The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) is very pleased to announce that its latest e-health initiative, e-health Futures, will officially be launched today at College House in South Melbourne.

e-health Futures is an innovative and interactive e-health display, which involves a walkthrough experience of how e-health information will work among health care professionals.

RACGP President Dr Chris Mitchell, who will open e-health Futures in Melbourne today, said that this initiative is very important to position general practice at the centre of the e-health revolution.

"General practice is in an ideal position to be at the forefront of e-health. There are now around 115 million GP consultations taking place annually and computers are now used by 98 per cent of GPs for clinical purposes.

"Without improvements in e-health and medical information management systems, we will continue to expose patients to unnecessary risks, including adverse events and medication errors.

The college has worked closely with the National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA) to incorporate their Model Healthcare Community into e-health Futures.

The model provides an opportunity to learn more about the policy and implementation of Australia 's future Healthcare Identifiers Service and also to see other innovations in e-health such as the RACGP's data aggregation tool Oxygen and the Pen Clinical Audit Tool (CAT).

Dr Chris Mitchell said that the college will be adding to the e-health projects available as the resources are being developed to assist and support GPs as e-health continues to evolve.

"This project is a unique opportunity for general practice teams, other health professionals, health industry associations, consumer groups, privacy advocates, universities, information industry associations, vendors and media representatives to learn more about e-health and find out how they can utilise the model.

"With more e-health government announcements to be expected soon, e-health Futures provides a timely opportunity for everyone to get ready and experience and direct the future of electronic health," concluded Dr Mitchell.

Source
Royal Australian College of General Practitioners