IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

With doctors for parents, I know what would be concerning them the most. Doctors can be fanatical about privacy, and with good reason.

During the 2010 election campaign, Health Minister Nicola Roxon committed $12.5m to hand-picked GP divisions – GP Partners in Brisbane, GP Access in the NSW Hunter Valley and Melbourne East – to act as lead sites for the government’s $467m personally controlled e-health record program.

Health department documents show each site received $4.83m in grant funding on February 2, bringing the total to $14.5m. The projects are due for completion by June 30 2012, when a PCEHR is supposed to be available for every Australian who wants one.

The Australian Medical Association today highlighted a lack of data transfer protocols as one of the chief barriers to effective, electronic healthcare provision.

Addressing a Parliamentary Inquiry on the role and potential of a National Broadband Network, AMA vice president Steven Hambleton said non-network barriers were holding back electronic information transfer.

The Department of Health and Ageing has said it is pleased that 13,000 Australian residents have signed up for e-health records since July 1, and has downplayed the original forecast that 500,000 will be signed up by the end of June 2013.

In a doorstop interview at the launch of a model e-health display in Parliament House yesterday (MON), Ms Roxon replied "no" when asked if there would be a special Medicare rebate for doctors using a new $500 million nationwide patient electronic record system due to start next July 1.

"Look, we're not contemplating a special rebate," she said. "I'm sure that over time there'll be all sorts of different options and requests and they'll be considered as they come."

Industry has welcomed the release of the draft concept of operations for the Federal Government’s $466.7 million Personally Controlled Electronic Health Records (PCEHR), but complete clarity on the project remains lacking.

The 130-page document, released Tuesday by health minister Nicola Roxon, maps out the record’s function, possible information as well as proposed security and privacy settings and how the system will connect with clinical systems. The release of the document, which the Federal Government had previously been reluctant to offer publicly, came as it sought to incite further discussion around the project and iron out potential issues prior to going live on 1 July 2012.

"The legislation should contain clear privacy protections and should clarify how different commonwealth, state and territory privacy laws will apply," he says in a submission detailing 22 needed changes and "clarifications".

"The civil penalty provisions will not apply to health information originally obtained from the PCEHR system where such information 'was stored in such a way that it was capable of being obtained' by other means."

Take-up of personally controlled e-health records (PCEHR) in Australia is on the rise, with 1.4 million customers registering for the service as of February 26.

Health Department e-health division first assistant secretary Linda Powell told Senate Estimates last night that 1.4 million consumers have registered since the launch in mid-2012, with the bulk of registrations coming from New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland.

The Government's plan to introduce electronic health records is a "nightmare" for security according to the head of industry group AusCERT.

According to Grahame Ingram, information security risks were amplified because of the highly sensitive nature of patient data held under the e-health scheme.

"It is a nightmare scenario," Ingram said. "That they think they have the security to safeguard the data is just a nightmare."

The Transition Authority received some $110m in base funding for e-health standards work between January 2011 and June 2012, plus separate Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record contracts worth $90m from the Department of Health.

A third tranche of these funds is due in October.

The Federal Government says the system will bring the management of health records into the 21st century and provide life saving information in emergencies.

The legislation passed the Senate this evening with the support of the Coalition despite the concerns about privacy from some Opposition senators.

Enabling legislation supporting the Gillard government’s $500 million personally controlled e-health record system is to be scrutinised during a public inquiry conducted by the Senate Community Affairs committee.

The Community Affairs committee has called for submissions from any interested parties by January 12; it is due to report by February 29.

The Australian Government’s approach to managing personally controlled electronic health records (PCEHRs) has resulted in poor governance and repeated project failure, a Senate committee hearing into the PCEHR Bill 2011 has heard.

Speaking at the hearing, Australian Privacy Foundation Health Sub Committee chair, Dr Juanita Fernando, pointed to issues of accountability, particularly from the National eHealth Transition Authority (NeHTA), the “retrofitting” of governance to the PCEHR, and a lack of independence of the governance of the health records.

After more than two years of development and over half a billion dollars worth of investment, the Federal Government will launch its personally-controlled e-health record (PCEHR) system on 1 July. Last month, the government indicated the system would launch with a whimper rather than a bang, as patients will initially only be able to register for the records and add their own information through an online portal.

Responding to criticism levelled at the government-owned company by the Medical Software Industry Association (MSIA) that NEHTA staff are not qualified, NEHTA CEO Peter Flemming said that his staff are "very skilled and dedicated", with some being the "world's leading experts in their field".

The Federal Government is today unveiling the first stage of its e-health system, known as personally-controlled electronic health records, or PCEHR.

It says the system, which is due to be in place from July 1 next year, is in response to concerns that limited access to health information increases the risk to patient safety, wastes time when staff have to collect or find information and sometimes causes unnecessary or duplicated tests and treatment.

Speaking before a Senate hearing today, MSIA president Dr Jon Hughes said that a fundamental flaw exists with the specification of the Health Identifiers used for e-health records, which surfaced when a person was issued with a new identifier by Medicare to, for example, correct a date of birth or changing the gender. In this case, there is no way for Medicare to inform all health organisations using the e-health record system to update their records accordingly.

A review of the rollout of Australia's personally-controlled e-health record (PCEHR) system has recommended that the system sign up patients by default from 2015, unless they decide to opt out.

The review (PDF), which was commissioned by Health Minister Peter Dutton in November last year to examine the rollout of the AU$1 billion system and why so few patients and doctors have signed up to in the years since its launch.

The personally controlled e-health system was pushed live and accessible to the public without a back-up system that would have ensured patient data was available at all times.

The consumer portal, where people enter personal information, medical history and medication details, contained hundreds more bugs of different severity levels as the system went live, The Australian can reveal.

In the new e-health records the Personally Controlled Electronic Health Records (PCEHR) will be developed and improved. The government has been planning to introduce the national blueprint since long. It has been confirmed that the new procedure will be completely functional by 1 July 2012.