Quick Guide
Designed by GPs, data experts and researchers, Primary Sense extracts de-identified general practice data and uses evidence-based algorithms to provide GPs with real-time medication alerts, reports and patient-care prompts. It also provides general practices and Primary Health Networks (PHNs) with on-demand reporting to help with population health management. For a quick snapshot of how Primary Sense works in general practices, view the short introductory video. As WAPHA’s data extraction tool of choice, the cost of Primary Sense will be fully subsidised for general practices in Western Australia that share their de-identified, full population health data set. What are the benefits of using Primary Sense? Primary Sense has been tried and tested in general practices since 2018 and it is already being used by more than 700 Gold Coast GPs. Developed to offer a range of benefits for general practices, Primary Sense:
Primary Sense Data Sharing Agreement (DSA) and DSA Explanatory Note With Primary Sense as WAPHA’s data extraction tool of choice, amendments to the Data Sharing Agreement (DSA) have been made which still align with the Commonwealth’s own DSA template for the extraction and use of clinical practice data.
The Explanatory Note below provides a summary of the key terms of the Data Sharing Agreement (Primary Sense) and to address potential queries that may be raised in your use of the Primary Sense Software (Software).
What will happen to my current DSA? It is expected that practices will have two (2) DSAs active until you have been successfully transitioned to your new data sharing solution - Primary Sense. Once WAPHA has received a successful data extraction using Primary Sense you will then move over to the single Primary Sense DSA. I am a new practice wanting to share data, what DSA do I need? For practices who are new to sharing data with WAPHA, you will be asked to sign a Primary Sense DSA. This DSA requires your authorised person to sign the agreement on behalf of the practice. This would be the Practice Owner or other nominated person within the practice. What standards of data security are used? Primary Sense uses the highest standards of data security to extract, analyse and manage general practice data. All data transmission is encrypted and sent over secure channels. It is stored or contained in reports that are locked down under multiple layers of access control. Data Sharing Agreements between each general practice and its PHN specify what data is being extracted and what purposes it can be used for. Data is governed responsibly, privacy protected and securely stored and managed in Australia by the PHN-owned Primary Health Insights (PHI) hosting platform. PHI has been developed using the following guiding principles:
How to proceed WAPHA is offering Primary Sense to general practices in Western Australia. For further information, contact WAPHA's Primary Sense team by email at practiceassist@wapha.org.au or call Practice Assist on 1800 2 ASSIST (1800 2 277 478). Does Primary Sense need to be installed on every computer in the practice? The extractor only needs to be installed once on your server. The desktop app can be installed on as few or as many computers and workstations as you like, but is designed to be installed on any computer with Best Practice or Medical Director.
The SMS list feature is available in all Primary Sense reports and allows practice staff to identify specific patients to communicate with via SMS. To assist with learning more about the new SMS list feature and how it can be used, the following resources are available:
The quick reference guides have been designed to assist with the use of the below reports in relation to voluntary patient registration in My Medicare and also Hypertension management of patients. To assist with learning more about the new reports available, the following resources are available: