Table 1.

Examples of digital health technologies adopted by Australian hospitals and health care practices.

Location	Digital health technology
South Australia	The state of South Australia has introduced an “Enterprise Patient Administration System,” which is an integrated EMRa system for every patient admitted to a public hospital or health service, progressively being rolled out across all metropolitan public hospitals and a network of general practices in South Australia [26].
Tasmania	The Tasmanian state government has implemented a real-time reporting and recording system of controlled drugs. This system allows prescribers and pharmacists to determine what Schedule 8 drugs have been dispensed for a patient, if a patient has had his or her access to drugs of dependence restricted, or if a patient has been declared to be drug dependent or drug seeking by a medical practitioner [27].
Australia wide	Australia’s “My Health Record” is a patient-controlled, secure Web-based summary of health information, which can be accessed by individuals by using their computer or smartphones.
The Northern Territory	The Northern Territory of Australia, which is geographically very remote and lacks many specialist health services, routinely provides telehealth services, which have increased appointment attendance and reduced patient travel time and expenses [28].
Queensland	The long-term strategy for the state of Queensland is a Digital Hospital and Health Service [29]; therefore, the government’s next intended step is to link the EMR among care settings across the health system [29]. The Queensland state health department has already invested in the development of an integrated EMR across 9 facilities and 7 hospital and health services, with the aim of enabling the exchange of information among primary, community, and acute care settings across the health system [29]. In Queensland [30], all public hospitals and health services are already connected to the “My Health Record” system, and a number of hospitals and health services are connected in other parts of Australia [31].
Victoria	In the state of Victoria, several health services have implemented an electronic referral process, so that referrals are sent electronically from 1 health care service to another rather than via fax or post [32].

^aEMR: electronic medical record.