THE Pharmacy Guild of Australia has said it welcomed the success of the My Health Record pilot projects which have confirmed the overwhelming benefits of the 'opt out' model involving automatic creation of patient records.
The formal evaluation of the trials, released yesterday, has recommended that the Federal Government proceed to a national opt-out approach, a recommendation which is fully supported by the Guild.
"Taking all the data into consideration we can see no reason not to proceed with an opt-out approach in one national step rather than any progressive staged approach," the report said.
The pilot opt-out programs were conducted in the Northern Queensland Primary Health Network (PHN), and in the Nepean Blue Mountains PHN, with the final report on the trials completed late last year (PD 30 Oct 15).
Community pharmacists were among the healthcare providers participating in the project.
When compared with two opt-in trials conducted in Ballarat and Perth, the opt-out trials achieved better outcomes in terms of participation, understanding and some aspects of use of the My Health Record system.
Guild national president George Tambassis said, "The Guild has long supported an opt-out model for My Health Record as the clearest path to meaningful use of a national digital health record system", which can provide key clinical data at important points of care across a patient's journey through the health care system.
"An opt-out model will also provide a greater opportunity to further realise community pharmacies' digital health potential within the patient-centric care model," he added, with the Guild working with the Australian Digital Health Agency to explore ways to maximise the utilisation of community pharmacy in the system.
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