Victorian Partnership for Advanced Computing

The availability of accurate and comprehensive patient information impacts on the quality of clinical decisions in the management of chronic disease by health professionals. It has long been recognised that there is a gap in information-sharing between health professionals, resulting in a discontinuity of care between hospital health providers and community health practitioners, and between different primary health care practitioners in the community. Furthermore, adherence to disease management guidelines and quality use of medicine would be enhanced if key stakeholders are able to share information and work as a team. Whilst sharing information federally across health practices is important and can contribute to improved patient outcomes, it is the ultimate ability to produce and share integrated information that is paramount to optimal clinical care. CONDUIT™ is a system of integrated information; linked data as a result of combining data from different sources onto a single platform to allow easy cross referencing. Patient information pertinent to the construction of a complete picture of disease progression and management of clinical care includes patient demographics, medical and family histories, drug therapy regimens, laboratory data and clinical outcomes, processes of care, patient compliance and adherence.

GRHANITE™ is the technology underpinning CONDUIT™. It is the generic data extraction tool that enables CONDUIT™ to be a secure central personal (but de-identified) information repository. GRHANITE™ manages security and patient consent in hospitals and general practices and extracts data from hospital clinics or practices automatically.

This innovative approach to managing secure patient data and consent is led by the University of Melbourne. In collaboration with The University of Melbourne, VPAC has assisted in designing the system and developing the technology.

VPAC’s aid includes strengthening security transfers, web services communication and streamlining deployment processes, enabling the technology to be used in projects such as Chlamydia research.

Currently GRHANITE™ is being trialled within a small set of rural health services in Victoria. The next phase of the project is to bring this technology to more sites in the North-East Victoria and Northern Melbourne areas.

Contact

For further information regarding VPAC’s involvement with GRHANITE™ and Conduit™, please contact Steve at steve@vpac.org or phone +61 3 9925 4645.

For more information on the GRHANITE™ and Conduit programs, visit http://www.conduit.unimelb.edu.au.