Healthdirect Australia is an Australian healthcare program that allows Australians to call in for free medical advice. The telehealth hotline is run by registered nurses, who offer advice and then connect patients to general practitioners (GP) or to emergency services if needed.
Healthdirect has announced plans to incorporate WebRTC standards into its voice, video and data communications. This implementation will enable nurses to offer medical advice through Healthdirect via videoconference.
In addition to using WebRTC on its nurse hotline, Australia plans to implement the technology for its after-hours GP helpline and its pregnancy, birth and baby counseling service.
"The reason for that is that we are looking at how to do telehealth in homes and ad hoc settings, how to combine services and how people move between services," explained Anton Donker, CIO of Healthdirect Australia. "RTC is not quite yet a mature technology but we can see the direction it is going."
Australia offers universal healthcare, providing public hospitals alongside private medical providers. The government's healthcare bill has grown 74 percent over the past decade, and healthcare expenditures make up 19 percent of the federal budget.
Although Australia gets some of the best outcomes for its healthcare dollars of any nation in the world, rising healthcare costs and an aging population are placing pressures on its national budget. By offering telehealth services like Healthdirect, Australia hopes to cut healthcare costs while still providing high-quality care to its population.
With WebRTC technology, patients are placed in a queue when they ask for video conferencing. Once they logon to a secure portal, they are placed in virtual waiting rooms.
With WebRTC, Healthdirect will get the functionality of proprietary video conferencing software without requiring Australian patients to download any special-purpose software. Outside of Healthdirect, doctors can also easily incorporate WebRTC into their own practices.
"From a provider perspective, enabling secure video consulting access to their service via their website will be as easy as embedding a YouTube video," explained Chris Ryan of Attend Anywhere, which provides project management to Healthdirect Australia.
Edited by
Rachel Ramsey
