COVID-19 accelerates Australia’s healthcare providers use of technology

The Australian Digital Health Agency released new data that shows a surge in the use of the My Health Record system by pharmacies, general practitioners (GPs), and public hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic. The country adopted changes in March to allow pharmacies to dispense medicine through electronic prescriptions, which supported an increase of pharmacies registering for My Health Record from 91% to 97% in May. GPs also saw an increase in My Health Record views and uploads, increasing from 73% to 82%. Furthermore, 90% of public hospitals are now using the system. In May, 5.2 million clinical documents were uploaded by hospitals, pathologists, and radiologists. The agency noted that the focus on digital health during the pandemic, particularly for telehealth consultations,  is accelerating the adoption of technology among healthcare providers who are seeing My Health Record as a valuable repository of health data since it provides data access to all healthcare providers.