This popped up last week:
https://www.digitalhealth.gov.au/news-and-events/news/media-release-my-health-record-sees-a-62-per-cent-increase-in-general-practitioners-viewing-documents
Media Release: My Health Record sees a 62 per cent increase in general practitioners viewing documents
Created on Monday, 23 December 2019
According to data released by the Australian Digital Health Agency (the Agency), general practices increasingly lead the way in using My Health Record, with usage (viewing and uploading) rising substantially since March 2019.
In data released in December as part of a refreshed My Health Record statistics dashboard, general practices averaged around 200,000 My Health Record views per month throughout September and October, a 62 per cent increase since March this year.
- Since March, monthly cross-organisation views have increased by 140 per cent.
- General practices are viewing the most documents uploaded by other healthcare providers, and the documents they upload are most frequently viewed by other healthcare providers (including other general practices).
- 90 per cent cent of general practices are registered for My Health Record, with 71 per cent using the system as at November 2019.
- General practices are one of the leading healthcare provider groups in both registration and usage, along with pharmacies (90 per cent registered and 69 per cent using) and public hospitals (94 per cent of beds registered).
- General practices also upload between 2 and 3 million documents to the system every month.
Dr Harry Nespolon, President of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, said general practitioners may be more inclined to use My Health Record because of the nature of their work.
“Many general practitioners are treating patients with complex or chronic conditions, so they need to be able to make decisions that are informed by a wider view of a patient’s health.
“Further, general practitioners tend to facilitate patients’ interaction with the health system as a whole, so they may be quicker to look for information from other healthcare professionals,” said Dr Nespolon.
Using My Health Record allows general practitioners to access and contribute to a digital summary of their patients’ previous diagnoses, outcomes, medications, reactions and allergies. But My Health Record can also directly empower health consumers, too.
That was the case for Corey, a 24-year-old man who was once under the care of a pain specialist and was prescribed a complex medication regimen. “I was on a lot of medications, many of which made my memory far more unreliable,” says Corey. “During this time, I used the medications list on My Health Record to help me remember which medications to take and when. There was also a section where you could keep your own notes, which I used to keep questions to ask my doctors.”
Even though Corey is no longer taking medication that impacts his memory, he’s still using My Health Record to take a more active role in managing his health with his regular general practitioner and two specialists.
“I still find the pathology results section useful for getting my results and reviewing them before seeing my doctors, which often helps me to assess and question the information being given to me. After discussion, I sometimes make requests based on what I believe will work best for me. My doctors sometimes accept those requests, other times they’ll recommend alternatives,” Corey said.
The Agency will regularly release statistics offering more detailed insights into how healthcare provider organisations and consumers are engaging with My Health Record.
Professor Meredith Makeham, the Agency’s Chief Medical Adviser, noted “While registration is an important metric for the volume and type of healthcare provider organisations moving toward My Health Record, views and uploads can be better measures for showing how the system is being used meaningfully for patient care.” “These figures demonstrate the way healthcare providers are sharing information and show the increasing value that My Health Record is delivering to practicing clinicians. My Health Record allows us to see important details that we wouldn’t have otherwise had access to view,” Professor Makeham said.
ENDS
All you need is one of the statistics too see through the spin. To quote
“In data released in December as part of a refreshed My Health Record statistics dashboard, general practices averaged around 200,000 My Health Record views per month throughout September and October, a 62 per cent increase since March this year.”
Given there are about 36,000 active GPs according to the RACGP as of 2018 – See page 11 of this link:
That means that the average GP is looking at a #myhealthrecord about 5.5 times a month or once every 4 days!
Actually I suspect it is more likely that 10% of GPs are using it once or twice each working day and 90% are just ignoring it but the ADHA does not break down the stats.
As for the uploads – I am sure that is mostly driven by the quarterly ePIP payments and the minimum number of document / SHS upload requirements.
It’s this sort of spin that is just arrant nonsense. What does this actually mean?
- Since March, monthly cross-organisation views have increased by 140 per cent.
From 3 to 8 or what?
Interestingly the more useful and interesting stats produced by the PHNs have not been updated since May, 2019. Here is the link to the page.
I really wonder how the cost of all the PHN and ADHA staff along with the cost of running the actual system (which must run into the $10s of millions per annum) can be justified given the miniscule clinical usage and even less clinical impact. At some point the ‘sunk cost fallacy’ for the whole program must collapse!
The ADHA really can’t work out how to stop spinning and tell the truth – even when it has been managerially decapitated!
Also, how could the huge cost of re-platforming ever be justified do you reckon?
Comments welcome!
Happy New Year!
David.
13 comments:
HNY to you too David - keep up the good work.
I understand the 'expression' cross-organisation views. However, I don't understand how they 'monitor, track, measure' cross-organisation views and what it is that they are measuring.
The ADHA tells us that My Health Record can help in an emergency.
How much help is it when you are cowering on a beach, most of the local town has been destroyed, no pharmacist, the GP is overloaded, there is no power, no internet and no way out because the roads are cut?
And your my health record is empty anyway.
There's always thoughts and prayers to fall back on.
As the commenter says - in a real emergency the #myHealthRecord is rather a
waste of time - especially if the internet is down and most records are
empty, as they are.
I look forward to the ADHA press release pointing out the limitations of
the #myHR in such situations!
David.
I took a friend to a hospital last night. She was suffering symptoms related to the smoke haze. I asked her if she has a My Health Record. She said yes. As an organ transplant recipient, she needs coordinated care. But she said it was drastically incomplete and none of her imaging results are uploaded – so she had brought her records and recent test results along with her.
That is how effective My Health Record is in three categories the ADHA's spin claims it is achieving tremendous things: in a hospital, for a patient with chronic health issues, during an emergency.
You shouldn't be allowed to spin such things.
David said:
"I look forward to the ADHA press release pointing out the limitations of the #myHR in such situations!"
How about:
"I look forward to the ADHA press release pointing out how useful the #myHR was in such situations!"
The probability of either happening is approximately zero.
It's a shame to see Harry Nespolon used for ADHA propaganda.
I'm sure I read a media story a few months ago that said he had referred to My Health Record as "a white elephant" at a doctors' event.
If so, that would surely be far more representative of RACGP members' actual views.
If the government was being responsible it would urgently inform people in the bushfire and smoke haze affected areas that they should ensure their essential/recent records and results are with them in case they need to evacuate or access urgent medical care.
They shouldn't allow people to assume My Health Record has taken care of the need for that.
@10:52am
The government is doing the exact opposite:
https://twitter.com/MyHealthRec/status/1212463789116993536
https://twitter.com/AuDigitalHealth/status/1212101526107426817
https://twitter.com/AuDigitalHealth/status/1210289484220289025
https://twitter.com/WentWest_Ltd/status/1209276282057449473
Why are path results shown to patient before being seen by a GP?
Quote from the patient in the example, "I still find the pathology results section useful for getting my results and reviewing them before seeing my doctors.."
I thought that was a major risk that patients could either: panic and think the worst, or; think nothing is wrong and don't see the GP for a closer look.
I thought it had atleast a week delay for people to see their GP before the results were visible to patients in the system.
My record has no imaging, no pathology and no SHS. Even if the imaging or pathology summary letters were included, they often contain errors.
I would take the authenticity of such things from ADHA with a large portion of scepticism. These and other similar perspectives are almost use-case/scenarios rewritten by marketing people. There are some ADHA publications where those in the photos are employees of ADHA and most not even medical folk.
I reckon many of us have been checking the RFS app Fires Near Me, which is literally saving lives, in my view.
For road closures in NSW, the Live Traffic app, while very analogue in appearance, is proving essential.
As always, the Bureau of Metrology seems outdated, and trying to check air quality is like stepping back into the 90s. (Feel free to point me in the direction of the best app to use.)
How is health technology working, do you think? My experience is that health services in the same suburb are not connected and some people are carrying their records with them on thumb drives or paper. I'm hoping you can tell me that it is providing invaluable, elevated levels of connected care because I'm not so sure. Billions of dollars have been invested and yet there appears to be a long way to go. Please feel free to tell me I'm wrong.
There is wonderful opportunity for the ADHA to show just how valuable myhr has been (and maybe will be if this carries on) in the current circumstances.
Just publish the number of SHS download/accesses per day by postcode and/or PHN from the beginning of December. We know that the Department has access to such data, up until May they reported at this level of detail.
If the ADHA is correct, there should be spikes that correlate with weather conditions and bushfire emergencies.
There's nothing like quality data to silence critics.
Unless of course you are a government that denies quality data because it does not agree with their political agenda.
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