IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

As part of Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s $620 million telehealth initiative, the Australian government is funding video hook-ups between medical specialists and patients. The nation’s Medicare program is offering 50-percent bonuses to specialists who adopt telehealth technology and 35-percent bonuses to doctors, nurses and midwives who participate in video consults with patients.

The initiative – which Gillard had promised to enact during her election campaign last year – has the backing of the Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA), which said it has “real potential” to improve access to specialists for rural and remote Australians.

The centre will focus on areas such as “data modelling of the heart to improve our healthcare system; new data-based solutions, through smart phones and the internet, to manage traffic; and integration of data models to produce reliable tools for reef management” according to a release by the Australian Research Council.

This projected, initiated at the request of the ACT Government via its Executive Director of the Government Information Office (GIO), was prompted by its commitment to being an open government and its goal to make Canberra a connected and digital city.

After consultation with government agencies and industry, the Australian federal government's Department of Finance has released the cloud procurement discussion paper outlining a proposed structure to establish a cloud provider panel.

The paper (PDF) said the panel of cloud services will potentially encompass services under specific service models that have been defined by the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) including software-as-a-service, platform-as-a-service, and infrastructure-as-a-service.

The Department of Finance and Deregulation’s ICT procurement branch has released a draft data centre structure better practice guide for comment.

The purpose of the guide is to advise Australian government agencies on ways to improve operations relating to data centre structure.

CERT Australia will take over from AusCERT in running frontline cyber-defence protection following the breakdown of negotiations between AusCERT and the government that lasted almost a year, The Australian reports.

Australian government agencies should share their data both inside and outside of government, improve the way that data is used, and keep pace with private sector use of big data, the report from the Australian National Commission of Audit has recommended.

The group includes Australian companies like Digital Pacific and Macquarie Telecom and international firms like IBM Australia and Microsoft. The Australian government announced in late 2014 that it would create the panel to help the government work with service providers as it sets up GovDesk and GovMail services for launch this year or next.

This strategy’s launch coincides with an April 2013 opening of a whole-of-government Data Analytics Centre of Excellence by the Australian Taxation Office. This centre marks a sea change in the way volumes of government data is handled, accessed and managed.

The procurement process will kick-off at the end of 2009, with work set to begin in mid 2011.

“We have over 130 data centres and migration will probably take about 10 years because there are many factors to consider including energy requirements,” said Rodriguez.

Centrelink is a public agency that runs a network of 27 call centres throughout Australia, employing 4500 staff and answering more than 28 million calls a year.

According to Lindsay Tanner, Minister for Finance and Deregulation, each agency currently makes its own ICT purchases. However, “recent scoping studies have shown that greater coordination in the purchasing of these goods and services has the potential to achieve significant savings and efficiencies,” said Tanner.

The Department of Health and Ageing has gone to tender for an organisation to support the operation of the Personally-Controlled E-Health Record (PCEHR) system.

The Federal Government's e-health record system was launched on 1 July after two years of planning and hundreds of billions of dollars worth of investment. Although it hasn't been a smooth start for the program, over 3500 people have so far registered for their own e-health record.

The independent technology analyst finds that Australia's investment in healthcare IT is driven by the need to cut costs in the sector as well as to improve patient outcome. The Australian government is trying to remedy the enormous cost pressures by launching initiatives to adopt the deployment of IT.

Cornelia Wels-Maug, Ovum's healthcare technology analyst, commented: "Investment in IT healthcare is increasing in Australia, mainly driven by the public health reforms and state-funded development of technology infrastructure.

However, the reports also claimed that Accenture was labeled as the chief contractor of the project and Oracle Corp, were entitled as the Subcontractors, which was divided into several parts, that included patient records supervision, Web portals and last buy tot the least Telstra, was appointed as the chief Web hosting administrator.

Health boards will now be in charge and accountable for decisions relating to all IT and communications technology.