Western Victoria PHN (WVPHN) is inviting general practices in our region to sign up for a free POLAR patient data software licence.
WVPHN has a limited number of free POLAR software licences available for clinics in our catchment area looking to improve patient services and meet data submission requirements for Practice Incentive Payment – Quality Improvement (PIP QI) accreditation.
POLAR can support practices looking to improve data quality and ensuring patient records are accurate and up to date. Practices can also use data extraction tools such as POLAR to help target patients with specific needs of health risk profiles, namely in chronic disease management, cancer screening, immunisations, medication reviews, sexual health, ehealth and preventative health.
POLAR is operated by Outcome Health which is an Australian, not-for-profit organisation that provides services and support for GP clinics and Primary Health Networks across Australia as well as mental health services for Ambulance Victoria.
De-identified patient data is encrypted and stored in Outcome Health’s national data warehouse located in Australia and so meets all Australian Government privacy and security requirements. No identifiable data leaves the practice at any point.
A trial of POLAR involving 12 western Victoria GP clinics was held earlier this year. Clinics involved in the trial have told WVPHN that POLAR offered a positive experience for users and was well-suited to our region and its diversity of health needs.
Registering to use POLAR will provide enormous benefits for clinics. Having detailed patient data easily accessible helps clinicians provide enhanced support to patients and enables better business planning within the practice. This is a great opportunity for clinics to further develop their digital health tools and knowledge with WVPHN covering the licence costs.
The registration process is simple and straightforward. Once the clinic has signed its data-sharing agreement and returned it to us, POLAR will contact the clinic to arrange installation. This is a five-to-15-minute process that can be undertaken at a time suitable to the clinic and using the clinic’s nominated IT support. Your Practice Facilitator will be available to help you with this process and any training support you need.
WVPHN is committed to ensuring that the most appropriate primary health care services are available to people in western Victoria. That also means ensuring our health care providers are supported with the fit-for-purpose tools – including software such as POLAR – to deliver those services.
The free licences are available to clinics in the WVPHN region currently using other data extraction and analysis software as well as those yet to install patient data software.
To find out more, email our Digital Health team on digitalhealth@westvicphn.com.au