Integrated clinical care with Mediaflux/CAReHR
How these systems are crafting better health & health services for refugees & immigrants.
Prof Beverley-Ann Biggs and collaborators in the University of Melbourne Department of Medicine and the Royal Melbourne Hospital identified the need for a multi-site, web-based clinical information management system for patients from a refugee-like background, who often have multiple and complex health problems compounded by poor language and literacy skills.
Arcitecta collaborated with the the University to develop the initial version, which then attracted Government funding for development of the Refugee Health Clinical Hub to assist clinicians with improving the health outcomes of recently arrived immigrants and refugees in Victoria. Important elements of this system are Arcitecta’s Mediaflux data operating system and their Clinical Audit Research electronic Health Record (CAReHR).
Screenshot of the Immigrant Health Hub website
This system offers an integrated model of care by providing point-of-care decision support for clinicians, creating a database of de-identified population data to allow evaluation of service delivery, and to implement and monitor evidence based health care. It also facilitates linkages with cdmNet for easy sharing of documentation with the patient’s General Practitioner. This system is now in regular clinical use in Immigrant Health Clinics at The Royal Melbourne Hospital, The Royal Children’s Hospital, and Barwon Health.
Following its use in immigrant health, CAReHR is now being deployed in The Royal Melbourne Hospital Victorian Infectious Disease Service Outpatient clinics to improve the clinical management of patients with infectious diseases, including TB and HIV/AIDS, and in the Pathway to Good Health Project to improve the wellbeing of children and young people in out-of-home care.
CAReHR provides:
- an electronic health record
that can easily be configured by clinicians according to patient group and emerging clinical issues;
- computerised clinical notes, patient care summaries and pathology requests and,
- one-click creation of patient care summaries (for GPs) and patient medical
records (for records management).
CAReHR services both clinical and research needs within the one system, removing the need to build separate systems. E.g. the moment a clinician creates a new disease template it will be available (in de-identified form) for authorised researchers to use. A major aim of implementing the system in the Royal Melbourne Hospital Refugee Health Clinic was to permit best practice evaluation and clinical research, with the ultimate goal of better health and health services for recently arrived refugees and immigrants. This aim is being achieved and extended to other health contexts.
Additional reading about this work can be found in these articles:
http://www.ipaaleadershipawards.org.au/awards/service-delivery-award/melbourne-health/
http://www.pulseitmagazine.com.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1634:collaboration-through-technology-for-people-of-refugee-background&catid=16:australian-ehealth&Itemid=328
