PATIENTS and health professionals can now track information electronically under a new system spearheaded by Altona North GP Mukesh Haikerwal. But like a phone app, it needs users to gain traction.
Dr Haikerwal is the clinical lead for the National E-health Transition Authority, which is driving a move from “paper warfare” towards electronic technology.
His vision is for all Australians to have electronic health records, which patients and their healthcare team can “read from and write to”.
Initially, it will be a summary record of patients’ health written by their GP.
In time, it could include things like medication, test results, scans, hospital discharge reports and referrals.
While people have been slow to embrace the new system, Dr Haikerwal likened it to when people first started sending faxes and then emails.
“The higher the proportion of Australians on the system, the more useful it is,” he said.
“When I first came [to Altona North 21 years ago] I would find I’d been seeing people and I would do tests on them or have X-rays done and then find out that they’d already had them done somewhere else.
“This is dangerous if it’s an X-ray or unnecessary if it’s another blood test, and certainly expensive for both of them.”
He said electronic files would create an evolving record and patients would not have to remember their histories and repeat the same information each time they went to their GP, specialist or to hospital.
Patients would control what information was shared with whom.
“A restricted access code means your records will only be accessible to practitioners who you nominate,” Dr Haikerwal said.
“You can actually lock down certain documents; for example: ‘I actually don’t want everybody to know that I had cosmetic surgery’.”
More information, ehealthinfo.gov.au
