Appropriate application of information technology in primary health care wi
ll extend traditional diagnosis and patient management beyond the doctor's
clinic into the everyday living environment. We describe a model of informa
tion management in primary health care, and place special emphasis on the e
merging areas of clinical decision support, computerised clinical measureme
nts, patient education and network connectivity. Briefly discussed is the d
esign of innovative home monitoring techniques and a telemedicine based com
munications infrastructure that should improve access to high quality prima
ry health care for all citizens, irrespective of their distance from major
urban centres. A preliminary design for a telemedicine-assisted primary hea
lth care network is presented, based on this model of information managemen
t. The premise is that improvements in health care services and reductions
in health care costs can be effected by establishing a continuum of patient
care from the patient's home, to the doctor's surgery, to speciality servi
ces in hospitals and to other service providers in the health care sector.
While, the proposal focuses on new opportunities arising from the imminent
introduction of broad band interactive fibre optic networks throughout Aust
ralia, the technology and projected data transfers could easily be handled
in the short-term using modem access to the standard telephone network. A s
imple connectivity scheme for system integration is also presented. (C) 199
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