Our current health system in South Africa is characterised by fragmented care with little effective information sharing between healthcare professionals or between patients and healthcare professionals.

At Healthspace we want to connect healthcare professionals with their patients and with each other.

As a patient, you can log into the secure patient portal and update your demographic details on the site before you visit the healthcare professional. You can also complete your medical history and update any new chronic medication, adverse reactions and surgical procedures. This reduces the risk of losing important information and can also reduce the consultation time with a new healthcare professional. You can view the diagnosis from the latest healthcare professional visit, view prescriptions and view notes from the healthcare professional to you. You can view your laboratory results too, once the healthcare professional has explained them to you and loaded them on the system. As a patient, you can search for healthcare professionals and rate their services. You can also control which healthcare professional you allow access to your medical information.

The medical portal also provides healthcare professionals with an electronic record keeping system that can replace cumbersome paper systems. healthcare professionals who are allowed access can view a patient’s medical history, previous prescriptions, read other healthcare professionals’ clinical notes on the patient and refer the patient on the system. Similarly, they can write notes, prescriptions, medical certificates and referral letters on the system which will be seen by other healthcare professionals that are allowed access by the patient. The patient remains in control of who can access their medical information.

This greater openness amongst healthcare professionals and with patients may reduce clinical errors, reduce duplication of tests and lead to a better healthcare experience both for patients, their families and healthcare professionals. Integrated, patient-controlled electronic medical records are already implemented in some developed countries, and have become the standard for which many health systems are aiming. Healthspace brings this to South Africa for both patients and healthcare professionals.