Another View of the PCEHR - With A Biblical Reference or Two. :-)

Larry Singer sent the following along for our amusement on a Friday! To be taken with a big smile - despite the serious nature of the problem!

Genesis of the PCEHR

In the beginning COAG created the NEHTA and the eHealth. Now the eHealth was recordless and empty, scribble was over the surface of the paper, and the nurse and doctor was hovering over the patient.

And NEHTA said, “Let there be data,” and there was data. NEHTA saw that the data was good, and he separated the byte from the paper. NEHTA called the byte “informatics,” and the paper he called “scrap”. And there was modelling, and there was process—the first pillar.

And NEHTA said, “Let there be an ivory tower between the standards to separate standard from standard.” So NEHTA made the ivory tower and separated the standards outside the tower from the standards within it. And it was so. NEHTA called the standards “right.” And there were specifications, and there was verbiage—the second pillar.

And NEHTA said, “Let the bytes of the eHealth be gathered to one place, and let storage appear.” And it was so. NEHTA called the storage “IEHR,” and the gathered bytes he called “CDA.” And NEHTA saw that it was good. And there were core services, and there was funding—the third pillar.

And NEHTA said, “Let there be IDs in the vaults of the storage to separate the patient from the patient, and let them serve as signs to mark the CDA and the doctors and the orgs, and let them be IDs in the vault of the Medicare to keep right all the data.” And it was so. NEHTA made three great IDs—the greatest ID to govern the patient and the lesser IDs to govern the doctors and the orgs. He also made the CCA. NEHTA set the IDs in the vault of the Medicare to give the HI Service to the eHealth, to govern the data and the CDA, and to separate patient from patient. And NEHTA saw that it was good. And there was IHI, and there was HPI-I, and there was HPI-O—the fourth pillar.

And NEHTA said, “Let the PCEHR teem with shared health summaries, and let doctors moderate the summaries across the vault of the PCEHR.” So NEHTA created the PCEHR from the IEHR and every shared health summary with which the PCEHR teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every SNOMED term according to its kind. And NEHTA saw that it was good. NEHTA certified them and said, “Be compliant and increase in number and fill the repository in the PCEHR, and let the shared health summary increase the eHealth.” And there was summarising, and there was moderating—the fifth pillar.

And NEHTA said, “Let the PCEHR produce the Concept of Operations according to their chapters: the Participation, the Managing Information that collects from the sources, and the Privacy and Security, each according to its chapter.” And it was so. NEHTA made the Index Service according to their specs, the National Repository according to their specs, and all the portals that move CDAs among the providers and the patients according to their specs. And NEHTA saw that it was good.

Then NEHTA said, “Let us make the National Infrastructure in our image, in our likeness, so that it may rule over the shared health summaries in the PCEHR, and the providers in the directory, over the templates and all the audits and reports, and over all the CDAs that move among the portals.”

So NEHTA created the National Infrastructure in his own image, in the image of NEHTA he created it;
Wave 1 and Wave 2 he created them, GP Vendors Panel he created them.

NEHTA blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; replenish your coffers. Have dominion over the GP at the desktop and the vendor in the industry and over every living creature that has an IHI.”

Then NEHTA said, “I give you every byte of data on the face of the whole eHealth and every CDA that has a digital signature on it. They will be yours for indexing. And to all the referrals of the specialists and all the discharges of the hospitals and all the pathologies that move along the Secure Messaging protocols—everything that has the breath of eHealth in it—I give every byte of eHealth to you.” And it was so.

NEHTA saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there were millions, and there were press releases—the sixth pillar.

Thus the PCEHR and the National Infrastructure were created in all their vast array.

By the launch day (1 July 2012) The Minister had finished the work she had been doing; so on the launch day she addressed all the journalists. Then The Minister blessed the launch day and made it newsworthy, because on it she celebrated all the work of creating that she had done.

Genesis of the PCEHR by Larry Singer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Australia License.

All I can say is don’t choke on the Wheaties while reading! Thanks Larry for your insights!

David.