Australian Health Information Technology

The Approach Being Adopted To Health Information Sharing Being Adopted by Hong Kong.

2012-01-27T16:30:00.000+11:00

The following highly relevant article appeared a week or two ago "New and improved" data protection regime? Hong Kong government launches public consultation on e-health record sharing Herbert Smith LLP Michelle Chan, Tim Mak and Clarice Yue Hong Kong January 9 2012 On 12 December 2011, the Hong Kong Food and Health Bureau launched a two-month public consultation on the Legal, Privacy and Security Framework for a territory-wide patient-orientated Electronic Health Record (eHR) Sharing System as part of a proposed reform of the Hong Kong healthcare system. What is eHR sharing? An eHR is a record in electronic format containing health-related data of an individual. It is anticipated that the eHR Sharing System will provide an essential infrastructure for access and sharing of patients' health data by authorised healthcare providers in both the public and private sectors. The goal is to facilitate seamless interfacing between...

This is the initial part of the post - read more by clicking on the title of the article. David.

The Truth Is Now Out - More Than 97% Of The Population Will Not Get Anything From The PCEHR By July 2012.

2012-01-26T16:00:00.000+11:00

The following appeared today - Australia Day no less!. Long road ahead for e-health records by: Karen Dearne From: Australian IT January 26, 2012 7:37AM The Health department spent $142 million on e-health activities in the last financial year around one-third of a total $424m spent on health IT projects over the past 10 years. Spending more than doubled during 2010-11, up from $60m a year earlier, reflecting a ramping up of work on the Gillard government’s $500m personally controlled e-health record program to meet its July 1 launch. But documents released today show that while individuals may be able to register for a PCEHR from that date, national usage of the system is not planned in the foreseeable future. “The first release of the PCEHR system (will) deliver the core functionality required to establish a PCEHR system that can grow over time,” the Health department says. “Once the design of the national system has been completed, an assessment of the 12...

This is the initial part of the post - read more by clicking on the title of the article. David.

More Evidence Regarding The Usage of Health Portals. They Need More Work and They Need To Be Really Useful.

2012-01-25T16:30:00.000+11:00

The following report alerted me to an interesting paper. Online portal adoption lower than expected in study of older patients By danb Created Jan 20 2012 - 12:17pm Researchers have called the effectiveness of web-based interventions in healthcare into question on the heels of a study showing limited use of such features by patients, according to a study [1] published this month in the Journal of Health Communication. The study consisted of 130 women considered to be at average risk for colorectal cancer (CRC). The women, mostly between 50 and 59 years old, were given access to a web portal with information pertaining to screening for the disease, including associated benefits and risks. The site also contained hot links to websites with additional CRC information such as the American Cancer Society, the National Cancer Institute, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Journal of the American Medical Association's Patient Page, among others. Of the women who...

This is the initial part of the post - read more by clicking on the title of the article. David.

NEHTA Is Offensively Silent On Just What The Problems Are With The PCEHR. I Wonder Just Why That Is?

2012-01-25T04:30:00.000+11:00

A couple of quotes from yesterday. http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/413250/nehta_presses_pause_e-health_records/ NEHTA presses pause on e-health records The implementation was stopped after internal checks detected issues in the specifications Chloe Herrick (Computerworld) 24 January, 2012 16:27 ..... (most of article deleted) When contacted by Computerworld Australia, NEHTA declined to comment on the reasons for the delay in funding or whether the delay would cause any setbacks to the project going live by 1 July. DoHA had not replied at the time of writing. and here: http://www.zdnet.com.au/specification-issue-halts-health-software-339330280.htm Specification issue halts health software By Suzanne Tindal, ZDNet.com.au on January 24th, 2012 ..... (most of article delted) ZDNet Australia made a number of queries about how the issue with the specifications had been created, and what the situation means in real terms for developers; however, NEHTA...

This is the initial part of the post - read more by clicking on the title of the article. David.

More On The Possible Risks Associated With EHRs. The US AMA Releases a Report!

2012-01-24T21:00:00.000+11:00

The following appeared a week or so back on one of our favourite topics. EHRs Linked to Errors, Harm, AMA Says Clinicians can introduce errors when they copy and paste sensitive patient data into electronic health records, according to AMA research. By Ken Terry, InformationWeek January 13, 2012 A new AMA report on patient safety in ambulatory care finds that safety problems are widespread but that little is known about which problems cause the most harm. Among the uncertainties cited by the AMA researchers is the contribution of electronic health records (EHRs) to patient safety. "The use of electronic health records has the potential to improve patient safety and early research shows some promise, but these systems have also been linked to errors and harm," the report says. "It is not yet clear how many providers will adopt these systems, nor the extent to which health IT will improve patient safety in ambulatory care versus generating new types of errors." The...

This is the initial part of the post - read more by clicking on the title of the article. David.