AI scribes are fine as long as there is a human reviewing the notes – and don’t even try selling my data or storing it offshore, say respondents to the Patients Australia survey.
Australian patients love the convenience of telehealth but are adamant in their desire for stronger safeguards for their privacy and identity, as well as accountability and transparency about the care they receive and storage of their data.
A new survey released this week by advocacy group Patients Australia asked 5215 adults – 65% of them living in major cities – what they thought of telehealth.
The findings were presented at a roundtable on 27 October hosted by the Australian Telehealth Standards Consortium – one of several groups attempting to develop national telehealth safety and quality standards.
Members of the ATSC include Healthdirect; insurers Medibank, HCF, and Bupa; and telehealth and digital health platforms Honeysuckle Health, Updoc, Eucalyptus, Healthengine, MedAdvisor, MOSH, Medmate, 13Sick, and Wesfarmers Health. Guests at the roundtable included Telstra Health, HotDoc, The Pharmacy Guild of Australia, SANE, Movember, MS Australia, Arthritis Australia, and Canteen.
PA’s survey – Patient Insights into Telehealth Standards – detailed eight key findings.
Convenience and satisfaction
Most respondents to the survey said they used telehealth predominantly for routine needs such as prescription renewal and general medical advice.
Convenience (79%), time savings, accessibility, and flexibility were the strongest drivers of telehealth use. Overall satisfaction with telehealth was high (80%).
Safety and accountability
Ninety-two percent of respondents agreed that telehealth should meet recognised safety and quality standards.
Priorities for patients included thorough consultations, safe prescribing, clear communication and follow-up, with strong referral pathways (89%) reinforcing “expectations for coordinated, accountable telehealth care”.
Transparency and consent
Most respondents (73%) said it was very important that telehealth providers seek consent before sharing medical information or using AI in their consultations.
Patients want flexibility and control over how their information is shared and which technology is used.
Asynchronous
Only 15% of respondents used asynchronous telehealth – in which medical information is captured and transmitted for a provider to review at a later stage, rather than in real-time – and primarily used it for simple, low-risk needs such as prescription renewal and medical certificates.
“Patients’ confidence in asynchronous telehealth was dependent on familiarity, flexibility and clear pathways to live consultation when required,” said the report.
Who’s responsible?
While only 36% of respondents were aware that responsibility for safety and clinical standards can vary between telehealth services and clinicians, 86% said it was important to know who was accountable before using a service.
“Patients want early, transparent communication about this,” said the report.
Related
Identity verification
Nearly all respondents – 93% — said verifying patient identification was important, with 71% rating it “very important”.
They also want that verification to be simple – 79% wanted methods like confirming personal details while 53% wanted a one-time code sent to them.
Complex options like My Health Record log-ins or photo ID uploads were not favoured.
“Most (86%) also want verification processes for carers,” said the report.
Artificial intelligence
In general, respondents were happy for AI to be used for support tasks like reminders, prescriptions or note-taking, but for clinical tasks they expect human clinical judgement and review.
“Only 17% were comfortable receiving medical advice without doctor oversight, showing that confidence in AI depends on transparency, human involvement and clear limits,” said the report.
Privacy expectations
Only 10% of the survey respondents expressed concern about privacy in telehealth, however 45% were unsure.
According to the survey, patients want strong protections like independent security checks (84%), data to be stored onshore (71%), plain English privacy policies (71%), and assurance that data will not be sold or used for marketing (79%).
Read the full report here.