Although many medical practitioners in Australia are now using digital records, they are yet to realize its benefits.
A new Productivity Commission report says that despite significant investment, My Health Record, Australia’s digital health record system, “continues to struggle due to incomplete records and poor performance.” poor usability”.
Because MHR use is not mandatory for patients and clinicians, there are information gaps in the system that “significantly reduce” its value.
“[If] Given the inconsistent availability of patient information, MHR will not be a reliable source of information for many clinicians,” the report notes.
“And if usage by clinicians is low, healthcare providers may see less value in uploading information to MHR. This can create a feedback loop negativity has the potential to undermine MHR’s value in sharing information,” it emphasized.
Less than a third people with MHR or about 6.7 million people have access to their records. Meanwhile, although almost all GP practices are registered in the system, they can choose not to enter patient data into MHR, even for individuals who have opted in.
This gap is further demonstrated by the number of diagnostic test reports uploaded to MHR: the latest data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare shows that around a third of the 27 million diagnostic test reports are created each year are uploaded to the system.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
MHR supports many types of health information, such as pathology and imaging reports, episodes of care, and prescriptions. However, some high-value information is not yet automatically uploaded to it, including ECGs and actual diagnostic images.
The committee predicts that if care providers can make better use of EMR data they could save costs of up to A$5.8 billion ($3.8 billion) per year .
THE LARGER CONTEXT
MHR was originally conceived to link disparate medical information stored across healthcare systems. It is intended to be a central access point for viewing patient data and a nationally unified platform for data sharing. With the potential to improve care coordination and patient safety, the Australian government has to date invested up to A$2 billion in MHR, including A$429 million ($290 million) for modernization in last year’s budget. This year, an additional $57.4 million ($38 million) has been allocated to you.Upgrade EMR system.
The Australian Government is working to expand the range of health information available on MHR, including requiring imaging and pathology providers to upload reports to MHR by default. Strengthening the report last year’s Medicare Task Force also called for Shares medical information from both private and public physicians with MHR by default and enables use of that information at the point of care.
However, simply requiring information sharing, the Productivity Commission’s latest report says, would have to be “accompanied by changes that enable clinicians to efficiently search large volumes of data and display Display reports in an easy-to-read and accessible way. To improve usability, the committee recommends moving to an “atomized” data format, or storing information at its most basic level.
Additionally, MHR must be better integrated with workflows across clinical settings. Healthcare software vendors can be incentivized to support this seamless integration by enhancing their incentives.
Additionally, the government is working to improve data interoperability across the health system. It worked with HL7 to establish one Consistent application of FHIR digital health standards. Australia’s current information management and sharing landscape has been described as “uncoordinated” and “disconnected” from states and territories running similar EMR and health data management solutions. their response.
