28 October 2022: UK health technology company Kinata has partnered with local electronic referral provider MEDrefer, to integrate their systems to reduce referrals to hospital specialists and allow better patient care in the community.
“Based upon our experience in the UK indicates that critical pressures on Australia’s healthcare can be alleviated if we remove some of the inefficiencies that are a legacy of the 20th century,” Kinesis Commercial and Operations Director Ben Harrison said of the company’s entry into the Australian market.
Kinata’s “pre-referral” platform, Kinesis, has saved the NHS more than £14 million ($25 million) by allowing patients to be triaged by specialists prior to referral. GPs are also provided with specialist advice on treatments to ensure patients arrive in secondary care at the right time.
“Two-thirds of patients attending outpatient clinics can be treated in primary care if GPs have better access to specialist support. Patients can also avoid long waits for outpatient clinic appointments while hospitals are able to focus on more urgent cases. A considerable amount of unnecessary spend can be avoided by patients getting the right care at the right time.”
The combined platform can support telehealth for rural and remote areas, mitigating the need for patients to travel significant distances for appointments.
“Our joint mission will change the way healthcare is delivered in Australia by integrating GP and specialist care in a way that hasn’t been achieved until now,” MEDrefer CEO Brian Sullivan said.
“Our integrated systems will manage the whole pre-referral and referral process and journey, all in one space, making it easy for clinicians to collaborate and increase the amount of quality care provided within the community.”
MEDrefer’s platform allows GPs to issue electronic referrals automatically populated with atomic data to a referral template directly from a patients electronic medical record. The system also allows GPs to search for specialists based on location, availability, special interests and language, and refer or treat according to the patient’s condition and circumstances.
Media contact: briansullivan@medrefer.com.au
