Your digital health records just may save your life

Hi friends… I’m Sally Cairnduff a pharmacist and General Manager of Miners Dispensary – a non profit community health organisation.

My mission in life is to empower women to use online services. I genuinely believe that utilisation of these services can improve health outcomes for you and our community, and it just might save your life in an emergency.

With increased understanding of online services comes real health advantages that can guide health professionals when making clinical decisions.

So here are 3 tips from me that can really make a difference:

1. Improved access to Health Information

As a health professional I prefer not to advocate for Dr Google! There are many websites that provide misinformation. However, I cannot deny that there are several online tools that can improve our health and well-being.

Firstly, you can find valuable health information on government and not-for-profit organisations websites. Look out for websites that end in ‘. gov.au’ or ‘. org.au.’  Some general health information websites I would recommend include:

Better health channel – help people understand and manage their health and medical conditions and help them make lifestyle choices based on their needs. https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/

NPS Medicine Wise – aims to improve the health of Australians. It supports consumers with the provision of information and education about prescription medicines. https://www.nps.org.au

There are other websites which are specific for certain medical conditions such as the heart foundation, diabetes Australia and many others.

Secondly, you can obtain valuable health information if you have an active email address.

You may want to provide an email address to your pharmacist or other health professionals. For example, if you join as a member at Miners Dispensary, we will email health information targeted to you personally. Most health services would provide a similar service. These emails are a wonderful way of increasing awareness of medical conditions or alerting people to symptoms that require medical treatment. It is important to have access to email to take advantage of these services.

Additionally, many medications have online support for patients. In most cases, accessing this service would again require the patient to have an email. For example, most injectable medicines will give you access to a trained nurse to assist with injecting for the first time.

2. Improved Access to Medicine

Wonthaggi medical group located in Wonthaggi, Inverloch and Grantville and South Gippsland Family Medicine have online booking systems. This means you can make bookings 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, add bookings to your electronic calendar, get reminders and receive health updates.

• Telehealth – doctors and specialists can now consult via telephone or online if a physical examination is not necessary. The experience is obviously enhanced if you are confident with online services.

• Electronic prescriptions
  • Doctors are now providing electronic prescriptions which can be uploaded to the pharmacy without the patient presenting at the clinic or the pharmacy. These electronic prescriptions have been especially useful during the pandemic when patients were consulting with their doctors via telephone.
  • The doctor can generate the prescription, send the QR code to the patient (if you need a script when travelling) or directly to the pharmacy. The patient can then contact the pharmacy and request dispensing. The medication can then be delivered, usually for a fee or picked up by the patient.
  • If an electronic script is ‘lost’ we can use MySL to track or ‘find’ the prescription. If it has not been dispensed at another pharmacy, we can generate the script from MySL.

3. Improved Health Databases

Personal health apps – there are a number of free applications to assist with health monitoring. Most health indicators can be recorded and analysed in a software application. We can monitor weight, exercise, blood sugars and meal diary, blood pressure, keep a mental health diary and there are many other examples. The list is endless. These tools can provide a health professional with valuable information assisting with diagnosis, treatment plans and evaluation of their success.

• We commonly use the MedAdvisor app at Miners Dispensary. As a first step a patient leaves their original prescriptions in the pharmacy or the doctor emails electronic prescriptions to the patient or the pharmacy. The patient then downloads the app using a digital device from app store or google play. The app creates a list of your prescriptions, gives reminders when scripts are due, enables you to order the prescription at the pharmacy, notifies you when the script is ready. The prescription list is particularly helpful during a doctor’s consultation as it lets you know what prescriptions you need.

• Large scale health databases can also improve health outcomes. The My Health Record is an example of this. I would like to reiterate that everyone should have an active My Health Record. The record was introduced in 2018 by the Australian Government and everyone with a Medicare card or DVA card was automatically activated. At the time of its release, a number of persons were concerned with the possibility of a breach of privacy. To date, there have been no significant breaches, highlighting the security of our information. Individuals could inactivate the service if they put in a request to the agency. This record is extremely useful for health professionals. It contains health information including dispensed medications, pathology test results, immunisation records, medical imaging results and more. This is extremely helpful for health professionals when making clinical decisions especially in an emergency situation. An example where my health record helped an entire community can be observed using the following link to ‘Are you crisis ready? The Townsville flood story – THIS IS AMAZING… CLICK THE LINK BELOW RUNS FOR 4 MINUTES ONLY. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmO6MvH-p3E&t=6s

It is really important for your mental and physical health to have solid online skills. You will have improved access to health information via reputable websites and by providing your email address to trusted health care professionals. You will have improved access to medicine via online bookings, telehealth, and electronic prescriptions. Health professionals will have access to improved medical databases via personal apps such as MedAdvisor or via large scale databases such as my health record which can assist in an emergency situation.

Please feel free to drop into the pharmacy if you would like us to recommend some websites with health information. See you then and thanks for reading.

Sally Cairnduff
General Manager
manager@minersdispensary.com.au
www.minersdispensary.com.au
Wonthaggi Miners’ Friendly Society’s Dispensary Ltd

Edited by Rural Women Online’s, Bronwyn Johnson and Jess Dugdale-Walker, with permission from Sally Cairnduff. This is an extract from her presentation at Wonthaggi Open Day, 31st August 2022.