Digital News – Oct ’16

Digital Health project to improve medicines, allergy and adverse reaction information within the My Health Record

The Australian Digital Health Agency is commencing a project to improve medicines, allergy and adverse reaction information within the My Health Record and connected clinical information systems as part of improving medication safety.

How can you help? What is involved?

The Agency would like to engage with clinicians working in various healthcare settings to understand how they use medicines-related information particularly as part of patient transitions across care settings. This may include GPs, specialists, hospital pharmacists, community pharmacists, nurses, allied health professionals and aged care workers. Two types of involvement are requested:

• the chance to observe a clinician in their daily work (observations will take place over a 2-4 hour period); and/or
• a 60-75 minute interview in a clinician’s place of work.

Findings from the user research will inform improvements to the way medicines related information is collected, stored and displayed in the My Health Record system to better support clinicians in their work and contribute to patient outcomes.

The Agency has engaged a team of researchers who are experienced in working within clinical environments and are dedicated to ensuring patient safety and privacy is preserved throughout. Each site visit will be conducted by a small team consisting of an experienced user experience designer and a senior design analyst. More information on the protocol for this research is in the attached document – ‘Clinical User Engagement Research Protocol’.

When is it happening?

This research is planned to be undertaken in two phases. The first phase is to undertake exploratory research about key uses of medicines related information in providing patient care and opportunities for improvement. The second phase is to test early prototypes to see if they improve the clinical user experience of accessing and using medicines related information sourced from the My Health Record and connected systems.

Times available for observation and/or interviews:

• week commencing Monday 31st October 2016
• week commencing Monday 7th November 2016
• week commencing Monday 14th November 2016
• week commencing Monday 28th November 2016
• week commencing Monday 5th December 2016
• week commencing Monday 12th December 2016
• week commencing Monday 16th January 2017
• week commencing Monday 23rd January 2017

If this sounds like a project that you might wish to participate in, and are available for the timeframes above, please contact Jane.Trevillian@digitalhealth.gov.au (phone 02 6289 8970) or Lorraine.Anderson@digitalhealth.gov.au (phone 02 6289 6807).

The project team will then liaise with interested clinicians to confirm participation in the user research.

CLICK HERE for the research study overview.

Media release, 24 October 2016 – Australian Digital Health Agency

The Australian Digital Health Agency has announced the appointments of Associate Professor Meredith Makeham and Dr Steve Hambleton.

Leading patient safety advocate Associate Professor Meredith Makeham takes on the role of Chief Medical Adviser in which she will lead the development of initiatives to ensure that digital health services are designed, built and evaluated in partnership with the research community in Australia and internationally. Associate Professor Makeham, a practising GP, will be a member of the Australian Digital Health Agency’s executive leadership team and will provide advice in her areas of expertise including patient safety, clinical governance, risk management, and digital health and safety research.

“It’s a great honour for me to join the Australian Digital Health Agency. As a clinician and a researcher, I see first-hand the immense value that digital health technologies can offer people and their care professionals, and their fundamental importance in our aims to deliver better health outcomes to Australians”, she said.

Associate Professor Makeham is also a member of the WHO Safer Primary Care working group and a member of the Representative Expert Committee for eHealth and Practice Systems with the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.

Dr Steve Hambleton, former president of the Australian Medical Association and one of this country’s most respected authorities in digital health, has agreed to become Senior Responsible Owner for a number of clinical priority programmes for the Australian Digital Health Agency. This role, which is not executive, will provide programme oversight and leadership so that the patient and professional benefit is assured and delivered. Other Senior Responsible Owner appointments will be announced over the coming weeks.

Read the full media release here.