An unwavering vision to pioneer telehealth technology within the health care industry has seen the Virtual Care Service, formerly known as the Nepean Telehealth and Technology Centre, celebrate a decade of virtual care across Nepean Blue Mountains Local Health District (NBMLHD).
Professor Jinman Kim and Tanya Baldacchino
Driven to improve access to health services across the wide geographical landscape of our District, the Service has gone from strength to strength innovating services to ensure there is no barrier in delivering optimised health care - anywhere, anytime.
Manager of Virtual Care for NBMLHD, Tanya Baldacchino says rapid uptake among patients and constant advancements in application of virtual care to clinical services has led to the success of virtual care and its implementation.
"Patients everywhere have really embraced virtual care as a valid method of receiving health care. It empowers them to have more control of their health and wellbeing while improving timely accessibility to specialty services," explains Tanya.
"Our community is growing and we need to look for opportunities that help alleviate some of the increased demands on our services. Virtual care can be one answer. We are constantly evolving and developing new models of care for health professionals to use within their service."
Since its establishment 10 years ago the Virtual Care team has claimed multiple accolades and had their successful initiatives and research published in distinguished medical journals.
Virtual care has helped haemodialysis patients record how they feel during a dialysis session, played a critical role in delivering health care to families during the COVID-19 pandemic, and provided video interpreting services for spoken languages and Auslan at our hospitals.
The technology has even reached a point where it is revolutionising the way clinicians perform more conventional tasks such as measuring a patient's heart rate or blood pressure.
Virtual care services in use
With virtual care well embedded into the daily practices of a number of disciplines across the District the future of the service is well and truly bright.
"Virtual care is only going to grow," says Professor Jinman Kim, Research Director of the Telehealth and Technology Centre.
"We are now at a stage where we can start to tackle more complicated and interesting problems and be more ambitious in our approach to innovating care."
"Ultimately the goal is to try and bridge the gap between physical and virtual consults so that no matter how you choose to access a health service - be it from the comfort of your home or in person at your local GP or hospital - the care is almost indistinguishable."
The Service will mark the 10-year anniversary of virtual care innovations across the District with a special symposium on December 7 that celebrates a number of milestones and successes of the service while also looking ahead at some of the exciting technological advancements for services of the future.
Professor Mohamed Khadra, Founder and Director of the Nepean Telehealth and Technology Centre has been a long-time advocate of virtual care.
"Virtual care has come a long way since its inception at NBMLHD. Born out of an idea to improve communication and enhance access to services, we now have a very substantial service that fosters innovation and brings tangible benefits to patients and clinicians alike," says Mohamed who is also the Director of Strategy and Innovation at NBMLHD.
"The symposium really celebrates that notion of innovation. Virtual care has gone from strength to strength, and it will only grow. The opportunities are endless and now is the time to embrace it."
