In a recent webinar, ACRRM President Dr Ewen McPhee, A/Prof Christopher Pearce and Dr Tony Lembke discussed the value in My Health Record (MHR). Participants engaged in a lively discussion and expressed great interest in the medicine's information available.

Chris recently completed an in-depth study on the MHR and highlighted the value of the medicine’s information view which is automatically generated.

The information is made up of:

• The patient’s most recent prescriptions (up to two years)
• Pharmacy dispense records
• PBS claims information
• the patient’s most recent shared health summary, hospital discharge summary, event summaries, specialist letters, e-referral notes and patient-entered information

It forms a vital single point of information including any allergies or adverse reactions and other key details.

Chris sees the primary benefit of this feature is the reduction in time previously used to search through recent summaries and clinical documents to find information about a patient’s medications and other key details. He gave an example of the value of the MHR, when a patient’s complex medical diagnosis was clarified as a result of a forgotten additional medication prescribed during a visit to another health practice. Using the medicine’s information view, Chris was able to ascertain the patient’s current use of the medication and adjust his treatment accordingly.

If available, a link to the new Pharmacist Shared Medicines List will also be provided. This is compiled by a pharmacist at a point in time and contains all current prescribed, over-the-counter and complementary medicines taken by the patient.

To view the recent My Health record webinar, please click here.Visit the Medicines information view here.

The following is an example of the Medicines summary accessed through Best Practice: