Here Is One Framework The Government Might Consider For The New Governance Arrangements For Australian e-Heath.

A number of the recommendations that came from the PCEHR Review were around the national Governance of e-Health.

Here are the relevant recommendations:

“2. Restructure the approach to governance, dissolve NEHTA and replace with the Australian Commission for Electronic Health (ACeH) reporting directly to the Standing Council on Health (SCoH).

3. Establish a Clinical and Technical Advisory Committee to ACeH.

4. Establish a Jurisdictional Advisory Committee to ACeH.

5. Establish a Consumer Advisory Committee to ACeH.

6. Establish a Privacy and Security Committee to ACeH.

7. Establish a taskforce to transition arrangements between the current governance structure and the one recommended in this report.

8. Maintain the Independent Advisory Council (IAC) with an altered reporting line, direct to the Federal Minister for Health.

9. Commission an external review of the function and roles in the eHealth section of the Department of Health, Department of Human Services (DHS) and NEHTA to assess duplication and alignment with mandates

10. Establish a regulatory body that monitors and ensures compliance against eHealth standards that are set and maintained by ACeH.”

To me this ACeH is intended to be a national driver of e-Health and to have very broad input.

Clearly selection of the CEO of this Commission is going to be utterly critical if this plan is to be a success.

The parallel organisation in the USA - The Office Of The National Health-IT Co-Ordinator - (ONC) has just re-organised and now has a CEO and a deputy CEO. Reporting to these two people and a number of offices:

Here is the list.

“DeSalvo and new Deputy National Coordinator Jacob Reider now will oversee 10 offices, including:

• Office of Clinical Quality and Safety to be headed by Judy Murphy
• Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Analysis to be headed by Seth Pazinski
• Office of Standards and Technology to be headed by Steve Posnack
• Office of Programs to be headed by Kim Lynch
• Office of Public Affairs and Communications to be headed by Nora Super
• Office of the Chief Operating Officer to be headed by Lisa Lewis
• Office of the Chief Privacy Officer to be headed by Joy Pritts
• Office of Policy to be headed by Jodi Daniel
• Office of Care Transformation to be headed by Kelly Cronin
• Office of the Chief Scientist to be headed by Doug Fridsma”

The full article is found here:

http://www.fiercehealthit.com/story/onc-realigns-organizational-structure/2014-05-30

What I found interesting here is the scope of the activity and the division of labour. This looks pretty good to me as a starting point in designing the capabilities we want to see in the ACeH.

David.