Earlier this month, a physicians group in Australia with more than 17,000 members, inked a deal with that country's wireless operator Telstra to develop mobile medical services. The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP), is working with Telstra to bring a range of connected medical services to market in the coming year. Telstra's first goal is to enable the physicians to access health care apps, diagnostic tools and other clinical and administrative software with a "single sign-on" web-based service.

(Telstra has already proven itself as a wireless health pioneer for patient care: Earlier this year it announced a mobile phone-based diabetes management program that works with a Bluetooth-enabled meter.)

"A web-hosted service will make GPs lives easier (allowing them to) access applications from anywhere - from their practices, homes, hospitals or aged care facilities," stated RACGP president Dr Chris Mitchell said in a release. "GPs are busy and the implementation of a national e-health strategy might seem daunting, however ... this collaboration will make it easy for general practise to take advantage of the new technology we now have available."

Telstra's web-based services for the physicians are set to go live next July.

"We will work together to lay the foundations Australia needs to accelerate take-up of e-health solutions including patient identification, secure messaging and records storage," Telstra Business Group managing director Deena Shiff told the Australian Associated Press. "These capabilities are a critical first step in the evolution of a national e-health record for Australians."

For more on the Telstra deal, read this report from the AAP