I was alerted to this press release from the Federal Communications Minister yesterday.
98/07
Tuesday 24 July 2007
Clever Networks transforms chronic disease management
“The Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator Helen Coonan today announced the eighth preferred applicant under the first round of the Clever Networks program.
Precedence Health Care’s Chronic Disease Management Network, CDM-Net: A Broadband Health Network for Transforming Chronic Disease Management, will use broadband to transform the management of chronic disease thanks to $2 million in funding by the Australian Government.
CDM-Net will create a network of health services for monitoring and supporting care management.
“Chronic illness requires close monitoring and ongoing management across an entire team of care professionals,” Senator Coonan said.
“People suffering from chronic disease need to be provided with a care plan, detailing medications, treatments, tests, and referrals tailored to their specific circumstances, and CDM-Net will facilitate that.”
CDM-Net will use secure broadband services to connect healthcare providers to one another and to their patients. It will assist healthcare providers create and track care plans for their chronically ill patients and support patients in their adherence to care plans through electronic reminders and alerts.
“The network will improve care coordination by sharing information on patient care across the entire care team,” Senator Coonan said.
“The project will support the roll out of chronic disease management applications in urban, regional, remote and rural Australia while fostering Australian information communication technology innovation.”
Senator Coonan said a key concept behind the solution is an ‘open’ network of services.
“This allows different organisations, including private sector organisations, to ‘plug in’ to the network.
“This will enable the provision of a range of chronic disease management services across a wide population.
“CDM-Net will be initially implemented in the Barwon South Western Region of Victoria, however it has the potential to be rolled out across other regions of Victoria and nationally,” Senator Coonan said.
Clever Networks is a $113 million Australian Government program that will see smart solutions to improve delivery of services in regional, rural and remote Australia through innovative broadband projects.
Successful projects to receive Clever Networks first round funding will include virtual healthcare, remotely accessible interactive education services, and delivery of integrated state-wide emergency services.
More information about specific projects will become available as each successful project is announced.
More information about Clever Networks is available at www.dcita.gov.au/clevernetworks
Media Contact: Senator Coonan’s office, Katherine Meier 0417 441 141”
A little more detail can be found here
AU$2m broadband plan to help chronically sick
25 July 2007 12:03 PM
The latest award has been made under the government's Clever Networks program, to create a AU$2 million broadband network for chronic disease management.
The CDM-Net network, which will be built by Precedence Health Care, will connect medical staff and their chronically ill patients, to allow them to transfer case notes and other materials securely over a broadband connection.
Patients will also be able to tap into CDM-Net and will be helped to manage their care plans through a system of electronic alerts and reminders.
The network, which can potentially be accessed by both public and private healthcare bodies, will be rolled out first in Barwon South Western region of Victoria. According to Communications Minister Helen Coonan, if the system proves successful it could be deployed across the state or even nationwide.
….. (see the rest of the Article at the URL above)
Who is Precedence Health Care one asks:
http://precedencehealthcare.com/Welcome.html
Try the URL and you will get the following:
Precedence Health Care
“Precedence Health Care aims to provide comprehensive disease management, care surveillance and wellness monitoring services for people with chronic disease and complex needs”
This website is currently under construction.
For further information, please contact:
Obviously a substantial organisation who should be given $2.0M!
For those who wonder where this is all to happen:
“The Barwon-South Western Region is one of nine Department of Human Services regions in Victoria. It extends from Lara to the South Australian border, covering 29,637 square kilometres. The Region covers nine local government areas:
City of Greater Geelong
Borough of Queenscliffe
Surf Coast Shire
Colac-Otway Shire
Corangamite Shire
City of Warrnambool
Moyne Shire
Southern Grampians Shire
Glenelg Shire”
All I can say about all this is that it is fantastic in the real sense of that word! The proposers of this clearly have never implemented anything like this in the health sector and are never likely to in my humble opinion. They have no clue as to the issues involved and the complexities they will face I believe.
If it were possible to get anywhere in addressing the complexities of chronic disease management in a population of this size with $2.0 Million dollars worth of connectivity it would have happened long before this.
Where is the required national e-Health strategy and NEHTA to stop these silly initiatives which will almost certainly fail and waste public money! It’s amazing that a week ago the NEHTA CEO was saying the self organising health information network was not really a goes and now it gets funded.
To quote from last week’s blog:
“Further on in the article it is also claimed that a structured approach to reaching these benefits is not required. All that is needed is to connect everyone and that "The key message: don't spend time getting agreement on the data, don't spend time ensuring all the systems conform - get connected."
I have to say that when Dr Reinecke says that we need rather ‘cooler heads’ to assess all this then I am 100% with him. He makes the point, correctly that the internet has been around for a good while and working e-health has not suddenly emerged out of nothing.”
There is much more to this than meets the eye I reckon! (An imminent election may be?)
David.
11 comments:
Does anyone know who or what Precedence is, including what are its/their qualifications to implement such a program?
As one of nine (11%) Department of Human Services regions in Victoria the Barwon-South Western Region is significant, - 29,637 square kilometres and a fair chunk of the States population.
As the project clearly has significant ramifications for the Vic DHS and for HealthSmart it would not have been awarded funds under the Clever Networks Program without first being given a document of approval by the Vic DHS. Vic DHS would not have done so without having first satisfied itself (1) that Precedence could deliver, (2) that what was proposed was in line with Vic DHS strategies, and (3)that it fitted with NEHTA’s view of the world.
Hi,
It would be good if you could provide the evidence to support your three assertions.
Given the NEHTA CEO has already explicitly suggested this approach is not appropriate and understates what is needed to get such messaging working I am very skeptical.
David.
A quick look at ASIC shows two companies (1) Precedence Health Care Pty Ltd registered on 25/08/2005, and (2) Precedence Research (Aust) Pty Ltd registered 21/01/2004.
Both companies have been around for some time. They seem to be related.
Not privy to that sort of evidence. Just plain good common sense. Call me naive if you want but awarding a grant of $2M without some convincing evidence the applicant knew what it was doing and could deliver, or, alternatively, without some evidence of support from the 'impacted' jurisdiction - or both - beggars belief. One has to assume the Region covered itself and got approval from the DHS!.
Hi,
Sorry to have to point this out but this project manifests a total absence of common sense and ignorance of what is needed to reach its stated objectives.
After seeing the bizarre efforts of the various HealthConnect daughters and the general shambles that most State Health IT initiatives are I have no faith that anyone has seriously thought about anything!
Your mileage may vary as they say!
Time will surely tell.
David.
See my comments of yesterday:
"a recent study by Michael Georgeff, director of e-health at the Monash Institute of Health Services Research, estimates that, in the field of chronic disease management alone, better information sharing could deliver benefits worth some $4 billion a year.”
A claim obviously highly regarded by DOCITA as it has just been announced by the Minister, Helen Coonan, that "Precedence Health Care’s Chronic Disease Management Network, CDM-Net: ABroadband Health Network for Transforming Chronic Disease Management, will use broadband to transform the management of chronic disease thanks to $2 million in funding by the Australian Government."
The CEO of Precedence Health Care is the same Michael Georgeff.
Just as outstanding was the previous weeks Clever Networks announcement of $4.2m for DOCITA and Greater Southern NSW AHS to provide a managed health network (in effect, complete with PACs and videoconferencing), starting at Tumut and Batlow. Tumut has a 26 bed hospital and 2 GP practices with 2.5 FTE GPs. Batlow produces nice apples.
As the Americans say, go figure!
Surely not 'the' Michael Georgeff who is half owner of 'the' research company mentioned earlier?
Yep, and the same Michael Georgeff who is on the board of Working Systems, which will provide the technology for the solution and, no doubt, get a fair whack of the dough. No sign of any tender processes here ...
Just to keep the record straight re an earlier comment I think it should be pointed out that the WSS ASX Announcement of 26 July 27, 2007 stated that the Victorian Government was also contributing $2 million through the Department of Innovation, Industry and Regional Development, the Department of Human Services, and Multi Media Victoria.
So, the project has the full support of the Vic DHS and hence HealthSmart.
The problem is not who supports the project but whether the project (trial) is sensible or appropriate.
In my view if fails those two tests comprehensively.
Others may differ.
David.
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