Quote Of The Year

Timeless Quotes - Sadly The Late Paul Shetler - "Its not Your Health Record it's a Government Record Of Your Health Information"

or

H. L. Mencken - "For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong."

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Spend Five Minutes With Nicola Roxon To Understand How the Patient Controlled EHR will Work.

Delimiter.com.au has just posted a video of Ms Roxon explaining the PCEHR.
The link to the article is just below the introduction and the video is there.
Here is the introduction provided:

How will Australia’s e-health record work?

Written by Renai LeMay on Tuesday, June 29, 2010 12:22

Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon yesterday provided further details on how the Federal Government’s electronic health record project will work in practice, although details of exactly how budget funds will be spent on the project remain scarce.
Roxon told journalists at a press conference in Sydney yesterday (see video above) that the project would see Australians access their electronic health record online through a system run by Medicare.
“The easiest way to think of it is how you access your bank details online,” she said.
“You can access your information, because it is your information, but whether you give somebody else permission to access it, is why there is such a difficult design task ahead of us to be confident that patient records will be secure, and only accessed by those people who are appropriately given permission to do so.”
It will be “at least two years” before patients will be able to use the system to access their information, the minister said.
Lots more (and the video) at the link below:
What to say?
Well I am speechless at how all this is being developed and presented. Pretty sad.
Surely this is an emergency ‘fig leaf’ to cover the naked lack of e-Health policy – and designed to skate through until after the next election?
I suggest you see for yourself! Comments on what you think more than welcome!
David.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

"access their electronic health record online through a system run by Medicare".

So, another $400 million down the drain. Now let's see MSIA do one of two things:
(i) stand up with its members and support this wholeheartedly
or
(ii) stand up with its members and make it clear to one and all what they really think.

Anonymous said...

Right, that's all clear then. And to think I harboured doubts about the Minister's understanding of what's involved!

Anonymous said...

Just like online banking, eh! Do banks ever hand over bits of their records to random third parties on request of their patients, I mean customers, with or without consent?
Authorising discrete transactions to transfer sums of money to a known party is way different from sharing health information held by a variety of parties, in a variety of systems, and with a variety of life-threatening or -saving priorities and relevancies

Anonymous said...

Yes but seriously online banking may hold some clues. Instead of EFTPOS we can have EHRPOS (electronic health record point of care). And there are swags of standards around banking transactions and code of conduct, including who is liable for fraudulent access and transactions, and how to complain when things go wrong. Very useful. And if you link your health record to your homeloan, you might avoid account fees! You could even get a discount on your private health insurance auto-deductions. Lots of value-adds! See http://www.fido.asic.gov.au/asic/pdflib.nsf/LookupByFileName/eft-code-nov2008.pdf/$file/eft-code-nov2008.pdf

Anonymous said...

Thank you Peter Flemming banker extraordinaire. I shuddered the day David Gonski, Chair of NeHTA, announced Dr Reinecke's replacement as a 'a banker'. They make it all sound so simple and Nicola Roxon believes every penny of it.

Anonymous said...

I agree that banking is a horrible analogy. However, if you cut through the spin and listen carefully to what Ms Roxon actually says, she says that the $400 million is "earmarked" for standards development.

If this is the case then the government has made a blunder by using the term "personally controlled" in their description. They are working towards an IEHR.

Anonymous said...

Good point. Is the minister saying NEHTA hasnt produced anything useable for all the money spent on standards development so far?
And if the $400m+ is earmarked for more standards work, what money, when and where will be forthcoming to do the build and deployment?