Project iRAD to expand in SW Sydney region

South Western Sydney Primary Health Network’s (SWSPHN) iRAD (Integrated Real-time Active Data) interoperability project has successfully concluded its 12-month pilot phase. The innovative solution enables healthcare organisations to share patient-consented health records across the continuum of care.

The initiative — driven by Allscripts’ dbMotion Solution — demonstrated its practicality during the COVID-19 pandemic by activating COVID-19 Risk Notifications and Dashboards to enhance patient and staff safety.

iRAD went live with general practices last year and exchanges data in real time between primary care sites, healthcare organisations and hospitals. SWSPHN has recruited and extended the platform to additional general practices and the federally funded COVID-19 respiratory clinics, assisting clinicians to provide continuity of care as patients visit an array of health services.

Allscripts Australia and New Zealand Director of Business and Partnerships Dani Arousi said that healthcare organisations around the globe continue to prioritise staff safety during the COVID-19 pandemic and that iRAD contributed to the successful management of the pandemic.

“Project iRAD is centred around delivering improvements to patient health outcomes and, by extension, we are delighted that our consortium continues to contribute to the safety of our Australian clinicians so that they can serve on the frontline throughout the pandemic and beyond.”

SWSPHN has announced that additional general practices and health services in its catchment area, which covers seven local government areas from Bankstown to Bowral —serving a population of 966,450 — will be invited to join its network in the next six months. The project hopes to attract the participation of approximately 50 additional general practices and health services over this period.

SWSPHN CEO Keith McDonald said, “Drawing on extensive consultation with GPs and specialists, we identified a need in the Australian practice setting for an application capable of accurately drawing agreed clinical datasets from a number of disparate systems, to provide clinicians with prompt access to a patient’s current health information in one concise view on their desktop without having to leave that patient’s file.

“Project iRAD’s adaptation of dbMotion for the Australian market does exactly that. With the appropriate permissions and authorisations, it is interoperable with multiple other clinical information systems and only requires a single sign on. This is designed to be a clinician-friendly tool that saves search time and supports informed decision-making during the consultation — exactly at the time when the patient is most looking for clarity and prompt responses. For me, that is its real point of difference,” McDonald said.

Arousi said that the project is primed to deliver the comprehensive, high-quality patient outcomes it is associated with globally.

“The partnership that we have built with SWSPHN is a testament to all involved and will enable us to realise the tangible clinical benefits that have been demonstrated in the US, Canada and our longest users of the system, Israel,” Arousi said.

“We are now in the fortunate position where we have localised the award-winning solution for the Australian market, piloted it over a 12-month period in Australia and we are ready to scale up en masse like many of our global clients.”

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