IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

According to IDC, one of the large shifts will be away from bring your own device (BYOD) policies for employee smartphones and tablets in businesses, in favour of choose your own device (CYOD).

AIIA CEO Ian Birks said that constructive relationships between business, industry and government and a willingness by all those sectors to engage proactively to find the best digital economy outcomes would be the key to success.

"The technology sector must take a leading role in the development of strong pilot applications, as well as helping businesses to understand where growth can be realised today," Birks said. "Initiatives that help individual businesses to expand markets and increase productivity will be the foundation of that work."

The new register aims to tackle the competition issues that have plagued the Victorian ICT industry for some time now. In the past, tenders were frequently awarded by default to incumbent IT vendors, cutting out rival bids from other companies and start-ups.

The Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) has announced in a statement that it strongly supports the spirit and intent of 457 visa requirements.

AIIA CEO, Suzanne Campbell, said the skills shortage in the ICT sector is both an immediate and long-term concern and 457 visas solve the skills shortage issue local organisations are facing.

The Chair of the ACT Branch of the AIIA, Greg Boorer, says the vast opportunities presented by government work in the ICT sector can be overlooked because companies and individuals can be hesitant to tackle the sometimes “arcane processes involved in dealing with Government agencies.”

The Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) is urging the new NSW Government to seize the opportunity to make smarter and transformative use of its information and communications technology as a central plank to its reform agenda.

“AIIA is committed to working closely with the NSW Government – along with the broader business community – at every level to maximise the outcomes that technology can deliver to the state’s productivity growth, skills, jobs and better service delivery,” AIIA CEO, Ian Birks, said.

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.

Announced by Innovation Minister, Senator Kim Carr, and Senator Kate Lundy, the IT Supplier Advocate will work as a broker and spokesperson, particularly for small to medium enterprises (SMEs) in the information technology sector.

The AMA says it could be dangerous if patients were able to hide information about abortions or their use of anti-depressants.

AMA vice-president Steve Hambleton told an e-health conference doctors would not trust the new record if it did not contain all relevant patient information, and there was a risk of serious medical mishaps if information was kept secret.

The Victorian branch of the Australian Medical Association (AMA) has called for more than $18 million in funding over four years from the state government to roll out iPads and supporting infrastructure to doctors.

The grant comes as part of $328 million in funding the association has pushed from the Victorian Government across the 2011-2012 financial year and three-year forward estimates as a means of replacing the scrapped HealthSMART initiative and improving patietn safety through ICT infrastructure.

Dr Pesce said that the AMA has long been a supporter of the Government’s e-health agenda but it is time that people started seeing some results.

"The Government should concentrate all its efforts on getting pathology results, diagnostic imaging results, hospital discharge summaries, and medications dispensed information onto an electronic medical record,” Dr Pesce said.

A health-record summary is a quick fact sheet of a patient's health that their GP will create and keep up to date. The health summary is a key element of the government's personally controlled electronic health record (PCEHR) scheme, which the government is starting from 1 July.

GPs have been concerned about the amount of time it will take to manage the shared e-health summary, and are looking for compensation for the time that they will spend on updating them. At the end of last month, Health Minister Tanya Plibersek said that the government will accede to this wish by providing funds to GPs for managing the records.

Eleven days before the launch of the new scheme that will see patient medical records digitalised, the underpinning legislation is still before the parliament, the system needed to authenticate the identity of doctors is not ready, and no doctors are signed up to use the service.

Addressing more than 300 government leaders and technology experts, the Minister opened the fourth annual FutureGov Summit Australia 2013 in Canberra on 2 December. Emphasising the key challenges and policy directions for digital engagement in the Australian Government, the Minister set the stage for two days of intensive discussions around the latest ICT developments impacting government service delivery in Australia.

The Australian Passport Office (APO) seeks to expand its use of biometric technology, according a request for tender published today.

The APO has use facial recognition in the passport production process since 2005, but wants to enhance that capability and potentially use other kinds of biometrics, the APO said in the tender request.

Australian passports may incorporate voice-recognition and eye-scanning technology as the government looks to expand biometric identification.

Australian passports have included facial recognition technology since 2005, but the government is now investigating "other biometric technologies", according to a request for tender made public on Monday.

The Parliamentary Committee tasked with investigating the feasibility of digitising Australian ballots has unanimously found that a high-tech solution is still too risky, complicated and expensive to make it a reality in the near term.

Draft laws to underpin the operation of the Gillard government's $500 million personally controlled e-health record system also provide another loophole allowing authorities to decide a data breach was "not deliberate".

"Under this legislation, no government and no employee can be sued or prosecuted for any harm or damage arising from a breach," APF Health chairwoman Juanita Fernando said.