Page 3599 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 24 November 2021
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MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I thank Ms Orr for the question and the fact it is not a repeat of a previous one. The ACT government’s new digital health record is delivering safer and better connected health care for Canberrans with patients now using the security MyDHR system to monitor their COVID-19 symptoms in the community in addition to the use of the Epic platform to support our vaccination rollout. The ACT government’s innovation in a digital health record has already made a significant difference across the entire Canberra community by helping manage the COVID-19 vaccination rollout.
MyDHR has been used more than 214,000 times for Canberrans and those from our surrounding region to book or change their vaccination appointments. The hard-working ACT Health team brought this technology online early to enable the community to easily book appointments, to guide nurses through easy-to-use pre-vaccination checklists, record vaccination details, report to the Australian Immunisation Register and provide digital confirmation to consumers about their vaccination status. The ability to bring MyDHR online has contributed to our nation-leading 97.4 per cent vaccination rate in those aged 12 and over.
More recently, the new MyDHR mobile app has been rolled out to provide Covid-positive patients who are isolating and receiving support through the COVID-19 care at home program with the ability to connect with their care team in real time. Having the capability for patients to remotely manage their COVID-19 symptoms in their own homes is an important person-centred digital health innovation for Canberrans.
It is really great to see these elements of the new Digital Health Record fast-tracked to bolster our COVID-19 response and to provide our community with the most innovative healthcare solutions at their fingertips.
MS ORR: Minister, what benefits has the introduction of MyDHR provided to the Canberra community during the COVID-19 pandemic?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I thank Ms Orr for the supplementary question. Of course, the vaccination rollout has been an absolutely nation-leading effort. The entire digital health record program is an ambitious piece of work but one the ACT government is committed to delivering to connect health care across ACT public health services for the Canberra community.
As I have mentioned, we have already seen significant benefits to introducing elements of the Digital Health Record early to assist with the ACT’s COVID-19 response. Through the MyDHR mobile app that I mentioned earlier multidisciplinary clinical care teams watch can watch for deterioration while also minimising unnecessary risks related to hospital admission for those who do not require it. Since this functionality became available, 82 Canberrans have successfully used the MyDHR mobile app to track their heart rate, oxygen saturations and temperature from home alongside their care at home team.
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