Dr Mardi Steere1
1Royal Flying Doctor Service Of Australia (SA/NT), Adelaide, Australia
Abstract:
In March 2023 the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia implemented a bespoke aeromedical electronic health record across 4 states/territories & 13 bases. Development commenced in 2020, with criteria unique to a prehospital service operating across multiple platforms & state health jurisdictions. The development & rollout of this product successfully achieved the following key deliverables:
1. User needs across the austere environment – functional within offline environments (remote locations, altitude); real time communication between ground/air crews and clinicians; functionality in turbulence, dust, rain, limited electrical supply, heat (often >50deg); darkness; and the ability to share data with healthcare providers no matter their connectivity (eg portable Bluetooth printers).
2. Upstream/Downstream Integration – integration with aviation tasking systems regarding airstrip Iocations, crewing, tasking information from contractual partners (implemented across SA/NT) and downstream integration to local/state/national databases and reporting frameworks (implemented across all)
3. Compliance with the Australian NSQHS standards – including automation of recognition of deterioration (for multiple state-based charts and early warning scores), safety in prescription & administration of medications, fluids & blood, an appropriate approach to comprehensive prehospital care, safe communication between providers/partners, reporting of adverse events & more.
4. Alignment with Australia’s National Digital Health Strategy and Framework for Action – information accessibility on-/offline, secure information exchange (including integration with My Health Record and the ability to interface with emerging state-based digital health records), data integrity & a digitally equipped workforce.
Multiple challenges were identified in this project, including integration across multiple different platforms, diverse contractual arrangements / reporting requirements across different states; different medication libraries required by different states, and each RFDS section commencing digital transformation from a different baseline.
This presentation will share the development, challenges, hurdles, successes & future phases of the EHR (with video if accepted for oration).
Biographies:
Dr Mardi Steere is the Executive General Manager of Medical & Retrieval Services at RFDS SA/NT. Originally a paediatric emergency physician / retrievalist, after training and working in the US & Australia, she moved to rural Kenya. From 2011-2019 she co-founded East Africa’s first subspecialty fellowship training program in Paediatric Emergency & Critical Care with the University of Nairobi, while working as the medical director of a 348-bed tertiary referral hospital. She holds an MBA from Melbourne Business school and is passionate about multidisciplinary cross-cultural leadership, collaboration & learning, curating the @PECCAfrica, @Aeromedical society and other twitter handles.