Artificial Intelligence

The revolution changing the face of healthcare delivery

$$ – An introduction to specialist computing

1 March 2008

Introduction This article is the first in a series that will seek to draw attention to the importance and potential of specialist computing. This instalment serves to map out the themes that will be canvassed throughout the series by highlighting some of the unique computing challenges and opportunities specialists face in their private practice setting. […]

Interview: Zedmed

1 March 2008

Pulse+IT: What products does Zedmed have available to GPs and Specialists? Zedmed offers a full featured and fully integrated Practice Management and Clinical Solution. We have a single solution which is very customisable to both GPs and Specialists and includes specific features for both, like our Billing Wizard and Chronic Disease Management Module for GPs […]

General practice IT research

1 March 2008

General practice and research The need for scientific research in general practice is a largely untold story. Around 83% of the Australian community visit a general practitioner each year. How patients are treated in general practice must be based on sound research, often called evidence based medicine. Much of the evidence we require as general […]

Shaping the future of Australian healthcare

1 March 2008

In December 2007, NEHTA announced an action plan to move towards implementation and adoption of e-health. “After working to build foundations for electronic health since the organisation was established in 2005, we are now in a position to begin to deliver some concrete applications of our work,” NEHTA’s Chair Dr Tony Sherbon said. “The new […]

Division eHealth Initiatives

1 March 2008

Established in November 1994, the Top End Division of General Practice (TEDGP) covers 509,900 square kilometres. This vast area includes urban and rural areas of Darwin and Katherine as well as remote areas within the Northern Territory including Wadeye, Timber Creek, Melville Island, Groote Eylandt, Borroloola, East Arnhem Land, Jabiru, Oenpelli and Nhulunbuy. TEDGP identified […]

Where to next for NEHTA?

1 March 2008

Very late December, 2007 the National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA) released a report developed by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) reviewing NEHTA’s performance since establishment. A response to the BCG report, prepared by NEHTA, was released on the same day. The ‘BCG NEHTA Review’ had been finalised in October 2007 and the NEHTA response on […]

Pulse+IT:2008.1

1 March 2008

Welcome to the seventh edition of Pulse+IT, Australia’s first and only Health IT magazine. Regular readers will note that the magazine has received a design overhaul since our November edition. While we hope our readership will find this new look more aesthetically pleasing, the primary motivation for the style change was to provide us with […]

$$ – Bonus Web Review: GiSTEQ

23 November 2007

Note: This article complements Dr John Goswell’s Introduction to Geo-Photography. GiSTEQ produces an integrated solution for geo-tagging photographs. It is called PhotoTrackr. This is a neat little unit weighs in at 68g including the rechargeable Li-ion battery. The package contains the GPS data logger, the software, a lanyard, a USB to mini-USB cable, a rechargeable […]

Bonus Web Review: Sony CS1KA

23 November 2007

Note: This article complements Dr John Goswell’s Introduction to Geo-Photography. Sony’s CS1KA comes with all that you need for GPS photography (other than the camera). The unit itself is small, lightweight, and easily attaches to a belt or backpack via the supplied plastic karabiner. The kit includes the USB cable (USB to mini-USB), the instructions, […]

Sidebar: GPComplete

23 November 2007

GPComplete Case Study: Mudgeeraba Bulk Billing Medical Centre The Mudgeeraba Bulk Billing Medical Centre is located on the Gold Coast, QLD. Its patient base primarily consists of retirees and families, both young and established. The practice has two GPs, a part time practice nurse, four receptionists (with two on at any one time) and practice […]

OpenEHR: The World’s Record

20 November 2007

In a world where connectivity reigns, our health information is largely still caught up in silos and, in the main, is not shareable by clinicians. Shared electronic health records (SEHRs) are increasingly needed to provide timely, comprehensive and coordinated healthcare. Over many years there have been ongoing and thorough attempts to achieve the sharing of […]

Change Defence: Designing For Tomorrow

20 November 2007

While I have spent most of the past 33 years in health IT, I have had several interspersed ‘sabbaticals’ into other business areas, which included ship building, financial management, public utilities, accounting and stock brokerage. These have helped to balance my perspectives as to the relevance and impact of IT on these industries, as well […]

Hospital Computing: Why Is It So Hard?

20 November 2007

All over the country it seems we have Hospital IT projects that are struggling to actually get started (e.g. WA, SA and to some extent QLD), are running very much behind the initially planned time lines (e.g. NSW and VIC), or are failing to satisfy their users (almost everywhere). The first thing to be said […]

$$ – Secure Electronic Messaging With Medial-Objects

20 November 2007

Introduction This is the third article in a perpetual series of technical demonstrations designed to assist medical facilities to better understand secure electronic communication. Like its predecessors, this article demonstrates a secure messaging scenario using software that is available now, namely MedTech 32, Medical Director 3 (MD3) and Medical-Objects. The first article in this series […]

The Practice Health Atlas

20 November 2007

Introduction The Practice Health Atlas (PHA) is a process that creates a decision support tool. It has been developed by the Adelaide Western General Practice Network (AWGPN) over the past three years. General practice data is collected by a trained representative of the Division and then analysed, synthesised with other data sets, and a comprehensive […]

$$ – An Introduction To Raid

20 November 2007

Introduction Most medical practices are well aware of the importance of performing daily backups. Unfortunately, while these are of great importance in the event of a data disaster, they do nothing to minimise the likelihood of data corruption or loss occurring in the first place. The installation of a Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) […]

$$ – First Look: GPComplete

20 November 2007

Introduction GPComplete is a fully integrated practice management solution designed specifically for general practices. It is developed by The Practice Management Software Company, and was first released in 2003. The company claims that GPComplete is different from other practice management or clinical records systems, because it is not features-based, but workflow-based. It seeks to reduce […]

$$ – Consultation Room Printers

20 November 2007

Introduction While secure paperless correspondence is slowly starting to become a reality, doctors are unlikely to be able to cease printing documents in their consultation room any time soon. Bowing to this unfortunate reality, this article seeks to provide guidance to practices looking to install new printers in their consultation rooms. While some of the […]

An Introduction To Geo-Photography

20 November 2007

Great holiday! So you’ve returned from a wonderful holiday. You had a great time, and have lots of photos to remind you. Chances are that you used a digital camera and took twenty times the number of photos that you would have taken with a film camera. Digital photographs offer many advantages over film. They […]

Interview: Genie Solutions

20 November 2007

Pulse+IT: What products does Genie have available to GPs and Specialists? Genie Solutions produces the original Genie for general practice, and Genie SP for specialists. Users can select their particular specialty, and the program adjusts, hides, and shows a variety of features pertinent to the selected specialty. In particular, there are modules for Obstetrics, IVF, […]

Hunter Urban Division Of General Practice: Improving Patient Outcomes By Delivering IM/IT Solutions

20 November 2007

Division Profile Based in Newcastle, The Hunter Urban Division of General Practice (HUDGP) employs over 250 GPs, 95 Nurses and 60 head office staff. The region HUDGP covers includes both rural and urban general practices. The 450 GPs that are supported by the HUDGP service a population of approximately 500,000 people. The HUDGP Information Management […]

The Australian College Of Health Informatics: An Introduction

20 November 2007

Health Informatics as a discipline is not new. It has a history that dates from the mid to late 1960s. The early origins were most likely in France, with individuals such as Francois Gremy. Since then the essential role of health information in the delivery of health care has become increasingly apparent and important. The […]

E-Procurement In The Public Health Sector

20 November 2007

NEHTA is developing a National Product Catalogue (NPC) and an E-Procurement Solution to drive safety and quality improvements, and cost and process efficiencies across the national health sector supply chain. The NPC and the NEHTA E-Procurement Solution will streamline the purchasing process of products in the public health sector through a fully automated, secure and […]

Pulse+IT:2007.4

20 November 2007

PULSE+IT Expanded Welcome to the sixth edition of Pulse+IT, Australia’s first and only Health IT magazine. As our regular readers will note, we have increased both the page count and scope of Pulse+IT, with a view to better encompassing Health IT beyond the hardware and software found in specialist and general practices. As part of […]

MyGeneral Practice For Nurses And Practice Managers

20 November 2007

My Practice Team General practice is not just about GPs. Practice managers, practice nurses, and medical receptionists contribute significantly to the delivery of quality services in general practice. However, the ‘business’ of general practitioners is sometimes replicated in other general practice roles unnecessarily. There are over 1,100 practice managers and 4,924 practice nurses active in […]

$$ – Hype, Phones And Knitting

14 August 2007

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past six months, by now you will have gotten wind of Apple’s latest innovation, the iPhone. Developed secretly by Apple over a number of years, the device represents the company’s first foray into the mobile telephone market. Currently only available in the US, the iPhone […]

$$ – Practice Websites

14 August 2007

Introduction Practices interested in establishing a website, or updating an existing one, have many options available to them. Some may opt to have the job completed by a commercial web design agency, whilst others may choose to purchase web design software and attempt the task in-house. Recent advances in web and database technology however, warrant […]

$$ – Integrated EFTPOS

14 August 2007

Introduction This article introduces the concept of integrated EFTPOS, a potential “by-product” of the Medicare Easyclaim system that promises to deliver efficiency benefits to practices, regardless of whether they choose to adopt the Government’s new patient billing initiative. What Is It? As with Medicare Easyclaim, “integration” in the medical practice context refers to the connection […]

$$ – Easyclaim Update

14 August 2007

Introduction Announced by Prime Minister John Howard on 13 August, 2006 Medicare Easyclaim is a new patient payment system developed by Medicare Australia for Specialist and General Practice. The particulars of the Medicare Easyclaim system were covered in detail in two articles in the May edition of Pulse+IT [“Ease Into Easyclaim” – pp2427, “Easyclaim Integration” […]

$$ – Secure Electronic Messaging With Argus

14 August 2007

Introduction This is the second article in a perpetual series of technical demonstrations designed to assist medical practices to better understand secure electronic communication. The previous article in this series demonstrated the transmission of an electronic referral from a General Practice using Genie, to a Specialist Practice using Medtech Mercury. Healthlink was used to transport […]

$$ – Streamlined Authority

14 August 2007

Introduction On 1 July, Medicare Australia introduced changes to the PBS authority approval process in an effort to streamline the process of writing authority prescriptions. Under this new “Streamlined Authority” system, prescribers will no longer have to obtain telephone or written approval from Medicare Australia or the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) before prescribing certain […]

Internet Backup

14 August 2007

Introduction The importance of performing daily backups of clinical data is well understood by Australian medical practices. Unfortunately, from time to time, catastrophic data losses do still occur. The increasing availability of cheap, fast, reliable Internet access has finally made Internet backup solutions a viable prospect for many businesses. This article seeks to examine whether […]

Interview: Intrahealth

14 August 2007

Pulse+IT: What products does Intrahealth make available to GPs and Specialists? Intrahealth has developed and markets a General Practice and Specialist (Profile Specialist) version of our practice management system, “Profile”. Both versions are complete systems enabling administrative, clinical and financial functions of practice management. We have adopted a platform approach to software development whereby a […]

What Is HL7?

14 August 2007

Background Just as people from different countries with completely different native tongues are only able to communicate with each other if they can speak a common language, healthcare computer systems can only share clinical information if they communicate in a common way. Before people or computers can share clinical data with one another, they must […]

The Unique Healthcare Identification Services

14 August 2007

Drivers For Change Community expectations about the delivery of healthcare in Australia are increasing with technological advances, economic pressures and changes in the nature of health and illnesses. Governments and other participants in the health sector recognise that information and communication technologies create opportunities to improve patient care and give consumers more control over healthcare […]

$$ – Easyclaim System Not Easy For Practices

14 August 2007

The AMA has been reported as saying there would be no losers with the Government’s latest online claims system, Medicare Easyclaim. This thinking has been revised. Please allow me to inform you of the AMA’s new thinking on Easyclaim. In short, it is not an easy deal for doctors and patients. The fact of the […]

Pulse+IT: 2007.3

14 August 2007

Welcome to the fifth edition of Pulse+IT, Australia’s first and only health IT magazine. This edition marks the end of Pulse+IT’s first year on the Health IT scene, and the beginning of what promises to be another busy and rewarding year. As always, special thanks must go to our advertisers and writers for their continued […]

Getting Organised: What To Do With Your Photos

27 May 2007

This fourth and last article in the series about digital photography for busy doctors describes how one can use and look after your digital photographs. Previous articles dealt first with the reasons why digital photography was worthwhile in the clinical setting, then provided some simple guidelines for choosing a good camera for close-up photography, and […]

Sidebar: May DCP

27 May 2007

Nowadays, very few digital cameras have any built-in or fixed internal memory for the storage of digital images; instead most digital cameras have internal spaces or slots to accommodate tiny rewriteable memory cards. These come in various physical forms (e.g. Compact Flash, SD, MMC, Sony Memory Stick, XD, etc), speeds and capacities (now 8Gb capacity […]

Sidebar: E-Resources

27 May 2007

1 – Yarnall KS, Pollak KI, Ostbye T, Krause KM, Michener JL. Primary care: is there enough time for prevention? Am J Public Health. 2003 Apr;93(4):635-41. 2 – Ostbye T, Yarnall KS, Krause KM, Pollak KI, Gradison M, Michener JL. Is there time for management of patients with chronic diseases in primary care? Ann Fam […]

Sidebar: Connect Now

27 May 2007

1 – PKI has been adopted by the Australian Government to provide a robust system of security for online health transactions and is essentially a secure method of transmitting information electronically by providing both authentication and encryption. Medicare Australia requires the use of PKI for all electronic data interchange (EDI) and e-business solutions, while NEHTA […]

$$ – Save Time, Waste Time

27 May 2007

The concept of simple, single purpose computer programs has been around for decades. Over the last few years however, there has been an explosion in the number of said utilities available to computer users. Now commonly referred to as “widgets”, these programs are as varied as they are numerous. In fact there are literally thousands […]

Next G Wireless Broadband

27 May 2007

Introduction Having used an EV-DO mobile wireless broadband modem from BigPond for some time, the author watched the launch of Telstra’s Next G network with interest. In late January, Pulse+IT was provided with various BigPond Next G modems for the purpose of evaluation. Among these were the USB Desktop and USB Mobile modems. On its […]

Secure Electronic Messaging With Healthlink

27 May 2007

Under Construction – Expected Completion 15/6 Introduction As highlighted in the last edition of Pulse+IT, secure electronic communication has enormous potential in the health sector. There are many reasons that this potential has not yet been realised, however the purpose of this article is not to examine these issues. Instead, this article is designed to […]

Easyclaim Integration

27 May 2007

Introduction Starting from the day it was announced, Medicare Easyclaim’s supposed lack of integration with practice software has been cited as one of the system’s major deficiencies. And whilst it is true that Medicare Australia have developed Easyclaim as a system that can be used independently of practice software, the expectation has always been that […]

Ease Into Easyclaim

27 May 2007

Introduction Announced by Prime Minister John Howard on the 13th of August 2006, Medicare Easyclaim (formerly known as Electronic Medicare Claiming) is a new patient payment system developed by Medicare Australia for Specialist and General Practice. Set to be introduced in “the second half of 2007”, the system will utilise the EFTPOS network for the […]

Interview: Best Practice

27 May 2007

Pulse+IT: What products does Best Practice have available to GPs and Specialists? We currently have 2 products, Best Practice and Top Pocket. Best Practice is a Windows desktop application. It has two components, Clinical and Management. The basic application is Clinical and includes script writing, progress notes, pathology and radiology, correspondence etc. The Management module […]

Connect Now

27 May 2007

The AMA has maintained its strong support for the vital and high level work being undertaken to develop the building blocks for e-health in Australia, and particularly those that will contribute to the reality of a shared electronic health record. Connectivity, however, is the key and, I would argue, the priority. The environment, however, is […]

Health Level 7: The National Standards For E-Health Messaging In Australia

27 May 2007

NEHTA’s work will provide the foundation for secure electronic communications amongst healthcare providers by defining a set of messaging standards to be used in e-health. These standards will allow for a flexible and dynamic approach to e-health interoperability, and can help ensure the evolution of an e-health environment that is sustainable and affordable. Creating messaging […]

E-Resources

27 May 2007

If you were to provide care as per guideline recommendations for the 10 most common chronic conditions to your patient base, it would require 10.6 hours per day[1]. Extending this figure to include preventive services would require another 7.4 hours per day[2]. And what about all the other information that you need to keep on […]

Health Information Privacy: What Do Doctors And Patients Want And Need?

27 May 2007

In the last few weeks we have had a number of reminders that management of the privacy of patient records remains a contentious and difficult area. The first key reminder came in late February 2007 when Paul Feldman, co-chair of the American Health Information Community’s (AHIC) Confidentiality, Privacy and Security Workgroup, submitted his resignation to […]

Pulse+IT:2007.2

27 May 2007

Welcome to the fourth edition of Pulse+IT, Australia’s first and only health IT magazine. As a quarterly publication, technically we are only 9 months old, however we are feeling very much like we’ve aged at least a year since our launch! To prematurely celebrate our impending first birthday, we’ve increased our circulation by 50% to […]

Apple goes green

30 April 2007

Having received sustained criticism over a number of years about his company’s environmental practices, Apple CEO, Steve Jobs has published an open letter on his company’s website. In the letter, Mr Jobs outlines Apple’s plans to remove various toxic materials from the manufacturing processes of future Apple products. Substances slated for reduction or total removal […]

$$ – Two’s A Crowd

13 February 2007

The Setup I look after several sites that have chosen to either primarily or exclusively use Mac systems. While Mac users typically reap many benefits from Apple’s high quality operating system, the niche penetration levels of the Macintosh conspire to prevent some technology from thriving on the platform (usually niche solutions themselves). My tale begins […]

$$ – Dedicated Label Printers

13 February 2007

Why? As their name suggests, dedicated label printers do one thing and one thing well: print labels! Given that all medical practices have printers capable of working with a range of media, the notion of a dedicated label printer may be strange to some, however many will attest to the convenience and efficiency such devices […]

Sidebar: Getting Started With Secure Electronic Communication

13 February 2007

The success of a secure electronic communication technology deployment is greatly effected by the actions of the health care organisations a practice routinely communicates with. As such, before deploying a solution, practices should: 1. Talk To Their Division Some Divisions have been quite instrumental in driving the adoption of secure electronic communication technology. Unfortunately others […]

$$ – An Introduction To Secure Electronic Communication

13 February 2007

Introduction This article provides an overview of what is and will undoubtedly remain the most important eHealth technology for the remainder of the decade and beyond: Secure Electronic Communication. As would be expected, the importance of secure electronic communication within the health sector has long been pushed by eHealth vendors. Increasingly however, a growing number […]

Interview: HealthLink

13 February 2007

PULSE IT: What is HealthLink? HealthLink is the leading provider of secure electronic health messaging services throughout Australia and New Zealand. We are in the business of eliminating paper as a form of communication in health care. The services provided by HealthLink integrate and enhance healthcare systems, improving efficiency, accuracy and patient outcomes with a […]

Sidebar: Goondiwindi

13 February 2007

Under Construction Town Profile: Goondiwindi The name Goondiwindi derives from a local Aboriginal word meaning “the resting place of the birds”. The town is situated on the Queensland side of the MacIntyre River, 350 kilometres south west of Brisbane. Just over 5,000 people call Goondiwindi home, with the town servicing the many trucks and other […]

Practice Review: Goondiwindi Medical Centre

13 February 2007

Located centrally, the Goondiwindi Medical Centre is the largest of the two general practices in the town. The medical centre was established when Dr Ian Thompson joined Dr Rowena Sheppard, Dr Bruce Dixon and Dr Kathryn Mainstone in 1998. Since the co-location of these two practices, the medical centre has grown steadily and now has […]

Reflections On The IT/IM Survey

13 February 2007

Note: This article should be read with reference to the article and tables available here. Connectivity And Specialist Computerisation Will 2007 be “The Year of Secure Electronic Communication”? Given the lack of government incentive, and the historical inability of the profession to adopt unsubsidised technology, I expect this would be an overstatement. These results clearly […]

What IT/IM Innovations Are Going To Make The Greatest Difference To General Practice?

13 February 2007

Background There are many things that people suggest that Information Technology (IT) and Information Management (IM) can do to improve general practice. These improvements can be concerned with practice efficiencies, safer patient care, better patient outcomes, more sustainable business, more profitable business and cost effective delivery of treatments. A survey of the Pulse IT readership […]

An American Physician’s Reflections On Australian eHealth Compared to the USA

13 February 2007

Currently only 9 to 24 percent of US physicians use clinical software, what we call an EHR. This wide range in percent usage depends on whether you’re referring to very basic software or fully functional software that creates a paperless office. Only 11 percent of US doctors currently prescribe medications electronically. We have no required […]

Triple Bottom Line

13 February 2007

It’s official: things are hotting up. With ‘global warming’ the new words on everyone’s lips it is time to focus on how you can make a difference, both at home and in the practice. Given the rate at which humans are depleting natural resources, discussions on the concept of sustainability and sustainable development are necessary […]

Pulse IT: 2007.1

13 February 2007

Welcome to the first edition of Pulse IT for 2007, I trust you had a refreshing and enjoyable Christmas period! While the silly season raged around us, we spent most of our time bunkered down preparing for what promises to be a big year for Australian eHealth. We’ve emerged with a suite of complementary services […]

$$ – Smarter Faxing

6 February 2007

History Precursors to modern fax machines predated the first working telephones and were in use as early as the 1860s. One notable early adopter of fax technology was an ageing Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte (Napoleon III), the last Emperor of France. Fast-forward a hundred and fifty years and fax machines are amongst the most widely […]

Macintosh Virtualisation

1 February 2007

Introduction Virtualisation or Virtual Machine technology allows you to run one operating system inside another, for example, Windows XP inside Mac OS X. There are many reasons why this is desirable, but most users simply want the ability to run their choice of operating system and still have access to software that runs on other […]

SMS Patient Reminders

1 February 2007

Introduction On the back of high levels of mobile phone penetration in this country, Short Message Service (SMS) messages have developed into a hugely popular communication method in Australia. Telstra claimed that over 33 million messages were handled by their network last New Years Eve, with an average of 50,000 per minute sent between 11pm […]

Privacy Blueprint For Unique Healthcare Identifiers

17 January 2007

The effectiveness of Australia’s healthcare system relies on the ability to uniquely and accurately identify individuals. Healthcare requires the constant collection, exchange and transmission of health information. This is usually in the context of information about a single patient being exchanged between multiple healthcare providers. Therefore it is critical for patient safety and privacy that […]

NPCC Reports And Support Website Now Available

15 January 2007

The National Primary Care Collaborative (NPCC) team has worked successfully with suppliers of leading Australian clinical software to make the Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) and Diabetes related NPCC reports available to the wider Australian general practice community. A reporting support website has been developed by the NPCC to help practices understand and use these reports. […]

Digital Clinical Photography: Part 3 – Getting Close Up

27 December 2006

The first article in this series presented an argument to encourage doctors to buy digital cameras and to incorporate clinical photography into their clinical skills and routine practice. The second article provided some clues as to how to avoid buying a camera which wouldn’t take good closeup photographs. This third article was written to provide […]

Sidebar – Adler

27 November 2006

We use the term imprecisely. In the US, the term EHR can mean simply the clinical software application used in a physician’s office, a hospital clinical information system, or the theoretical interoperable collection of systems that provide all available health information on a patient.

Pulse IT 2.0

26 October 2006

Welcome to the second edition of Pulse IT, Australia’s first and only health IT magazine. This edition’s cover story deals with the recent PIP IM/IT changes, new requirements that have caused a concern in many general practices. We hope that this article will be of benefit to practices struggling with the new rules, as well […]

Burning Down The Mouse

26 October 2006

Since I wrote my last article the whole flaming laptop battery issue hit the headlines. It received significant press coverage in publications ranging from IT magazines, down (or up depending on your persuasion) to ABC’s “The Chaser’s War On Everything”. Initially the story revolved around some Sony-supplied battery cells sold in Dell and Apple laptops […]

Wacom Interactive Pen Displays

26 October 2006

Many clinicians long ago accepted mice and keyboards as necessary parts of their work environment, however despite over twenty years of mainstream use, they have not proven suitable for all clinicians or all clinical environments. While digital pen solutions have been available for many years, the software and hardware technology has matured significantly in recent […]

Telstra Mobile Wireless Broadband

26 October 2006

Wireless networking has been rapidly adopted in homes and businesses across Australia, however it is only recently that “go anywhere” mobile wireless Internet options have become both reliable and affordable. Despite the companies perceived shortcomings, Telstra’s mobile wireless broadband offering stacks up favourably against the competition, especially for people who live or travel outside major […]

Desert Island Application: Web 2.0

26 October 2006

When you are next shipwrecked on a desert island, and find a laptop among the flotsam, you’ll be glad to know that you’ll be able to open all your own documents – of any type – with just one application, which you can download free. (Make sure that you are marooned on an island that […]

PIP IM/IT Changes Demystified

26 October 2006

Introduction In November 2005, the Honorable Mr Tony Abbott, Minister for Health and Ageing announced changes to the Information Management/Information Technology (IM/IT) component of the Practice Incentive Program (PIP). Despite the number of incentive tiers dropping from three to two, the ministerial press release warned that the changes would require “lead time for GPs to […]

Question Time: Software Vendors

26 October 2006

Computers continue to play an ever-increasing role in the delivery of health care. From an IT perspective, nothing has more of an impact on the way a practice functions than the practice software and the company behind it. To that end it is crucial that you are well informed about both the product and the […]

Computers And Clinical Care

26 October 2006

In today’s Australia it is highly unusual to find a workplace that does not avail itself of information technology. General practice is no different, with less than 1 in 15 general practitioners working in a non-computerised practice1. However, information as to exactly how GPs and general practice staff use computers is relatively unmapped. A recent […]

NEHTA Delivers Specifications To Standardise Medication Information

26 October 2006

Currently in Australia there are no standards relating to how medications are identified, named and described by computer systems used in the healthcare sector. This limits the extent to which medication information can be electronically exchanged between healthcare professionals and limits the efficiency with which healthcare can be delivered. NEHTA has recently released specifications aimed […]

Education And The Spread Of Health Information Technology

26 October 2006

Yes I admit it – I do have a passion for continuing education, particularly when it comes to health informatics. Education is a central part of the culture within HISA and is reflected in the delivery of our conference and seminar programs and our work with other associations. The last 6 months have seen a […]

Collaboratives: Enhancing Patient Care Through Clinical And Business System Improvement

26 October 2006

The health technology and software currently available to GPs provides them with enormous computing power. However using it effectively to establish and sustain patient management systems, and improvements in patient care and business efficiency, is another thing! The $17 million Commonwealth funded Collaboratives program is helping over 500 general practices and primary health care providers […]

Introducing The Medical Software Industry Association

26 October 2006

The Medical Software Industry Association (MSIA) was established in 1995 to provide a forum for Australian medical software vendors and related organizations to address common issues and provide a single contact point for government and consumers. The MSIA membership comprises more than 50 companies (listed on the MSIA website) which represents the majority of companies […]

Health Providers Benefit From Broadband

26 October 2006

Thousands of healthcare providers throughout Australia are now reaping the benefits of business grade broadband, thanks to the Australian Government’s Broadband for Health program. Business grade broadband is a high-speed, always-on, communications link that provides faster access to vital healthcare information such as pathology results, hospital discharge summaries, specialist reports and X-ray images. High-speed access […]

Recall Systems

8 September 2006

Why? Think of preventive health care as being provided on four levels: Primary – detection (screening for disease) Secondary – earliest possible diagnosis to minimise risk of death and disability Tertiary – rehabilitation – maximising support in the environment to keep people well Quaternary – palliation – comfort and security when disease progress cannot be […]

POTS & PANS

8 September 2006

Ring, Ring, Why don’t you give me a call?” My 4th Class textbook was confident that the telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876. His rather uninspiring first words were said to be “Mr Watson, Come here, I want you”. What Mr Bell wanted Watson for was not documented in ‘Social Studies for […]

Digital Clinical Photography: Part 2 – Choosing A Digital Camera For Clinical Work

1 September 2006

The first article in this series presented a persuasive argument for doctors to consider using digital photography in their routine clinical work. This article will focus on how to choose from the large and ever-increasing number of different models of digital cameras currently available, a task which may seem daunting to those setting out to […]

1 September 2006

Pulse+IT eNewsletter service There are over 19,500 subscribers receiving eNewsletters from Pulse+IT each week. If you would like to join them, click here to subscribe to this free service. Pulse+IT website access Individual subscribers Full access to the Pulse+IT website is available for individuals starting from $39 using the following ‘Subscribe now’ button. After being […]

Questions For Your IT Support Person

9 August 2006

They have no dress sense, talk a different language and probably aren’t bothered about either. Pulse IT has some questions for your IT support person. Business savvy IT support outfits long ago identified the health sector to be an attractive niche to operate in. Their clients have high earning potential, Government and advertising subsidised computing […]

Backup Technology

9 August 2006

The first article in our three part series on backups looks at the most basic element of the system: the backup device. Introduction As Australia’s health providers slowly inch towards paperless workflows, secure storage and backup of data is increasingly more important. We start perhaps our most important series of articles with a look at […]

Uninterruptible Power Supplies

9 August 2006

An Uninterruptible Power Supply can act as a first line of defence against data loss and downtime. They are affordable, easy to install and every practice should have at least one. Australian medical IT systems are varied, comprising of a dizzying array of hardware and software combinations. However there is one device that should be […]

Best Practice releases “top pocket”

31 July 2006

Best Practice has upped the ante with the release of Top Pocket, a Pocket PC extension to its flagship product Best Practice. While not intended as a replacement for BP Remote (the Best Practice off-site logging solution), clinicians using Top Pocket on a compatible PDA can download patient files from Best Practice, view and add […]

2Hippo Enters The Secure Communication Market

11 July 2006

While secure messaging products are not scarce, this hasn’t deterred a company with perhaps the most unusual name in the Australian software industry. Developed, publicly tested and refined over the last two years, 2Hippo believes its “Intelligent Messaging” software extends beyond the current market offerings, and is now ready for widespread roll out. Getting started […]

Interoperability and Innovation in Australian Health Care

24 June 2006

For many people, innovation carries the image of caffeine addled technologists huddled around computer workstations working deep into the night. However, this highly creative phase of technology development drives only a relatively small proportion of the innovation that impacts the Australian healthcare IT environment. In Australia, most of the innovation that will address the challenges […]

Delivering Australia’s E-Health Foundations

18 June 2006

For some years now, there has been more promise from e-health than results on the ground. One of the reasons has been that the foundations of a linked, efficiently communicating healthcare system have not been put in place in a coordinated fashion on a national scale. The barriers to developing these building blocks have been […]

Computer Security and General Practice: The “IT” Factor

18 June 2006

Computer security in general practice is critical, ensuring business runs efficiently and to maintain the integrity of the electronic health records. The constantly evolving face of general practice makes it necessary to have an equally adaptable medium with which to organise patient and business information. The shift from paper based to IT savvy practices is […]

Interview: ArgusConnect

18 June 2006

Our inaugural interview sees Pulse IT check in with Ross Davey, CEO of ArgusConnect. PULSE IT: What is Argus? Argus is a computer program that enables health service providers to securely exchange clinical documents via email. It operates on any doctor’s computer alongside existing medical software and provides additional features for the clinical environment such […]

Interview: Medical-Objects

18 June 2006

PULSE IT: What is a practice required to do to get up and running with Medical-Objects? All that we require is a signed application form with Provider Number and address details to be faxed to us. Installation takes about 10 minutes to complete if there are no firewall issues to resolve. A HESA Location Certificate […]

« Previous 1 … 80 81 82 83 Next »