ALEX has been developed in collaboration with a team of industry leaders so that practices can share healthcare data and records securely with third-party applications like patient portals, appointment bookings, kiosks and telehealth.
ALEX is part of Medtech’s vision to provide a practice management platform that is not only best in market but best in world.
What is ALEX?
How is ALEX different?
How does ALEX work?
Why is ALEX important for my practice?
How do I get ALEX?
Why do you need our consent?
Can I use ALEX in an older release of Medtech?
How is ALEX activated on my workstations?
How much does ALEX cost?
Will ALEX work on site and in the cloud?
How do I know ALEX is secure?
What are the international standards for data sharing?
Does ALEX meet the Ministry of Health requirements?
Which third parties are using ALEX?
The third party I want to use is not on the list
How do I sign up for ALEX?
I still have questions about ALEX
What is ALEX?
ALEX is a secure software intermediary that allows your practice to share patient information securely with any third party of your choice, including any patient portal, in a way that adheres to international data security standards for health records.
ALEX stands for (Application Layer EXchange). It is an API (Application Programming Interface) which is a software intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other, such as your Medtech PMS and your patient portal.
You are already using APIs every time you use an app like Facebook, send an instant message or check your bank balance on your phone.
There are international security standards in banking, and this keeps your identity and financial information safe when you bank online. Until now, New Zealand has not adopted a similar set of recognised, international standards for healthcare data exchange.
ALEX in collaboration with a team of industry experts, has changed that!
How is ALEX different?
Third parties have been connecting to your PMS by making their own read/write requests to the Medtech PMS database. There are no approved security standards or appropriate safeguards for this connection, and your informed consent has not always been requested.
By connecting this way, third parties can inadvertently cause other issues with the operation of your PMS, such as slowing everything down, and when Medtech releases an update, connections can break. When any of this happens, it is difficult to identify the source of the issue and therefore who can fix it.
Most importantly, this legacy way of connecting is highly insecure.
Third parties inadvertently gain access to all your patient data, and this information can inadvertently be shared unnecessarily. When a patient goes for a Covid vaccination, the immunisation station does not need access to a patient’s entire health record, and nor they should they have it
How does ALEX work?
ALEX supplies a secure connection that ensures only necessary data is shared or stored by third parties.
Only the patient data your practice has consented to share with a third party is accessed when necessary by the third party for a specific purpose.
Why is ALEX important for my practice?
With ALEX your practice can share healthcare data and records to the highest international standards in trust and security – for the first time.
Your patients have peace of mind that their sensitive data is not being shared unnecessarily.
Third parties are not required to create bespoke database connections to your practice information, and they are not then required to support and fix those connections with each Medtech release. Third parties can concentrate on creating their own innovative software instead.
This also enables Medtech to concentrate on innovating a world class PMS platform for you that connects securely with any trusted service you choose to use.
How do I get ALEX?
ALEX has been included in the Evolution 3.0 Build 3.0.0.71 – COVID Vaccination Update (March 2021) and Medtech32 23.0 Build 6783 – COVID Vaccination Update (March 2021) releases, and we can simply activate ALEX on receipt of your informed consent.
There is no action required from your practice to get ALEX installed and activated and no cost to your practice to use ALEX. All we need is your informed consent to activate ALEX in your PMS.
ALEX only needs to be activated once and can then be used to connect with any third party application of your choice in the future.
Why do you need our consent?
In accordance with the Health Information Privacy Code 2020, any access to your patient data must be authorised by your practice.
All we need is your consent to activate ALEX in your PMS.
Download and complete the consent form as an interactive PDF. Or download and complete a printed copy and email to us at:
activatealex@medtechglobal.com
Once ALEX is activated, you will need to sign a consent agreement with each third party connecting to your PMS. Any third party connecting to your PMS through ALEX will be vetted by Medtech and these third party consent agreements will be included in our ALEX partnership agreement with each third party.
Can I use ALEX in an older release of Medtech?
ALEX has been included in the Evolution 3.0 Build 3.0.0.71 – COVID Vaccination Update (March 2021) and Medtech32 23.0 Build 6783 – COVID Vaccination Update (March 2021) releases.
If your practice is not on either of these versions, ALEX will also be included in the release of Evolution 4.0 and Medtech32 24.0.
How is ALEX activated on my workstations?
ALEX is installed and activated on a server that has access to both the Internet and the Medtech PMS database in the practice. ALEX does not need to be activated on each workstation.
If you installed any of the recent PMS releases that contain ALEX HCM, that would have already been done for you, otherwise the Medtech team will do that for your practice.
How much does ALEX cost?
There is no cost to your practice to use ALEX.
Will ALEX work on site and in the cloud?
Yes. ALEX works across all environments, in-house and in the cloud. All you need is an internet connection.
How do I know ALEX is secure?
We have partnered with Microsoft New Zealand and HL7 New Zealand to build ALEX to international standards for the exchange, integration, sharing, and retrieval of electronic health information.
The teams from Aura Security, Augen Software, Odin Health, SeCompAss and Umbrellar have provided the world class expertise to ensure ALEX meets the highest standards in software development, security, privacy and infrastructure services.
What are the international standards for data sharing?
Founded in 1987, HL7 (Health 7 International) is a not-for-profit international organization which provides internationally recognised standards for the exchange, integration, sharing, and retrieval of electronic health information.
FHIR® (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) is a next generation standards framework created by HL7. FHIR solves real world clinical and administrative problems. FHIR has many applications including cloud communications, EHR-based data sharing and server communication.
Does ALEX meet the Ministry of Health requirements?
HL7 New Zealand is one of the Expert Groups who provide leadership to the Ministry of Health in key health areas. There is a memorandum of understanding between the Health Information Standards Organisation and HL7 New Zealand.
In 2017, the Ministry of Health signed the Commitment to New Zealand Health Interoperability which states:
“Sharing health data and information plays an important part in enabling the success of this vision and is required to support safe, good quality health care. Interoperability is essential to ensure that data and information can be accessed by clinicians, patients and their carers ‘anywhere, anytime and anyhow’ while ensuring relevant standards, privacy and security requirements are met.”
ALEX goes above and beyond in supporting this commitment by adopting and adhering to recognised international privacy and security standards.
Which third parties are using ALEX?
We already have more than 30 vendors in our ALEX partnership program and this list is growing all the time.
These partners have completed Medtech’s rigorous testing program and are ready to connect:
Aceso Health
AskYourTeam – Patient-Reported Experience Software
Connectmed – Patient Portal
Florence – Self Check-in Kiosk
Heartbeat – Health and Travel Insurance Wallet
Intellimed – Self Check-In Kiosk and Online Enrolments
Intellitek Health – AI Digital Assistant
Jayex – Self Check-in Kiosk
Manage My Health – Patient Portal
Plait – Telehealth App and Patient Portal
Centrik by Webtools – Patient Portal
Well Revolution – Telehealth App and Patient Portal
Medtech is actively working with third party providers in Diagnostic Report Delivery, Orders and Referrals, Aged Care and many more to ensure a secure and reliable connection to participating practices through ALEX®.
The third party I want to use is not on the list
Medtech is actively growing an ecosystem of partners, ask your third party to email us to find out about joining our partnership program for ALEX:
activatealex@medtechglobal.com
How do I sign up for ALEX?
All we need is your consent to activate ALEX in your PMS.
Download and complete the consent form as an interactive PDF. Or download and complete a printed copy and email to us at:
activatealex@medtechglobal.com
I still have questions about ALEX
For any other questions about ALEX or the consent process, please email our team at:
activatealex@medtechglobal.com
