The broadband-enabled innovation program: a working demonstration of the effective use of technology in...

Given the socioeconomic demands of the Australian society, both now and in the future, the Royal District Nursing Service (RDNS) has identified the importance of exploring suitable commercial forms of telehealth technologies to enable robust and sustainable models of care for their clients.

The aim of this article is to illustrate the practical application of technology in community-based patient care through an overview of a project that the RDNS has trialled to provide remote medicines management.

The results of this project demonstrate that technology can be successfully applied in community-based patient care to enhance the capacity of RDNS to deliver medications management for clients. It showed benefits in terms of increasing the efficiency of service delivery as well as staff and patient satisfaction. On the basis of this success, the program is being expanded and undergoing further evaluation to assess its impact.