Meditations on a National Conference with a conscience
 
 

August 30, 2024

Meditations on a National Conference with a conscience

The theme for the Catholic Health Australia National Conference that wound up in Sydney this week was ‘Rejoice Reimagine’. MediRecords has attended numerous innovation-focused gatherings over the years, but none where faith and belief have been so central to proceedings.

The theme for the Catholic Health Australia National Conference that wound up in Sydney this week was ‘Rejoice Reimagine’. MediRecords has attended numerous innovation-focused gatherings over the years, but none where faith and belief have been so central to proceedings. Here are four take-aways from the event.

Keynote speaker Dr  Gill Hicks  spoke with amazing grace about the events that led to her being critically wounded in a London terrorist attack and hospitalised for six months, initially labelled by rescuers as ‘one unknown, estimated female’. Dr Hicks said there is always opportunity in adversity; she used the loss of her legs as her chance to become taller, through longer than recommended prosthetic limbs. She said the thought of not being able to make a natural footprint on Australian soil had been confronting until she realised ‘how we leave each other’ is of more lasting importance.

Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care Secretary Blair Comley said that in developing a strategic map for health and aged care nationally, the department was aware it should be thinking 15 to 30 years ahead. He said the strategy had four key priorities:

  1. Prioritise prevention and early intervention.
  2. Address health and aged care inequities.
  3. Enhance system integration, in part through private sector engagement.
  4. Leverage available health and digital technology.

Australian Medical Association federal president Professor Steve Robson said the recent introduction of electronic medical record (EMR) technology that was non-intuitive and complex for users had been a catastrophe. The transition period had been “really awful”, and several senior colleagues had left healthcare due to added stress and workload. Professor Robson urged politicians to spend less time cutting ribbons and announcing tech projects, when the focus should be on systems that enable patient-centred care.

Operations Manager at St Vincent’s Health Network Sydney Katya Issa spoke of how prison accelerates aging and exacerbates existing illnesses. Older people often enter prison without medications, mobility aids and glasses, and can face long delays getting these. She said St Vincent’s Health needed to keep advocating for sentencing reform, age-specific facilities and more transitional services for people leaving prisons.

Senior Peer Worker at the NSW Justice Health & Forensic Mental Health Network, Andrew Padayachy, who was arrested, charged and then had all charges dropped after several months in prison, spoke of the humiliation of being wheeled into a public hospital for a brain scan, handcuffed by hands and feet to a wheelchair. Mr Padayachy also called for greater support for people being released as many had become dependent on the justice system, having forgotten how to live in the community.

MediRecords welcomes opportunities to work with faith-based and social justice organisations. An alternative to larger EMR vendors, our interoperable, secure, cloud-hosted Electronic Health Records system provides a longitudinal view of care in the community and hospitals. Our new Admissions module, built to support 200 beds managed by the Australian Defence Force, includes electronic prescribing, progress notes, handovers, charting, and assessments. Medication management and a new patient portal are in development.

MediRecords welcomes opportunities to work with faith-based and social justice organisations. An alternative to larger EMR vendors, our interoperable, secure, cloud-hosted Electronic Health Records system provides a longitudinal view of care in the community and hospitals. Our new Admissions module, built to support 200 beds managed by the Australian Defence Force, includes electronic prescribing, progress notes, handovers, charting, and assessments. Medication management and a new patient portal are in development.

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Feeling the heat at
Burning GP
 
 

June 17, 2024

Feeling the heat at Burning GP

MediRecords joined the sun-starved throng flocking to the Tweed for the Wild Health Burning GP conference last week.

Here are 10 takeaways from two days of robust and enlightening conversations.

1. GPs are divided on the impact of Urgent Care Centres (UCC)

Are nascent UCCs an attempt to woo voters in outer suburban marginal seats, a means to divert a few people from crowded hospital emergency departments… or an example of government spending that would be better invested in primary care? The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) past president Adj Prof Karen Price also pondered whether UCCs are turning away “non-urgent” patients and referring them back to their family GPs.

2. There’s a great divide between GPs and hospitals

Healthdirect Australia is trialling a way to send NSW hospital discharge summaries to GPs and patients and Queensland discharge summaries are uploaded to The Viewer … but the data disconnect between primary and tertiary care remains vast*.

Associate Professor Alam Yoosuff, the Rural Doctors Association NSW vice president, said GPs were often left in the dark about hospital outcomes for their patients.

“We don’t always know if person has died, been discharged, or been sent home with only six (tablets)… We know the system is not right. It may be better than other countries, but we know it should be even better, given what (governments) are spending.” 

– Associate Professor Alam Yoosuff, the Rural Doctors Association NSW vice president

Judging by the overall vibe at Burning GP, GPs feel much of the government cash spent on shiny new hospitals could be better spent on disease prevention led by community-based primary care practitioners.

3. Workforce scaling

The RACGP warned Australia has a “whole of health” workforce crisis, exacerbated by insufficient medical students coming through, so we’re going to have to import doctors, nurses and specialists from overseas. (The ever-resilient Health Department Assistant Secretary Medicare Benefits and Digital Health, Mr Daniel McCabe, said he preferred “critical juncture” to crisis, triggering a running joke for the entire conference.)

Grampians Health Chief Strategy & Regions Officer Dr Robert Grenfell said the shortage of GPs in western Victoria was so acute he was planning based on having none. He said: “If we have (GPs) I will use them” but it was now prudent to make alternative plans.

4. Medicare misery is multiplying

Several conference panels highlighted the challenges of determining the correct, optimally reimbursed Medicare item codes for complex consultations. Mr McCabe conceded all billable items are due for review, with an aspirational goal of improving access to healthcare for people who can least afford it.

5. Telehealth – supplementary or threat?

If young and tech-savvy consumers keep opting for online access to quick prescriptions, medical certificates and more, community GPs will be left with older, sicker, more complex clients, including those with mental ill health. Whitebridge Medical Centre owner Dr Max Mollenkopf said GPs needed to understand why consumers are switching to digital health companies such as Eucalyptus and adapt fast. He said, “Our old patients who love us will die off and all the young ones will be (Eucalyptus patients) unless we do something different.”

6. The numbers speak for themselves

The Australian National University Associate Professor (and GP) Louise Stone highlighted a 42% pay gap between men and women GPs. She said this was compounded by women GPs shouldering a majority of longer, underfunded consultations with complex patients, (who may have been released from hospital prematurely to reduce bed blockages).

7. But metrics may deceive

Associate Professor Stone cautioned that ‘evidence-based solutions’ in healthcare may not be what they seem. Analysis had shown the typical participant in clinical trials is a privileged white male, the researcher is likely to be a white urban male and even the average lab rat is a white furred male. This means clinical metrics may not be representative … and AI tools risk exaggerating biased data even further.

Evrima Technologies CEO and Founder Charlotte Bradshaw said that 80% of clinical trials are delayed in Australia because eligible people can’t be found and paired with researchers.

8. The My Health Record (MHR) will grow exponentially

Mr McCabe confirmed legislation is imminent to mandate sharing diagnostic imaging and pathology with the MHR. The government will also “push very hard” for every medication event – prescribing and dispensing – to be uploaded. The CSIRO-led Sparked community will need to lead the software industry to a FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) standard to achieve this. Mr McCabe said Australian healthcare was hamstrung by “a lot of technology built in the 1990s that is not fit for purpose”. The recent MediSecure data breach showed, “We need to make sure we set the bar a lot higher than it is today”.

9. Technology knowledge is variable

When you’re a time poor GP, technology is rarely top of mind. You just want it to work. GPs still need reassurance from healthcare influencers that cloud technology is as safe (or safer) than server-driven desktop tech and that switching brings cost and time savings on hardware, hosting, back-ups, security, software patches, electricity and more. As one GP said to us, “You mean I can sack my IT guy?”

As for innovations such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), there’s a sense that while there are time, safety, revenue and efficiency gains to be made, the early adopters and innovators will be waiting a while for their conservative colleagues to join them.

10. Summing up

Based on our conversations and observations at Burning GP, community general practitioners feel underfunded, overworked, undervalued, and under siege from telehealth providers and pharmacists. They’re a resilient mob though, and still passionately defending their role as number one for longitudinal patient care.

*MediRecords new Admissions module means we can provide a longitudinal record connecting primary and tertiary care in one secure, cloud-hosted software system. We can send Discharge Summaries from our Admissions module and store them against the central patient file. Please reach out to us at sales@medirecords.com if you’re trying to solve these types of connectivity problems!

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Tales from the Frontline: APHA Congress 2024
 
 

April 16, 2024

Tales from the Frontline:
APHA Congress 2024

Members of the Australian Private Hospitals Association (APHA) gathered in glorious weather on the Gold Coast for their annual congress last week but the industry forecast was for turbulence and storms ahead.

Across the two-day event, MediRecords Tim Pegler found that the recurring theme was that many private hospitals are barely breaking even — or are loss-making — and that hospital closures are imminent.

Mental health facilities are struggling to recruit and retain psychiatrists, who can find a better income and lifestyle working privately via telehealth. Private maternity hospitals are also at risk.
 
Tension with the private health insurance (PHI) industry was evident; many APHA members pointed to indexation of PHI fees failing to keep up with escalating costs for labour, IT systems, insurances, administration, cybersecurity, and building costs.
 
PHI representatives returned fire, being critical of private hospitals building new facilities that result in competition for doctors, which are already in scant supply. They said rising costs of living are driving consumers to downgrade their PHI memberships, making them eligible for fewer private hospital procedures.
 
If private hospitals close, particularly in regional areas where doctors are scarce, the impact will be felt throughout the public system with longer waitlists and more pressure on emergency departments.
 
An appetite to find common goals and work together – government, private sector, public sector and PHIs, seemed to be one positive note for the Congress.

Other Congress insights

  • 15 private hospitals have closed in the past year, including 4 mental health facilities.
  • The national shortage of GPs and radiologists is likely to worsen, with a generation of practitioners due for retirement without ready replacements.
  • Private hospital operating costs are rising rapidly while revenue is falling. 43% of hospitals have an EBITDA below 5% and 68% below 10%. A consultant warned that innovation and investment are not occurring and if this doesn’t change further closures are likely.
  • The public system has embraced virtual care more than the private hospital system.
  • Queensland Health has a Surgery Connect program outsourcing waitlisted surgical procedures to private hospitals.
  • PHI representatives say chemotherapy, hospital in the home and rehabilitation in the home programs will be vital to support Australians but more GPs need to refer to these services.
  • The ADHA reported strong growth in use of the My Health Record (MHR), which now houses 50% of pathology reports and 20% of diagnostic imaging reports. It urged more private hospitals to integrate with the MHR, cautioning that disconnected health information systems “are no longer sustainable”.
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    Australian Healthcare Week Wrap-Up!
     
     

    March 22, 2024

    Australian Healthcare Week Wrap-up!

    MediRecords thoroughly enjoyed the hustle and bustle of Australian Healthcare Week in Sydney on 20 and 21 March.

     

    Here are 5 key take-outs from AHW –

    1. Virtual care keeps growing

    Victorian Virtual Emergency Department Clinical Director Loren Sher said the free statewide service is on trajectory to see 200,000 patients this financial year. Dr Sher said: “One of our messages is that we’re not here to replace existing care, we’re here to supplement care and also to fill gaps…” The VVED works with Ambulance Victoria and residential aged care facilities to care for patients that might otherwise attend at busy hospitals, ensuring patients can, “access care… regardless of their postcode, and … access the right level of care”.

    AHW Stage 1

    2. Helping hospitals meet demand may require out-of-the-box thinking

    MediRecords proudly supports the VVED as an e-prescribing platform and we can be a tad one-eyed in thinking digital health tech is an answer to connecting care records, streamlining safe workflows, and helping reduce ambulance ramping and bed blockages. But we were mighty impressed by the modular hospital facilities from Q-bital Healthcare Solutions, who can put an operating theatre on a truck and deliver it to your site to meet escalating clinical demand.

    Q-Bital AHW_PNG

    3. A patient perspective informs patient-centric care

    Former Cleveland Clinic CEO Edward Marx has long been a voice for digital disruption but his stint in a hospital bed with a “widow-maker cancer” underlined his passion for patient-centred care. Mr Marx detailed five pillars for improving patient experience, “most of which can be solved for free”. These included plain language communication, intentionally involving patients in decision making on treatments, and creating an organisation-wide culture of empathy.

    Mr Marx said that healthcare executives should perform ward rounds and hold meetings in labs, nursing stations and other patient-facing areas, to hone their awareness of patient experience. He advocated for AI to accelerate the personalisation of care. “My bank, my airline and my hotel all know me so why doesn’t my hospital?”

    Cleveland Clinic_Edward Marx_AHW

    4.Technology vendors should team up

    A panel of influential information technology leaders delivered a wake-up call to vendors, urging collaboration to research and solve known problems with interoperable solutions. Northern Territory Government Health Chief Clinical Information Officer Dr John F. Lambert said, “If you’re not coming to me with someone in the business who wants to use (the solution), don’t waste my time. You also need an executive who cares enough about it, to take money off something else.”

    AHW

    5. The healthcare workforce is evolving

    St Vincent’s Health Australia Group CEO Chris Blake said there will be as many engineers in healthcare as doctors within a decade. Rapid developments in technology such as AI are one reason for this, but vendors may not always be aligned with buyers. Dr Lambert urged tech suppliers to focus on AI solutions for boring administrative workflows, rather than more glamorous clinical applications that could introduce risk.

    A big thanks to everyone who stopped by to say hello, including James Sneddon, Nicole Nixon, Peter Birch and Sophie Turner from Talking HealthTech, Patrick Deegan and Silvia Pfeiffer from Coviu Global, Mike Harman, Dr Avnesh (Avi) Ratnanesan, Jeremy Knibbs and Michelle O’Brien from Health Services Daily, Emily Mara from Pulse+IT, Andy Ellis, Bryan Macdonald, Jonathan Klug and many others.

    AHW Team

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      Rural Mental Health Conference 2023: Insights from MediRecords

      November 10, 2023

      Rural Mental Health Conference 2023: Insights from MediRecords

      Peer-support workers are the future of mental-health service provision, including in rural Australia, where the need is among the highest and access to services among the lowest, the Rural Mental Health Conference was told this week.

      Also, the conference heard that talking openly about mental ill health and suicide is essential to reduce stigma, increase understanding and activate prevention initiatives in communities.

      MediRecords was an industry sponsor for the conference in Albury, which was attended by mental health professionals, researchers, advocates and others.

      Conference co-chair Professor Russell Roberts, of Charles Sturt University and the Manna Institute, opened the conference by dispelling the oft-made claim that rural towns were dying. In fact, they have been growing for 20 years, boosted further by an increase in relocation to rural Australia during the pandemic, he said.

      Speakers highlighted workforce challenges including recruitment and retention, and low mental-health literacy, compounded by the housing crisis for people willing to move and live rurally.

      “Peer support workers are the future of mental-health service provision,” said

      Dr Chris Maylea, Associate Professor of Law at La Trobe University.

      Also, he argued that inadequate mental-health services for rural Australians was a breach of human rights.

      “Sub-par services because someone lives in a rural area – we should call that a human-rights violation, not a geographic disparity.”

      Mental Health Australia CEO Carolyn Nikoloski called for a national human-rights act – one that embedded mental health into human rights.

      Other themes from the conference included:

      • A dearth of mental health services in rural areas means people with mental ill health end up in the justice system. As the documentary film Solstice stated, people in urgent need of mental health care don’t get a helicopter flight to Melbourne like accident victims; the more likely options are a busy hospital Emergency Department or police custody.
      • Telehealth is increasingly essential for providing access to services where few or none are available locally and wait lists are long. The Royal Far West Centre for Rural and Remote Children’s Health gave an example of setting up a farmer with video-call technology so he could join a case conference for his daughter from his tractor. Clean Slate Clinic clinical nurse consultant Fiona Faulkner said the home treatment program enabled people in rural areas to seek support without the fear of being ‘outed’ in their small communities.
      • Kelly McGrath, of the Wesley Research Institute, highlighted the way that services need to adapt telehealth to support individuals, ensuring there is personalised tech help and financial support, and sensitivity to how and where people engage with telehealth – from having kids running around in the background or access at the workplace, where there may be insufficient privacy.
      •  Ruralaid is experiencing a significant spike in demand for its services in Queensland, where farmers have been confronted with floods, bushfires, rising costs and falling returns for produce.

      MediRecords is a cloud-hosted electronic health record and client management platform with industry-leading options for secure data sharing. MediRecords supports a broad range of telehealth care providers, including the Victorian Virtual Emergency Department.

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        Talking HealthTech gets the lowdown on MediRecords 2.0
         

        July 28, 2023

        Talking HealthTech gets the lowdown on MediRecords 2.0

        An inside look into a major healthtech makeover for better connectivity.

        MediRecords, Head of Product Jayne Thompson joined Peter Birch from Talking HealthTech at the Digital Health Festival in June to discuss the latest developments of MediRecords, including an insight into the platform’s 2.0 user interface which is launching very soon! 

        Jayne and Peter spoke about MediRecords growth, the 2.0 transition for our existing users and the extension of new product offerings that come under our Care, Connect and Engage pillars. 

        Visit Talking HealthTech’s blog article to read more about the interview, or alternatively, check out their video below.

        If you are interested in learning more about MediRecords 2.0, please reach out to our Sales team to book a demo today! 

        Book a demo

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          Collaboration ignites at HL7 AU FHIR Connectathon
           

          March 27, 2023

          Collaboration ignites
          at HL7 AU FHIR Connectathon

          A spirit of collaboration — even among competitors — was the overwhelming experience of the MediRecords Technology & Product team this month at a key event for advancing the secure and seamless exchange of electronic healthcare data. 

           

          The HL7 AU FHIR (Fast Health Interoperability Resources) Connectathon at the Sydney Microsoft headquarter revealed the broad range of organisations using FHIR. 

          “This event was a great way to see what is on the horizon and to see how many organizations are using FHIR and are willing to work together towards a common objective,” said MediRecords Technical Product Owner Sanjeed Quaiyumi.

          “At MediRecords, we have already built a huge suite of FHIR resources. Events like Connectathon allow us to validate our new ideas and in-progress work.” 

          Sanjeed added that the team gained insights into the FHIR capabilities of organisations such as Australian Digital Health Agency, CSIRO, Telstra Health, Sonic HealthCare, and software developers Epic, and for what business purposes they are using FHIR.

          “It is an amazing community which brings people from different aspects of healthcare together, sharing a common objective of interoperability”, he said. 

          MediRecords Software Developer/FHIR Analyst  Niel Sayo and FHIR Team Lead Jack Li agreed the friendly event was an opportunity to view the latest products, approaches and ideas in Australia. 

          “We can look at our competitors also as partners when it comes to collaborative interoperability concerns,” Niel said. 

          MediRecords Graduate Software Engineer Joshua Vazzoler also noted the collaborative nature of the event and appreciated the opportunity for practical experience in a hackathon-style setting. 

          “My initial observations of the event highlighted the expanding presence of FHIR within the Australian market, with a significant turnout of professionals,” Josh said. 

          “As a participant, I was eager to engage with like-minded FHIR professionals who share a passion for interoperability, and learn from esteemed industry experts.” 

          “The event instilled a sense of inspiration and motivation to contribute towards the advancement of FHIR-based solutions within the healthcare industry.” 

          Check out our latest FHIR update and roadmap

          Learn more here

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            MediRecords Product Update May 2021

            Product Update May 2021

            May 24, 2020

            MediRecords Product Update: May 2021

            Megan Harker

            Megan Harker, Support Team Lead

            See what we’ve been working on and released over the last few weeks...

            Telehealth Appointments Now Supported by Appointment Widget

            We’ve also introduced some changes to the way our Appointment Widget supports Telehealth Appointments.  These appointments can now be made online and the link for the appointment will be sent to the patient in their confirmation SMS. 
            Please ensure your Telehealth appointments are configured correctly to appear on your website’s widget.  

             

            Free Text Start Time 

            We’ve introduced the ability to free text appointment times when making or editing appointments.  The new function lets you type into the appointment time field more specific start times, and also allows you to use 24 hour time which then converts to an AM or PM time in the appointment book.  

             

            Filter Letters and Templates

            You can now add a filter within the MediRecords Letter Templates search table to indicate that you want to search within your favourites.  This will allow you to create a search within only your preferred resources.

             

            Resources are now Alphabetized

            Letters and favourites are now alphabetized in the letter editor, meaning ease of use for our customers.

            New Fields Added to Provider Billing Activity Reports

            To allow for greater visibility, two new fields have been added to the Provider Billing Activity Report.  ADJ – which shows the amount of adjustments or write offs to the invoice and Outstanding which allows for more visibility of the amount outstanding on the invoice.

            Configure Button Has Moved

            We’ve recently moved the Configure option from the More menu to a button on the sub menu when setting up new users.  This will reduce the amount of clicks needed to configure new staff for practices.

             

            Letter Writer Improvements

            Several new fields have been added to the letter writer mail merge library including reason for visit, notes associated with medical conditions including current, past and selected, preferred name and all providers.

             

            Patient Header 

            The hover state on the patient header is now shown in full without having to scroll up or down.

            Drug Recipe

            Your custom drug recipes now support more than 6 ingredients.

            Unread Mail Indicator

            On the patient record there is now an alert to show if this patient has any unread correspondence in any of the provider’s inboxes.  Click here to learn more.

             

            Prescribing Approval Process

            Prescribed authority prescriptions functionality has been improved with additional information now displayed on the approval screen including: Hotline Number, Patient Name, Patient Medicare Number, Patient DVA, Prescriber Number, Authority Form No and Authority item.

            These changes have come about from customers like you, who have given us their feedback.  MediRecords is committed to continuous improvement to allow for ease of use of our product.

            See you next month for more exciting new features and functions within MediRecords.

            Megan Harker

            Megan Harker, Support Team Lead

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              MediRecords Product Update March 2021

              Product Update March 2021

              March 2, 2021

              MediRecords Product Update: March 2021

              Megan Harker

              Megan Harker, Support Team Lead

              Big things have been happening in MediRecords already in 2021.
              New year, new staff and new features!

              Active Ingredient Prescribing

              The mandatory Active Ingredient Prescribing was instated on Feb 1st, MediRecords released its’ new functionality in anticipation of this legislation and user may have found a slight change to their workflows.    

              Each prescription is now printed with the Active Ingredient of the medication, as well as the brand name if chosen.  There are exemptions from the requirement, and the full article can be found on our Knowledge Base here.

              Ability to add GAP to Agreements 

              Users can now add GAPs to Agreement invoices to transmit through Eclipse.  
              Health Funds such as Bupa and HBF only accept claims through the Agreement channel, and prior to this update, a gap was unable to be added onto the invoices transmitted through this channel.

               

              Date of Service field is now seen in Unclaimed Amount

              Previously the screen only showed the invoice date for all unbatched invoices in this area, meaning the user needs to click into each invoice to check the date of service.  But no more! We’ve updated the screen to also include the date of service as well as the invoice date for ease of use.  

               

              Theatre List Report 

              Specialists have access to a new report that contains information about their Procedures for a particular date. This can be found in More > Reporting > Patients > Theatre List Report. 

               

              Investigations Defaults 

              Users can now adjust their preferences for which menu defaults in Investigations between All Requests and their Favourites. 
              This can be configured in the user preferences.  

              Changes to Resource and Contact Creations 

              We’ve made some changes recently to the way resources and contacts are saved in MediRecords.  

               Previously there were three areas to save your contacts and resources: 

              • Private – only the creator can see  
              • Practice – only those in the Practice can see  
              • Community – All MediRecords users can see 

              We have removed the ability to create Community resources and contacts to reduce the number of items in the grid when searching for these items.  Community contacts and templates will only be supplied by MediRecords.  
              If you have a suggestion or requirement for a resource that would be beneficial for other MR users, please contact the Support Team. 

              Changes to Correspondence to the Patient App  

              We’ve recently made some changes to the way correspondence is sent to patients via the app.  The only correspondence sent to the app will be those that are marked as FINAL.  Anything in DRAFT will not be shared.   

              Multiple Patient Billing 

              Did you know MediRecords has the functionality to support multiple patient billing?  A function that would assist our users who service Residential Aged Care Facilities or any other clinics that see multiple patients for Medicare or DVA Bulk Billing.  
              This function can be found in Accounts > Sales, or can be accessed through the patient grid.  

              Contact our Support Team if you would like more information about Multiple Patient Billing.

              Number of Ingredients in Drug Recipes Extended

              For those practices who use Drug Recipes, you may have noticed that the ingredient listing has been extended to 6 ingredients from the previous 4.  This should make life a little easier for all our practices who use this function for comprehensive extemporaneous preparations.   

              This change came about from feedback from a valued customer just like you! 

               

              If you need any help with any of these new features, or any others, then please don’t hesitate to contact our friendly support team via email at support@medirecords.com, on 1300 103 903 or through the chat function on your MediRecords webpage. 

              Megan Harker

              Megan Harker, Support Team Lead

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                A thank-you message from our CEO & Founder, Matthew Galetto

                December 22, 2020

                A thank-you message from our CEO & Founder, Matthew Galetto

                Matthew Galetto MediRecords banner

                Matthew Galetto, CEO & Founder

                In what has been an incredibly challenging year for healthcare workers, I would like to say thank you, on behalf of MediRecords, to all our customers who have played such a key role providing health care during these unprecedented times.

                If there has been one positive to come out of such a difficult year it is perhaps the changes to the MBS that have delivered improved access to healthcare to their regular GP for so many people. The pandemic has forced the need for new models of remote and virtual care, highlighting the importance of the next generation of digital health technology. Technology that is based on industry standards and interoperable through cloud technology. Robust technology that is reliable to access, regardless of the healthcare setting, be it acute, secondary, or primary. We have been privileged to work with our all our partners and customers supporting their response to COVID-19 during 2020. 

                 

                The ability to react and pivot has been a common theme this year. This was most evident when MediRecords was selected by Healthdirect to provide the clinical platform underpinning the National Coronavirus Helpline. I’d like to thank and congratulate not just our team, but also our partners at Healthdirect, VoiceFoundry and AWS for their incredible rapid response to public need, that saw us roll out a solution to thousands of users in a matter of days. And in a year where we have all been personally tested more than we could have predicted, we are privileged to have begun supporting The Blackdog Institute, as they lead the way in mental health research and support.  

                 

                Closer to home, I am delighted our team have continued their excellent work supporting the day-to-day operations of our customers and further developing the MediRecords platform in response to customer feedback and industry need. Highlights include the greatly expanded functionality for specialists, integrations with technology partners that improve the utility of our products and aiding our General Practice users to be even more efficient in delivering care from the clinic or via telehealth. 

                 

                The MediRecords team has rapidly expanded this year to meet an increasing need for digital health technology that is reliable, effective and supports existing and new models of care. Across Sydney and Brisbane our team has doubled in size this year, and this growth shows no sign of slowing down as we continue into 2021. An expanded team will allow us to focus even more on our customer needs.

                 

                A cultural and industry wide shift is taking place in digital healthcare with regards to adoption of cloud technology. Whilst the pandemic may have pressed the accelerator, there is already a clear shift towards new models of virtual care that can only be serviced with modern technology, as evidenced by changes in funding models to drive the adoption of virtual health. Healthcare organizations will continue to have to pivot and adapt to new circumstances and require a configurable, adaptable, and scalable technology to enable this.  

                The devastating news regarding recent outbreaks in NSW in what has already been a very difficult year, look set to continue into early 2021. However, with vaccinations scheduled from March next year we can be optimistic about the future. The way Australians have responded by adhering to social distancing requirements is tremendous, as has been our government’s response. I am encouraged that the vaccination rollout will also be well executed and managed during 2021 allowing us to return to a ‘new’ normal.

                On behalf of the MediRecords team I would like to extend our appreciation for the continued support of our customers.

                Finally, a special call out to front line health workers who are keeping us all safe and well. We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. 

                Matthew Galetto MediRecords banner

                Matthew Galetto, CEO & Founder

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