How many times have you thought “things would be so much more efficient if we had shared electronic health records?”  Australia, now has the My Health Record covering 90% of the population with individual profiles. 

It is proposed that this will improve safety especially for people with chronic and complex health care needs. It could reduce medication mismanagement and duplication of pathology and diagnostic imaging tests and help improve health literacy among the public.  And at the point of care it might prove safer for the previously unseen patient who arrives at emergency unable to say anything about what allergies they have or what medications they’re already on. 

But that’s only if everyone is putting information up there. It’s been a long process getting health providers to upload data the My Health Record routinely, and the uptake differs wildly between primary, secondary and tertiary care. 

In this podcast we visit each of these settings and hear what the different expectations are of this new tool, what are the benefits gained, and how well it fits into the workflow of a consultation. The RACP received support from the Australian Digital Health Agency for production of this podcast.

Guests
A/Professor Nicholas Buckmaster FRACP (Gold Coast University Hospital)
Dr Ron Granot FRACP (East Neurology and Clinical Advisor for Healthshare Digital)  
Professor Meredith Makeham FRAGCP (Chief Medical Adviser Australian Digital Health Agency, Macquarie University)

Production
Written and produced by Mic Cavazzini. Tracks licenced from Epidemic Sound include ‘Far away star’ – Lishiod, ‘Straight out of the basement’ – SINY, ‘Leaving Serengeti’- OOyy, ‘Struck by You’ – Seroa, ‘Little Liberty’ – Paisely Pink. Image courtesy of Australian Digital Health Agency. 

Feedback for this episode was kindly provided by members of the RACP’s Podcast Editorial Group; Ilana Ginges, Paul Cooper, Michael Herd, Marion Leighton, Li-Zsa Tan, Rebecca Grainger, Andrew Whyte, Alan Ngo, Jenae Valk, Joseph Lee, Seema Radhakrishnan, Lisa Mounsey, Phillipa Wormald, Pavan Chandrala, Andrea Knox, Rhiannon Mellor, Atif Slim and Leah Krischock. Thanks also to RACP staff Sandra Dias and Krista Le Claire.

Please visit the RACP website for a transcript embedded with citations. Fellows of the College can claim CPD credits for listening and additional reading.