I noticed this advertisement of a paid report last week.
Australia's e-health, e-education, e-government market research report 2015 published by leading research firm
WhaTech Channel: IT Market Research Reports
Published on Monday, 15 June 2015 06:37
New developments driven by IoT and M2M - cities leading the chargeSmart Societies based on Big Data.
Here is the link:
Here are the report details:
Australia - E-Health, E-Education, E-Government
Publisher:
No. of Pages:
Published:
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Paul Budde Communication
192
1 June, 2015
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Of special interest to me was the introductory discussion of e-Health on OZ!
E-Health
Progress in e-health developments in Australia remains slow and low key. Unlike the USA for instance, where e-health is driven by health insurance companies and private health care organisations, the developments in Australia largely depend on government initiatives.
The fact that private companies are driving the development elsewhere is a clear indication that significant cost savings can be achieved through e-health.
Back in 2010, it looked like that the national broadband network (NBN) could be a catalyst in kick-starting these initiatives, the most important policy initiatives in this respect were linked to the Medicare reforms, which provide health insurance coverage for selected video consults in rural and regional areas, as well as projects linked to the personally controlled electronic health record (PCEHR). However, with the downgrading of the NBN and a lack of interest from the current government in e-health in general, hardly any new initiatives have been undertaken since 2013, while the early initiatives have largely been put on hold.
This inertia also has an effect on other e-health initiatives that were starting to emerge in parallel with the early NBN e-health developments. As most e-health services depend on policy leadership from the government as well as on a high quality, high-speed broadband network for their distribution, nothing much is excepted to happen over the next 3 to 5 years, unless something dramatically changes.
However, as the financing of the public health systems in Australia becomes increasingly costly, the opportunity exists to lower costs through more effective use of e-health.
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I really don’t think that most e-health initiatives have any real dependence on the NBN. What progress we have seen - separate from the various Government initiatives - has really not needed the NBN as it was imagined in 2010.
What do you think?
David.
I agree that it is not the delayed implementation of the NBN, and a slower NBN than originally promised, that is holding back the further development and increased use of electronic health information systems. To help patients and help professionals to do their work, these electronic systems need to to communicate with each other, but much of what needs to be communicated is only textual data and still images, which does not depend on a high speed NBN.
ReplyDeleteThose of us who are involved in health informatics have some pretty clear ideas about what *is* holding back the further development and increased use of electronic health information systems.