Clinical Updates

20 March, 2025

There is planned maintenance to the MDExchange server on Tuesday 25 March 2025 at 5:00pm – 9:00pm AEDT, related to:

• eRx (ePrescribing)
• HealthLink (eReferrals and pathology requests/results)

If your practice uses ePrescribing or HealthLink eReferrals, it’s important to review your access setup to ensure continued service.

If you have not previously updated your IP addresses:

• Contact your IT provider and confirm how your practice accesses the MDExchange server.
• If your practice uses firewall restrictions or IP address whitelists, two new IP addresses must be added:
  • 113.11.235.174
  • 113.11.235.176

No further action is required if you have already updated your IP addresses as indicated in the last communication to you.

What does your IT provider need to do?

• Whitelist the new IP addresses listed above. These addresses are already live and can be added at any time.
• If your practice accesses MDExchange via the domain name (mdexchange.com.au), no changes are required as the domain will automatically redirect to the new IPs.

When should this be done?

We recommend completing this action as soon as possible to ensure uninterrupted access to MDExchange services.

Need more information?
Visit our website for additional details and live updates: medicaldirector.statuspage.io

Thank you for your patience while we continue to improve your service.

5 December, 2024

From 5 December 2024, Services Australia no longer supports AIR uploads from Clinical V4.2 or earlier.

Over 80% of MedicalDirector Clinical customers are now using version 4.3

Learn more and upgrade today

Manage immunisation records in AIR – PRODA / HPOS account

From 5 December 2024, Services Australia will no longer support AIR uploads from Clinical V4.2 or earlier.

Over 60% of MedicalDirector Clincial customers are now using version 4.3

We understand that some practices may have encountered challenges when upgrading to Clinical and Pracsoft version 4.3. To help, we’ve compiled a list of suggested actions for your organisation’s System Administrator or IT provider to work through.

If you haven’t upgrade to 4.3 yet, time is running out to remain compliant for AIR uploads from 5 December 2024.  Here are some of the other features you’ll benefit from when you upgrade to Clinical & Pracsoft 4.3:

Learn more and upgrade today

Clinical and Pracsoft version 4.3 IT performance check list

These configurations are important for running software upgrades reliably and may also help improve overall performance, which can be affected by frequent scanning or blocking of MedicalDirector software activity by your IT environment’s rules and configuration.

This broad overview is applicable to a variety of software and hardware scenarios, however should not be considered an all-encompassing solution for your specific healthcare setting. These resources attempt to cover the range of different firewall and antivirus applications available, each with their own method of handling exceptions for permitted files, folders and communications activity.

The procedures outlined for handling exceptions align with industry standards, where software vendors are expected to advise which Ports and URLs need to be accessible, and the site’s Systems Administrator is responsible for interpreting the requirements and applying them appropriately within the context of the environment they are responsible for.

We strongly recommend seeking assistance with configuring your specific firewall and antivirus software by consulting your organisation’s Systems Administrator or IT provider.

Antivirus and firewall

• Required Antivirus exclusions
• Required Firewall rules
• IP and Host Name Resolution requirements for MedicalDirector Communication Services
• Setting folder permissions
• SQL naming conventions and installation locations

Expanded list of trusted sites

49      https://www.ntscript.nt.gov.au/                             172.64.147.32
50      https://www.scriptcheck.sa.gov.au/                    104.18.41.25
51      https://www.qscripts.com/                                       85.92.70.32
52      https://www.safescript.health.nsw.gov.au/      103.1.195.88
53      https://www.safescript.vic.gov.au/                        172.64.152.164
54      https://hp.scriptcheck.health.wa.gov.au/          104.18.33.38
55      https://www.tasscript.health.tas.gov.au/           172.64.144.157
56      https://www.canberrascript.act.gov.au/             172.64.145.228
57      https://api.prescriptionmonitoring.gov.au/        104.18.43.101

Other useful resources

• Antivirus Exceptions for MedicalDirector Software
• Environmental Configurations for MedicalDirector Software
  • What are Antivirus and Firewall Solutions?
  • What is an Exception?
• Firewall Rules for MedicalDirector Software
• 4.3 System Requirements
  • Hardware
  • Terminal Services / Remote Desktop Services, Citrix, Virtualised Environments and Unsupported Versions of Microsoft Windows & SQL
  • Microsoft Products
  • Microsoft OS and SQL Server Compatibility Matrix
• MedicalDirector Help Knowledge Base
  • General
  • Clinical
  • Pracsoft

Alpha tags are a way for you to identify your SMS messages with a unique ‘sender’ name. Alpha tags can include digits, text, and some special characters and should be related to your business.

Other valid use cases for Alpha Tags include business names, personal names, product or service and acronyms, initialism or contractions of the sender. They cannot be generic words such as Reminder.

Registering Alpha Tags

Register your preferred Alpha tags with your messaging provider:

Follow the steps here to register your Alpha Tag with MessageNet.

1 April, 2025

The April 2025 MDref drug database and content update for MedicalDirector Clinical is now available and current from 1 April 2025. The update is a fully rebuilt MDref drug database, CMI (Consumer Medicines Information), PI (Product Information) and updated MedicalDirector Clinical content.

We strongly recommend that you update your MDref database every month. Monthly PBS changes, including new items, Streamlined Authority changes and PBS pricing details, are included in the monthly MDref update. Without this data, you are at risk of creating invalid PBS scripts.

Download April 2025 Drug Update (1.07 GB)

This update also includes the following:

• Updated Pathology List
  • • Capital Pathology
    • Sullivan Nicolaides Pathology
• Several Template Updates including;
  • • Brisbane Clinical Neuroscience Centre Referral (New)
    • Prepair Genetic Carrier Screening 500+ |1000+ request (New)
    • Go4Fun Referral Form_2025 (Updated)
    • SmartCare Diagnostics – Referral Form (Updated)
    • Prepair Genetic Carrier Screening Request (Updated)
    • Neurosensory Audiology Referral QLD (Updated)

Prerequisites:

• This MDref update can only be applied to MedicalDirector Clinical 4.0 (or above).
• The update is quite a large file, ensure you allocate sufficient time for this update.

Department of Health and Aged Care (DoHAC) and Services Australia have been engaging with the sector, including the Medical Software Vendors Industry Association (MSIA), to agree the design specifications for integration of the MyMedicare initiative with patient management software.

While we wait for the specifications, we’ve developed the following interim solutions:

A New MyMedicare Registration Template: We have implemented a template to minimise the impact on patient registration. When you want to register patients for MyMedicare, we have created a form that will auto-populate to help streamline your workflow. These templates can now be accessed in Letterwriter by simply searching for ‘MyMedicare’ under the ‘Supplied’ tab. 

A New MyMedicare Registration (check box): In the upcoming MedicalDirector Pracsoft 4.3 release, there will be a check box to identify your patients who are registered with MyMedicare.

Note: This will require a manual updating of the field using information from Services Australia.

Smart Visual Dashboards: There will soon be new metrics added to our Smart Visual Dashboards in an update which will help support your practice in identifying patients who are eligible for MyMedicare, along with those who will get the most value from joining the program. Get your practice started with Smart Visual Dashboards.

Other Useful Links:

Step 1: Initial Setup

The Practice

Each practice must have an HPI-O (Healthcare Provider Identifier – Organisation) number, which must be entered in the associated field on the Practice tab in Clinical under the Tools menu.

The practice also requires that eRx Script Exchange is setup on the practice network.

Practitioner

Each registered practitioner must have an HPI-I (Healthcare Provider Identifier – Individual) number, which must be entered in the associated field within the Practitioner’s details.

Step 2: Software upgrade

Upgrade now

MedicalDirector Insights 1.9.1 is now available for your practice to meet the latest Department of Health requirements for PIP-QI, nKPI and OSR reporting for the December 2024 reporting period.

What do I need to do?

1. Download and run the .exe file, then follow the instructions as prompted for installation.
2. Once the new MedicalDirector Insights 1.9.1 version has been installed, you will need to generate a new Ad-hoc collection before you run your nKPI reports.
3. Navigate to Reporting, and then click nKPI’s. Please review the output of the report and record any unexpected results.
4. Submit your nKPI report to the Health Data portal.
5. Log into the health data portal
6. Locate your new nKPI submission and review the results.