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Gold Coast Health, a public health service in Queensland, is set to extend virtual care into patients' homes as it works to implement an end-to-end remote patient monitoring platform.
It contracted ASX-listed health IT vendor Alcidion to deliver the Miya Precision platform across GCH's three hospitals and network of community health facilities.
Based on a media release, it will be integrated into the health service's EMR system to "provide clinicians with real-time access to patient data captured through remote monitoring devices." It supports a range of devices, including third-party options and patients' own devices, capturing vital signs and biometric data.
Miya Precision also features configurable alerts and escalation workflows that allow clinicians to spot early warning signs.
According to Alcidion, the platform will have an initial application in areas of post-acute care and chronic condition management.
WHY IT MATTERS
In an interview with Healthcare IT News, Domenic Girolamo, executive director of Digital Transformation and Research at GCH, said that the new remote patient monitoring capability "adds an important digital layer" that enables clinicians to safely transition appropriate patients from hospital to home.
Miya Precision will "ensure abnormal results are surfaced quickly and managed through established intervention pathways, integrating seamlessly into clinical workflows rather than creating parallel processes," Girolamo explained.
"Based on comparable implementations, [remote patient monitoring] is expected to reduce manual workload and hospital representations while enabling more proactive, connected and scalable home-based care," he added.
The GCH official mentioned that a structured change and adoption program for staff, covering workflow design, training, communications, and operational readiness, will support this rollout.
THE LARGER CONTEXT
Remote patient monitoring contributes to GCH's ongoing digital transformation and goal of building "a more connected, scalable and patient-centred model of care." It adds to existing models, including the Virtual Ward and the Hospital in the Home services.
"This supports a shift into a more integrated model in which the patient record system, virtual care services, and home-based care pathways work together as part of a single digital ecosystem," Girolamo said.
Recently, GCH started exploring digital-first shared care models, trying out a digital interface that connects general practitioners directly to specialists via secure messaging.
Over the years, the health service has automated a number of workflows, including uploading documents into the integrated EMR and near real-time clinical image accessibility to care teams, while it works to integrate more emerging technologies, like AI. In 2024, it tried out an AI scribe by Lyrebird Health at its outpatient departments.
