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EAST GIPPSLAND DIVISION OF GENERAL PRACTICE BEGINS ALLTALK TRIAL FOR INTER-PRACTICE EXCHANGE

The East Gippsland Division of General Practice has begun trials of AVP and Alltalk for Referrals. Gippsland is an ideal location for the trials as most doctors from as far West as Phillip Island and East to Orbost have AllTalk accounts via the Gippsland Pathology (Dorevitch) Server. There are also many Melbourne Specialists with accounts on this Server.

The trial will focus more on Electronic Referrals using the HeSA token function of AVP. It follows an abandoned Argus trial which failed because of high complexity, poor take-up and the inability to achieve fully electronic referrals.

There are a number of practices in Gippsland which have been using the Gippsland Pathology Server to exchange letters for many years. In fact, the first letter between Doctors was actually transmitted from Breed Street Clinic in Traralgon to Dr Robin Widdowson as early as 2002. Phillip Island Radiology began transmitting reports as a client to Gippsland Doctors in 2001. Foster Radiology and Leongatha Hospital Radiology both used the service for a time between 2002 and 2004.

The first Specialist to begin using the service in a serious way was Dr Brett Forge from Warragul. In 2005 Dr Forge used AllTalk to receive Stress Testing and Holter Monitor reports. He more recently started sending routine letters directly from Genie.

The contact for this trial is Kate Bagnato at the East Gippsland Division of General Practice - 03 5153 0383.