A successful eHealth trial of secure message delivery means Australian healthcare professionals will soon be able to share clinical information through online messaging.
The National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA) trial included five healthcare messaging vendors: Argus Connect, Global Health, Healthlink, LRS Health and Medical Objects. The vendors successfully sent and received secure messages from each other, showing the interoperability of the messaging system.
“The progress that has been achieved by this project will mean any medical practitioner–be they a public or private GP, specialist or surgeon–will be able to share information over time through online secure messaging,” NEHTA head of clinical leadership and stakeholder management said in a statement.
“We can see that this technology is available, it does work and all healthcare providers will have the ability over time to connect across a wide range of clinical information systems.
"It will increase electronic clinical information exchange between healthcare professionals, decrease the use of paper based communication and importantly provide more timely and accurate patient health information.”
NEHTA said that successful long-term adoption requires development of sustainable business models. Adoption of clinical software by the non-general practice sector is expected to further drive demand, it said.
Follow Adam Bender on Twitter: @WatchAdam
Follow Computerworld Australia on Twitter: @ComputerworldAU, or take part in the Computerworld conversation on LinkedIn: Computerworld Australia