The focus on digital health including telehealth consultations during COVID-19 is helping accelerate the adoption of technology. Increasingly more providers are seeing the My Health Record as a valuable repository of health data, as it is accessible to all healthcare providers without the need for fax machines or postal services.

Dr Yolande Knight, Senior Medical Officer, Wirraka Maya Health Service Aboriginal Corporation, said:

“We rely on My Health Record to keep us updated on patient pathology, imaging, medication, dispensing and history records. We can see what other doctors have requested and performed, overcoming the delays waiting for records requested from other practices. We can also see what scripts were dispensed. This helped us a lot with the recent COVID-19 test results, where it was quicker to see the result on the patient’s My Health Record than to join the phone queue to get the result.”

Technology in healthcare has enabled more Australians to stay connected to healthcare professionals. Telemedicine, digital prescriptions and My Health Record have obvious and immediate application during COVID-19. These technologies and others can work together to support the safe and efficient delivery of care to all Australians, especially when traditional approaches are no longer feasible.