Three out of five GPs report benefits from My Health Record: ADHA chief

Speaking at the RACGP’s eHealth Forum 2018, Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) CEO Tim Kelsey said that a new survey of over 500 GPs has found most reported benefits, including avoidable medication error and reduced duplication of tests, by using the data on a patient’s My Health Record.
 
‘When we look backwards in 12 months, we’ll all be wondering why we had this conversation around My Health Record,’ he said.
 
According to Mr Kelsey, the ADHA survey found more than 80% of GPs who are using My Health Record feel the system will have positive benefits, while 13% reported they had avoided a medication prescription error. Similarly, close to 80% of pharmacists reported one or more benefits from using My Health Record.
 
ADHA lists avoiding errors in prescribing medications as one of the key benefits of the national health data repository. The agency suggests between 2–3% of present hospital admissions are caused by medication error, costing $1.2 billion annually, with an estimated 10% error rate in medication administrations in hospital.
 
Mr Kelsey said the survey data challenged the view that doctors are not positive about digital health initiatives like My Health Record, citing criticism by former Australian Medical Association (AMA) head Dr Kerryn Phelps as an example.
 
‘While there may be a prevailing view that the clinical community is not supportive, that’s not what we’re seeing,’ he told GPs, medical software developers and researchers at the eHealth Forum.
 
‘We mustn’t lose sight of the fact that Australia now has the world’s leading legislative protections for people’s control of medical information.
 
‘The world is watching Australia. We can get this right for ourselves – and for many other countries as well.’

Australian Digital Health Agency CEO Tim Kelsey (left) addressed GPs, medical software developers and researchers at the RACGP’s eHealth Forum 2018.
 
Talking about the recent controversies over privacy and security, Mr Kelsey said the agency had expected there would be debate.
 
‘We had anticipated there would be a sense of outrage, if I can use that word, at the beginning of the My Health Record rollout, and that it would tail off and reach a point where we are now … where we can have a considered conversation about risks and benefits,’ he said.
 
Mr Kelsey said that digital health is coming and, with it, the rise of the active healthcare consumer.
 
‘I see that all the work we are doing now is preparing for the arrival of the active consumer in healthcare,’ he said. ‘At some point, consumer demand will drive all changes in healthcare.
 
‘We haven’t quite seen that happen yet, but it will come, and what we really need to be doing is preparing for the arrival of the active consumer in healthcare.’
 
Mr Kelsey this week told a Senate inquiry that close to 900,000 Australians – around 3.5% of the population – had opted out of My Health Record. People who do not opt out will have a record automatically created for them on 15 November.
 
He told the eHealth Forum that the numbers opting out have in fact been lower than anticipated.
 
Mr Kelsey predicted that next year, debates around interoperability of secure messaging systems in healthcare and the costs associated would overtake debate around My Health Record.

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