Digital projects successful in ACC Innovation Fund

NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

Three data and digital projects are amongst this year’s recipients of ACC’s Innovation Fund.

Five were chosen from more than 100 applications and have each been awarded $100,000 to develop innovative programmes that will help New Zealanders recover from injury faster. 

HealthOne has received a grant to develop a digital interface enabling ACC allied health providers access to the South Island shared electronic record system.

HealthOne general manager Rachael Page says ACC providers in allied health organisations have long been asking for access to the system.

“This grant means we can finally progress the innovative integration work and further begin to welcome allied health providers to the HealthOne community,” she says.

“Reducing time spent seeking records and confirming clinical history equals more time spent on caring for the client. The right clinical information at hand means the most appropriate care and recovery plan can be determined more quickly.”

You’ve read this article for free, but good journalism takes time and resource to produce. Please consider supporting eHealthNews by becoming a member of HiNZ, for just $17 a month.

Another grant is going to Wayfind-TBI, which is working in partnership with Christchurch Hospital to develop a digital assessment tool for mild traumatic brain injuries.

The tool is being developed for an emergency department setting and uses the Brain Injury Screening Tool as its basis.

Wayfind project manager Martin Than says, “there is considerable room for improvement in the way in which patients with concussive symptoms are identified and how they are referred for follow-up treatments, which have been proven to improve their outcomes.

“This project aims to provide essential assistance that will make it easier for health professionals to identify those at risk of being affected by concussion-like symptoms and make it easier to refer to follow-up treatments.”

Karo Data Management has been awarded funding to develop a digital interface in the Karo platform, Kotahi, that social sector agencies can use to refer their clients to health services they may be missing out on.

A high percentage of clients in the social sector are not enrolled into primary care, which means many are missing out on funded programmes that could help improve their health outcomes.

Kyle Forde, managing director Karo Data Management, says Kotahi aims to enable social sector groups to seamlessly send referrals and secure correspondence to participating agencies.

“This funding goes a long way to ensure we can attribute focused resource to enable the health and social sector community with an open platform that’s really connected to the system,” he says.

“Kotahi will revolutionise how kaimahi (staff) can work in a more flexible and more connected ecosystem which breaks down the barriers of access to primary care.”

The other fund recipients for 2021/ 2022 are; ĀKI Innovations Ltd, and University of Auckland, Te Piha Romiromi and Tūrama Ltd.


To comment on or discuss this news story, go to the eHealthNews category on the HiNZ eHealth Forum

Read more Clinical Software news

Return to eHealthNews.nz home page