The Australian Digital Health Agency on behalf of the Australian Government is tasked with improving health outcomes for all Australians, enabled by seamless, safe secure digital health services and technologies that provide a range of innovative, easy to use tools for patients and healthcare providers.
The digital health platform is called My Health Record, which is a secure online summary of an individual’s health information. It is patient controlled, meaning the patient chooses what goes into their MyHR, which healthcare providers can access and upload a health information to their My Health Record.
Currently, My Health Record is an Opt In services, with 5.5 million or 23 percent of Australians have registered for a My Health Record, and 18,000 new records being created every week. The Australian Government announced in the 2017 budget, a My Health Record would be created for every Australian by the end of 2018, unless they choose not to have one. The Australian Digital Health Agency is expected to announce the Opt Out period in the latter half of 2018. A national and state-wide campaign, will be implemented, to inform South Australians a three month Opt Out period has commenced and how to Opt Out should someone not wish to have a My Health Record.
Having a My Health Record has numerous benefits for all Australians, it is easily accessible to authorised doctors, specialists, hospitals, or allied health professionals. How many people experience going to a specialist only to find out the scans or medical notes are not available, and they must have another scan and make another appointment, all this will be a thing of the past once people register for a My Health Record. If a patient is travelling interstate and they have a medical emergency, a hospital can quickly access their My Health Record, review their health summary and treat them appropriately, something currently not available. It will be more convenient, not having to remember and repeat your medical history, chronic conditions and or even what medications you’ve been taking, all this can be uploaded, by your healthcare provider to your My Health Record.