Healthdirect Australia, a national public health information service in the country, recently announced that it will be working with home-grown telehealth startup Coviu, to power its government-funded healthdirect Video Call service. Video Call has been developed by Healthdirect Australia to make it easy for healthcare providers to offer their services via video consultation.

It is managed by Healthdirect Australia on behalf of the Commonwealth Department of Health, WA Health and Victorian Department of Health and Human Services. As of September 1, over 5500 service providers and their online clinics in hospitals, medical centres and GP practices across Australia have been seamlessly migrated across to the new Coviu-powered healthdirect Video Call. 

With regards to privacy and information security, Coviu’s software leaves no digital footprint from patient consultations.

THE LARGER TREND

Coviu has been partnering with organisations such as universities to facilitate the adoption of telehealth in Australia through the company’s technologies and platforms. In July, Coviu partnered with Melbourne’s Swinburne University’s National eTherapy Centre to provide real-time chat mental health support. Real-time text chat sessions with clinicians, alongside email and video calls are now part of the service.

In April 2019, Swinburne started working with Coviu for telehealth education. Swinburne is embedding Coviu’s technology into the curriculum of nursing, occupational therapy, psychology, dietetics, health science, and digital health and informatics.

ON THE RECORD

“Our mission is to push telehealth forward in Australia. healthdirect Video Call is a simple, scalable and sustainable model for enabling better access to care. It’s strengthening our use of technology to provide more convenient access to care, in ways people now expect,” said Karen Borg, CEO of Healthdirect Australia in a statement.

“While telehealth is a fantastic solution for those seeking aid, it’s often underutilised. Our partnership with Healthdirect will make quality healthcare more accessible to all Australians and help to bridge some of the barriers that exist when it comes to equal access,” said Dr Silvia Pfeiffer, CEO and co-founder of Coviu.