Table 11 Computerised information systems in participating health centres

CCTIS: Coordinated Care Trial Information System

First introduced to the Coordinated Care Trial sites (the Katherine West region and the Tiwi Islands) in December 1997, the CCTIS provides the facility for scheduling guideline services for individual clients, for identification of people due for scheduled services, and reminders to clinicians.

PCIS: Primary Care Information System

Funded by the NT health department, PCIS is a system evolving from the CCTIS. After the first version was piloted in 2002, the current version (3.2) is still under testing and validation process. The PCIS is expected to replace the CCTIS at the Tiwi Islands in the second half of 05/06.

Ferret

Ferret is a computer-based system introduced to the East Arnhem Land region by an Aboriginal Medical Service in 2000. It is used for client medical records and the chronic disease register.

Medical Director

Medical Director is a widely used clinical software system in Australia, which provides a simple to use prescription writing, medication, and electronic patient management system. It is estimated that 85% of GPs in Australia who have chosen to computerise their clinical practice use Medical Director [36].

Health Connect

The NT Health Connect trial was launched in October 2002 in the Katherine region to establish a suitable infrastructure that would facilitate secure messaging of consumer health summaries from a range of existing electronic information systems (eg CCTIS, PCIS and Ferret) used by different health service providers across the region [37].