Telehealth quality check: Is it time for national standards?

Background: Telehealth has seen rapid but unregulated growth in Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic, facilitated by the interim establishment of a universal Medicare Benefits Schedule item for telehealth consultations. Consumers and healthcare providers, including many general practitioners, have turned to telehealth with enthusiasm.

Objective: The aim of this article is to present evidence and analysis supporting the adoption of national telehealth standards in Australia.

Telehealth during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic: Rapid expansion of telehealth outpatient use during a pandemic is possible if the programme is previously established.

Introduction: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has significantly impacted the health-care system both in Australia and internationally, and has rapidly transformed the delivery of health care in hospitals and the community. Implementation of social isolation and distancing measures to stop the spread of the disease and to reduce potential harm to patients has necessitated the use of alternate models of health-care delivery. Changes that would normally take months or years have occurred within days to weeks.

Telehealth model of care for routine follow up of renal transplant recipients in a tertiary centre: A case study.

Royal Melbourne Hospital (RMH) performs over 140 kidney transplant operations annually. Kidney transplant recipients require regular medical review, which results in loss of time and costs from travel, particularly for regional patients, and places high demand on the hospital outpatient service. The RMH renal transplant unit initiated a telehealth service in 2016 to provide cost effective, patient-centred clinical care for regional patients.

Using telehealth to improve access to hepatitis C treatment in the direct-acting antiviral therapy era.

Introduction: One-third of the Australian population lives outside major cities and this group has worse health outcomes. Telehealth is becoming an accepted way to improve patient access to specialist healthcare. Over 200,000 Australian’s have hepatitis C virus (HCV) and new treatments are very effective and well tolerated.

Spleen Australia guidelines for the prevention of sepsis in patients with asplenia and hyposplenism in Australia and New Zealand.

People with asplenia/hyposplenism are at increased risk of fulminant sepsis, which carries a high mortality rate. A range of preventive measures is recommended although there is ongoing evidence that knowledge of and adherence to these strategies is poor. There have been significant changes in recommended vaccinations since the previously published recommendations in 2008.

A case of gonococcal necrotising fasciitis.

This case report details the progress of a patient with severe disseminated gonococcal infection with associated necrotising fasciitis. His admission was punctuated by multiple surgical debridements and a prolonged intensive care stay due to multiple organ failure. An extended course of azithromycin-based antimicrobial therapy achieved a cure and the patient was eventually discharged home after 8 weeks.

Travel and pregnancy: an infectious diseases perspective.

Increasing numbers of women are choosing to travel during pregnancy. In the presence of an altered immune state, exposure to certain microbes can be particularly harmful. We have undertaken a review of the literature in order to provide strategies to minimize the infectious disease risks of pregnant travel.