Te Toka Tumai Auckland launching FHIR-driven PAS

Te Toka Tumai Auckland, formerly Auckland District Health Board, will be launching a new patient administration system that runs on the new FHIR-based National Health Index API.

InterSystems, who is delivering the PAS, is reportedly an early user of the NHI API being developed through Te Whatu Ora's Hira programme. 

The FHIR-based API will enable Te Toka Tumai Auckland's new PAS to reconcile data "within the wider information systems environment." This means "[w]e will know when a patient’s data was last accessed from the NHI," explained Brian Biggs, customer relations and sales director for InterSystems New Zealand. 

It will also make data more updated, consistent, and reliable, he added. InterSystems said that the new PAS at Te Toka Tumai Auckland will go live in mid-2024.

Virtual care tech provider sought for WACHS

The WA Country Health Service is seeking an IT provider for its Virtual Care service.

Based on its request for information, the technology they are looking for will replace its legacy platforms on site and for home and community. 

The ideal solution, it said, must be "flexible and fully digital with automated end-to-end system commencing from point of contact to results on a user interface and records management." The solution is also expected to have the ability to integrate with multiple data sources and enable automated data cleaning, analysis, and reporting.

The Virtual Care service is currently being provided through WACHS's command centre, outpatient services, metropolitan health services that offer remote patient access, and business meeting rooms. 

Northeast Health Wangaratta to upgrade 2-decade-old digital records

Northeast Health Wangaratta, the healthcare service for northeast Victoria, is upgrading its 20-year-old digital health record system from Orion Health to its modern iteration. 

The regional health service, which has been using Orion Health's Digital Care Record (DCR) since 2003, is in need of a modern solution to tackle challenges posed by the recent global pandemic and the onslaught of natural disasters that have strained its system. During a discovery exercise, it was found that staff had great reliance on handwritten clinical notes and observations on paper graph forms.

According to a media release, the DCR upgrade will introduce new functionalities, including "improved workflows, faster access to information, greater user experience, and enhanced integration capabilities." It will also enable patient medications to be reconciled and allow doctors to prescribe upon discharge. 

Additional functionalities such as seamless integration of eReferrals and progress notes and the introduction of mobile device capabilities will come following the go-live of the upgraded DCR by the middle of this year. 

NSW Health forms AI framework task force

NSW Health has set up a new task force that will oversee the creation of a framework for ensuring the safe and successful use of AI within the state's health system. 

The task force, which is composed of senior leaders and subject matter experts, recently met for its first meeting. 

According to NSW Health, they will develop a framework that aims to "embrace the potential of AI to have a significant impact on healthcare and drive transformative change in how we provide and manage healthcare and in further accelerating many aspects of clinical research."

The framework will also consider and manage AI's potential risks around safety, ethics, privacy, security, and regulation. 

"The framework will enable us to look for more innovative ways to complement and support the capabilities of our highly skilled workforce, while addressing the risks and challenges that come with the use of AI in health," added NSW Health Minister Ryan Park.

National study gets federal grant to evaluate medication charting model involving EMRs

A new federal government-funded project will involve pharmacists to validate a medication charting and deprescribing model in hospitals using EMRs. 

The CARe-MED study, which has received A$1.4 million ($900,000) in grant funding, aims to see a reduction in medication errors made for senior patients in hospitals. It will explore the impact of partnered pharmacist charting using EMRs, assess its direct impact on medication-related harm, and measure how it affects clinicians' work.

"It is important to validate the partnered charting model of care in digital settings as electronic prescribing is known to introduce new error types and patterns," explained Dr Jacinta Johnson, the study's lead and a pharmacist from the University of South Australia.

The study, in collaboration with SA Pharmacy, Metro South Health and the University of Queensland, will evaluate the partnered medication charting and deprescribing model at metropolitan and rural hospitals in South Australia and Queensland over the next four years.