Northern Health, a health provider serving Melbourne's northern region, has engaged digital health firm The Clinician to develop its new patient registration and intake platform.

The newly built digital platform replaces the provider's old intake technology as part of the state-wide expansion of its Victorian Virtual Emergency Department (VVED).

WHAT IT DOES

According to a media release, The Clinician's ZEDOC digital health platform has been configured to simplify the digital patient intake and clinical tracking processes at VVED.

It features a digital registration form supporting 22 languages; SMS verification; automated clinical tracking; and streamlined integration with the telehealth service of HealthDirect, Australia's public health information service.

Launched in April this year, the platform enables patients to register and complete an online health assessment through their devices, allowing them to seek non-urgent medical care. Staff can also immediately access intake reports for triaging and following up on patients via video call.

WHY IT MATTERS

The Clinician's configured ZEDOC platform is helping manage the increase in patient flow in the expanded VVED, which is now seeing 250 patients daily from just around 50-60  before.

Besides the rollout of a new patient registration platform, a patient-reported experience measure solution by The Clinician has also been added at Northern Health. 

Integrations with existing health information systems are also being planned as part of the two organisations' ongoing partnership. The healthcare provider is also eyeing to leverage The Clinician's cloud-based platform to support its ambulatory and other healthcare professional services across its network.

THE LARGER TREND

Last year, Victoria-based healthcare providers Cabrini Health and The Alfred also started using the ZEDOC platform to automate their collection and analysis of health data from colorectal cancer patients.

Outside Australia, The Clinician's health platform is also being used across the public healthcare system of Singapore. The company has partnered with the country's health tech agency Integrated Health Information Systems for multiple ZEDOC integrations with the public health system's existing HIS.