NZ-made software keeps check on Navy's health

By ADAM GIFFORD

The Navy has bought New Zealand-made practice management software to speed up the process of getting sailors ready for duty.

Deputy director of naval medicine Lieutenant Commander Antony Griffin said the Profile system from Intrahealth replaces paper record keeping and allows seamless integration between electronic health records, front-desk administration and financial reporting.

It will cost less than $40,000, including training for the 120 medics and administrators using the system.

Griffin said keeping track of vaccinations was an important part of rapid deployment.

Profile lets medical staff get vaccination results for a whole ship in minutes. It should also help to reduce the number of vaccinations needed.

The Navy has about 2000 sailors.

Profile was the only practice management system which suited the nature of naval operations, Griffin said.

The system could extract information from the Navy's multiple data sources and consolidate that with the electronic health records.

Intrahealth business development manager Dr Kannan Subramaniam said the Navy installation was being used as a pilot for implementation of the system throughout the Defence Force.

Intrahealth