I was searching to see if there were any new bits of information around on E-Health in Australia and I came upon the very interesting and current site provided by the Victorian Government on E-Health. (In fact on e-Government in general)
The site describes itself as follows:
About This Site
The eGovernment Resource Centre provides access to the Victorian Government body of knowledge on eGovernment, information and communications technology (ICT) and government website best practices, with Australian and international examples.
In 1995 the Victorian State Government, in Australia, set an ambitious target to have all suitable government services online by the end of 2001. In 1998, a knowledge management process was put in place to share government online learnings as they evolved. One of the outputs of this knowledge management process was the Government Online Resource Centre - a web based repository made available to the Victorian Public Sector on the Victorian Government Intranet. Due to demand from other government agencies who could not access the Intranet service, this resource was subsequently published on the Internet in December 2000. In March 2002, the Victorian government launched "Putting People at the Centre" - the Victorian Government's eGovernment vision.
The Victorian Government's eGovernment vision has four pillars:
- Substantially improving support and services to citizens
- Providing better community engagement and more effective democracy
- Using innovation in finding new opportunities
- Creating a framework for ongoing reform within government.
To assist the vision, the site was relaunched as the eGovernment Resource Centre. The Resource Centre actively collects research supporting each of these pillars by sharing resources with more than 20,000 eGovernment and eDemocracy researchers who visit the site from around the world every month.
Lots more here:
http://www.egov.vic.gov.au/index.php?env=AD14EFC8C0FD-innews/detail:m951-1-1-8-s:l-0-0-1-:n-7-1-0
The specific part I visited was found here:
http://www.egov.vic.gov.au/index.php?env=-categories:m957-1-1-8-s-0:l-0-1-1--
This shows a good list of current stories and was updated as recently as Friday.
What interested me most was to discover that the archive went back quite a way.
See here:
http://www.egov.vic.gov.au/index.php?env=-innews/detail:m957-1-1-8-s-0:n-529-1-0--
The following caught my eye:
“E-Health Technology Centre Launch Health Insurance Commission 27 February 2001 Speech Dr Michael Wooldridge Minister for Health and Aged Care "I am delighted to open this e-Health Technology Centre, which will assist the Health Insurance Commission to ensure the smooth transition of existing and new services to the Internet. Information technology has enormous potential to assist in the delivery of health care in Australia, both through continuing increases in raw computing power and the development of interconnecting networks, of which the Internet is -- of course -- pre-eminent..."
Booster shot for e-health, by Karen Dearne. AustralianIT, August 12, 2003. "HEALTH ministers have agreed to create two peak bodies to cut through the confusion in setting up major e-health projects, including HealthConnect and MediConnect..."
e-Health project takes off, by Karen Dearne. AustralianIT, November 19, 2003. "US defence systems integrator Boeing is partnering with Australian healthcare providers to develop and commercialise an innovative "health value chain management" approach to the network and interoperability problems delaying widespread adoption of e-health programs..."
Patent threatens e-health scheme, by Karen Dearne. The Australian, February 3, 2004. "The future of MediConnect is in doubt as advisers warn that the Pharmacy Guild of Australia may own key aspects of the Federal Government's electronic system giving pharmacists direct access to people's medication records and entitlements..."
Abbott forces pace on e-health, by Karen Dearne. AustralianIT, March 16, 2004. "Planned roll-outs of a combined HealthConnect/MediConnect system in Tasmania and South Australia as early as July, announced by Health Minister Tony Abbott last week, have stunned stakeholders..."
Diabetes web-care a success, by Diana Thorp. AustralianIT, March 30, 2004. "An Australian-first web-based program through Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital is proving successful in treating patients suffering Type 1 diabetes..."
Diabetes patients' records to go online, By Ben Woodhead. Australian Financial Review, 20 April 2004. "Health officials claim that electronic health records could revolutionise health and reduce patient deaths. But exactly what kind of personal information should be stored in these powerful new records?..." [user name and password required]
Online boost for diabetes service, By Sue Cant. The Age, April 20, 2004. "Teenagers with diabetes are logging internet health records in a test that experts hope will pave the way for a boom in online patient records..."
Health IT short of funds, by Karen Dearne. AustralianIT, May 4, 2004. "The Federal Government is under pressure to increase spending on health IT, as advisers warn that important national projects are scattered and vastly underfunded. More than 360 projects are in train across 21 different agencies and jurisdictions, according to an e-health review by Boston Consulting Group..."
E-health's $48m boost, by Geoff Elliott. AustralianIT, May 12, 2004. "E-COMMERCE is a dotcom boom buzzword that you don't see used much these days, but it's resurrected in budget health spending. The Government said it would spend a whopping $48.2 million over four years to develop electronic claim lodgment facilities, among other IT systems, for the health industry..."
Abbott to launch e-health pilot, by Karen Dearne. AustralianIT, July 6, 2004. "Health Minister Tony Abbott will unveil in Kalgoorlie today a broadband virtual private network e-health pilot that foreshadows an early introduction of high bandwidth capabilities to support HealthConnect..."
Go-ahead for online health bills, by Karen Dearne. The Australian, September 7, 2004. "The $48 million Medicare Electronic Claim Lodgement and Information Processing Environment (Eclipse) has been successfully piloted at two Brisbane Endoscopy Services sites and will roll out nationwide over the next two years..."
Seems the early years of the century were all hope. Now seemingly was are still seeing the optimistic headlines some ½ decade later and I fear we will look back in 5 years and be just as bemused at the lack of progress. Anyone want to wager I will be proven wrong?
The sense of déjà vu is just overwhelming!
On a positive note: I was also humbled to note that one of my blog postings had actually scored a reference!
See here:
Australian E-Health At A Major Fork in the Road – I Wonder Will COAG Get it Right?
by Dr David More MB, PhD, FACHI. Australian Health Information Technology, November 27, 2008. "This is probably the most important blog entry I will ever write – as what is decided at the Council of Australian Government (COAG) Meeting on Saturday will decide if we will ever see the full value that e-Health can offer delivered to the Australian public..."
The site is well worth a wander and are return visit from time to time to keep up to date on goings on! Alternatively you can continue reading here!
David.
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