As the Australian health system upgrades to digital patient records, interoperability has been a hot topic among the leaders in the health IT community. But a recent report from Medical Director¹ shows that practitioners are reluctant to embrace the capabilities of data sharing and interoperability due to a number of concerns. These concerns are not specific to Australia but seen in many regions.

Fears of patient record data breaches

The Australian Digital Health Agency is developing a set of standards for the rollout of interoperable systems across public and private healthcare services Australia-wide. These standards will incorporate data and cyber security measures to protect and enhance the communication between healthcare services, providing patients with end-to-end continuity of care.

Of course, this improved patient care and security model is only effective if clinicians implement and adhere to the full extent of the framework the technology is built around. Interoperability is paramount for security.

Fear of failure

With existing My Health Record regional rollouts already connecting into state hospital electronic health records, we have seen examples of interoperability failure. When primary caregivers are unable to access tertiary care electronic records, this not only creates confusion and frustration in a situation that was supposed to be resolved – it means a new or temporary electronic health system needs to be found, costing providers time, money and personnel.

With all healthcare providers in Australia being required to use My Health Record and electronic medical records for secure communication between practitioners by 2022, time is running out for trial and error approaches.

Fear of change

Learning new systems is always hard. For the clinicians who have grown up in front of a computer screen, learning another program is no big deal. But when the change to a new medical record system means filling out brand new forms and a change to the entire workflow, it can feel like more trouble than it’s worth. Not to mention the training often has to be done on top of 10 or 12-hour shifts.

The solution

Vitro Software’s Digital Medical Record abaits those fears, the solution is designed with the end-user in mind to bring you our range of customised apps, running on the Iguana integration engine to link in with your existing electronic medical records in a fully interoperable system.

The difference with Vitro is that the user interface looks like the paper medical forms you have been using – designed to your workflow, which reduces the time required to train staff. It is suitable for clinicians across the healthcare continuum.

The interoperability of Vitro means the clinicians are able to share the record with other systems that they are already utilising in the care of the patient - both in and outside their immediate care provision setting. This is when the record becomes truly meaningful.

Vitro can be hosted in the cloud, many of our clients choose Microsoft Azure, allowing for easy analysis and filtering across any SQL data set.

See how healthcare organisations have used Vitro Software in their EMR systems.

¹Interoperability in Healthcare, Medical Director. 14 March 2018. www.medicaldirector.com/resources/whitepaper-interoperability-healthcare