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NHS trusts who are Cerner clients can access Zesty products through their existing agreements.

Healthcare systems and providers – with notable exceptions - have been notoriously slow to adopt new digital technologies and innovations and to push forward on the road to digital maturity. All that changed almost overnight with the global COVID-19 pandemic - resistance to online healthcare receded, attitudes shifted, regulations were temporarily relaxed and the result was years of digital transformation happened in a matter of weeks or days. The adoption of digital health services in Australia has been dramatically accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic – and in ways that nobody could have imagined: the key question, as for countries around the world, is how to maintain the momentum, build future resilience and drive the opportunity for innovation in new digitally-enabled models of care. Titled Acceleration of Digital Health: An overview of Australia’s Digital Health landscape, this HIMSS eBook provides readers a broad overview of the country’s digital health developments and features highlights from the nine-episode HIMSS Australia Digital Dialogue Series. Episode summaries: Episode 1: Western Australia Episode 2: Queensland Episode 3: Victoria Episode 4: South Australia Episode 5: Northern Territory Episode 6: Australian Capital Territory Episode 7: New South Wales Episode 8: National Round Tables Part 1 Episode 9: National Round Tables Part 2 You can download the eBook here for insights on:  - How various States in Australia responded to the COVID-19 pandemic  - Case studies on how technology has transformed healthcare delivery in the country - Perspectives from healthcare leaders on Australia’s ongoing digital health journey - Lessons and challenges learnt from the pandemic to help health systems prepare for the future - Telemedicine’s rapid growth in Australia and its associated challenges

The program aims to increase the number of home-based care services from 1.3% to 5%.

Mayo Clinic Platform President Dr. John Halamka explains how a new digital health tool can be applied through the "five stages" of the COVID-19 pandemic by enabling on-demand testing, tracking of lab results and proof of vaccine administration.

The remote care technology can help detect abnormalities in lung exams, and the company says it will soon be able to detect symptoms in throat exams as well.  

At the Cerner Health Conference, CEO Brent Shafer said COVID-19 has "inspired a burst of innovation," with hundreds of patents and faster progress for a wider array of technologies moving from concept to general availability.

With help from FCC pandemic funding, Maple Knoll Communities, which offers a range of living options, from independent to skilled nursing, is implementing several new technologies to serve patients today and prepare for the future.

InterSystems' IRIS Data Platform is now generally available to Epic customers.   

King’s College Hospital NHS FT (KCHT) is working with patient communications provider, Healthcare Communications to implement new technology that will allow the trust to advance its patient engagement strategy whilst supporting its recovery from the pandemic. As part of the agreement, the trust will implement Healthcare Communications’ patient portal and eClinic video consultation platform, alongside eight additional solutions from the company’s patient engagement platform.  The contract was agreed in August and will run until 2025. WHY IT MATTERS         The new technology aims to reduce any backlogs caused by the coronavirus pandemic and support KCHT's recovery before the next wave. The patient portal is designed to inform patients about the status of their appointments by sending updates and digital letters to their smartphones, relieving staff of these administrative pressures. The portal will also enable Patient Initiated Follow-Ups (PIFU) and help the trust to reduce inbound phone traffic, by allowing patients to confirm, cancel or rebook appointments digitally. eClinic will help to reduce the number of patients visiting KCHT hospitals for non-emergency appointments and will be used to provide urgent care for patients who cannot attend in person.   THE LARGER CONTEXT NHS hospitals have been using AI to rank patients in order of urgency to clear the COVID-19 backlog as the number waiting for treatment could reach 10 million by Christmas. ON THE RECORD Jonathan Lofthouse, site chief executive for the Princess Royal University Hospital said: “At King’s, it has always been our agenda to move to a ‘digital by default position’, which is why we were keen to put digital technology at the forefront of our recovery and reset programmes. “We firmly believe our richly diverse patient population deserves the very best in healthcare, and to deliver this we often need to reimagine what’s gone before. Using new communication platforms will aid patient self-management, improve the speed, quality and accessibility of information, increase the quality of our clinical services, and help us to deliver against the future expectation of our patients and clinicians.” Charlotte English, senior improvement lead, King’s College Hospital, said: “We’re dealing with a significant amount of Referral to Treatment (RTT) requests, which has been exacerbated by COVID, so it’s really exciting to be exploring ways in which patients can take more ownership over their care, such as PIFU. "We hadn’t really explored this before, and we expect it to reduce our follow-up waiting lists. We’re hoping it will also result in a drop in hospital admissions, which would be fantastic, especially as we enter our winter pressures and with the second wave of COVID looking imminent.” 

Jason Gorevic and Glen Tullman see the deal as a way to offer a longitudinal relationship between clinicians and patients, bringing doctors, digital tools and data science together for better health.