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Icon Group rolls out InterSystems CareRight integration engine in NZ

Cancer care provider Icon Group has rolled out the InterSystems HealthShare Health Connect integration engine at its cancer centre in Bowen, Wellington.

Icon Group first rolled out HealthShare Health Connect, which integrates core systems using HL7 messaging standards and the FHIR data exchange standard among others, throughout its Australian operations in January 2018 and has now gone live in New Zealand.

The group is using the engine to integrate 12 major applications and connect to external healthcare providers, enabling them to achieve a fully integrated international network with the implementation of over 60 interfaces internally and externally.

Icon uses Clintel’s CareRight patient administration system and electronic medical record (PAS/EMR) in its Bowen Icon Cancer Centre. Appointments requiring correspondence from the treating doctor to a patient’s referring practitioner are sent to the iMedX transcription service securely via the InterSystems platform.

In New Zealand, Icon is delivering correspondence to the patient’s doctor via the HealthLink secure messaging platform from a CareRight API. The iMedX solution is used extensively in Australia, using the capabilities of both Icon and iMedX to securely deliver correspondence via providers such as HealthLink, Medical-Objects and Argus. Icon also uses these platforms for securely receiving referrals.

Icon Group’s clinical systems manager Chris Smyth said the value gained through the implementation of secure HL7 connectivity to the external dictation provider was quite considerable, including the convenience for doctors to complete these tasks securely from their mobile phones.

He said completing the registration process electronically from the beginning of the patient’s Icon journey ensured the patient identifier is used in all applications and included in all application communications. This results in an efficient workflow, with the dictated correspondence saved directly back into the patient record and sent electronically back to referrers.

“The implementation of the InterSystems platform gives Icon the ability to configure rules and filters within the integration engine as required, to route only the appointment types applicable for functions such as doctor correspondence tasks,” Mr Smyth said.

“These are used to populate the doctor’s view of the mobile app, which streamlines the process and time for our doctors to complete correspondence. It has really increased efficiencies and clinical processes across our vast geographic footprint.”

Icon is also collaborating with InterSystems to enable the electronic ordering of chemotherapy drugs within New Zealand to remove the burden of paper-based orders currently being faxed from within the oncology department. This function has been implemented in Australia for the Slade Health compounding business.

For further information or to book a demonstration of CareRight, please contact contact@careright.com.au or telephone 08 8203 0500.