WA government will not fund gene AI in healthcare projects
Nearly one million Australian dollars ($590,000) has been awarded by the Western Australian government to support projects exploring the use of generative AI in healthcare.
A total of 19 projects will see how they can use generative AI to address challenges in health and medical research, healthcare and medical innovation, healthcare delivery, and health and medical education and training. Two identified projects will apply generative AI to support the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease and ear disorders.
“This technology poses uncertainties and risks, but also has the potential to dramatically increase efficiency, improve the quality of care and create value for healthcare organisations,” WA Minister for Medical Research Stephen Dawson said. generative AI.
Queensland University is undermining outdated health clinic systems
Queensland University will replace the old and mixed systems in its network of outpatient and teaching clinics.
Clintel Systems has been recruited to deploy CareRight, the integrated PAS, EMR and Billing and Claiming solution in all university clinics. It will initially be rolled out to five disciplines in three clinics with up to 1,200 users.
Australia’s first online perimenopause and menopause registry goes live
A Flinders University professor has created what could be Australia’s first online perimenopause and menopause registry.
It’s called VITAL (Virtual Registry of Perimenopause in Australia) and aims to measure the true burden of perimenopause and menopause in the country by collecting community data. The data will then be used to identify trends and improve research and education on women’s health, according to a news release.
Associate Professor Erin Morton, director of Flinder’s Health Data & Clinical Trials unit, said she set up the registry after realizing a lack of community awareness and support for perimenopause in the community.
“This is an area of health that is so neglected and still really stigmatized. There appears to be a lack of healthcare knowledge, poor access to services, negative attitudes and lagging research to support women through this important time of life. There is very little information and support available, not to mention a lot of misinformation about hormone replacement therapy,” she points out.
Poor uptake of teleaudiology recorded during a pandemic in Australia: research
New research has found that there was low uptake of teleaudiology services during the recent COVID-19 pandemic, despite people’s willingness to access them.
The mentioned study, of which findings were published in the American Journal of Audiology and explored perceptions of telehealth use among Australian hearing healthcare stakeholders. It involved more than 300 participants, including audiologists, audiometricians, students, academics, patients and industry partners.
It found that only 7% of participating patients had made teleaudiology appointments – despite more than half of them saying they were aware of the technology. Most patients (98%) were also never offered a teleaudiology appointment, the study said.
Boaz Mui, PhD candidate at Flinders University and lead author of the study, suggests a shift in approach to promoting the technology. “Increasing awareness of teleaudiology services and developing collaborations between stakeholders will be critical to improving the acceptance and use of teleaudiology in the future,” he said.
Mater Townsville implements digitally enabled post-surgery protocols
Mater Private Hospital Townsville is improving the post-operative experience for patients with the launch of Enhanced Recovery After Surgery protocols.
Powed by Personalize Care’s digital processesThis allows patients to receive information about what to expect before, during and after certain surgical procedures.
The protocols will also help “decrease the length of hospital stay for a number of orthopedic patients,” said Stephanie Barwick, the hospital’s chief executive, in a statement.
NSW Health and Epic formalize SDPR contract
This week, NSW Health and Epic has completed negotiations and moved forward with signing the contract to provide the state’s Single Digital Patient Record (SDPR).
This comes almost a year after Epic was chosen for the project, which aims to integrate all digital systems across NSW. These include nine EMR platforms,10 PAS, five pathology LIMS and several other clinical support systems.
Work is now underway on the initial design and construction of the SDPR.