Over the next few days we are having the HIC 2009 Conference which is being conducted by the Health Informatics Society of Australia (HISA).
You can find all the details here:
HIC 2009 Canberra 19 - 21 August
There is an amazing list of excellent speakers attending and educational sessions being conducted.
The conference is being well attended by Department of Health and NEHTA staff and here lies the opportunity for those who are attending to ask a few hard questions and push those issues that are important to you – and which may not be working out with the speed, clarity or communication that is really needed to make some headway.
The following appeared in the Australian today. This should provide some useful conversation starters!
Small steps better in e-health
Karen Dearne | August 18, 2009
THE business case prepared to kickstart a national e-health record rollout warns of the growing cost of inaction, but almost a year after completion the document still awaits the attention of the Council of Australian Governments.
The Individual Electronic Health Record for Australia business case, obtained by The Australian, warns that shortcomings of the existing system will increase, resulting in further duplication and fragmentation of investments and limited uptake of e-health initiatives.
In particular, it predicts that private-sector solutions "moving rapidly ahead of a co-ordinated government response" will entrench interoperability problems that will be very difficult and costly to rectify.
"There is a point at which the number of disparate systems will be so great and integration so difficult that the ability to realise the gains from an interoperable system may be prohibitively risky and expensive to attain," the report says.
"This would represent a major lost opportunity for Australia to take a very significant step towards the delivery of safer, more efficient and sustainable health services."
Setting up a national health record system would cost an estimated $1.6billion over four years, beginning in the present financial year, but state and federal health ministers have yet to examine the proposal.
The National E-Health Transition Authority was given this work in 2006, and it is understood the organisation was ready to present the case to COAG in October.
COAG meetings this year have been dominated by pressing issues such as the financial crisis and the Northern Territory intervention.
The report's authors are adamant Australians will pay a high price for further delays, sentiments echoed in the National E-Health Strategy produced by consultancy Deloitte, and the National Health and Hospital Reform Commission report.
Lots more here:
http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,25942529-15306,00.html
I would love to think we could have the odd comment on the blog outlining just what you hear and how satisfied you are with the answers you hear in the sessions and when chatting one to one.
Enjoy HIC 09.
David.
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