Ten of the 19 specialist pain clinics in NSW will be equipped to provide telehealth services into the primary care setting in the next couple of months, part of the NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation's (ACI) plans to help embed telehealth within existing or new models of care throughout the public health system.
Using the WebRTC-enabled Video Call technology developed by Healthdirect, five specialist pain clinics are currently able to offer chronic pain outpatients appointments to patients living in rural and remote areas, including the Nepean Hospital pain management unit's Murrumtele telehealth clinic and Orange Base Hospital's chronic pain clinic.
The ACI has also developed a Trauma app on behalf of the state's Institute of Trauma and Injury Management that allows clinicians, including ambulance personnel, to access trauma locations, procedures, policies, guidelines and calculators quickly and easily on their smartphones.