The followingarticles appeared this morning and - as noted in the previous blog - the RevisedPCEHR Concept of Operations is being released today.
Nicola Roxon to unveil e-health blueprint
- Karen Dearne
- From: The Australian
- September 12, 2011
HEALTHMinister Nicola Roxon will today unveil an updated blueprint for the nation's$500 million electronic health records program.
"Thisis a big step forward for e-health," she will tell guests at the openingof a model health display on show in Parliament House this week.
"Thefinalised Concept of Operations will be used by our infrastructure partners tobuild the system, and allow Australians to sign up for a personally controlled e-healthrecord (PCEHR) from July next year."
Lastmonth, the government signed a $77m contract with an Accenture-led consortiumto build and test the national IT infrastructure before the end of June, tomeet the minister's political deadline.
TheCanberra roadshow is intended to demonstrate the power of e-health technologiesto improve patient care and support health reform measures.
"Withina decade, our strategic broadband and e-health investments will be deliveringthe full power of smart health technologies across Australia, helping peoplelive healthier lives," Ms Roxon says.
"Itwill help us save lives and save money."
MsRoxon says more than 1.1 million individual healthcare identifiers are alreadyin use across Australia in the three sites leading the implementation of thePCEHR program.
More here:
The secondand deeper coverage is here:
Issues still to be resolved on e-health records program
- Karen Dearne
- From: The Australian
- September 12, 2011
THErevised concept of operations for the Gillard government's $500 millione-health records program fleshes out some details but many of the ticklishissues around funding, governance and medico liability remain "out ofscope".
Consultationsthrew up concerns that as yet, there are no arrangements for long-termmanagement of the personally controlled e-health record (PCEHR) program andrelated services, that there is no ongoing funding beyond its July 1 startupdate, and that there is no money on the table to compensate doctors for thecreation and maintenance of uploaded patient information.
Norhas the question of funding for software and systems upgrades, and integration,been addressed.
Alsoout of scope are the crucial enabling laws and regulatory details - a separatepublic consultation over a legal issues paper has closed, but the government isyet to respond to the matters raised - including sanctions for disclosure ofsensitive material.
Nevertheless,Health Minister Nicola Roxon will release the revamped blueprint in Canberratoday, where a model healthcare display has been set up in Parliament House toshowcase the power of new technologies in improving patient care and supportingreform measures.
"Thisis a big step forward for e-health," she will tell guests. "Thefinalised concept will be used by our infrastructure partners to build thesystem, and allow Australians to sign up for a PCEHR from July next year."
Lastmonth, the government sealed a $77m contract with an Accenture-led consortiumto build and test the national IT infrastructure before the end of June; thesame team is delivering Singapore's $146m electronic patient records system fordoctors caring for the nation's four million people.
ButAccenture's local project boss, Brad Cable, says Australia will not get a"cookie cutter copy" of the Singaporean system, due to the differentapproach demanded by the patient control aspects.
Whilethe latest document includes "refinements" to the original draftfollowing consultations, the overall design and operational concept are largelyunchanged.
ThePCEHR will be voluntary for both patients and medical providers, who will haveto opt-in to the system if they wish to participate; the personal record willnot replace doctors' own patient records; a national repository will hold abasic shared health summary, some agreed uploaded documents, and patients' ownnotes.
Anindexing system will allow document searches across "a distributed systemof public and private sector providers working in concert", with thegovernment insisting it is not creating a "single government store ofpersonal health information".
Essentially,the system will provide a document viewing service, which patients and medicalprofessionals can access through separate web portals.
Thegovernment has decided to tighten up on registration and online authenticationprocesses through the creation of a new proof of record ownership service.
Lots more here:
I receivedthe revised copy yesterday and this coverage is spot on. Essentially there hasbeen no substantive change from the Draft ConOps that was delivered in April.
A missedopportunity and really a disaster for Australian e-Health in my view. Thenumber of issues which remain unresolved is very large and each is veryimportant, suggesting to me they don’t know what they are doing.
David.
