Here are a few I have come across this week.
Note: Each link is followed by a title and a few paragraphs.
For the full article click on the link above title of the article. Note also
that full access to some links may require site registration or subscription payment.
General Comment
The news for the
week seems to have been dominated by the problems that apparently exit in
Health IT in ‘the Smart State’ and the release of an updated plan for the PCEHR
by the Health Minister.
We also had
interesting coverage of some Health IT spend in the NSW Budget and more rather
negative discussion of the likeliness of usefulness of Medicare Locals.
All in all quite a
busy week.
Next week will also
be quite busy.
I have it on pretty
good authority there will be some new reading here tomorrow.
-----
Patients see pitfalls in paperless health records
- Adam Cresswell, Health editor
- From: The Australian
- September 10, 2011
ONE day this month,
general practitioner Douglas Hor plans to throw a switch that will finally make
his medical practice fully electronic -- and at the same time render his more
than 30,000 paper-based patient files effectively obsolete.
From that point,
the seven doctors at his Artarmon surgery on Sydney's north shore will be
compelled to add all updates to patient records by typing on a keyboard,
forsaking the handwritten notes that have formed the bedrock of medical
practices for generations.
Even the remaining
items that continue to arrive on paper -- such as specialists' reports -- will
be typed or scanned in and added to the electronic records, as will
particularly important historical details from the paper files.
-----
Superhighway leads to coherent and connected health system
- Mukesh Haikerwal
- From: The Australian
- September 10, 2011
AUSTRALIA'S $467
million electronic health records enterprise is the best chance for such a
system to succeed where others have struggled or failed.
The National
E-Health Transition Authority, formed in 2005 by the Council of Australian
Governments to bring unity to e-health development, can be likened to the
20th-century push to standardise Australia's rail gauges. Doing things in a
standard way unlocks the potential of the developments taking place across the
nation and ends the current situation of multiple technologies that cannot talk
to each other.
Why the need for
electronic records? They were recommended by the National Health and Hospitals
Reform Commission, which recognised that to keep costs contained and the system
sustainable the health system must work in a better way. Costs and demand may
be rising, but technology is the health system's get-out-of-jail card.
-----
Roxon unveils e-health plan
- Karen Dearne
- From: Australian IT
- September 09, 2011
THE three lead
sites for the $467 million personally controlled e-health records program are
operational and initial evaluations have been completed, according to the
Gillard government, even though the final specifications and implementation
guide will not be released until early next year.
Health Minister
Nicola Roxon has released an upbeat plan
charting timelines for the rollout of the national reform program, including
the government’s e-health and telehealth initiatives.
"The
government does not apologise for the ambitious timetable we have established
for developing personally controlled e-health records," Ms Roxon's
spokesman told The
Australian.
-----
Govt issues e-health timeline
By Luke Hopewell,
ZDNet.com.au on September 9th, 2011
The Federal
Government has released a new blueprint for the deployment of its ambitious
$466.7 million e-health project.
The blueprint is
part of the government's latest e-health progress report issued this week,
which includes a development timeline for the roll-out of the e-health program,
as well as the development of personally controlled e-health records and
telehealth initiatives.
The government
plans to have the national infrastructure for the PCEHR in place within the
first quarter of 2012, with further enabling legislation ideally set to pass in
March to April.
-----
For babies and tight budgets, long-distance diagnosis delivers
- Adam Cresswell
- From: The Australian
- September 10, 2011
IT is every
parent's worst nightmare: their baby is seriously ill, the nearest town lacks
the necessary medical specialists, and the family faces a sickening wait for a
potentially lifesaving transfer by air or road to a city hospital.
Sadly, this experience
is common. Thousands of babies every year are born more than 500km from a
teaching hospital, and the families of more than 300 newborns in Queensland
alone are put through the anxiety of a medical retrieval -- which can involve
roundtrips of up to 1500km.
Australian
researchers have now shown that many families can be spared this trauma if city
specialists are able to assess sick babies over high-resolution video links
that can also transmit X-rays, read-outs from heart monitors and ventilators and
other vital information.
Called
telemedicine, it is expected to grow after a decision by the federal government
to pay Medicare rebates for the first time for such consultations, which became
available in July.
-----
Queensland Health payroll staff fed up
Overworked Queensland Health payroll staff say they are
tired of slaving away to fix the government's system bungle for little pay
- AAP (AAP)
- 06 September, 2011 08:54
Overworked Queensland Health payroll staff say they're tired
of slaving away for little reward to fix a system bungle by the government.
It's been 18 months since Queensland rolled out a flawed
payroll system where thousands of Queensland Health workers were underpaid,
overpaid or not paid at all, but the staff addressing the ongoing pay troubles
say they are undervalued.
Queensland public sector union Together says Queensland
Health is underpaying its overworked, stressed-out payroll staff but is
refusing to approve pay increases.
-----
Queensland Health computer glitch causing long delays in producing vital cancer data
- Janelle Miles
- From: The Courier-Mail
- September 07, 2011
ANOTHER Queensland
Health computer "catastrophe" is causing long delays in producing
vital cancer data used to plan for patient treatment services and in research.
As the department
struggles to fix payroll system problems, damning documents obtained by The
Courier-Mail outline major issues with the Queensland Cancer Registry (QCR).
The database of
information is crucial for health bodies that must decide where best to locate
cancer services and ensure they are appropriately funded, equipped and staffed
to cope with demand. Researchers also review the data to analyse cancer trends
aimed at shedding light on possible causes.
While Cancer
Council Queensland houses the registry, Queensland Health manages and maintains
its information technology.
-----
Failing Qld e-health system needs $439 million fix
news Queensland Health
needs a mammoth $439 million injection of government funding to fix its ailing
patient administration system, according to explosive documents tabled in the
state’s parliament by the Queensland Opposition yesterday.
The documents
represent an extract from Queensland Health’s ICT strategy for 2011. Although
they are not yet available online, the Opposition said in a statement yesterday
that they state that the current Patient Administration System in use in
hospitals and other health facilities within the state could not be supported
beyond 2015. Work to replace the e-health platform would need to begin in July
2012, the documents state, according to the Opposition, and the entire
replacement project will come at a cost of $438.8 million.
The Opposition
stated that this was money which would need to be allocated to Queensland
Health on top of an existing $307 million already budgeted for the state’s
e-health strategy, and $220 million which has been allocated to fix Queensland
Health’s already disastrous payroll systems overhaul.
-----
Queensland Health faces further IT turmoil as patient management threatens to fail after 2015
- Koren Helbig
- From: The Courier-Mail
- September 08, 2011
LEAKED internal
documents detailing a litany of risks within Queensland Health's IT projects
have exposed an ageing patient management system that could fail beyond 2015.
The failure would
leave hospitals unable to admit, transfer and discharge patients, with a $438.8
million replacement system needed to avoid the crisis.
The leaked
documents list the risk of failure as "extreme" and the likelihood
"almost certain" with "major consequences".
Premier Anna Bligh
yesterday insisted there was no cause for concern, saying a replacement system
was already in the pipeline. She said the risk list was a "theoretical
exercise" to help plan for future needs.
-----
Pay-for-performance programs lack evidence: Cochrane
9-Sep-2011
Paul Smith
There is little evidence to support paying GPs cash incentives to
improve patient care, a Cochrane systematic review has found.
Pay-for-performance
incentives have been adopted for GPs in Australia through the Practice
Incentives Program for the treatment of asthma, diabetes, mental health and for
cervical screening. But the model was also touted as part of the Federal
Government’s controversial GP registration scheme for diabetes patients. The
planned scheme was shelved last year pending the results of a $30-million pilot
study.
The Cochrane review found six
of the seven studies it reviewed - none of them Australian – showed
pay-for-performance programs had “positive but modest effects” on the quality
of care. It warned poor study design led to a “substantial risk of bias” in
most studies and concluded the implementation of pay-for-performance should
only “proceed with caution”.
-----
Online help for mental health closer
Access to online mental health services is a step closer
after the federal government appointed a committee to oversee their rollout
- AAP (AAP)
- 06 September, 2011 08:49
Access to online mental health services is a step closer
after the federal government appointed a committee to oversee their rollout.
The committee comprises a mix of mental health professionals,
social media experts and consumer and carer representatives.
Members include Rachel de Sain, Professor Helen Christensen,
Dr Jane Burns and Professor Pat Dudgeon.
-----
Health
The Honourable Geoff Wilson
Thursday, September
01, 2011
Minister awards telemedicine trial for sick infants
An innovative
telemedicine trial which reduces the risk for sick babies awaiting emergency
retrieval has won the Minister’s ‘Best Innovation’ award at the 2011 Queensland
Health Healthcare Improvement Awards.
The telemedicine
trial provides audiovisual links from remote locations to Brisbane, where specialists
can assess the baby’s condition, colour, breathing and also examine images and
scans in real time during this time critical period.
This innovative use
of telehealth is bringing excellent services closer to home for Queenslanders
living in rural and remote areas.
-----
Governance vital for Cloud computing
Effective controls and governance are essential if
enterprises are to manage the risks of migrating to the Cloud
- Mark Phillips (CIO)
- 07 September, 2011 10:58
Global IT association ISACA has issued a new guide outlining
how to implement effective controls and governance for Cloud computing.
-----
Locals struggle to be useful
- Sue Dunlevy
- From: The Australian
- September 10, 2011
MYSTERY surrounds
the purpose and operation of Medicare Locals, a centrepiece of Julia Gillard's
health reforms.
Theoretically, the
new system will make it easier for people to get the right service at the right
time, while boosting the efficiency of healthcare delivery.
But, as Kim Hosking
knows from experience, many of the solutions "are not in the
textbook".
Hosking is the
chief executive of one of the first Medicare Locals charged with solving local
health problems, and he tells Weekend Health that he has adopted some rather
unusual strategies to help get his Country North South Australia Medicare Local
up and running.
For instance,
Hosking says his Medicare Local men's health strategy involves sending health
workers down to football training on Thursdays to "capture men between the
football training and the beer" and give them mental health messages.
-----
AGPN blasted for role in ML reforms
6th Sep 2011
TWO of AGPN’s
highest profile directors have broken ranks with the divisions body, using
their board re-election bids to launch a stinging criticism of its role in the
controversial change to Medicare Locals (MLs).
NSW GP Dr Arn
Sprogis and South Australian GP Dr Rod Pearce, both proponents of the $417
million ML scheme and both up for re-election this week, told MO that AGPN had
so far failed to press the government effectively on primary care spending.
Votes for the board
elections, cast by representatives from individual divisions, were being
counted as MO
went to press.
-----
NSW Health gets $115m IT funding
- Karen Dearne
- From: Australian IT
- September 06, 2011
THE NSW government
has committed $115 million to health IT spending this year, with $37m earmarked
for the start of five new projects.
The headline figure
is $171m for the introduction of a statewide electronic medication management
system, but the project will run over nine years to 2020 and $11m has been
allocated in the first year.
More than $85m has
been set aside to roll out an electronic medical record system to clinical
specialists by 2018, with only $5m on the table this year.
And $6.3m will be
spent in the current financial year on clinical information systems for state
hospital intensive care units, with a total $43m available to complete the task
by 2014.
-----
NSW Health Infrastructure seeks IT advice
By Michael Lee,
ZDNet.com.au on September 6th, 2011
NSW Health
Infrastructure has put the call out for industry to provide ad hoc advice on
its major projects, and establish a reference group for longer-term project
oversight.
Health
Infrastructure, which was set up by NSW Health in 2007 to manage health
infrastructure projects above $10 million in value, released the expressions of
interest documents yesterday, stating that it was seeking those with health
or major project experience.
Successful
applicants would provide advice to Health Infrastructure on an as-required
basis, such as during key stages of project development. Applicants could also
apply to be considered in its Expert Reference Group (ERG), responsible for tasks,
such as reviewing plans and strategies adopted by project teams over a 12-month
period. It expects the ERG to consist of three to four people, with one of
those acting as chair.
-----
Blood products now ordered and tracked online
Released 31/08/2011
Patients within
Canberra hospitals who require blood will benefit from the roll-out of
Australia's first national online system for ordering blood, known as BloodNet.
Chief Minister and
Minister for Health, Katy Gallagher, said BloodNet was being rolled out across
the country by the National Blood Authority. The ACT will join the rest of
Australia in adopting the system which has been developed for use in both
public and private hospitals.
"Canberra
Hospital, Calvary Hospital, Capital Pathology and Healthscope Pathology will
all be using the newly introduced BloodNet system as of this week," the
Chief Minister said.
-----
Child-friendly MRI designed to divert
- Karen Dearne
- From: The Australian
- September 06, 2011
SICK youngsters in
South Australia will be the first to experience a hi-tech radiology unit,
custom-built to distract and delight patients while they undergo scans using
the latest magnetic resonance imaging technology.
The first local
installation of Philips's fully digital Ingenia MR system will be unveiled
today at Adelaide's Women's and Children's Hospital, with the companion Ambient
lighting suite that creates a visual fantasy land.
Radiology head
Rebecca Linke says everyone has been "blown away" by the unit, which
replaces a 10-year-old machine well past its use-by date.
-----
Jane McCredie: Who needs privacy?
YOU almost have to
be a hermit these days to avoid substantial amounts of your professional and
personal information being available to all and sundry online.
It could make
privacy concerns over personal electronic health records seem so 1990s. At
least that would appear to be the conclusion reached by the nation’s leading
consumer health advocates.
After years of
worrying about the potential for Big Brother to poke his nose into people’s
private affairs, consumer health advocates at a meeting in Canberra last week
unanimously backed an “opt-out” model for the planned e-health national system,
according to a report in the Sydney
Morning Herald.
-----
Optus signs up to National Broadband Network gag order
- Annabel Hepworth, Tracy Lee
- From: The Australian
- September 07, 2011
OPTUS has promised
not to criticise the National Broadband Network in key regions for 15 years
under a deal that raises new warnings the $36 billion project will stifle
competition.
Just a week after
the competition regulator warned that parts of an $11bn deal with Telstra could
prove detrimental to competition and consumers, official documents reveal that
an $800 million deal with Optus includes an "anti-disparagement"
provision.
The provision,
designed to help shore up the number of customers using the NBN, stops Optus
from being "expressly critical of" or making "any express adverse
statement" about the performance of the network.
The ban would apply
in the areas where the No 2 telco has agreed to shut down its cable network,
which presently passes 2.4 million premises, and is also likely to affect the
504,000 Optus customers who would be migrated to the NBN.
-----
Low-income users denied NBN benefits
- Amos Aikman
- From: The Australian
- September 08, 2011
LOW-INCOME
households will miss out on the full healthcare benefits of the National
Broadband Network, with Communications Minister Stephen Conroy admitting the
basic service would exclude high-definition video consultations with doctors.
Senator Conroy has
long promised the NBN would solve the technological barriers to delivering
healthcare services remotely.
But he and NBN Co
chief Mike Quigley admitted yesterday the service was "impossible" on
the NBN's cheapest plan.
Senator Conroy and
Mr Quigley also struggled to explain the level of service to be expected from
intermediate packages, underscoring Labor's difficulty convincing voters its
$36 billion investment is value for money.
-----
Virtualization 101: What is virtualization?
What are the advantages of virtualization?
- Sandra Van Dijk (Computerworld)
- 07 September, 2011 14:23
The installation of x86-based virtual machines (VMs) has
doubled every year since 2001, and this rate of unprecedented growth is set to
explode even further.
According to Gartner, more VMs will be deployed in 2011 than
in 2001 through to 2009 combined.
What is virtualization?
Virtualization is the process of decoupling layers of IT
functions so that the configurations of the layers become more independent of
each other. As a result, virtualization masks the specific nature of IT
resources from their users. Virtualization can occur between hardware and
software — for example, a virtual machine (VM) — or between different layers of
software, such as application virtualization and virtual private networks
(VPNs).
-----
Virtualisation 101: Virtualisation concepts
Understanding the basic concepts of different kinds of
virtualisation
- Sandra Van Dijk (Computerworld)
- 08 September, 2011 18:17
Software appliances and virtualisation
Virtual machines (VM) can be used for more than
consolidation. Software appliances can be used to package and deliver solutions
on top of VMs. Gartner analyst, Phillip Dawson, said a server software
appliance hides complexity beneath an application-specific management interface.
Delivered appliances can range from locked-down applications
to preconfigured and preinstalled applications, as well as related middleware
and management tools. Dawson said early server VM software appliances are
mostly ready-to-run demos.
-----
Enjoy!
David.
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