Easier access to test results after My Health Record usability tweak

The usability upgrade is intended to make it easier for GPs to identify, track and group together relevant tests and results by date, in a bid to reduce concerns around navigating the emerging sea of medical data.
 
The overview function will let GPs see multiple reports within a specific date range on a single page.
 
The upgrade comes after prominent RACGP digital health advocate Dr Nathan Pinskier questioned the need to generate new documents with much duplicated information, while GPs have previously complained of not being able to find the relevant detail amidst all records. 
 
The Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA), which is responsible for the nationwide My Health Record electronic health repository, claims the upgrade is a ‘step-change’ in the way doctors view medical reports. 
 
After a rocky roll-out amid a nationwide debate over privacy and security, My Health Record now appears to be making significant headway, with almost all public pathology and diagnostic imaging providers uploading results, with private provider use increasing.
 
More than 850,000 pathology results and diagnostic imaging results are being uploaded weekly.
 
ADHA Chief Medical Adviser Professor Meredith Makeham said the upgrade is intended to tackle the issue of diagnostic tests arriving at different times.
 
‘Many of us have diagnostic tests ordered by different healthcare providers and undertaken at different locations over time,’ she said.
 
‘As a GP, it can be challenging to keep track of these reports with our patients and determine whether, where and when a particular test has been done, particularly when a patient is seeing a range of healthcare professionals to manage multiple conditions.
 
‘This upgrade to My Health Record enhances the way we can view diagnostic imaging and pathology reports to gain a quick snapshot of a patient’s test result history … [it] improves the ability of healthcare providers to access important test-result information that we need to inform clinical decisions.’
 
Brad Rossiter, a kidney and pancreas transplant patient and double amputee, said having his pathology results uploaded is important to him.
 
‘My nephrologist in Canberra gets me to do blood tests every three months, but my GP doesn’t get those reports and they’re also not shared with Canberra Hospital, so if I visit my GP or the hospital there is no record of my testing,’ Mr Rossiter said.
 
‘If those reports were uploaded to My Health Record, it would save me a lot of explanation but also help my healthcare providers to do their job, by ensuring they all see the same information regarding my blood tests and results.’
 
More than 31 million clinical documents and more than 1.3 billion Medicare documents have already been uploaded to My Health Record.
 
The upgrade enables clinical information system developers to automatically provide pathology and diagnostic imaging overviews without having to do additional work.

digital health imaging My Health Record pathology