Telstra Health present its case - “One Throat To Choke”

Bronwyn Pike and Michael Boyce, both Community Care Leads at Telstra Health, presented Telstra’s vision of integrated digital health services at ITAC yesterday in Hobart. Anchored on the future existence of a personal health record, Telstra envisages that it can supply the platform where “everything will be open and all systems can be integrated seamlessly”.

Telstra wants to be in a position that it can connect all the existing and future softwares. They stated that Telstra is ideally positioned for the reasons of its size of network, its IT strength, it is a trusted provider to government in sensitive areas (quoting they already service Defence and the major banks), Telstra’s breadth of connectivity across the country and the fact it has existing relationships with nearly every health participant.

They offer the concept of “One Throat To Choke” - meaning only one person to blame if things go wrong.
They gave the example of a test program being rolled out to 3,500 HCF clients in Sydney monitoring vital signs. They budgeted a 15% callout workload to assist clients in their homes with the hardware and software but the actual callout has been just 5%.

Pike and Boyce emphasised they are still, after 12 months, in discussion mode with health and care providers, as well as software providers.

Amongst delegates there was scepticism of the early/mid term likelihood of software already in the field being adapted to common data platforms such that the information could be received and used by other softwares.

Interestingly there were 52 exhibitors at ITAC of which 49 were software companies, all of which will have to adopt a common platform for Telstra’s vision to work.

Demonstrating Telstra’s commitment to health, Bronwyn Pike was previously Director of the Unit of Justice and Social Responsibility in the Uniting Church, and a Labor Minister for Housing and Aged Care and Minister Assisting the Health Minister in the Bracks Victorian government of Steve Bracks. All up she was the longest serving female minister in Victoria’s history.

Michael Boyce previously was CEO Australian Home Care (AHC) providing in-home nursing, personal care and domestic care services to over 5,000 clients plus AHC serviced over 350 Residential Aged Care facilities.