A new app to help doctors work out which immunisations newly arrived refugees need, and to what schedule, has just taken out the Random Hacks of Kindness (RHoK) gong in Brisbane.
Developed by not-for-profit GP clinic Inala Primary Care in partnership with hackers, the app replaces a complicated set of guidelines on different vaccines, and details the doses and combinations required for various ages.
Inala Primary Care at Random Hacks of Kindness
With a proof of concept up and running, Inala Primary Care is now seeking partners and funders to help roll it out as a national solution.
With 18,000 refugees to be settled in Australia in the next 12 months and hundreds of thousands of migrants also arriving, the app has the potential to save lives by stopping preventable diseases such as hepatitis B and liver cancer, while relieving Australia’s overstretched health system.
The app’s automated process cuts hours of work per week – which are typically not reimbursed by Medicare – meaning the app also has the potential to increase the number of general practices willing to support newly arrived refugees.
RHoK Brisbane is the local arm of a global not-for-profit movement of social hackers coding for good. Twice a year, altruistic volunteers from the IT community come together to produce practical open-source solutions to problems affecting the world.
A team of skilled volunteers, including developers, programmers, business analysts, marketers, designers and project managers leveraged the clinical knowledge of Inala Primary Care’s doctors, administration and nursing staff.
Australian health software leader Best Practice also provided access to its code to enable the app to integrate with electronic medical records (EMR) used in general practices to simplify the tracking and recording of subsequent immunisations until the patient is up to date.
Inala Primary Care delivers more than 34,000 patient appointments each year, including thousands of immunisations, in a community rated amongst Queensland’s 12 most disadvantaged. The clinic is a big believer in using technology to automate processes within a practice so doctors can focus on helping patients.
The app is the brainchild of Inala Primary Care’s director of finance and business development Chris Smeed, who spent five years learning about how innovation and technology can improve patient care. In the process, he has become a novice programmer and system developer.
Mr Smeed said it was critical for refugees and other migrants to catch up with immunisations on arrival, but the problem was widely ignored as it takes more time to deliver than is reimbursed by Medicare.
“Refugees settling in Australia are very aware of the consequences of illnesses, which is why they are among the most willing of patients when it comes to catch-up immunisations,” Mr Smeed said.
“But the current manual nature of this checking and the complexity of finalising an immunisation plan means many GPs do not feel they have the time or competence to complete the work. This leaves some of society’s most vulnerable at risk of developing preventable diseases.
“We are a small organisation doing the hard work most general practices see as too complex or costly to perform. Saving time with immunisation means we can give more attention to other patient needs.”
This is is a syndicated post. Read the original version of this content at – Brisbane company develops refugee immunisation app.
