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Just as big uptake of telehealth marked the first quarter of the eHealth year in Australia, developments in electronic prescribing increased in pace in the second. As part of a range of measures to help get medications to patients quickly and safely, the federal government announced it would fast-track the roll out of electronic prescribing, having made the legislative changes allowing eScripts as a legal alternative to paper late last year. |
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In March, the Department of Health proposed a development sprint with prescribing and dispensing software vendors to get the majority of GPs and pharmacies with the capability within eight weeks. While our survey of GP software vendors showed a couple would be ready with their fast-tracked versions, there was no way it would reach 80 per cent within two months. The department's agreement to allow image-based prescribing, with photos of scripts emailed or faxed to the pharmacy, proved a bit more useful.
The medications package also included $25 million for home delivery, with pharmacies paid directly by the government for the delivery to at-risk patients. This spurred some app developers to bring forward their home delivery plans, while others used Australia Post. |
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New apps for telehealth continued to be rolled out in the second quarter, spurred by announcements like that from private health insurers that they would cover a variety of telehealth services, including telephysiotherapy and telepsychology. Oculo launched video conferencing technology in its platform to support teleophthalmology and teleoptometry, while ResApp partnered with telehealth provider Phenix Health to integrate ResApp's acute respiratory diagnostic test into Phenix’s telehealth app. Real-time remote monitoring and shared care platform CareMonitor released a new telehealth system that users can access through Pen CS's Topbar app, while patient engagement platform HotDoc released new payment functionality to its booking system that allows clinics to apply their normal billing practices to telehealth appointments.
Among this flurry of activity – MedicalDirector released a telehealth system integrated into its Helix cloud-based product for general practices, and Genie Solutions did the same for its medical specialist base – it began to emerge that the majority of telehealth consultations were being done on the phone, not by video. Data gathered in March and April using Outcome Health's POLAR GP data analytics tool showed that face-to-face consultations made up 60 per cent of volume and 40 per cent was delivered by telehealth, but only five per cent of that involved video, with GPs far preferring telephone consults.
These numbers were backed up by analysis of MBS item numbers by research groups such as the Centre for Online Health, which set up a webpage to track Medicare-funded telehealth activity, and by Victorian GP Andrew Baird, who has done sterling work tracking Medicare figures for telehealth and providing valuable analysis. Dr Baird's article, and one by Margaret Faux and Heather Grain arguing that using SNOMED codes should be a requisite for ongoing MBS telehealth, were two of the most read on Pulse+IT for the year.
Click here to access the full article. |
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