In Brief

service now boasts an expanded emergency department, purposebuilt consultation rooms and indoor and outdoor rehabilitation treatment areas, as well as a new ambulatory care building that provides access to community health services.

RPM for Royal Perth

Philips Healthcare has secured a $6.5 million contract to provide an integrated care management package which will enable RPH (and Bentley) to monitor more than 100 beds from the RPH-based Command Centre. Eventually it will help provide 24/7 clinical support services for all remote patient monitoring and assessment of patient data. The contract with Philips will allow the East Metropolitan Health Service (EMHS) to monitor its high acuity beds enabling early detection and prevention of patient deterioration.

Lidocaine after surgery

Consultant anaesthetist and director of research at the Department of Anaesthesia and Pain Medicine at Royal Perth Hospital, C/Professor Tomas Corcoran, was awarded a $4.3 million grant in a joint project with Monash University to study the long-term outcomes of anaesthetic infusions for breast surgery patients to reduce persistent pain after surgery. Persistent pain after surgery and radiotherapy affects up to half of patients who have undergone breast cancer treatment. Researchers Very Unlikely Unlikely Neutral Likely

Very Likely believe the pain could be prevented or reduced by using lidocaine. The project will examine the longterm outcomes of lidocaine infusions for persistent postoperative pain in patients undergoing breast surgery (LOLIPOP).

Brakes on eScripts

It started with the bang but the Australian Digital Health Agency is now asking GP software companies to remove the electronic prescribing functionality that was only launched in late July. GPs who were early adopters and had updated their software to issue eScript tokens will still be able to use the function. But it’s a “sit-on-your-hands” moment for others. The update will only be available to practices in designated “communities of interest”. The ADHA is also asking GPs outside these designated areas to halt all eScripts until pharmacies are ready to receive the digital tokens.

WA eyes EMRs

The pandemic recovery response will see the WA Government begin the process for a system-wide electronic medical record system. It is injecting $8.1 million to start the planning for a EMRS, which was one of the pillars of the Kruk Sustainable Health Review. Apart from the clinical advantages, planners think it will also create an important foundation for future digital growth

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90% 100% UWA PhD student Synat Keam, 32, a medical researcher from UWA’s National Centre for Asbestos Related Diseases has been awarded the Douglas Peter Swift Scholarship for his work exploring immunotherapy and radiotherapy combination treatments of mesothelioma. A/Professor Alistair Cook will supervise Mr Keam’s research.

Queensland rural GP Dr Sarah Chalmers is ACRRM’s new president, taking over from Dr Ewen McPhee, who said he was proud to be handing the baton to an ACRRM-trained rural generalist.

C/Professor Alan James has been awarded the Thoracic Society of Australia & New Zealand Research Medal for 2020. The SCGH research clinician has been acknowledged for his decades-long work in asthma research. He is also chair of the Busselton Health Study.

Dr Andrew Miller has been re-elected AMA WA president while its immediate past president Dr Omar Khorshid has been elected as national AMA president. In its first ever board election, AMA WA announced that members for 2020-23 are: Dr Megge Beacroft, Dr Michael Gannon, Dr Katharine Noonan, Dr Michael Page and Dr Marcus Tan. Thanks were offered to outgoing board members A/Prof Rosanna Capolingua, A/Prof David Mountain and Dr Simon Torvaldsen.

Leading global expert on infectious diseases Emeritus Professor Michael Alpers, from Curtin University, is the 2020 recipient of the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (ANZAAS) Medal.