The question beckons who benefits the most from managing an individual's healthcare data and the answer is twofold - my general practitioner (GP) and myself.
My GP is the first point of contact when health issue arises, my GP provides the initial diagnosis (assuming not a major injury), my GP manages my long term health and my GP is the one I trust with my health data.
We Australians visit our GP 6.1 times per year (2017) up from 5.4 in 2011 according to new research from the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) released by the Australian Institute of Health & Welfare. Furthermore, we visit a pathology centre plus other allied healthcare professionals as required. Yes, there are other stakeholders who have an indirect interest in my health, but when my GP and I communicate and work in tandem that ensures all is well.
From my vaccinations, weight loss, pathology tests, medications and minor injuries, my GP is my healthcare saviour. However, where has all my healthcare data gone over the last 40 plus years. Yes, the new myhealth.gov.au web portal is exception in managing my health, but it has its limitations in image and data classification and other digital tools are necessary for my GP and myself to improve my health care.
Accordingly, my GP and its aligned medical centre require a customised healthcare portal to store all my health data, pathology tests, prescriptions etc. which I can readily view and manage (personal notes etc) and communicate when healthcare challenges arise.
Speaking to a group of diabetics, they are adamant if their access to health data is improved, it will greatly help in managing this very challenging non-communicable disease.
Yes, there are GP portals, but they are mainly for GPs, the betterment of their practice and I am also not talking about a booking app etc. Thereby, healthcare data analytics is the new frontier to manage my health and my GP and I will be grateful when we can comprehensively undertake this.
As we have foreshadowed, building a customised healthcare portal is a step by step MVP process. Those GPs and medical centers that undertake this fundamental step, will reap long term healthcare benefits.