eMedication Management Conference’16 – Event Highlights

e-Medication Management Conference 2016 

This year’s 5^th Annual eMedication Management Conference welcomed over one hundred attendees from across all states and territories, including representation from NZ and the UK to the Swissotel in Sydney on 15-16 March. Thank you to speakers, attendees, sponsors, and endorsers eHealth NSW and SHPA for attending and supporting this year’s event.

An insightful and informative two days (plus a post conference workshop) featured 24 speakers from public and private hospitals, governments and universities to examine the implementation and integration processes of eMM systems. This year’s Gold Exhibitors, K Care Healthcare and CSC provided the latest information and technology solutions to common issues experienced in this area of healthcare.

Some key issues were discussed:

• Strong programs and leadership is required to ensure eMM projects keep moving forward with a smarter, safer, better mantra.
• Understand your staff, how they work and ensure targeted solutions to suit your business needs
• Vanessa Halter from nehta – National E-Health Transition Authority delivered a terrific overview of privacy and confidentiality in digital health records.
• Associate Professor Naren Gunja from Western Sydney Health, Erin Thompson and Shrivana Mawren from Cabrini each provided excellent ideas, challenges and tactics to engage clinicians along this eMM journey – including their leadership and mobilisation.
• Peter Fowler from DHHS Tasmania demonstrated that Tasmania have done some amazing work, making some of the hardest elements of ehealth, including medical records standards and code sets operational. Peter’s overview showed that all elements are lining up to support their future eMM work.
• Jonathan Di Michiel from eHealth NSW and Daniel McCluskie from Sydney LHD provided a very inspiring update on the NSW Program both on the greater eHealth vision and also the finer elements of getting their first hospital over the line.
• Mary-Kay Harrison from Western Sydney Health discussed the stunning vision and journey of their planned information system and its patient centred accessibility.
• Sites finding eMR first then eMM to ensure a smooth transition as eMeds is the hardest. The challenges of implementing 2 eMM’s will be something all attendees noted they were keen to hear about next year.
• Maryanne Molenaar and Melina Kung from Eastern Health covered the challenges of design decisions to support paediatrics and adults order references to co-exist harmoniously.
• Johanna Westbrook’s research for assessing the effects of eMM in paediatrics gained a lot of interest from the audience and we look forward to hearing more next year from Johanna.

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View all presentations from the 2016 e-Medication Management conference by clicking here.

• Stephen Goundrey-Smith provided an interesting comparison with the current developments in eMM in the UK, sharing common challenges and solutions to support data sharing and seamless healthcare.
• Andrew Ingersoll, nehta – National E-Health Transition Authority and Dr Meredith Makeham, Macquarie University – AIHI, discussed the many benefits of Australian Medicines Technology and its role in decision support and improving data quality and safety across sectors.
• Clinical decision support to report, guide and manage safe use of medicines was highlighted by Anmol Sandhu, St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney using local research and end user feedback to inform its implementation.
• Kate Richardson, St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney shared practical strategies to manage high risk medicines in eMMS, with Skip Lam, from Peninsula Health discussing how eMM improves medication safety and optimises patient care.
• The implementation, cost effectiveness, efficiencies and improved clinical outcomes that robotics and closed loop eMM presents was discussed by Vicki Ibrahim and Samantha Nothling, UnitingCare Health, and Ken Tam, Fiona Stanley Hospital.
• Practical information about the implementation and journey to date of Queensland Health’s eMM program was presented by James Grant, who reflected on the software, apps and tools and resources required to broaden the knowledge of eMM amongst a project team.

The conference provided a platform for information sharing, encouraging hospitals that have had success with the introduction of eMM systems, to then support and guide the activities of those at an earlier stage in the process.

Directly from the evaluation forms, here is a list of highlights from 2016:

• Variety of speakers from across states and international speakers
• Learning the user sites practical outcomes and fixes
• Hearing about other sites and countries issues with project delivery
• Medication safety
• Leadership
• Hearing about the obstacles each site had to deal with in the project cycle
• Lessons learnt from various sites can be used and considered for all the “young” eMM projects
• Information on how alerts are being handled elsewhere
• Good practical presentations, with thought provoking issues and instructive, relevant information
• Everything was interesting, more pharmacy focused i.e. prescribing, dispensing versus administration
• Networking opportunities, being able to put the face to the name

If you are interested in this conference in the future, click here.

Here is a list of the top challenges that people have told us they will face in the next 6-12 months:

• Integration
• Going live – eMM and EMR
• Workforce
• Implementation of electronic systems
• Acute roll out for inpatient meds
• Dispensing cabinets
• Change fatigue
• Not negatively impacting the work that is going on
• Greater requirements without additional resources
• Resources
• Build and workflow – going live in surgical wards for the first time, getting a whole hospital done, and maternity and paediatrics
• Accreditation and compliance with national standards
• State and federal funding to hospitals and universities
• Testing
• Multiple projects going live at the same time
• Cooperation and awareness between project streams, site committees and state group