Telstra to build, run Australia’s national cancer screening register

Australian telco giant Telstra won on Thursday a $178.3 million contract to build and operate the country’s national cancer screening register. The Commonwealth Department of Health picked Telstra’s health division to deliver and run the register.

The Australian National Cancer Screening Register would deliver a single database with one record per patient, says Cynthia Whelan, group executive of Telstra’s international and new businesses. Aussies would be able to access their records online, while general practitioners and medical specialists could access patient data and records from any state or territory with the patient’s consent.

Australia has a bowel cancer screening registry, but it was paper based and there were no reminders of follow-ups sent, discloses Shane Solomon, managing director of Telstra Health. He adds that it is a life-saving screen, and notes that people in high-risk group get all sorts of messages about their dogs and cars and they are prompted to take action. “But unfortunately with the most important thing of all, your health, no one does,” The Australian quotes Solomon.

Pulseitmagazine reports that the centre would replace the current national bowel cancer screening register and states-based cervical cancer screening registers and programmes. When it becomes operational, it would be in time for the introduction in May 2017 of the new human papillomavirus (HPV) testing regime to replace Pap smears.

The register’s team would work with stakeholders, including all Australians, health providers and federal, state and territory governments and registers. Health providers are expected to help ensure the new system would work for them and their patients, while managers of current registers would provide experience and expertise in the partnership, Whelan says.