Dr. Vasantha Preetham
President
RACGP
Dear Dr. Preetham,
I am a Fellow of the College. I have just learned that the National
Bowel Cancer Screening Program Register
http://www.cancerscreening.gov.au/internet/screening/publishing.nsf/Content/program-register
is planning to communicate with GPs on paper. As I understand it, the
Register is intending to send GPs paper forms to complete, intending to
ask GPs to write to it on paper about patients and intending to deliver
test results on paper.
This seems amazing for a new program starting in the year 2007, at a
time when e-Health is being funded with millions of dollars, almost all
general practices receive their pathology results electronically and
there is massive activity around the country in implementing electronic
clinical messaging systems that are helping to improve the quality of
care by making communication faster, cheaper and more reliable and the
communicated information more useable.
The RACGP should demand that the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program
Register enables and facilitates intelligent electronic communication
with GPs as the Register's default method of communication. Making the
electronic communication 'intelligent' is important: merely providing a
secure Web page into which GPs have to type all of the patient's details
as if they were filling in a paper form is *not* an intelligent form of
electronic communication.
Intelligent electronic communication is happening now by using templates
that automatically assemble for transmission the required information
about each patient from that which we have already entered into our
practice computer systems, and then sending that assembled information
via an electronic clinical messaging system.
There are a number electronic clinical messaging systems available in
Australia. The Argus clinical messaging system is the leader in
desirable features, including the facts that it is the only
non-commercial system in wide use and that it imposes no charges to send
or receive messages. I suggest that the RACGP urgently requests the
National Bowel Cancer Screening Program Register to discuss its
messaging needs with the provider of Argus, ArgusConnect
(www.argusconnect.com.au).
Please will you reply and let me know the College's attitude to this
issue and what action the College is taking about it? I am writing now
also to Kate Carnell to seek action from AGPN on this issue.
--
Oliver Frank, general practitioner
255 North East Road, Hampstead Gardens, South Australia 5086
Phone 08 8261 1355 Fax 08 8266 5149 Mobile 0407 181 683
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