Northern Territory Health chief information officer Stephen Moo said the aim was to create a robust hub to handle growing volumes of clinical messaging and resolve interoperability issues.
"We've got critical mass in e-health adoption by our clinical community, they're becoming reliant on it and we need a high-calibre service," Mr Moo said.
"This investment will give us an integrated enterprise solution.
"We have 400 health-service provider sites using our secure messaging service now, with around 60,000 transactions a month for the shared e-health record repository alone: that's new events or discharge summaries."
In future, all messaging, internal and external, will be routed through the enterprise hub.
"That will give us higher performance and allow us to monitor traffic and issue alerts where messages aren't delivered," Mr Moo said.
There had been problems with proprietary messaging vendor systems, with a range of products being used in one jurisdiction.
"We're aiming to move away from proprietary products, towards full end-to-end web services based on national e-health infrastructure services," he said.
"This builds on our Web Services Messaging Application, based on the National E-Health Transition Authority's secure messaging delivery specifications. The scope also involves integrating the WSMA with a health services directory storing the electronic addresses for organisations and individual providers."
The value of the deal has not been disclosed, but InterSystems regional director Stan Capp said it was "a microcosm" of what the company had been delivering around the globe.
"Ensemble . . . can pick up information from diverse systems and allow it to be reviewed in a portal," Mr Capp said. "Most healthcare organisations are dealing with legacy interface engines, so an overarching technology that draws these together is a key stepping stone to a connected environment."
Mr Moo hopes all Northern Territory healthcare providers using current systems will be moved on to the integrated platform within six months, then community providers will be brought on board.
There are also plans for a more sophisticated shared e-health repository through InterSystems HealthShare records product, and link-ups with South Australian and West Australian health services.
Mr Moo said South Australia was tying in with the territory as part of this project.
"We'll be linking into their enterprise service bus, which includes Ensemble," he said.
"Hopefully within six months we'll be able to receive discharge summaries from South Australian hospitals, system to system, instead of by fax or email."
Northern Territory Health was also working with Western Australia to connect hospitals in the Kimberley to the network.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Karen Dearne
Quelle/Source: Australian IT, 15.03.2011
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