Highlights:
- First strategic implementation of OPENeP in Southern Hemisphere with Te Manawa Taki DHBs (total of five DHBs) in New Zealand
- Initial pilot project will be undertaken to the value of $0.6M over ~6-7 months
- Should the pilot be successful, a subsequent rollout to up to 5 DHBs is covered by the contract
- Builds on Alcidion and Better relationship in the UK (Dartford & Gravesham and South Tees) and provides a reference site for further contracts in New Zealand and Australia
Alcidion Group Limited (ASX:ALC) is pleased to announce it has signed a contract with New Zealand’s Te Manawa Taki (TMT) region District Health Boards (DHBs) for a pilot implementation of Better’s OPENeP Electronic Medication Management solution.
TMT stretches from Cape Egmont in the West to East Cape and is in the middle of the North Island. The region comprises five DHBs: Hauora Tairāwhiti, Taranaki, Lakes, Bay of Plenty and Waikato. These boundaries take in the major population centres of Gisborne, New Plymouth, Rotorua, Tauranga and Hamilton.
The TMT vision for the solution is to standardise, digitise and make accessible medication data and decision support while delivering improved patient safety and quality of clinical and service delivery with better information available to support transitions of care and medication treatment.
Alcidion was appointed as a reseller and implementer of the OPENeP solution in April 2019 for UK, Australia and New Zealand. This implementation represents the first deployment of the OPENeP solution in the Southern Hemisphere. It will provide New Zealand DHBs with choice when selecting closed-loop medication management solutions to improve care delivery and medication safety.
OPENeP (recently renamed Better Meds) supports full closed loop medication management addressing the five rights – right patient, right drug, right dose, right route and right time. The integrated workflow addresses reconciliation, prescribing, clinical pharmacy review and medication administration. It has been developed in collaboration with clinical teams to align with their workflows. It provides efficiencies, transparency and decision support to the critical care processes associated with medication management. OPENeP is based on modern technologies and is interoperable with other internal and external solutions.
The pilot will begin with a project at Hāwera Hospital, part of Taranaki DHB. Taranaki CIO Steven Parrish noted, “This project is ground-breaking in that not only is it the first regionally-led e-medicine trial in New Zealand, but it will also be the first instance of OPENeP in the Asia-Pacific region. Of all TMT hospitals, Hāwera was the logical location for the pilot due to its size and existing experience with eMedicine.”
“Empowering clinicians with this technology reduces clinical risk, provides consistency in practice and more collaborative and coordinated approach to patient care between healthcare providers throughout the health system, supporting the delivery of quality, patient-centred care,” he added.
Subject to the successful completion of the pilot and the approval of funding for each DHB, the implementation is intended to roll out across all five DHBs, with timetable and pace yet to be determined. Alcidion is also currently implementing OPENeP at Dartford & Gravesham NHS Trust and a project with South Tees NHS Foundation Trust is soon to commence. Both the Dartford and South Tees implementations of OpenEP are part of larger project to roll out the full capability of Alcidion’s flagship platform, Miya Precision.
Better’s OPENeP Product Manager Roko Malkoc said “At Better, we believe the digitisation of healthcare is a joint human effort: rather than a matter of one country, it is a matter of the whole world. The knowledge, collaboration and success stories arising from these projects, are there to be shared. With Alcidion, we have proof this works. It has been a pure pleasure to work with the Alcidion team in the UK, and we are incredibly excited to start the digital transformation on the other side of the globe with them and healthcare professionals across Te Manawa Taki Region.”
This project will extend Alcidion’s existing footprint across New Zealand with their other products Miya Observations, Miya Assessments, Miya Access, Miya Command, Miya Flow and Smartpage in use across seven DHBs.
Alcidion Managing Director Kate Quirke commented, “We are excited to extend our partnership with New Zealand DHBs beyond our Miya Precision, Patientrack and Smartpage products to the implementation of electronic medication management at Te Manawa Taki – the first in the southern hemisphere. We believe the OPENeP solution will deliver measurable benefits to the DHBs and look forward to extending these benefits across the region, on successful completion of the pilot.”