Adelaide-based digital health platform developer Personify Care has won a $5.6 million, two-year whole of SA Health agreement to offer its digital patient pathways platform across the state.

Personify Care’s platform enables a digital patient pathway to be created once a referral has been received to support patient education, pre-admission, outpatients, discharge and care transition activities.

The project began with a proof of concept between the Central Adelaide Local Health Network (CALHN) and Personify Care supported by the SA government’s Go2Gov program in 2021.

It was trialled at Royal Adelaide Hospital and The Queen Elizabeth Hospital to relieve pressure on frontline staff by digitising previously manual clinical protocols.

Personify Care then worked with CALHN on the roll-out for CALHN patients in more than 20 speciality areas across the two hospitals, as well as SA Dental.

One program is aimed at enhancing the post-operative recovery of surgical patients through pre-operative digital pathways. The My PreHab surgical ‘prehabilitation’ system uses Personify Care to guide referred patients to self-screen for manageable risk factors and take steps to optimise their health before surgery, in collaboration with their GPs.

According to an SA Health spokesperson, other LHNs have since adopted the platform including the Barossa Hills Fleurieu Local Health Network (BHFLHN) and Northern Adelaide Local Health Network (NAHLHN).

NALHN has been using it to develop digital pathways for antenatal care, using the concept of midwife and obstetrician digital leads to ensure clinical teams can control their workflows.

The Pregnancy Online Platform NALHN (POPN) digital pathways aim to deliver information that is specific to a woman’s stage of pregnancy and automatically captures and screens clinical data-points to support existing clinical workflows.

The technology is delivered to expecting mothers electronically (pictured), allowing them to read the information in their own time and attend antenatal appointments with prepared questions for midwives.

Barossa Hills Fleurieu is using it for elective surgery patients to enhance communication, patient risk assessments and surgery preparation.

The SA Health spokesperson confirmed it had signed a whole of SA Health agreement with Personify Care, which includes combining any existing contracts.

“Each Local Health Network (LHN) will work collaboratively to enable digital patient pathways based on their clinical specialities and will adopt the platform on an as needs basis,” the spokesperson said.

CALHN received support to trial the effectiveness of the technology from the Department for Industry, Innovation and Science (DIIS) as part of the Go2Gov program.

Go2Gov guidelines allow SA Health to procure through direct negotiation for a contract of up to three years.