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Australian Health Review Australian Health Review Society
Journal of the Australian Healthcare & Hospitals Association
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Is HealthPathways viewed as a useful and trustworthy source of information by health professionals?

Rebecca Tretheway A C , Victoria Visser A * and Sarah Mollard B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A The Science of Knowing, Warana, Qld, Australia.

B Healthy North Coast, Ballina, NSW, Australia.

C Present address: Country to Coast Qld PHN, PO Box 3067, Maroochydore, Qld, Australia.

Australian Health Review 48(3) 291-298 https://doi.org/10.1071/AH23107
Submitted: 22 May 2023  Accepted: 18 March 2024  Published: 15 April 2024

© 2024 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of AHHA.

Abstract

Objective

HealthPathways is a web-based platform designed for use during a consultation to offer health professionals locally agreed information to support clinical and referral decision making. This study aimed to investigate whether access to specific HealthPathways pages in the North Coast New South Wales (NSW) region increased during specific critical events. High pageviews is used as a proxy for platform usefulness, and/or trust as a source of up-to-date information.

Methods

Data were extracted from Google Analytics from December 2015 to December 2021. Descriptive statistics were generated for the total number of pageviews for all pages by month and year (2015–2021); for the top 15 most viewed pages in 2019, February–March 2020 inclusive (early COVID-19 pandemic period), 10–24 March 2021 (North Coast NSW region local disaster declaration period) and 26 June–11 October 2021 (NSW COVID-19 lockdown period); and for monthly pageviews for the Influenza Immunisation pathway (2016–2021).

Results

Access to specific pages in HealthPathways increased alongside the occurrence of critical events affecting the region. Spikes in access to specific pages were seen during COVID-19 lockdown periods, during natural disasters, as well as during the annual influenza season.

Conclusions

HealthPathways is viewed as a useful and trusted source of information for health professionals in the North Coast NSW region. HealthPathways provides an opportunity for timely dissemination of information during critical events, including natural disasters and emergencies.

Keywords: critical event, decision making, emergency event, HealthPathways, information needs, Primary Health Network, web platform.

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