NSW Ambulance to roll out latest cardiac care tech

NSW Ambulance is receiving new technology and equipment worth over A$55 million ($38 million) from the state government to enhance their provision of cardiac care.

The ambulance package includes a new cardiac notification platform – supplied by Device Technologies Australia – which improves communication by assisting with the transfer of clinical observation data from ambulances and regional hospitals to tertiary hospitals.

The package also includes additional 550 mechanical CPR Lucas devices, as well as 1,400 Corpuls ECG/defibrillation devices, which weigh less than the services' former defibrillators and can perform non-invasive blood pressure monitoring, capnography, pulse oximetry, temperature recording and pacing. 

The rollout of this technology package is a joint initiative between NSW Ambulance, NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation and eHealth NSW.

Asthma New Zealand upgrades to new CRM system to enhance data collection

Asthma New Zealand has embarked on the first stage of its digital transformation journey with the deployment of a customer relationship management system.

The organisation, which delivers asthma education across New Zealand through its nursing team, is aiming to help cut down by half the cases of hospitalisations due to asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease by 2029.

It engaged automation specialist Quanton for the deployment of Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM, which will enable its nurses to collect patient information more effectively. 

Prior to this, its nurses had to manually record patient information while seeing patients at home or out in the community and later input them into an old database when they returned to the office. With the new CRM system, its nurses can now enter data directly from their mobile devices while they are with patients in the community. 

The system also allows patients to enter their data themselves and be involved in managing their health records.

Deploying the CRM is said to be a crucial first step for Asthma NZ as it seeks to harness future technologies that will rely heavily on data access. The organisation is still working with Quanton to increase its use and the effectiveness of the new CRM system while planning on steps to introduce emerging technologies, such as gamification tools, conversational AI bots, and machine learning.

NSW releases digital mindfulness resources for non-English speaking communities

The NSW government has developed and launched online resources to help people from diverse communities improve their mental well-being and cope with the impacts of COVID-19.

The digital mindfulness resources include six exercises and are now available for free for community members, community organisations, bilingual mental health professionals and community workers.

According to NSW Mental Health Minister Bronnie Taylor, these online resources have been adapted from mindfulness programmes that have been found to produce major improvements in mental health and decrease in psychological distress.

The government claims that the first two resources, which were translated into Arabic and Bangla languages, represent the first time an evidence-based mindfulness programme was translated into non-English languages.

Minister for Multiculturalism Mark Coure added that the resources are also "developed with an awareness of these communities’ respective cultures to ensure they are speaking directly to people in a way they will understand and can relate to".

The mindfulness resources were launched as part of a statewide trial programme to provide better mental health support to people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities.

UWA launches online course to improve communication in Aboriginal healthcare

The University of Western Australia's WA Centre of Rural Health has launched an online education programme to help enhance communication in Aboriginal healthcare.

Based on the Clinical Yarning model, the two-hour long online course is intended for health science students and healthcare providers working with Aboriginal patients and their families.