The Sydney Local Health District will continue using a remote patient monitoring platform by ASX-listed healthcare IT company Alcidion after extending their contract.

In July last year, Alcidion signed an initial 12-month contract with the LHD to deploy its Miya Precision system to support the virtual care delivery of Sydney's RPA Virtual Hospital (rpavirtual) for COVID-19 patients in home isolation.

With around 12,000 staff, Sydney LHD is serving over 700,000 people across central and inner-west Sydney. It oversees five hospitals, including the Royal Prince Alfred and Concord Hospitals, and a range of in-hospital and community-based support services. 

WHY IT MATTERS

Miya Precision has been supporting the virtual hospital's doctors with a clinical monitoring dashboard that consolidates information, supporting their delivery of remote patient care. The platform is also helping to reduce hospitalisations and improve recovery outcomes.

The expanded implementation, according to a press statement, will use Miya Precision to remotely monitor the conditions of patients with acute diverticulitis. It will include bi-directional integration with Sydney LHD's Cerner EMR.

Moreover, both organisations will collaborate to deploy the Miya Care mobile patient app, which will allow rpavirtual to actively monitor care progress and enhance its engagement with patients. The app will integrate data from patient monitoring devices and patient wearable technology.

THE LARGER TREND

In September, healthcare IT firms Royal Philips and Teladoc Health announced their partnership to offer virtual care solutions in Australia and New Zealand. Combining their virtual care offerings, the companies will deliver to hospitals and health systems a scalable end-to-end virtual care service that allows them to conduct remote patient monitoring across health facilities with limited clinical resources.

Meanwhile, the University of South Australia has recently developed an AI-enabled platform to remotely monitor the vital signs of premature babies and detect their faces while lying in hospital beds.

ON THE RECORD

"We are very excited to build on our initial implementation of Miya Precision with Sydney [LHD] through this project that highlights the flexibility and scalability of our platform as a key enabler of new and innovative models of care," said Alcidion Managing Director Kate Quirke.

"The opportunity to extend our technology to provide improved information and communication options for the patient in the home will significantly improve the patient experience and contribute to better outcomes," she added.