IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

The Andrews Labor Government is positioning the state as a leader in planning and digital innovation, announcing a record $35.2 million to deliver Digital Twin Victoria – a data-based digital replica of our state.

Minister for Planning Richard Wynne announced Digital Twin Victoria, which will transform planning and unlock efficiencies from the start to finish of infrastructure projects, helping to drive the state’s economic recovery.

The case for shared services has been around for many years and is quite solid: what’s the point of duplicating IT assets or services – be they hardware, software licenses, or anything-as-a-service – across different agencies or local authorities? After all, they have a bunch of similar process and application needs, but just tend to manage them in silos because of legacy reasons and because of how the budget process works.

In its second examination of the HealthSMART project initially priced at $323 million, the Auditor General found that Victoria’s Department of Health had not just “exhausted its allocated funds” but only managed to deliver clinical ICT systems to four out of 19 health services.

Local council leaders said their remote communities would find it hard to survive unless there was Federal Government support for significant upgrades.

The federal government's new eHealth system will be regulated against privacy breaches by the privacy commissioner and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).

The eHealth system, which went live July 1, will initially include basic information, with healthcare professionals adding to the system, such as medications prescribed and allergies.

Over the past five years, the government and industry have developed legislation and standards that enable healthcare institutions to effectively share electronic health data.

National e-health standards now cover key areas such as accurately identifying healthcare providers and consumers (national health identifiers), secure messaging, and repositories for personally-controlled electronic health records (PCEHRs). These standards attempt to address information privacy concerns and mandate security mechanisms to protect consumers’ sensitive health information.

And Australian Privacy Foundation chair Roger Clarke has attacked the National E-Health Transition Authority and federal Health officials for cutting consumers out of the design process for the $467 million personally controlled e-health record system.

"Because consumer representatives have had so little input, there's a very strong chance sensitive data will be compromised, and the system won't suit people's needs," he said.

The Federal Government’s telehealth initiative may not have achieved its intended goal, but LifeSize A/NZ country manager, Gerry Forsythe, said that is finally changing.

“With no real guidelines behind it, the one-off incentive payment of $6000 was not really taken on properly, though it is coming together now,” he said.

The Digital Hub will assist in training communities and helping local people and businesses take advantage of the opportunities the NBN offers.

From the federal government’s $23.6 million NBN Digital Hubs and Digital Enterprise programs, Adelaide City Council will receive $630209 to establish a Digital Hub at the Grote Street Library.

The winners of the 2015 Australian Government ICT Awards have been recognised for initiatives in eGovernment and excellence in the use of ICT.

The Australian Taxation Office won the Overall Excellence in eGovernment Award and was the Service Delivery Category Award Winner for its myTax initiative which the judges said made participation in the tax system "as easy as possible" and "minimises the cost and time involved in meeting this obligation"

Queensland Liberal Senator Sue Boyce asked why the material had not been released for public discussion when it was being circulated for commercial purposes.

Health deputy secretary Rosemary Huxtable said the draft concept of operations for the PCEHR had not been finalised.

Australia’s public service lacks the will to embrace shared services, despite the cost savings and simplification it can deliver, according to former Defence CIO Greg Farr.

Speaking to an audience of his peers ahead of yesterday’s iTnews Benchmark Awards, Farr said Defence had “ended up sort of half pregnant” under previous attempts.

Pathology and X-rays are headlined on the side of the truck as patient information that ''travels with you'' once e-health kicks in.

But there is still a long way to go - perhaps years - before patients will be able to log on to their diagnostic records, despite the July 1 start for the Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record (PCEHR).

The federal government will overhaul its $5.6 billion annual outlay on information technology in a bid to cut waste and duplication, after proving the value of the internet to deliver services.

An expanded agency will be given the job of finding “significant efficiencies” across the public service under a cabinet decision to ­accelerate a digital strategy launched a year ago.

The audit, to be run by 32 public servants, will cost $5.21 million, and will be funded through current agency budgets. Queensland Health is being reviewed separately by the health minister, and will therefore be exempt from the audit, as will statutory authorities and government-owned corporations, but the rest of the agencies will be in the spotlight.

Bates said yesterday at an Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) event that the Labor governments that preceded the LNP allowed IT to grow in a "wild, unmanaged and inconsistent way" across government departments, without knowing what was being used where.

The Queensland Government wants to create an environment in which innovation is viewed as safe, says the man leading the implementation of its ICT Action Plan, Glenn Walker.

“We are recognising innovation prototyping in the department and making it OK,” he said.

A panel of Queensland parliamentarians has urged the state government to lobby its federal counterpart to move remote and regional communities up the list of areas to be connected to the national broadband network.

The state’s LNP-dominated health and community services committee last Friday tabled the findings of its eight-month inquiry into the $30.9 million allocated by the state to expanding telehealth throughout Queensland.

Andrew Garner, Director General of the Department of Science, Information Technology, Innovation and the Arts, which houses the office of Queensland’s whole of government CIO, made the announcement of Mills’ appointment in a media release this morning after it was outed yesterday by the Adelaide Advertiser.

A program to save rural and remote renal dialysis patients unnecessary travel through the use of telehealth technology has been recognised as the best in the state at the 2017 Queensland Health and Department of Health Awards for Excellence.

The Queensland Health Regional, Rural and Remote Award for Outstanding Achievement was presented to representatives from Darling Downs Hospital and Health Service Renal Services at a gala awards event in Brisbane on Tuesday night.

Simon Finn, Minister for Information and Communication Technology announced on 1 December 2011 that Professor Peter Grant will begin his QGCIO role on the day itself.

“I’m very pleased that Peter will take on this role, which is the first of its kind in the nation,” Mr Finn said. “Peter brings over 40 years of experience to this position—half of which is in the public sector.”