Innovation that takes the stigma out of STI testing

The service, Stigma Health, is part of Australia’s largest sexual health network specialising in online STI testing. And it uses MediRecords for patient records, appointment management, Medicare claiming and more.

Stigma Health eliminates embarrassment by removing the need for in-person clinical consultations and allowing consumers to get a non-confrontational STI-test pathology referral online then take it to any of the 10,000 pathology collection centres Australia-wide.

Australian data shows that one in 25 people aged 15-29 had chlamydia in 2021, but fewer than one third received a diagnosis. Additionally, 2,630 Australians are unknowingly living with HIV. Reluctance to be tested is likely to contribute to these statistics.

Stigma recommends STI testing whenever people have a new sexual partner — or every three months.

Founders James Sneddon and Dr. Mitchell Tanner believe strongly in the power of new technology for the greater good.

“We use MediRecords as it is a cloud solution, which is fantastic for our remote workforce,” the CEO, Mr Sneddon, said.

“Further, the MediRecords app is the most secure way to communicate and share results with our patients.

“The SMS-on-demand feature is also a fantastic communication/notification tool.”

Stigma Health has recently introduced telephone and video appointments.

“We are managing these with MediRecords appointments and the COVIU video platform, Mr Sneddon said.

“These appointments also carry Medicare claiming, which is simple with the MediRecords platform.”

“In my role as CEO of our group of clinics, MediRecords allows me operational transparency to understand our capacity, our efficiency and, best of all, our outcomes.

 “MediRecords’ facilitation of APIs and working towards keeping their system open and able to integrate is of huge value to our organisation,” Mr Sneddon said.