Australian incumbent operator Telstra has teamed up with the nation's Commonwealth Department of Health to operate the Australian National Cancer Screening Register, a new initiative in the fight against cancer.
Under the plan, the National Cancer Screening Register will manage cancer screening for more than 11 million Australians, integrating and extending the existing national bowel cancer register and the eight separate state and territory-based cervical cancer registers.
Telstra Health will link a number of government agencies, such as My Health Record and Medicare, and private health providers.
Cynthia Whelan, Telstra's group executive international and new businesses, said the partnership aims to extend Australia’s leadership in cervical and bowel cancer screening by encouraging more people to start and maintain regular tests and improving access to records.
“The register will deliver a single database with one record per patient. People will be able to access their records online and with patient consent general practitioners and medical specialists will have access to patient data and records from any state or territory from their clinical desktops,” she said.
An end-to-end solution will also integrate cancer screening records held by the Australian and State and Territory governments, by general practices, pathology providers and other private and public health providers.
A contact center will be set up to assist medical practitioners and patients and a mail house to manage invitations for people to undertake screening.