Useful and Interesting Health IT News from the Last Week – 27/09/2009.

The Australian E-Health Press provided a good serve this week. It included these:

First we have:

Health dept cancels software deal

Karen Dearne | September 22, 2009

THE federal Health Department has cancelled an $850,000 contract with the Medical Software Industry Association aimed at improving interoperability between doctors' desktop packages.

The decision came after a key player, the Health Communication Network, refused to proceed with the project. Association president Vincent McCauley said the contract had been terminated because of its "inability to obtain the required level of vendor commitment".

"While all participants had agreed with the deliverables identified in phase one, it has not proven possible to move this forward to implementation," Dr McCauley said. "I regret that this project, which was designed to present the MSIA as a can-do organisation, has failed."

The General Practice Patient Record Exchange project was intended to provide an interim fix for interoperability problems, so clinical data sent from one system could be incorporated into another.

The department's e-health branch pulled the plug when the MSIA advised that HCN, maker of the leading GP clinical desktop software Medical Director, would not participate.

More here:

http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,26108646-5013040,00.html

Portability of patient electronic records between different software providers is an important goal – as it both allows competition between providers (easier for doctors to change) and to make it easy when patients change doctors or location. The UK have their GP2GP system which seems to work very well and it is a pity something similar has not been developed in Australia.

This sort of fiasco, with all the waste of time and effort, is really a sad outcome. If someone / some organisation was actually co-ordinating and managing e-Health in Australia this sort of thing might not happen.

Second we have:

Victoria hits e-health milestone

September 25, 2009:InterSystems has completed the initial deployment of its Australian-developed TrakCare information system to 22 community health agencies under the Victorian government's $A360 million HealthSMART program.

The first community health agencies went live with TrakCare in early 2007, with InterSystems committing to complete the initial implementation at the remaining agencies by the end of 2009.

Specific features of the TrakCare solution, such as e-Referral, will in future enable the 3600 users across the community health staff to exchange and share client and patient information across Victoria to improve the quality of care and deliver better outcomes.

"Victorian community health workers can now access central electronic health records and a client master index to book client appointments. They can also manage clinicians' diaries, refer clients and accept referred clients," said Darren Jones, InterSystems Director for Worldwide Markets, TrakCare.

"For the first time hundreds of community health staff in each of the 22 agencies are able to manage their clients through a central case management system that removes duplication, enhances efficiency and removes the need for both staff and clients to repeatedly enter and supply their demographic information and past clinical history," said Jones.

More here:

http://www.idm.net.au/story.asp?id=17114

This sounds like good news. A small success maybe for HealthSmart.

Third we have:

25 September 2009

GP unleashes software frustrations

22-Sep-2009

By Sarah Colyer

TECHNOLOGY was supposed to make life easier, but some GPs claim ever more complicated practice software is driving them over the edge.

Dr Lyn Edward-Paul, a GP in Illawong NSW, poured out her frustrations on the latest release of HCN’s Medical Director.

“I spend more time than ever negotiating the screen and less in that all-important eye contact. I know I am not benefiting and I doubt that my patients’ health outcomes are either,” she told Australian Doctor.

Thousands of GPs have faced price rises for the market-leading Medical Director software this year, with some practices paying more than double last year’s fee.

Dr Edward-Paul said: “Stress levels are higher, not lower, for increased cost”.

Her frustrations included mysteriously appearing error boxes, changes to the hot keys, and patients’ names dropping off printed recall lists.

“This could become medico-legally very expensive and our practice manager is wasting time on the phone contacting HCN,” she said.

More here (registration required):

http://www.australiandoctor.com.au/articles/5f/0c06425f.asp

For those who have access this article provoked lots of comments. Some unhappiness out there it would seem.

Fourth we have:

Seniors ditch Bingo for Wii

The Sunday Telegraph

September 27, 2009 12:00am

NURSING home residents are ditching afternoon bingo for a turn on the Nintendo Wii.

Gregory & Carr Funerals have gifted Wii consoles to NSW nursing homes to encourage seniors to stay active.

"We are sending out the Wii consoles to provide residents with entertainment that is physical and fun," said Haydn Donnelly, Manager of Gregory & Carr.

More here:

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,26127761-421,00.html

I could not resist this one. It is a good idea I think, but why being funded by funeral directors?

Fifth we have:

Opportunity for single provider numbers

by Jared Reed

The imminent adoption of Unique Health Identifiers (UHIs) should be used to introduce a long-overdue system of single Medicare provider numbers, the AMA says.

In a submission to the federal government, the AMA says the move to assign every doctor with a UHI should be accompanied by a cut in the red tape that forces doctors to obtain new location numbers whenever they change practices.

“The implementation of healthcare identifiers presents a perfect opportunity for Medicare Australia to also implement a new single Medicare provider number system using the healthcare identifier for medical practitioners to retain a single national provider number, and each practice location in Australia to receive a location specific identification number,” the submission details.

Full article here:

http://www.6minutes.com.au/articles/z1/view.asp?id=499880

At first look this certainly looks like a sensible suggestion.

Sixth we have:

Therapeutic Guidelines Wins an Award.

The following e-mail arrived a few a days ago.

Dear Colleagues,

Everyone here at Therapeutic Guidelines Limited (TGL) has always been very proud of Therapeutic Guidelines, and eTG complete in particular, and now we have the award to prove it!

On September 10, in the UK, at the Association of Learned and Professional Society of Publishers International Conference in Oxford, TGL won the inaugural award for Best eBook Publisher.

New for 2009, the ALPSP Award for Best eBook Publisher seeks to recognise enterprise and innovation. The award was open to all publishers of academic content made available in eBook format, or sub-sets of content derived from long-form digital publications made available online.

The Panel of Judges for the Best eBook Publisher were:

• Sue Pandit, Dean of the School of Print and Publishing at the London College of Communications (Chair)
• Linda Bennett, Gold Leaf Publishing Consultancy
• Sarah Stamford, Project Manager, eBooks Cambridge
• Irving Rockwood, Editor and Publisher, Choice, Association of College and Research Libraries, USA.

I am extremely pleased that TGL has won this prestigious award as it is a fitting acknowledgement of the dedicated work and skill by the many people who have contributed to the project over several years.

Regards,

Mary

Mary Hemming

Chief Executive Officer

Therapeutic Guidelines Ltd

Good news indeed.

Seventh we have:

Tanner's 75pc off broadband

Lenore Taylor, National correspondent | September 21, 2009

THE cost to taxpayers of the government's new high-speed broadband network could be just a quarter of the initial $43billion estimated price tag, Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner says.

Mr Tanner said the project could not be subject to a normal cost-benefit analysis because of the "long-term unknowables" of emerging technologies. "The amount that is ultimately going to be contributed as equity by the government is going to be way below the $43bn," he told the ABC's Insiders. "We're anticipating private investors up to 49 per cent. And of course the company, as do other government business enterprises, will borrow off its own balance sheet. So it will have part equity, part debt. That means the initial government equity may be not much more than a quarter of that $43bn ... we can't be certain because we don't know exactly how these things will unfold, but we can be pretty clear it's not the government stumping up $43bn."

Opposition communications spokesman Nick Minchin said Mr Tanner was using "fraudulent ... accounting trickery". "He's obviously trying to take this off balance sheet by loading a majority government-owned company with debt and then pretending it's not government debt ... that's just accounting trickery - it's fraudulent."

Senator Minchin said the Coalition would try to delay Senate consideration of the legislation unveiled last week that effectively forces Telstra to split its wholesale and retail operations.

If successful, the delay could jeopardise the Rudd government's aim of clarifying the giant telco's role in the new national broadband network before a possible early election.

More here:

http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,26102681-15306,00.html

Now Lindsay Tanner is just about the sharpest tool in the Labor shed, so I think you can take it from his comments that both the costs and benefits of the NBN are going to be pretty hard to pin down.

Lastly for the week a more technical article:

This article on what has been done overseas in terms of National Broadband Networks – and what has finally been achieved – makes very interesting reading indeed.

100 Megabits or Bust!

An Overview of Successful National Broadband Goals from Around the Globe

By Chiehyu Li, James Losey, New America Foundation

September 16, 2009

When the Federal Communications Commission delivers a National Broadband Plan to Congress in February 2010 the United States will not be among the first countries to implement a national broadband strategy. Taiwan, Japan, and Korea all introduced national broadband strategies in the beginning of this decade and fifteen European Union Member states proposed National Broadband Strategies in 2003. This report reviews successful strategies and goals from six of these countries: Japan, Korea, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and Taiwan. These countries share similar goals reflecting the societal need for universal access to the Internet, the importance of providing baseline broadband speeds, and the longer-term benefits of providing broadband up to 100 Mbps. The success of these goals demonstrates the importance of requiring baseline speeds up to or exceeding 2 Mbps, as well as the viability of increasing penetration rates for 100 Mbps broadband.

Japan was not only one of the first countries to implement a national broadband strategy but also among the first to concretize the goal of 100 Mbps broadband service. Initiated by IT Strategy Headquarters in 2001, e-Japan strategy set the goal of establishing fixed network infrastructure with speeds ranging from 30 to 100 Mbps broadband at affordable rates to at least 10 million households. By 2005, DSL service in Japan reached 14 million subscribers, or 11% of the population, with speeds reaching ranging from 20 Mbps to 40 Mbps. Fiber optic providers offered speeds up to 100 Mbps and reported 4 million subscribers, while cable Internet customers accounted for an additional 3 million subscribers, totaling 5% of the population combined. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), total broadband subscribership in Japan exceed 30 million in December 2008, or 24% of the population. Japan also has the highest average advertised download speed with (92.8 Mbps) according to the OECD.

Heaps more here:

http://www.newamerica.net/publications/policy/100_megabits_or_bust

The penetration rates achieved are interesting. Good to have a few facts among all the spin.

While on broadband and related matters I wonder where this will end up.

http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,26113863-15306,00.html

Major shareholders rebel over Telstra

Jennifer Hewett | September 23, 2009

A GROUP of Telstra's biggest institutional shareholders has called on the board to explain the "draconian nature" of the federal government's proposed Telstra legislation and reminded directors of their fiduciary responsibility to investors.

The hostility from large fund managers will deeply embarrass the government, which is trying to sell its plans as a "win-win" for Telstra shareholders, consumers and taxpayers.

It will also put pressure on the Telstra board, which has been deliberately muted in its reaction, saying only it is "disappointed" by the government's decision and will work to find a solution.

In contrast, eight of the largest institutional shareholders -- Investors Mutual, 452 Capital, BT, Lazard, Maple Brown Abbott, Orion, Tyndall and Cannae -- are so concerned about the impact of the government moves that they held a meeting yesterday with Telstra's former head of public affairs, Phil Burgess.

More next week.

David.