Fax machines should be consigned to the scrapheap after a national secure messaging system for healthcare becomes functional in mid 2019, doctors have been told.
From June doctors will have access to a digital “Yellow Pages” directory that will allow them to locate and communicate with other healthcare providers via a seamless interoperable secure messaging system, according to the government’s Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA).
Speaking at a Secure Messaging Industry Collaboration Workshop in Sydney on 27 November 2018, ADHA Chief Operating Officer Bettina McMahon said industry stakeholders such as clinical software providers had committed to implementing a national system that will allow all healthcare providers to communicate quickly, easily and securely with each other by June 2019.
The resulting system will reduce the sector’s current reliance on outdated technologies like the fax machine, she said.
“Through events like the Secure Messaging Industry Collaboration Workshop, the ADHA is working collaboratively with industry, suppliers of secure messaging solutions, and clinical software vendors to reduce existing barriers to adoption and to provide pragmatic and implementable solutions,” said Ms McMahon.