I must say it is always gratifying when something useful falls off the back of a truck!
This arrived this morning and has made my day from one of my favourite deep throats (no names – no pack drill)!
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A copy of the AHIC eHealth Future Directions final briefing paper arrived last week.
The recommendations of the report, which went to the October 4 AHMAC meeting (that is the Australian Health Minister’s Advisory Council (AHMAC)– the peak e-Health body in the country) , are:
1. To develop a comprehensive national eHealth strategy in consultation with the Jurisdictions, industry, community and health services
2. That AHMAC recognises that eHealth is the cost of doing business in the 21st century, hence requiring continued investment
3. That AHMAC recognise that the Jurisdictions already have many of the necessary eHealth components already, and that what is needed is a system of knowledge exchange
4. That a ‘time limited’ implementation function / body be established and funded by AHMAC to integrate eHealth nationally
5. That the core set of components for a Shared Electronic Health Record be operating across Australia by 2012
6. That an implementation plan and resources schedule be developed to deliver the AHMAC eHealth strategy
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The pain in all this is:
1. Why is the AHIC eHealth Future Directions briefing paper not public already?
2. With a Federal Election called what is the chance of any action?
3. Neither party has an e-health policy election announcement so far – maybe the HISA survey results – when published – can change that!
These recommendations, if implemented properly, will allow me to stop typing about the lack of an e-Health Strategy, Business Case and Implementation Plan, and get on with the blog being a tool to share information on the bleeding edge of Health IT!
I hope this is all true! It is not before time!
David.
2 comments:
It is possible the document has not been released publicly because procedure and protocol may determine that it needs to be signed-off by the Minister before release. In that case your 'source', who passed it to you, is being very naughty and will need to be careful lest he/she gets a smack around the ears, or something 'more' (scuse the pun).
On the other hand, if the document is not a 'draft' requiring Ministerial sign-off, but is indeed the final document that has been passed to the Minister it is most appropriate that the Committee make it public without delay.
It would be quite improper for it to be 'kept under wraps' at this time of election point scoring so that the caretaker Government can choose to use it as political gunshot against the Opposition. If that is the case your 'source' deserves a medal for providing 'both' political parties with an equal chance to comment as and when they may deem it appropriate.
All too often in this election campaign are we seeing the Government sticking its head up and making announcements 'NOW' about something it should have acted on a long time ago.
In e-Health the Government has failed to show any sign of competent leadership for many years. It is too late in my view to pretend to claim a leadership role now. New leadership is required and I think most people know where that has to come from.
An excellent result indeed.
In response to your questions:
1. The AHIC would enhance its credibility enormously by making its eHealth Future Directions briefing paper publicly available today.
2. Paralysis is setting in so there will be no action until some months post election. What is more important however is that an astute politician will be attuned to Microsoft’s recent announcement around its personal health record initiative called HealthVault. This, coupled with the parlous state of our health system, should indicate that a concise, intelligent, well-thought-through, announcement has considerable mileage. The consumer is the voter.
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