in the first half of 2022 with a number of technology innovations rolled out, but as the pandemic response wound down and traffic lights were lifted, attention turned to repurposing these systems for future use, particularly as part of the national immunisation program […]

Pulse+IT’s New Zealand hot top 10

12 December 2022

A really interesting story on a trial of wearable technology from US firm BioIntelliSense was the surprise number one in our most-read stories from New Zealand for 2022. One arm of the trial is looking at monitoring people with COVID-19 at home, and not surprisingly this topic had a few entries in our annual New […]

International health IT week in review: December 11

11 December 2022

Cyberattack on Indian research institute, NHS England’s secure data environments, patients transferred after French cyberattack, NHS Scotland’s digital platform, Amazon shuts HIPAA-compliant Alexa, US health provider directory, fax breaches in Canada, web trackers in patient portals, hospitals charge for patient messaging Amid India’s mega-push to digitise health records, AIIMS cyberattack comes as a wake-up call […]

Whole lot of learnings, but were the test beds of any real use?

9 December 2022

Regular readers of Pulse+IT may remember the hoopla over the announcement of the Australian Digital Health Agency’s digital health test bed program a couple of years back, which attracted $8.5 million in funding to try out a few ideas to accompany the development of the national digital health strategy. There were a whole lot of […]

Royal Adelaide trialling Cancer Concierge service with digital applications

8 December 2022

Central Adelaide Local Health Network (CALHN) is running a trial of a new Cancer Concierge service at Royal Adelaide Hospital that will provide a dedicated support officer for patients admitted for cancer treatment, including the use of digital applications such as Personify Care and CancerAid. According to CALHN, all new patients admitted to RAH for […]

Medicare card to be added to digital wallet on myGov app

8 December 2022

Services Australia plans to release functionality to add Medicare cards to the digital wallet section of the new myGov app next year, one of a number of government-issued cards and documents that will be able to be verified through the app. The myGov app is available for download now and allows international COVID-19 vaccination certificates […]

Ministry of Health gazettes NZePS expansion

7 December 2022

New laws allowing prescribers to use the New Zealand electronic Prescription Service (NZePS) to issue signature-exempt prescriptions for controlled medicines will come into effect in late December. The expansion of the NZePS will see Class B controlled medicines, which covers drugs of addiction and others that are classified as high risk of harm, able to […]

PowerHealth launches budgeting solution within Power Performance Manager

6 December 2022

Hospital billing and costing systems specialist PowerHealth Solutions has launched a new budgeting, forecasting and reporting capability within its Power Performance Manager (PPM) clinical costing solution. The new web-based PowerBudget package adds what PowerHealth calls sophisticated budgeting and financial modelling software to provide a comprehensive, agile business planning and analysis solution for health providers. A […]

Clintel rolls out CareRight platform for acute internal medicine practice

6 December 2022

Clintel Systems has implemented its CareRight platform, a fully integrated patient administration, electronic medical record, billing and claiming and workflow management system, at Victorian acute internal medicine practice Perspective Medicine. Perspective Medicine provides specialist medical management at private and public hospitals for patients with illnesses requiring hospitalisation, providing care from pre-admission planning to post-acute follow-up. […]

Charm implementation at St John of God Subiaco goes live

6 December 2022

St John of God Subiaco Hospital has gone live with Citadel Health’s Charm Evolution oncology information management system following a trial earlier in the year at its Comprehensive Cancer Centre. The solution is the hospital’s first centralised oncology patient record combining treatment plans, appointment scheduling and simplified reporting for all outpatient consultations and same-day and […]

TeleMedC rolling out AI-powered eye health screening software to general practices

5 December 2022

Brisbane-based start-up TeleMedC is rolling out its AI-powered RetinoScan technology, an early detection triaging tool that can detect chronic eye conditions such as diabetic eye disease, to general practices in both rural and metropolitan regions. The technology can detect the features of diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma and macular degeneration and can be operated by GPs and […]

Corum and Z Software plump for MediSecure as preferred prescription delivery service

5 December 2022

Pharmacy dispensing system vendors Corum Group and Z Software have chosen MediSecure as their preferred prescription delivery service (PDS). They join Dispense Works and RxOne in adopting MediSecure as their preferred PDS, also known as an electronic prescription exchange service. MediSecure CEO Paul Frosdick said the decision would increase the company’s share of the dispensing […]

Thomas returns as Victorian health minister

5 December 2022

Mary-Anne Thomas will continue as the Minister for Health in the re-elected Victorian state government, having been first appointed in June following the retirement announcement by Martin Foley. Ms Thomas will also act as Minister for Health Infrastructure and Minister for Medical Research. She will be assisted by Gabrielle Williams as Minister for Mental Health […]

International health IT week in review: December 4

4 December 2022

UK patient access to GP records scheme delayed, US plans for national provider directory, Canadian command centre, warning to NHS about Palantir, Google Health commercialises AI, RPM for diabetic patients, Babylon’s disastrous US venture, workers selling patient data, VA EMR safety risks Automatic roll-out of Citizen Access to GP records halted at eleventh hour Digital […]

Victoria’s health IT strategy takes the road more travelled

2 December 2022

The full ramifications of the announcement by NSW Health that it would replace its multi-million dollar Cerner EMR with a billion dollar Epic one was still being felt this week, with the story garnering huge attention and a bucketload of comments from readers. There is still no official word on what the other clinical systems […]

‘Final’ data dump from Medibank hack released

1 December 2022

The hackers that stole a huge cache of personal data from Medibank in October have released what they say is the final dump of data, claiming in a blog post that it is now “case closed” as Medibank refuses to pay the $10 million ransom. Nine newspapers reported today that the hackers had released a […]

Victoria to roll out statewide mental health and wellbeing CMS

30 November 2022

The Victorian Department of Health is on the market for a mental health and wellbeing client management system (MHWCMS) that will link to the planned Health Information Exchange (HIE) to provide a single statewide mental health and wellbeing record. The development of a statewide record was one of the recommendations of the Royal Commission into […]

Check in CBR app now switched off

30 November 2022

ACT Health’s Check in CBR app has been switched off following almost two years of use supporting businesses and the community for contact tracing and helping to minimise the spread of COVID-19. The app was launched in September 2020 and was subsequently adopted by Queensland, the Northern Territory and Tasmania. It later saw upgrades to […]

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