MediRecords Wrap-Up 2025
 
 

Wrapping up 2025

A message from our CEO & Founder

December 22, 2025

Matthew Galetto - CEO and Founder

Time to pause and reflect

As the festive season rolls around, it’s a good time to pause and reflect on what’s been a big year for MediRecords. First, a genuine thank you. To our customers who trust MediRecords in busy, high-pressure clinical settings every day. To our partners who continue to back us and build alongside us. And most importantly, to the MediRecords team. The effort and persistence this year has been outstanding. Much of the work wasn’t glamorous, but it mattered. 

Building momentum

2025 has been a year of delivery and execution. We stayed focused on getting the hard things done properly. Closing out complex initiatives. Strengthening the core of the platform. Improved workflow and customer specific use cases, improved performance, and quality across our products.

Many of these milestones have been shared throughout the year on our blog, from major product and analytics improvements, such as Engage & Clarity, to cloud innovation, payments, and the rollout of new AI-powered capabilities that are already helping teams work more efficiently.

A new era for cloud technology

We’re also seeing a clear shift across the health sector. Cloud-first is becoming the default. Cyber, AI and interoperability are no longer optional conversations, including at a government level. 

That direction aligns strongly with where MediRecords has been heading for some time. We’re built on a true cloud foundation, designed to interoperate, and focused on making the patient record more useful rather than more complex.

Expanding our platform with practical AI

This year we expanded our Care, Connect, and Engage strategy with the introduction of Evolve, bringing practical AI into clinical and operational workflows. 

Our focus has been simple: use intelligence where it genuinely helps. Cut down unnecessary steps. Highlight what matters. Help people make clearer decisions with less effort. We believe the patient system of record is the right place for AI to live, and we’re just getting started.

Looking ahead & thank you

Looking ahead, the health technology market is changing quickly, along with how care is being delivered to patients, and it’s an exciting time to be part of it. We’re looking forward to expanding our role in that shift, continuing to work closely with customers and partners, and building technology that is trusted, scalable, and grounded in real-world use.

From all of us at MediRecords, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and best wishes for a safe and well-earned break. Thank you for being part of the journey.

Warm regards, 

Matthew 

More from the Blog

Too many apps on the dancefloor: digital continuity, governance and productivity 101

Two doctors discuss a patient's file over a tablet device.

Too many apps on the dancefloor: digital continuity, governance and productivity 101

26 November 2025

Two doctors discuss a patient's file over a tablet device.

Do we try to sew together a mass of emerging apps to connect and refer up and downstream, or use agile platforms that can connect it all in one system?

Matthew Galetto - Founder and CEO MediRecords

This article was originally published by Health Services Daily on 11 November 2025

The federal government has drawn a line in the sand: since October 2025, pathology providers must upload reports to My Health Record by default, with diagnostic imaging following in February 2026. Medicare benefits are only payable when organisations comply.

That’s just the beginning.

The government is explicitly exploring ways to expand default sharing beyond pathology and diagnostic imaging to other types of key health information, including discharge summaries, specialist letters, and care plans.

It’s not a question of if GP consultations, specialist visits, and allied health services will face the same requirements. It’s when.

 And it’s not just about uploading data. Since 2023, clinical software that connects to My Health Record has been required to meet mandatory security conformance standards.

While the government ultimately stopped short of mandating full Essential Eight compliance (recognising that very few systems would have met the threshold), the direction is clear: minimum cybersecurity standards are coming as a prerequisite for exchanging information with government services, including Medicare.

If your systems can’t demonstrate baseline security resilience, you won’t be connecting to national infrastructure much longer.

A screenshot of the Sales Audit screen within the MediRecords software.

For organisations managing both internal health services and external community referral networks, this integration challenge isn’t theoretical. It’s the difference between being able to answer an auditor’s questions and hoping they don’t dig too deep and it’s a massive potential pivot to or away from productivity.

When audits expose the integration gap

The Australian National Audit Office’s recent audit of Defence health services put numbers to what many already suspected: poor integration between clinical and financial systems made it impossible to reliably track what services were delivered, by whom, or whether claims matched care.

Defence is far from unique.

The same pattern shows up across corporate health services, corrections health, employee assistance programs, and anywhere else an internal health service refers patients to external community providers.

What the audit exposed was that when you refer internally and deliver externally without a unified system, you lose the thread. You can’t track the referral pathway. You can’t validate service delivery. You can’t reconcile the claim back to the original clinical decision.

A specialist and surgeon discuss the details of a patient's referral over a clipboard.

When the referral chain breaks

A patient visits an internal health service. The GP refers to a community specialist. The specialist orders pathology and refers to allied health. Someone else handles the follow-up. Each provider bills separately, through separate systems.

By the time finance tries to reconcile it all, tracking the chain of referrals feels more like forensic investigation than accounting. Clinically coded data lives in one system. Community provider billing happens in another. Medicare bulk bills go through one channel, private providers through another, and DVA or other contracted arrangements follow their own logic entirely.

When something doesn’t add up (and it often doesn’t), you’re left hunting through emails, spreadsheets, and disparate databases trying to reverse-engineer what actually happened.

 For organisations with duty-of-care obligations, where you’re responsible for health outcomes even when care is delivered externally, that lack of visibility is a significant governance failure. But it’s one we’ve largely lived with because our systems haven’t been sophisticated enough to cope with the problem.

However, now that we can contemplate a system that doesn’t just connect these elements but in doing so also creates an audit trail, it’s not just governance people should be thinking about. It’s productivity.

How much money and workforce productivity will start to emerge in our healthcare system when we start properly joining up all the elements of referral, clinical record, booking and invoicing, in real time?

We are literally talking in the billions. Yet it’s something people haven’t largely even contemplated in the current digital transformation of our healthcare system … yet.

How it should work

If your internal health service already uses a platform that manages referrals, clinical documentation, billing, and compliance, extending that same platform to community providers creates an unbroken chain of accountability from initial consultation to final payment.

Internal service creates a referral. The system captures the clinical justification, authorised services, and any service limits. The community provider receives the referral, accesses the same system, sees the referral context, and documents their service delivery. Service is coded and billed. The system automatically validates that the service matches the referral authorisation. Finance reconciles in real-time. Because everything lives in one system, there’s nothing to reconcile manually.

Every action connects to the one before it. The audit trail is automatic. The organisation maintains visibility and governance over care delivered externally, without sacrificing provider autonomy.

But the system pay-off is in productivity of the provider and the patient. Literally millions of hours not wasted in trying to connect the dots on payments, invoicing and bookings.

The pay-off is for everyone but providers will need to be able to extend the system they use internally to their external provider network.

Some systems today are starting to claim they can do this. But most only offer elements of solving the problem.

A cloud-based e-referral system, for instance, is neat but it can’t seamlessly integrate to bookings and invoicing in a line to create a single audit trail and set of invoices. These are nice-to-have new elements but they are essentially modern versions of the old SMD systems.

Solving the referral-to-community problem

Forgive me here but I’m going to talk about the one system I’m involved with, MediRecords. I’m doing this because I know it so well, it provides a great example of what is achievable if you are able to extend your system seamlessly to external provider networks and, well, I’m selling it, obviously.

Surprisingly, given the seismic productivity gains on offer for both patients and providers, systems like MediRecords – essentially an FHIR-enabled cloud-based EMR with lots of good APIs – are, so far, few and far between in Australia.

For a long time the government has not really incentivised cloud-based connectivity in Australia with the result that many old server-bound integrations have been able persist a long time in the system.

Other cloud-based systems like MediRecords with longitudinal system connectivity capability do exist, but I’ll let you do that research.

What’s important is these new core cloud systems are agile in their ability to connect and share data in real time with other systems, which is auditable and which, because of the flexibility of connection, provides the ability for all elements of a single patient transaction to be captured and processed.

Where MediRecords is already deployed as the core system for internal health services, extending it to community providers means those providers gain access to the same platform, but with appropriate scope limits and data access controls.

A community GP sees only their own patients and referrals, but the referring organisation maintains oversight across the entire care pathway.

The platform handles referral management with structured referrals including clinical context, service authorisation, and validity periods. It manages multidisciplinary workflows with different claiming rules for GPs, specialists, allied health, pathology, and imaging. Real-time compliance happens automatically, validating services against referral authorisations and payor rules. And every referral, service, and claim comes with audit trails that prove clinical appropriateness.

For enterprise and community networks managing dozens of sites and hundreds of external providers, dashboards show where referrals are flowing, where services are getting stuck, and where revenue patterns don’t match clinical expectations.

Meeting regulatory standards

MediRecords supports FHIR and OntoServer standards, integrates with national infrastructure via secure messaging, and stores the structured data required for My Health Record uploads.

Under the hood, MediRecords is built with double-entry accounting, a general ledger, and full journal management. This provides the financial backbone that government finance departments and enterprise systems require.

The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing’s Compliance Strategy 2025-30 makes it clear: data integrity includes cybersecurity.

MediRecords’ cloud-native architecture aligns clinical and financial assurance with enterprise-grade security. For organisations evaluating community provider networks, that means one less integration risk and one less compliance gap.

The trade-off: Integration v independence

When you’re managing thousands of services, including external referrals across hundreds of providers, manual review is almost impossible.

Some advanced providers, MediRecords being one of them, are exploring how artificial intelligence can automatically identify, link, and map services to item codes, validate claims against payor rules (whether government, insurer, or contract-based) and flag services that don’t match referral authorisations.

That means fewer manual audits, faster reconciliation, and better confidence that community providers are claiming appropriately. The result is a platform that doesn’t just capture data. It learns from patterns and helps organisations maintain governance without drowning in manual review.

What comes next

Health reform is heading in one direction: integration, data sharing, accountability and significant productivity gains, particularly in the area of workforce.

Organisations responsible for health outcomes are being asked to demonstrate traceability even when care is delivered externally and solve their productivity and workforce issues. That’s now just not feasible with legacy systems: when internal services and external providers use completely different platforms.

The path forward isn’t more integration layers, one-off cloud-based connection applications or complex data feeds. It’s system continuity.

Using the same platform internally and externally, so that clinical accountability, financial governance, and regulatory compliance flow naturally across organisational boundaries.

For organisations already using MediRecords internally, extending it to community providers isn’t just the path of least resistance. It’s the path of greatest assurance and productivity.

Connected care, credible claims, real compliance and generationally impactful productivity gains.

That’s what modern health governance and productivity looks like when care crosses organisational lines, which more and more these days it must if we are to manage a system rapidly moving to team based chronic care management.

More from the Blog

Is cloud technology the new necessity for innovation and productivity in digital health?

Is cloud technology the new necessity for innovation and productivity in digital health?

Is cloud technology the new necessity for innovation and productivity in digital health?

September 23, 2025

What a difference the cloud makes - why GPs need to look up when seeking software
Matthew Galetto - Founder and CEO MediRecords

Ask anyone working in digital health today, particularly those investing or looking for solutions to support new models of care, and they’ll tell you: all innovation is happening in the cloud. From startups launching AI diagnostic tools, coding agents, and voice assistants for booking and admin, to government projects aimed at connecting national health systems, everything modern is being built on cloud infrastructure.

Cloud is no longer a technology trend. It is the new normal.

At MediRecords, we see this shift as driven by more than convenience or cost-cutting. It is structural, it is inevitable, and it is being driven by real demand and expectations from service providers, clinicians, and most importantly, patients. In 2025, cloud-based technology has become the clearest signal of innovation in healthcare and the most practical way to achieve the productivity gains the system so urgently needs.

Whether you are a startup, a health service, or a government agency, cloud is no longer a nice-to-have. It is the bare minimum, and every new dollar of investment is chasing it.

Why cloud matters in digital health

The cloud is not just another way to host software. It is a different way to build, deliver, and keep improving it. Here’s why cloud-native solutions are leading the way:

  • Real interoperability: National health infrastructure is API-based, and that is where the future is heading. My Health Record, IHI, Provider Connect Australia, and the Service Locator are all part of an API ecosystem. Cloud-native systems are built to plug into these environments seamlessly, supporting information sharing at the point of care with the reliability and resilience of cloud hosting.
  • AI enablement: From clinical decision support to smart assistants and summarisation tools, AI runs best where it was designed to, on the cloud. Cloud makes AI scalable, secure, and accessible without the need for costly hardware. At the Medical Software Industry Association (MSIA) forum in July, AI was called out as both an opportunity and a risk. AI scribes, triage tools and predictive analytics are recognised as critical enablers of safety and efficiency, but there are also new cyber threats, with attackers using generative tools to launch sophisticated campaigns. Cloud platforms offer the enterprise-grade security, zero-trust frameworks and rapid patching that healthcare now requires.
  • Data-driven care: Cloud platforms unlock live analytics and reporting that go far beyond static PDFs or siloed spreadsheets. Think population health insights, service delivery metrics, and predictive alerts, available in real time.
  • Lower overheads: No servers to manage and no on-site maintenance. Cloud reduces the total cost of ownership while accelerating change. Less drag, more delivery.
  • Always up to date: Continuous upgrades mean your platform improves every few weeks, not every few years. That is the speed clinicians and patients expect today.
  • Productivity through scale and innovation: Cloud is not just about what is possible today, it is about what becomes possible tomorrow. From smarter workflows and automation to seamless integrations and flexible deployment models, cloud platforms open new ways of working. Providers can scale efficiently, deploy services faster, and deliver care in ways that traditional systems cannot support.

Cloud as the productivity engine

The recent MSIA conference sharpened this focus. Digital health reform is no longer about modernisation for its own sake; it is about driving system-wide productivity. Rising demand, workforce shortages and growing administrative burden mean the health system must deliver more with less.

Cloud-native platforms, built on FHIR standards and national interoperability, enable real-time data sharing, automation and AI in ways that reduce duplication, shorten wait times, and free up clinicians for patient care.

Seen this way, cloud is more than a proxy for innovation. It is the engine of productivity. In health, innovation and productivity are inseparable. Innovation that does not deliver productivity will not scale, and productivity gains without innovation will stall.

Government signals: Cloud as a strategic pillar

The federal government’s Sharing by Default Act 2025 is a milestone, requiring pathology and diagnostic imaging results to flow automatically into My Health Record. The upcoming National Digital Medicines Strategy (2025–2030) will go further, embedding interoperable, cloud-enabled medicines management into the foundations of the system.

Policy language now makes it clear: “information sharing by default, near real time, at the point of care” is the goal. That is only achievable with cloud-native systems that speak fluent API.

Procurement patterns are already shifting. It is increasingly difficult to win a government contract or even make it to tender without being cloud-enabled.

Clinicians are also driving this change. Next-generation doctors are digital natives. They expect intuitive, mobile-responsive, fast-evolving tools that feel more like Spotify or Canva than clunky desktop software. Patients expect the same: digital front doors, secure portals to access personal information, cost transparency, and notifications that help them manage their care.

Investment dollars also tell the story. Every new venture-backed digital health company in Australia is building for the cloud. There is simply no appetite to fund new on-premise apps.

Finally, security is no longer a barrier to cloud, it is a benefit. Cloud platforms provide enterprise-grade security, encrypted communications, and high availability that far exceed what most local deployments can offer. In today’s environment, cloud has become the safer, more resilient choice.

Evidence that digital maturity and connected systems delivers results

The evidence for digital transformation in Australia is compelling.

  • Queensland’s transition to integrated digital hospitals achieved a 40% reduction in medication incidents and a 70% reduction in prescribing errors. 
  • Digital-first cardiac rehabilitation programs have demonstrated up to 71% reductions in readmission bed days, proving that connected care can improve outcomes and reduce costs. 
  • Studies of digital maturity in Queensland health services show that higher-maturity, interoperable systems are associated with better patient experience, improved staff satisfaction, and perceptions of safer care. 

Cloud as the path to digital maturity

These improvements arise from digital maturity, not hosting models alone. But cloud is increasingly the only realistic way to achieve and sustain that maturity at scale. Recent Australian examples demonstrate the benefits. NSW Health’s migration of clinical applications to AWS Cloud improved application performance, halved the time to deploy new environments, and freed clinicians from manual IT work. A trans-Tasman review of 66 cloud-enabled healthcare use cases found consistent gains in productivity, patient access, and system equity. And in community pharmacy, electronic prescribing and digital medication records, often delivered via cloud platforms, have streamlined workflows and improved medication safety.

Cloud does not just enable new technology; it provides the structural resilience, interoperability, and scalability that allow digital systems to deliver measurable improvements in outcomes and efficiency.

MediRecords: A case study in cloud-driven innovation

MediRecords was built in the cloud from day one, not retrofitted or migrated. That foundation lets us partner with the most forward-thinking health programs, providers, and digital vendors across the country.

We are already helping modern care models take shape:

  • Telehealth providers using MediRecords to deliver digital-first consultations without legacy drag.
  • AI partners are integrating with our APIs to provide summarisation, smart triage, and workflow automation.
  • Analytics through our soon-to-be-released Clarity module, giving providers real-time insights into service usage, clinician performance, and patient outcomes.

We connect natively with Australia’s API-based government digital infrastructure, ensuring our customers can operate seamlessly across national systems. Our containerised implementation of OntoServer (CSIRO’s terminology server) provides scalable clinical decision support and structured interoperability as a managed service.

Just as importantly, our open APIs empower healthcare organisations to shape their own digital future by connecting enterprise systems, building digital front doors for patients, and innovating beyond the clinic walls.

Conclusion: The cloud test

If you are evaluating a new digital health solution, whether it’s practice management, patient engagement, analytics or anything related, ask this first: is it cloud-native?

If not, it is already out of step with:

  • Where government policy is going
  • Where clinicians and patients expect to be
  • Where investment dollars are flowing

In 2025, cloud is not just infrastructure. It is the benchmark for innovation and productivity in digital health.

In healthcare, innovation that does not deliver productivity is unsustainable. Productivity gains without innovation pathways, quickly erode. Cloud is where the two converge, and where the future of healthcare is being built.

References

  1. Queensland Health. Digital Hospital Benefits Realisation Report. Cited in MSIA, 2021.
  2. Neubeck L, et al. Digital cardiac rehabilitation: systematic review and meta-analysis. Eur J Prev Cardiol. 2020.
  3. Woodruffe S, et al.  Effects of a digitally enabled cardiac rehabilitation intervention on risk factors, recurrent hospitalization and mortality: a randomized controlled trial. European Heart Journal – Digital Health. 2025
  4. Adler-Milstein J, et al. Evaluating Digital Health Capability at Scale Using the Digital Health Indicator. Appl Clin Inform. 2021.
  5. Thiru K, et al. Perceived Impact of Digital Health Maturity on Patient and Staff Experience in Queensland. Int J Med Inform. 2023.
  6. eHealth NSW. Case Study: Clinical Applications Migrated to AWS Cloud. 2022.
  7. AWS Institute. Benefits of Cloud-Enabled Healthcare in Australia & New Zealand. 2022.
  8. Hussain R, et al. Electronic health records and e-prescribing in Australian community pharmacies. Int J Med Inform. 2024.

More from the Blog

Keeping it real: Artificial Intelligence to dominate digital health-tech in 2024

January 11, 2024

Keeping it real: Artificial Intelligence to dominate digital health-tech in 2024

Twelve months ago, MediRecords made eight predictions about health-tech trends to watch in 2023. While we weren’t too far off the mark, it’s fair to say some of these emerging trends are still, well, trending. Nonetheless, as we welcome 2024, it’s time to look forward again.

 

Any health-tech pundit will have two words for you in 2024: Artificial Intelligence. This is because the AI genie is out of the bottle. The race is on to use this nascent technology in healthcare so that it is safe, secure, accurate, and unbiased. Here are some of the ways AI is being deployed — or will be:

Smart notes: Using AI assistants to translate consultations into clinical notes should mean less administration and more time for person-centred care. This doesn’t mean the AI is diagnostic, just smart enough to summarise a conversation into pertinent points, after listening to a telehealth or in-person appointment

Data-driven decisions: No two patients are exactly the same but algorithms can detect patterns across thousands of previous cases and predict the statistically most likely path forward. This will be the basis for health coaching, chronic disease and other illness management programs, hopefully providing timely information at ‘teachable’ moments that can alter and optimise patient outcomes.

Handy insights: Your handheld device or wearable is likely to know things about you before anyone else. How hard you tap the screen, your vocabulary, tone of voice, gait, facial expression, skin tone, heart rate, respiration, perspiration and oxygen saturation are signposts to your mental and physical health. Combining these data points will enable earlier interventions. Imagine how powerful this could be for triggering a call to a clinician or counsellor when a patient needs help or reminding someone to take their medication.

Getting under your skin: A drop of blood, a lick of saliva and other bodily fluid samples can help you find long lost relatives but also medications that work better for you and foods that make the orchestra in your gut microbiome play in tune. Consumer kits for quicker insights into fertility, fitness, faeces and more, will become readily available.

Coming to your sensors: Data will be harvested from sources including your phone camera, your clothing (See This AI-Powered Sock Could Revolutionize the Care of People With Dementia | Tech Times) and even your toilet (See This Futuristic Toilet Sensor Reads Your Pee to Measure Health – CNET). If it can be measured, it will be.

Next available: As competition for healthcare-consumer dollars increases, buyer power is boosted. Consumers will expect Uber-style technology to find the next available appointment and have their results and medications delivered, pronto. If funding and regulatory hurdles can be leaped, healthcare could potentially be delivered globally.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Speaking of regulations, there’s much anticipation associated with the Federal Government’s recently released Digital Health Blueprint for the next decade; see:

The Digital Health Blueprint and Action Plan 2023–2033 | Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care). A key commitment is that personal health data is available and interoperable – in other words useable — wherever you need care. MediRecords is actively involved in the Sparked community developing core national standards for FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources). We look forward to Federal incentives for adherence to new industry-wide data models so that healthcare organisations can seamlessly share information.

Looking within

The acclaimed US science-fiction author Ray Bradbury had the following to say about predicting the future: “Predicting the future is much too easy… You look at the people around you, the street you stand on, the visible air you breathe, and predict more of the same. To hell with more. I want better.”

This sentiment is central to MediRecords’ digital health wish list for 2024. We understand the job is never finished. Health tech can never stop striving to do things better, smarter and safer. MediRecords is building next-generation, cloud-connected healthcare. We can confidently predict we’ll be sharing major new product enhancements in coming months.

About MediRecords

MediRecords is Australia’s leading cloud electronic health record and patient management system. MediRecords is used by clinicians providing outpatient and inpatient care in community health, Defence, hospitals, emergency medicine, industry, universities, and telemedicine.

References

“Tremendous emerging demand”: The security and data challenge in Australian healthcare – Cloud – Digital – Security – CRN Australia

AI May Be on Its Way to Your Doctor’s Office, But It’s Not Ready to See Patients – KFF Health News

Amazon Health Launches New Initiative To Address Chronic Conditions (forbes.com)

Cardiology has embraced AI more than most other specialties (cardiovascularbusiness.com)

Health technology in 2024: Projections for AI, digital health, and more (chiefhealthcareexecutive.com)

Use Technology to Support Your Clinicians | HealthLeaders Media

Why Providence had to ‘blow up’ the old way of providing care with virtual nursing (beckershospitalreview.com)

https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/addiction-recovery-provider-sees-success-ai-enabled-telehealth-meds-monitoring

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/disruptors/google-says-medical-ai-tool-is-performing-at-an-expert-level.html

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/digital-health/new-apple-headset-coming-in-february-could-be-used-by-hospitals.html

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/innovation/a-recipe-for-magic-how-baptist-health-is-infusing-ai-into-all-levels-of-care.html

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/healthcare-information-technology/mayo-clinic-inks-multimillion-dollar-deal-with-ai-startup.html

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/telehealth/is-virtual-nursing-overstated.html

https://www.pulseit.news/australian-digital-health/ifhima-2023-digital-health-adoption-in-primary-care-and-the-covid-effect/

https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/how-ai-powered-clinical-notes-api-could-boost-telehealth

https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/why-ai-will-never-eliminate-need-pharmacists

More from the Blog

Looking to stay updated with the latest from MediRecords?

Sign up to the newsletter

    Eight reasons to embrace cloud technology in healthcare
     

    October, 2023

    Eight reasons to embrace cloud technology in healthcare

    We’ve done the maths. But saving $600K in ten years is just one good reason to switch to the cloud.

    In today’s fast-paced world, healthcare needs to be as efficient and technologically advanced as any other sector. This doesn’t mean adopting the latest technology for the sake of it. It does mean delivering 21st-century healthcare and, by doing it right, reaping substantial, long-term cost savings, and significant workplace and environmental benefits.
    Here are eight reasons why cloud technology is essential to healthcare:

    1. Interoperability is the future
    Interoperability isn’t just a passing trend. Governments worldwide are moving towards legislating information sharing by default and cloud technology ensures real-time information exchange at the point of care. In contrast, non-cloud technologies, including cloud-bridging platforms, introduce multiple risks ranging from data integrity to security and governance issues. Cloud-based EHRs (Electronic Health Records) provide superior interoperability, enabling more coordinated and integrated care.

    2. Cloud technology drives operational efficiency
    From minimised IT overheads to consolidation of services and identity management, cloud technology reshapes how businesses operate. It offers universal access, strengthens data security, supports single source systems, and much more. Adopting the cloud doesn’t just mean upgrading technology; it enables overhauling and enhancing the operational fabric of your organisation.

    3. Unparalleled scalability with cloud solutions
    The adaptability of cloud applications is noteworthy. In a landscape that’s continuously evolving, cloud-based solutions can adeptly manage unpredictable usage patterns, support multi-party usage, and adapt to regulatory changes swiftly. With unparalleled scalability, cloud solutions are equipped to handle increasing data volumes, user counts, and evolving stakeholder needs.

    4. Cost Analysis: Cloud vs. on-premise
    When it comes to the financial aspects of healthcare, cloud solutions offer undeniable benefits. Consider the following costs associated with cloud and on-premise solutions. 

    Click here to view the below table in a new window.

    5. Adapting to the casualised workforce trend
    The post-pandemic period has witnessed a shift towards a more casualised healthcare workforce. The burgeoning telemedicine sector, and changing economic circumstances, have resulted in more flexible work arrangements. Digital platforms are bolstering this change, fostering work-from-anywhere telecommuting and freelance opportunities. Cloud technology stands at the crux of these changing workforce trends, ensuring seamless transitions and facilitating innovative care models for healthcare providers and consumers.

    6. Meeting patient expectations in the post-Covid era
    The Covid-19 pandemic reshaped many sectors, and healthcare wasn’t exempt. Nowadays, patients anticipate digital solutions such as online appointment bookings, e-prescriptions, and quick access to telemedicine. Beyond the functional solutions, they also expect a personalised touch to their care, and more involvement in decision-making. Digital healthcare, powered by cloud technology, enables safety improvements, real-time access to information, and an enhanced patient experience.

    7. Environmental benefits
    According to research, cloud computing can decrease carbon emissions by approximately 60%-70%. This not only reflects more sustainable utilisation of resources like water, but also effective management of waste products when decommissioning hardware. As opposed to traditional data centers, cloud data centers are known to be significantly more energy efficient. [1,2] Transition to the cloud means reducing the carbon footprint of your health business.

    8. Virtual care: The way forward
    With virtual care rising in popularity, especially in Australia, integrated patient data systems are crucial. Cloud-based EHR solutions offer healthcare providers location-agnostic access to patient data, ensuring comprehensive care, whether provided remotely or in-clinic.

    In summary, the transition to cloud technology in the healthcare sector isn’t just a tech upgrade; it’s a holistic approach to meeting modern business challenges head-on. Furthermore, the estimated costs savings over a 10-year period for a 10-doctor practice is over $600,000, not to mention the environmental benefits and peace of mind that come with outsourcing operations to a trusted partner.

    Whether you’re a startup or an established player, it’s time to harness the power of the cloud.

    [1] https://sustainability.aboutamazon.com/products-services/the-cloud?energyType=true

    [2] https://aws.amazon.com/executive-insights/content/fighting-climate-change-with-the-cloud/

    This article was written by MediRecords CEO & Founder Matthew Galetto, and originally published by Health Services Daily and The Medical Republic.

    More from the Blog

    Looking to stay updated with the latest from MediRecords?

    Sign up to the newsletter

      A clinician’s MediRecords odyssey: unveiling efficient, mobile aged care medicine

      October 23, 2023

      A clinician's MediRecords odyssey: unveiling efficient, mobile aged care medicine

      Here’s the latest in our series on how people use MediRecords. In this Q & A, Dr Gaveen Jayarajan explains why he made the switch to the cloud and MediRecords to power his Doctors in Aged Care mobile medical practice.

      Tell us a bit about your practice.

      I operate the Doctors in Aged Care mobile GP service that visits residents at several Residential Aged Care Facilities (RACFs) throughout metropolitan Melbourne. Our service exclusively does RACF work and is fully mobile and virtual; we see residents in their homes every week. We are committed to excellence in medical care of the elderly using innovative, non-traditional/hybrid approaches to healthcare service delivery.

      Associated with our medical practice, I have built the Doctors in Aged Care (DiAC) Facebook group, which is a community of over 2300 doctors Australia-wide.

      Please contrast MediRecords with the system you used prior to using MediRecords.

      I had used all the common GP clinical and practice management systems working as a GP in medical centres for the previous eight years. Usually clinics would use two different programs, one for clinical use and one for practice management (i.e., appointments/billing/claiming/reporting). When I started working full-time in aged care, I used a popular GP clinical software system which was server-based. This worked okay in a medical centre but was not well suited to mobile work visiting RACFs.

      As a doctor working in a challenging and inefficient setting, I urgently needed a reliable and stable solution. Hence my move to a cloud-based alternative, MediRecords.

      My initial apprehension with using a cloud system was what happens if internet speed and connection were unreliable? To my surprise this was a non-issue. Using mobile broadband devices, which now give NBN-type speeds in some locations, internet speed was not an issue. I could also use my mobile phone as a Hotspot if needed.

      MediRecords is an all-in-one, integrated clinical and practice management system. So, from a single browser window I could access the clinical functions I needed as well as seamlessly view my appointment book, create new appointments, perform billings, view current Medicare claims in progress, and generate reports for total invoices/billings over any time period.

      The third change was no longer having to engage and deal with a third-party IT service provider. Now all of this was handled in the background automatically; updates are   installed remotely with no disruption or major technical issues.

      How does MediRecords enhance your efficiency?

      I use the MediRecords appointment book as a key tool to manage my workload, maximise efficiency and provide proactive rather than reactive care.

      Every time a phone, email or fax request is received to review a patient, the patient’s name is entered into the appointment book for the next weekly visit day (or on the day of request if urgent) with an appointment type depending on the nature of the issue. It could be a “Regular” appointment or classified as for example, “Urgent’’, “Vaccine”, “Wound Review”, “Post-fall Review”, “Health Assessment”, “Phone Consultation”, etc. MediRecords allows multiple appointment types and durations to be created. Every time a patient is seen, a follow-up appointment is also made at an appropriate interval. When done for every patient, I can see with reasonable accuracy what my workload will be like. Unplanned extra patients, or “walk-ins”, can be added to the daily schedule depending on demand that day.

      We further enhance our scheduled care by using the recalls or “Clinical Actions” function. For every new patient we have recalls for core things relating to Medicare item numbers and due dates, e.g., Health Assessments, Residential Medication Management Reviews and Care Plan Contributions.

      Also useful for efficiency is the Tagging feature. I use Tags, along with another existing MediRecords feature of doing multiple patient invoices at once, to reduce the time taken to process daily billings to under five minutes.

      Another recent improvement has come with my API integration of MediRecords with Snapforms. Using Snapforms I created a “New Patient Details Form”. Now when a RACF asks me to take on a new patient, I email them a cloud-based form with a URL link. They complete all new patient details, attach a recent patient health summary or hospital discharge summary and a current medication list. After they hit submit, something magical happens! A new patient file is created in MediRecords with the key demographic data already populated, and a PDF copy of the form and any uploaded health summary or discharge summary and medication lists stored in the Correspondence IN tab in the patient file.

      I use MediRecords on multiple devices including my Surface Laptop, Samsung Galaxy tablet and Samsung Z-Fold 5 mobile phone.

      How does MediRecords enhance patient care?

      MediRecords allows me to operate with the lowest and leanest cost base and make it financially viable and sustainable for the long-term. It enables me to maintain safe and high standards of care that are consistent, repeatable and maximise quality of life for patients.

      What are your tips for people considering changing to MediRecords?

      Have a clear idea and rationale for why you want to move to the cloud.

      It can’t just be about saving money on software subscription costs or on upgrading or buying a new server. Independent GPs working at your practice will not be interested in this. Show them a way forward with a big picture view of how moving to the cloud can change the way they deliver healthcare, creating benefits they are not currently experiencing. Avoid trying to replicate like-for-like every feature of server-based software.

      What are you looking forward to with MediRecords in the future?

      The efficiencies we have been able to achieve by using cloud-based software have been done with an intense focus on optimising processes and managing costs – and without Artificial Intelligence (AI). We look forward to incorporating AI to further drive efficiency and improve patient care standards by automating more administrative processes and providing advanced clinical decision support and insights.

      If you’d like to showcase innovative ways you use MediRecords in healthcare, please reach out to us via [email protected].

      Dr Gaveen Jayarajan is an investor and member of the MediRecords Medical Advisory Board.  

      Read more about Doctors in Aged Care on their website.  

      More from the Blog

      Looking to stay updated with the latest from MediRecords?

      Sign up to the newsletter

        Head in the cloud: embracing cloud technology for virtual care

        August 29, 2023

        Case study

        Head in the cloud: embracing cloud technology for virtual care

        A case study on how MediRecords helped Doctors on Demand embrace cloud technology for virtual care. 

        At the international MedInfo conference in Sydney, MediRecords had the pleasure of leading a panel with key client Doctors on Demand. The focus of the session was managing the transition from legacy server-based software to MediRecords’ cloud-based technology.

        MediRecords Group Manager of Customer Success, Michael Alldrick, and Doctors on Demand Director of Governance and Programs Amanda Yeates, discussed the challenges of server-based software for virtual care businesses, the process of changing to the cloud, and benefits that have flowed from making the move. For those who could not attend, here are some highlights from their conversation.

        Doctors on Demand Overview

        Michael: Before we delve into the details, let’s start with an overview of Doctors on Demand and the services the company provides.

        Amanda: Doctors on Demand is a virtual healthcare service provider that connects patients to doctors through video conferencing. We prioritise technology, and our 100% remote workforce allows patients to access healthcare from anywhere. Initially, we faced challenges with our on-premise practice management software, which was retrofitted to meet our needs. However, as we grew, it became clear that a more seamless and scalable solution was required, leading us to explore cloud-based options like MediRecords.

        Michael: The limited options for cloud-based technology in 2015 necessitated careful consideration. Can you explain the challenges faced during the transition and the decisions that led to embracing a cloud-based solution?

        Amanda: Certainly. We established virtual servers to provide remote desktop access for our doctors, enabling them to access clinical information about patients. However, this setup created a complex workflow, where doctors had to toggle between their own desktops and the virtual server, leading to inefficiencies and scalability issues. We needed a seamless solution where doctors could access patient data anytime with an internet connection. After surveying the market, we chose MediRecords as the cloud-based system that aligned with our requirements.

        Data migration and maintaining continuity of care

        Michael: Moving from an existing system to a new one while maintaining patient continuity of care is critical. MediRecords placed a lot of emphasis on this and worked hard to ensure complete patient record and appointment history was migrated. How did you feel about this process and was it enough to ensure a smooth transition into a new system?

        Amanda: The data migration process was complex due to the extensive amount of data accumulated over the years. We worked closely with MediRecords’ data migration team, implementing a phased approach to ensure minimal disruption to our 24/7 service. We started with a few doctors, gradually migrating data in tranches. Our collaboration with MediRecords ensured that the data was accurately represented in the new system. Despite the size of our clinical workforce, we managed to complete the transition within a few weeks, thanks to MediRecords’ support and training resources.

        Cost savings and streamlined operations through cloud technology

        Michael: During your transition to MediRecords’ Doctors on Demand achieved substantial cost savings by eliminating the need for a dedicated IT team to manage your previous complex on-premise system. Can you elaborate on how this switch streamlined your operations and led to significant improvements in efficiency?

        Amanda: Certainly, Michael. The move to a cloud-based solution with MediRecords was a game-changer for us. As mentioned, we had previously set up virtual servers to provide remote desktop access for our doctors, which introduced complex workflows leading to inefficiencies and scalability issues. With MediRecords’ cloud technology, and the ability to access patient data anytime and anywhere, we eliminated the need for a dedicated IT team to manage our previous on-premise infrastructure. The cloud-based solution is more user-friendly and requires minimal maintenance. The API integration also played a crucial role in automating tasks, reducing administrative overhead, and saving on operational costs. Thanks to these cost savings, we could reallocate resources to enhance our virtual care services, expand our offerings, and pursue future growth opportunities, creating a more sustainable and efficient healthcare model for Doctors on Demand.

        Harnessing the power of cloud and APIs

        Michael: Embracing cloud technology can significantly impact workflows and patient care. How has the integration of MediRecords Connect API service supported your doctors and users, and how does it enhance your current workflow?

        Amanda: As a patient-driven service, it was crucial for us to have real-time access to clinical data during consultations. MediRecords facilitated this through API integration, enabling data to seamlessly flow into our practice management software. Doctors now have immediate access to essential patient information during consultations. Additionally, our administrative team can enter doctor schedules in MediRecords, which are promptly reflected on our website. The two-way communication facilitated by APIs streamlines our operations and enhances patient care. 

        Future growth and advancements

        Michael: Doctors on Demand has shown progress in corporate health, private insurance, and other areas. What are Doctors on Demands future plans, and how does the company envision growing its services?

        Amanda: Like many health tech companies, we have an ambitious pipeline of work for the coming months and years. In the next financial year, we plan to focus on mental health services, providing virtual primary care and mental health care plans. Additionally, we aim to strengthen our partnerships with corporate entities, leveraging the advantages offered by MediRecords’ 2.0 interface. This new interface will enhance patient communication capabilities, including email and demand management.

        Michael: Exciting times ahead! Lastly, based on Doctors on Demand’s experience and decision-making process, what advice would you give to organisations considering new technologies to future-proof their businesses?

        Amanda: Making the transition to new technologies can be challenging, but it’s crucial for scalability and growth. As an organisation, we were determined to embrace change. Education, support, and collaboration were key in successfully navigating this journey. MediRecords’ training resources, webinars, and live chat support played a significant role. Despite the initial resistance to change, we managed to onboard our large clinical workforce within weeks. So, I would encourage organisations to thoroughly assess their needs, seek support, and embrace new technologies for long-term success.

        Conclusion

        The collaboration between Doctors on Demand and MediRecords highlights the positive impact of cloud technology on virtual healthcare services. By migrating from a legacy server-based solution to MediRecords’ cloud-based system, Doctors on Demand overcame challenges, improved workflows, reduced costs, streamlined operations and enhanced patient care. The seamless data migration, ongoing support, and future growth plans demonstrate the successful transformation enabled by embracing cloud technology for virtual care. 

        Read more about Doctors on Demand on their website.  

        More from the Blog

        Looking to stay updated with the latest from MediRecords?

        Sign up to the newsletter