NSW Health Bolsters Telemedicine Capabilities with Citrix

    Citrix today announced NSW Health, a leading Australian public health provider, has rolled-out a range of Citrix technologies empowering the state’s doctors to better diagnose and treat patients with cancer due to secure mobile access to electronic medical records.

    Within NSW Health’s regional network of hospitals, the Illawarra Shoalhaven Cancer and Haematology Network (ISCaHN), they can now use Citrix solutions to equip all employees – doctors, nurses and emergency departments – with remote and secure access to sensitive patient information, analysis of hi-res medical images across devices, and aiding the success of its BYOD initiative. 

    “Through NSW Health’s Citrix XenApp platforms we have innovated and changed the way we treat cancer. By providing medical staff with greater flexibility through optimised and high-quality data access, we improved our services to patients – empowering them to deliver round-the-clock healthcare from a variety of locations without compromising security of confidential medical details,” said Kenneth Masters, ISCaHN’s Oncology Information System Manager.

    Having introduced a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiative in 2015, NSW Health required a solution that extended beyond basic flexible work arrangements, allowing staff to securely share, access and analyze MRI and X-ray images from anywhere on any device.

    Using Citrix XenApp, NSW Health is able to publish text-based and visual applications, such as X-ray medical imaging, securely across encrypted links to any device, while Citrix NetScaler is used to manage and optimize applications used across the network in real time. This ensures no patient data is left on staff devices at the end of the session, which is critical in the context of protecting sensitive personal medical histories, and all application performance and security issues can be rapidly addressed to ensure the seamless delivery of patient services.

“A barrier to doctors working remotely was the inability to send or receive high resolution medical imagery over a slow speed link. By leveraging the Citrix XenApp platforms high powered graphics cards, we can deliver a robust and secure platform capable of supporting our wider BYOD program for all our employees – particularly doctors,” said Masters.

    “Business continuity is critical, particularly in healthcare, and Citrix technology is vital to delivering uninterrupted services across NSW Health. For example, in 2016 we implemented a Workspace-as-a-Service program with Citrix, providing nursing staff with single log-ins to securely and immediately access all our apps and data from up to 600 terminal PCs.”

    “We’re now assessing the impact of rolling out Citrix across mobile device platforms, as well as publishing Citrix applications and desktops virtually on Microsoft HoloLens. Because of the capabilities enabled by Citrix, NSW Health is able to increase the level of patient services we provide, and our relationship will go on for some time as we transform the way we deliver care in the digital age,” concluded Masters.

    Safi Obeidullah,‎ Director, Sales Engineering, Citrix ANZ said, “Citrix is proud to support NSW Health in its mission to improve and deliver services on par with some of the best health systems in the world. The future of healthcare – like many industries – is increasingly dependent on the innovative use of modern technology, which is why it’s important for us to help bridge the gap between the technical and clinical expertise.”

    “Cancer is a leading cause of death in Australia – with more than 130,000 new cases of cancer diagnosed each year. Having seen the tangible cancer patient benefits delivered through Citrix, we look forward to working with NSW Health to further improve health outcomes for cancer patients and fundamentally change the healthcare landscape."