The NEN is a government initiative that seeks to bring ultra-fast broadband to schools. 23 schools have been equipped with unrestricted broadband at 100Mb/s or greater since the first two trials took place from 2008 to 2009. The NEN trial extension hopes to equip another 200 schools with fast, reliable and affordable broadband connection by June 2011. Target schools are those that currently have open-access fibre connectivity.
Read more: Ultra-fast broadband to reach 200 New Zealand schools
The tender, the details of which have remained commercial-in-confidence, would see Medtech’s New Zealand subsidiary and New Zealand Post subsidiary, Datam, jointly provide software and services for a minimum seven years with a potential three year extension. Datam will provide support, maintenance and development throughout the project.
Health Minister Tony Ryall has directed the newly formed National Health Board to create the first national IT system for the sector based on achieving the "eHealth vision".
The vision states that to "achieve high-quality health care and improve patient safety, by 2014 New Zealanders will have a core set of personal health information available electronically to them and their treatment providers".
A greater level of district health board funding, supported by national funding, has been called for by the National Health IT Board to pay for proposed health information solutions.
In the 2008/09 financial year the DHBs combined investment in IT projects was $60 million, with the cost of operating and maintaining health IT systems coming in at $170 million.
Read more: New Zealand: National Health IT Board calls for greater funding
Sam Heard, visiting New Zealand from Darwin to talk with groups interested in health IT, is a founding partner in Australian firm Ocean Informatics, developers of a platform for health-information sharing called openEHR.
Read more: New Zealand: Expert advises against centralised e-health records