Citrix mobile access implemented by NSW Health

NSW Health has implemented a range of Citrix technologies, designed to provide secure mobile access to electronic medical records and better enable doctors to diagnose and treat patients with cancer.

Citrix technology can now be used by the Illawarra Shoalhaven Cancer and Haematology Network (ISCaHN) to equip all employees with remote and secure access to sensitive patient information, as well as analysis of hi-res medical images across devices.

“Through NSW Health’s Citrix XenApp platforms, we have innovated and changed the way we treat cancer,” said Kenneth Masters, ISCaHN’s oncology information system manager.

“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 health care from a variety of locations without compromising security of confidential medical details.”

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 analyse MRI and X-ray images 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 optimise 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 platform’s 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.

“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.”

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Frantab

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