Telstra Health launches Smart Connect for e-pathology

Telstra Health has launched Smart Connect, a pathology eRequesting feature within its MedicalDirector Clinical software, with Healius Pathology Network as the first integrated partner.

Smart Connect replaces paper pathology request forms with a digital workflow. GPs can generate, edit, electronically sign, and send requests from within MedicalDirector Clinical. Requests can be sent to patients and pathology laboratories.

The initial release covers pathology, with radiology eRequesting planned for a later version. More pathology providers will be added after the first deployment with Healius.

Demand rising

The launch comes as diagnostic testing volumes remain high in Australia. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data shows 59 per cent of Australians accessed Medicare-subsidised tests in 2022-23, with 91 per cent of those services delivered through primary and community care.

Paper request forms still sit at the centre of many pathology workflows. In many clinics, staff print or handwrite requests, and patients carry forms to collection centres. Providers often receive requests that require manual entry into laboratory systems, adding time for clinic and laboratory staff and creating legibility issues.

Smart Connect aims to remove several of these steps by keeping ordering within the GP's existing clinical workflow and sending requests electronically to the required parties. Requests are sent securely and in near real time.

Dr Jennifer Beer, Product Executive at Telstra Health, said the feature is designed to improve the pathway from the practice to the laboratory.

"Too often, healthcare digitisation optimises one link in the chain, instead of supporting every stakeholder across the patient journey. Smart Connect breaks that pattern - reducing admin for clinicians, removing paper for patients, and freeing pathology staff from manual data entry. That end-to-end impact is what truly transformative healthcare technology looks like."

Interoperability focus

Smart Connect runs on Telstra Health's Health Information Exchange, which it describes as FHIR-native. FHIR is a widely used healthcare data standard intended to improve data sharing between systems. The exchange shares clinical information securely and in near real time between MedicalDirector Clinical and integrated pathology providers.

The first partner integration is with the Healius Pathology Network, which operates about 100 pathology laboratories and around 2,000 patient collection centres across metropolitan, regional, and remote Australia. The network includes QML Pathology, Laverty Pathology, Dorevitch Pathology, Western Diagnostic Pathology, TML Pathology, and Abbott Pathology.

Healius Chief Operations Officer Puneet Nagi said the partnership reflects closer collaboration between pathology providers and clinicians, and linked electronic requesting to current patterns of care, including virtual consultations.

"By enabling secure, near real-time electronic requests, we're helping GPs reduce administrative burden and find more time for patient care, while making it easier for patients to access and follow-up their results. This is particularly important in today's virtual, digital-first and telehealth-enabled environment."

Nagi also said digital forms can improve what laboratories receive at intake.

"Through Smart Connect, our laboratories benefit from structured, legible and editable requests - helping to minimise transcription errors and reduce processing delays."

Product suite

Smart Connect sits within MedicalDirector Clinical, one of Telstra Health's general practice software products. The pathology workflow tool joins other features in the suite, including Smart Scribe for clinical documentation and integrated Continuing Professional Development activities.

Telstra Health positioned Smart Connect as part of a broader effort to address data silos across healthcare providers, with the next phase extending the approach beyond pathology.

"Smart Connect is just one way we're addressing longstanding issues with siloed data and fragmented workflows - securely connecting MedicalDirector GPs with pathology providers, and soon, radiology providers."