Pathology and Diagnostic imaging update
Recently some health services have started to use the capability to upload patient pathology and diagnostic imaging reports to the My Health Record system.
The Australian Digital Health Agency has taken another step towards having a more integrated health industry by announcing that more organisations, both public and private, have begun uploading pathology and diagnostic reports during June.
The benefits of receiving, viewing and storing a patient’s test results in the one place are significant for both the patient and their treating healthcare providers as it enables patients to share their test results with any number of treating providers. Clinicians will also benefit from having access to their patient’s results in circumstances where they did not initiate the requests.
Important to note is that pathology reports uploaded to a My Health Record are available for patient viewing seven days after the Pathology providers makes the upload. This is so that the requesting doctor is able to review the report and discuss the results with the patient before they can see it in their My Health Record.
While there are still limited reports from pathology and diagnostic imaging providers being uploaded into the My Health Record system at this time, the Agency expect to see an increasing number of these reports uploaded as more pathology and diagnostic imaging providers progressively link to the My Health Record system in 2017 and beyond.
A new Medicines Information view in the My Health Record
New improvements to the My Health Record System
Over the past year, the Agency has worked with valued partners and the industry in order to deliver value in My Health Record and realise benefits of digital health in Australia. The Agency have incorporated public contributions in crafting the release by consulting over 140 Clinicians and 220 Consumer in order to deliver the best possible outcome.
1) New Medicines Information view
The next time you access a patient’s My Health Record, you may notice the new Medicines Information view.
The Medicines Information view can quickly sort and display medicines information held in a patient’s My Health Record documents in date or alphabetical order. The medicines information is gathered from:
- the patient’s most recent (and up to two years’) Prescription and Dispense records and other PBS claims information
- the patient’s most recent Shared Health Summary and Discharge Summary
- recent Event summaries, Specialist Letters and e-Referral Notes uploaded to the patient’s record since their latest Shared Health Summary, and
- the patient’s Personal Health Summary that may include any Allergies or Adverse Reactions and other key information
Healthcare providers can benefit from the Medicines Information view by reducing the time usually required to search through recent summaries or relevant documents to find information about a patient’s medications. The Medicines Information view can also assist in the transition of care and medicines management for patients between their treating doctors and pharmacists.
The Medicines Information view is available under the DOCUMENTS tab in the National Consumer Portal and National Provider Portal.
This view can also be found in most clinical information systems (CIS) under the OTHER DOCUMENTS LIST. Please contact your CIS software vendor if you are unable to access the new Medicines Information view.