Featured image: Australian Digital Health Agency
The Australian Digital Health Agency (the Agency) has announced that patients in NSW will now be able to view their pathology results through the My Health Record consumer portal and mobile applications.
The benefits of securely receiving, viewing and storing a patient's test results in one place are significant for both the patient and their treating healthcare professionals.
Having pathology results published in a single location means patients can share with any number of treating healthcare professionals their test results. Clinicians too will benefit from having access to their patient's results in circumstances where they did not initiate the requests.
This important milestone has been reached following a successful collaboration between the Australian Digital Health Agency, eHealth NSW and NSW Health Pathology.
Consumer Co-Chair (Pathology Steering Group) Mr. Matthew Ames welcomed the development:
"Consumers will greatly benefit from having easy access to pathology results in their My Health Record. I have experienced first-hand the difficulties with managing my health information as the amount of information can be overwhelming. Having this information in one place will be a great help in helping me keep track of all the tests I've had."
Agency Chief Executive Mr. Kelsey said, “The more information in the My Health Record, the more valuable it is to patients and healthcare providers.”
"Australians want to be more informed and involved with their own healthcare and learn how to prevent illness and improve wellbeing. Clinicians and carers want to be able to securely share information so they can provide safe, high quality services that are better co-ordinated around a person's needs. Over 4.7 million Australians have a My Health Record and can access their important health information such as allergies, immunisations, medications, and now pathology results," said Mr. Kelsey.
Chief Pathologist for NSW Health Pathology, Professor Roger Wilson, said the addition of pathology results will be beneficial to patients and clinicians.
"Around 70 per cent of healthcare decisions rely on pathology results. That's why we're delighted to be involved in helping clinicians access a more complete health record and in arming patients for the first time with these vital results via My Health Record.”
"This will help improve communication between patients and their healthcare professionals, and will be particularly valuable for patients managed by a team of clinicians."
Pathology tests carried out at South Eastern Sydney Local Health District, Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District and The Children's Hospital at Randwick will be the first to be shared with patients signed up to My Health Record.
Patients will be able to view their pathology information through the My Health Record consumer portal and mobile applications, seven days after the laboratory has posted the results.
Other locations in NSW will be progressively going live over the coming months with work also commencing in the Northern Territory, Tasmania, ACT and Queensland.
