Ministry considers future uses of Covid technologies

NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

The Ministry of Health’s data and digital team is looking at how the many systems developed for the Covid-19 response could be used in other health settings in the medium to long-term.

GM national digital services and CTO Michael Dreyer says potential uses include for future vaccine roll-outs, such as the winter flu vaccine, and tracking outbreaks of other diseases, such as measles. Also, text campaigns, inventory solutions, testing data services and booking services.

“We’ve built a lot of really useful assets for the health sector, particularly in the disease management space,” he tells eHealthNews.

“Some of these services have utility more broadly in the future and a good example is the digital identity solution.”

Dreyer says the first two years of the Covid response focused on a number of mostly standalone workstreams; contact tracing, testing, border systems and the vaccination programme.

As the country moves down some of its public health settings and opens up the borders, the focus is moving towards systems that support ‘care in the community’.

This brings together systems for testing, contact tracing and home isolation that empower health workers to provide the best service possible to people isolating at home, and helps them to prioritise those most in need.

Dreyer says the new COVID Clinical Care Module (CCCM) shared record system is central to this work.

“This is now in use across the country, and we continue to take feedback and deliver system and usability enhancements on a weekly basis.

“With daily case numbers hitting highs of more than 22,000, there was also a need to introduce a self-service model for Covid-19 patients.

“It’s about bringing in self-service so that consumers can do most of this for themselves. Those with low needs or those that are comfortable with digital can engage digitally and that's very low effort and low touch for our critical health workers,” Dreyer explains.

Data and digital has invested heavily in this model, which involves a new website where people can order Rapid Antigen Tests.

People perform the test themselves and enter the result into My Covid Record or via a call centre. If the result if positive, they get a text message with a link to an online form which has a quick survey to fill out that determines if they are low or high risk, details of household contacts and any welfare needs. They can also complete the same process via a service centre.

Positive cases are automatically entered into the CCCM and people who are not enrolled with a GP but who need one will be provided with one.

Community care hubs have been established to support people isolating at home – these hubs are made up of various providers who have come together, including iwi, primary health organisations, and Māori and Pacific health providers. These providers connect with other community groups and providers, working together to deliver the care and support that’s needed.

“We've been able to bring together a comprehensive end-to-end journey with those existing COVID-19 services around testing, tracing and isolation to create consumer journeys and really digitise those and enable self-service,” Dreyer says.

“For the health care providers, we're working to give them the tools they need to help the people who need extra health support.”

However, Dreyer says the response rate for the online form is currently not as high as uptake of the NZ COVID Tracer app, Book My Vaccine or My Vaccine Pass.

The Ministry of Health has an accurate mobile phone number for around 80 percent of people who test positive for Covid-19 and is able to send them a text requesting that they fill in the survey, but only around half do so.

Dreyer says there are a number of possible reasons for this, including only one person filling it out when a whole family falls ill and a number of cases being amongst the young and healthy, who may feel they can cope well and do not need any outside help.

“It is also a very stressful time for many and when you first test positive for Covid-19, filling in a form or answering questions is understandably not always high on their list of priorities,” Dreyer acknowledged.

“It is important that people do fill it out, particularly those who might need some extra health or welfare support.”



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