Electronic health records

Most health information at Mater is paper based—and can only be accessed by one person at a time—or is stored in disparate IT silos across the campus. This makes it difficult for clinicians to obtain a complete picture of a patient’s medical history, and may lead to difficulties accessing important information, such as a patient’s allergies, in times of need.

Because of this, Mater began planning for the creation of a clinical portal in 2006 that could provide a single point of access to a patient’s health records by enabling information from various clinical information systems to be presented in a single application.

In 2007, Mater clinical directors and Information Technology Services staff assessed the Virtual Electronic Record Data Integrator (Verdi) and, in September, a pilot program commenced with clinicians from Respiratory Medicine and Obstetrics.

IP Health developed the Verdi system, and its trial, which is the first commercial proof of concept outside the Peter MacCallum Institute where it was developed. It will conclude in 2008.

Michael Strachan, Mater’s Electronic Health Records Program Manager, is leading the project team managing the pilot, and is looking forward to the challenge of integrating Verdi with the myriad Mater systems.