IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

The NSW Government has successfully agreed with the lead Australian government e-health agency to integrate remnants of the Healthelink trial into the wider, $467 million personally controlled electronic health record (PCEHR) led by Federal Government.

Announced as one of the nine wave 2 e-health implementation sites by health minister, Nicola Roxon, last month, the nominated site in western Sydney will adopt and expand on the scope of the Healthelink pilot initiated by the state government.

The Federal Government’s lead e-health agency is anxiously anticipating clarity around the $467 million personally-controlled electronic health record (PCEHR) program, with hopes the imminent public release of a draft concept of operations will catalyse greater cooperation from the wider industry.

Despite promises from health minister Nicola Roxon to publicly release the document, which has so far only been handed to potential bidders on key tenders, a spokesperson failed to respond to questions of exact dates at time of writing.

But the health department cannot yet provide any details of NEHTA's forward work plan allocated $67.4m in the recent budget -- a sum to be matched by the states and territories under Council of Australian Government funding arrangements.

"At the moment, we are in the final stages of the production build-out and final verification testing," Andrew Howard told a vendors' webinar on June 27.

"Everything is on track for a successful launch (of the consumer portal and online registration system) over the weekend."

The Federal Government's lead e-health transition body has proposed a new standards strategy that would speed up development of specifications underpinning the personally controlled electronic health record (PCEHR).

It would replace the current, seven-stage standards development process undertaken with Standards Australia, with a view to establishing specifications by the end of November.

The National e-health Transition Authority (NEHTA) has confirmed it has received the latest tranche of a total of $466.7 million in funding from the Federal Department of Health for the next stage of its personally-controlled electronic health record (PCEHR) project.

According to a NEHTA spokesperson, funding of $38.5 million will be provided for a six month period to 30 June this year under which the organisation will provide management support services as private-sector partners are hired for four key roles: a national infrastructure partner; a change and adoption partner; a benefits realisation partner and an external assurance adviser.

At a Senate inquiry into e-health legislation last month, MSIA made a number of claims that the specifications for the individual health identifier (IHI) — which links a person to their personally controlled e-health record — risk patient safety, because when a person changed gender or birth date information, they would be issued with a duplicate health identifier.

The National E-Health Transition Authority (NeHTA) will maintain its current design for personal e-health records despite acknowledging concerns that increased consumer control over health information could potentially result in poorer health outcomes for patients.

Details of the National eHealth Security and Access Framework (NESAF) which was unveiled today by Nehta are currently only available to vendors registered with the Nehta website.

The heart of the framework however is understood to be descriptions of the standards and protocols organisations should use when writing e-health systems, which have been compiled as a toolkit to help organisations design and develop health related computer systems.

The body responsible for the Australian Government's electronic health records system has paid little attention to threats made by a US firm claiming that the PCEHR violates its patents.

The chief executive of the National E-Health Transmission Authority (NEHTA), Peter Fleming said he had not contacted the Health Department over the patent claim, hearing about it first via a newspaper article.

"A clinical safety case report for release 1a is currently being prepared," Nehta says in just-provided answers to Questions on Notice during a February Senate estimates hearing.

"This report does not focus on the live clinical environment; rather it primarily focuses on potential clinical hazards introduced through the delivery of the PCEHR national infrastructure.

Digital Transformation Agency interim chief Nerida O’Loughlin says the agency now has all the levers it needs to push the pace on digital transformation of public services, as she prepares to hand a steady ship to a new captain.

Malcolm Turnbull’s Cabinet recognises its efforts to make dealing with government “simple, fast and easy” have turned out more complicated, slow and difficult than hoped, according to interim Digital Transformation Agency chief executive Nerida O’Loughlin.

A new survey suggests that seniors, and particularly pensioners, risk being left behind as businesses and governments shift more services online.

Queensland University of Technology researcher Dr Sandra Haukka interviewed 149 seniors aged 50 or older across the nation.

Australians will be given an electronic health record with funding to be announce in the budget.

All Australians will now have an electronic health record as part of a new e-health system, and people will have to opt out if they do not want to take part.

The previous arrangement, commissioned in 2012, was an “opt in” system where patients could choose to join, but it was plagued with problems.

Health department chief information officer Paul Madden said a project governance group was needed to flag errors, and it should be able to assess and mitigate clinical risks detected by users or software makers.

Mr Madden said some technical specifications for the $500 million personally controlled e-health record system should be "signed off as ready to build" from October 31, with the rest finalised by November 30.

The program will bring together Medicare, Centrelink and other welfare support agencies.

Formerly chief information officer for ANZ Bank's local operations, Mr Sterrenberg replaces retired CIO and Infrastructure head John Wadeson.

The Silver Lining Consultancy Group, which includes Chamonix IT Consulting and Kloud Solutions, has established a new Cloud Technology Centre of Excellence in Melbourne.

It was opened by Minister for Technology, Gordon Rich-Phillips on August 28.

The centre will facilitate access to Cloud consulting, system engineering and support services and will focus on areas such as communication and collaboration technologies, Cloud infrastructure services, the development and integration of current environments to the Cloud and custom-enabled applications, as well as identity and access management.

The Department of Human Services has a new “chief citizen experience officer” who hopes digital transformation can bring relief to both disgruntled clients and frazzled frontline staff, but the government continues to send mixed messages about its priorities in the portfolio.

Mukul Agrawal, who moved into the challenging role from AMP in November, spoke about his hope that simple forms of artificial intelligence can make dealing with Medicare or Centrelink a quicker, easier and more personalised experience, at the Australian Information Industry Association’s recent conference on the future of work.

There were quick arguments raised on the new scheme being unfeasible for the people. The critics are of the view that this system wouldn’t be able to provide safe record-keeping for the patients.

Mikael Hagstrom, vice-president of SAS, a global leader in data analysis software, says Australia isn't alone. Health care worldwide lags the banking, telco, retail and other sectors in the application of intelligence tools. He claims advances in digital imaging, diagnostic tools, real-time electronic medical records and the ability to mine patient information from data streamed live from remote monitoring systems will "transform healthcare delivery".