The Australian Digital Health Agency has announced an upgrade of its My Health Record system to improve usability for consumers and healthcare providers.
“We have seen the important role My Health Record has played in large scale crises such as the Queensland floods and the recent bushfires, where pharmacists and hospital staff have relied on information in the My Health Record to provide care,” the Agency said.
“The changes in this new release improve the way a person’s medicines list appears in the My Health Record and will provide a better user experience for consumers logging into their own Record and setting security controls,” it said.
The Agency said security and safety of health information was the main concern for both patients and healthcare providers.
“That’s why the latest My Health Record system upgrade has made it even easier for people to find where to set access codes, add emergency contacts and nominate representatives,” it said.
“We are confident these improvements will continue to build trust within the community for the My Health Record and provide crucial support to the health system and consumers over coming months.”
It said that with 250,000 hospital admissions in Australia each year due to preventable medicine-related problems, improvements to the My Health Record system mean that both patients and health professionals would have access to more complete and accurate information about their medicines than ever before.
“The ‘Medicines View’ changes will ensure any differences in naming conventions for the same medication are reflected as a single medicine line eliminating unnecessary duplication and identify where changes in medicine form and/or strength have occurred,” the Agency said.
