With government funds flowing for delivery of the $467 million personally controlled e-health record system, Fleming says the second wave will spread the activity across the country.
"There were a significant number of responses (for the $55m funding pot) and these will allow us to dive deeply into various sectors, such as aged care," he says. "We've had people in the Health Department working right through Christmas evaluating these applications so we're ready to start the new year running. We're fairly close to being able to put forward recommendations to the minister."
Fleming says tenders for the National Authentication Service for Health and the GP software vendors panel are approaching finalisation, and new tenders designed to get e-health into operation around the country will be released shortly. "We're looking for private-sector partners to work with us on infrastructure, benefits realisation and change management, and this activity will bring a huge focus on the local community," Fleming says.
"We'll also start to see some real benefits from our work with the states. I've been buoyed by the data cleansing exercises the ACT government has been running for the Healthcare Identifiers program, for example. The results coming back are excellent, and Tasmania and Queensland will be next to run profiling exercises."
Fleming says the National E-Health Transition Authority will work with the GP software vendors panel to ensure their systems are upgraded to handle the HI service requirements.
Consumer involvement will be a key focus this year. "We've been talking with the Consumers Health Forum about how we can increase engagement in that area, to ensure consumers have a very strong voice," he says.
"I'm personally very pleased with what we've seen on the clinical side, where (former federal president of the Australian Medical Association) Mukesh Haikerwal has led the engagement with medical practitioners. We'd like to replicate that with the CHF and other groups.
"The consumer portal is a key component of the PCEHR (personally controlled electronic health record) architecture, and there will be a lot of discussion with consumers in terms of the look and feel, as well as the data that's needed for it to be effective."
On the political scene, Fleming believes the recent change in the Victorian government and foreshadowed shake-out in NSW will not hamper progress. "When you look at how NEHTA was established, through a Council of Australian Governments decision, there's always been a mixture of Liberal and Labor administrations," he says. "Obviously, as governments change we need to sit down and brief them.
"But this is a solid program that has been under way for a number of years, and it's had very strong support from all sides."
Fleming says there's evidence of significant activity in each of the states. "Last year was about delivery -- making sure we had the foundations in place -- and this year there's funding and we're absolutely moving into implementation."
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Karen Dearne
Quelle/Source: Australian IT, 22.02.2011
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