University of NSW's Centre for Health Informatics director Enrico Coiera said there was a "skills gap" in e-health despite it being so pervasive.
"We don't really have enough expertise available to help us make the right decisions," he said. "I think that is probably more of a problem in Australia than other countries."
Professor Coiera, who also directs the $2.5 million NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence in E-health, was speaking ahead of a Special Dean's Lecture he will give tomorrow at the University of Melbourne.
He said large-scale, centralised national programs, such as those in Canada, England and Australia, with their own Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record (PCEHR), had not experienced "much success or joy".
"I think you need to have a much lighter-touch approach and not impose large-scale systems designed by government, who really are great at legislation, but not so good at IT."
Health Minister Peter Dutton announced a review of the troubled $1 billion electronic health records system late last year and invited submissions from the public and groups such as clinical bodies.
Professor Coiera, who made a submission to the review panel, said e-health should have its own safety authority, similar to the aviation industry.
"We have a Civil Aviation Safety Authority whose role is to look for harms, identify why things go wrong and then remedy them, and we need exactly the same thing with e-health," he said.
Professor Coiera said while much of consumers' lives had gone online, including banking and shopping, they had not yet engaged with the health system online in any meaningful way.
"The tools that consumers need to be more effective managers of their own healthcare will come soon," he predicted. "Being able to book online with a doctor, or whatever service you want, and being able to ask questions in a light-touch way with email or whatever messaging we have, or being able to meet groups of other people with the same condition online."
Professor Coiera said social media could also have a role in changing socially mediated diseases and health problems.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Jennifer Foreshew
Quelle/Source: The Australian, 04.02.2014
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