Australian Health Information Technology

The Happy Christmas and Have a Great New Year Blog.

2009-12-23T17:25:00.001+11:00

Just a short blog to wish all those who drop by the Season’s best. It has been quite a year and much of the hope we stated it with has really yet to actually come to fruition, sadly. The saddest things to me have been the consistent lack of leadership in the e-Health space and the persistent stupidity of the belief held by some really hopeless bureaucrats that something can happen without both quality leadership, some effective governance and some reasonable seeding investment. The amount of time and effort that has been wasted because these three things were missing is terrible and the denial that is actually matters in terms of patient’s lives and limbs borders on the criminal in my view. The good things this year have all been about the hardy souls in the commercial e-Health space who have been prepared to chance their arm and just go for it! They all know who they are so there is no point providing a list as I would be certain to leave some good guy or gal out! I really hope...

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

NSW Health Takes A Hit from the Australian Financial Review.

2009-12-22T19:13:00.000+11:00

The following appeared today. Fears for patients amid e-record troubles The NSW government and senior health bureaucrats have been accused of putting the lives of patients at risk by ignoring the concerns of clinicians over the troubled deployment of the FirstNet electronic patient records and administration system. The key points of the article are: 1. Some departments have reverted to using paper for patient records. 2. The concerns centre on the time it takes to enter and retrieve details. More here (subscription required) http://www.afr.com/p/business/technology/fears_for_patients_amid_record_troubles_Jt8sQPbgQ32PngTpFLFTmJ Those who have been watching will know this issue was covered a while ago on the blog. See: http://aushealthit.blogspot.com/2009/11/nsw-health-cerner-and-professor-patrick.html and here: http://aushealthit.blogspot.com/2009/11/new-release-of-jon-patrick-essay-on.html and here: ...

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

Weekly Overseas Health IT Links 23-12-2009

2009-12-22T17:19:00.000+11:00

Here are a few I have come across this week. Note: Each link is followed by a title and a paragraph or two. For the full article click on the link above title of the article. ----- http://www.news-medical.net/news/20091216/Physicians-support-EHR-use-but-privacy-breaches-remain-an-issue.aspx Physicians support EHR use, but privacy breaches remain an issue 16. December 2009 03:19 Although physicians support the use of electronic health records, concerns about potential privacy breaches remain an issue, according to two research articles published in the January 2010 issue of the Journal of the American Informatics Association (JAMIA), in its premiere issue as one of 30 specialty titles published by the BMJ (British Medical Journal) Group, UK. One published study is based on views of more than 1,000 family practice and specialist physicians in Massachusetts who were asked whether they thought electronic health information exchange (HIE) would drive down costs, improve patient...

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

Latest Additions to the NEHTA December 2009 Information Barrage.

2009-12-21T17:18:00.000+11:00

Passed on without comment. Go here and be informed - or whatever else you derive from what they provide. http://www.ehealthinfo.com.au/newsletters/dec-09/ David.

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

A Really Important Piece of Commonsense Many in Health IT Miss.

2009-12-21T17:14:00.000+11:00

The following interview appeared a few days ago. One-on-One With Virtua Health CIO Al Campanella, Part I Virtua is a multi-hospital healthcare system headquartered in Marlton, N.J. A non-profit organization, it employs 7,900 clinical and administrative personnel and has 1,800 physicians as medical staff members. Virtua is an early adopter of clinical and digital technologies, led on the IT side by CIO Al Campanella. Recently HCI Editor-in-Chief Anthony Guerra caught up with Campanella to see if HITECH was changing his strategic plans. GUERRA: Can you give me the 10,000-foot overview of Virtua? CAMPANELLA: Sure. Virtua has four hospitals with a little over 1,000 beds. We have a little over $1billion in revenue. We own 150 physician practices. We also have two nursing homes, a very large home health agency with 400 nurses, and we have two large ambulatory care centers. GUERRA: And I would imagine there’s a large population of physicians down there that are independent and refer...

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