This release appeared a few days ago.
Media statement
5 August 2015
Peak Bodies Join Forces On Ehealth Council Membership
Australia’s peak digital health and health information organisations met at HIC 2015 this week and agreed they would take a united position on the importance of health informatics expertise for the Australian Council for eHealth (ACeH).
The Health Informatics Society of Australia (HISA), Australasian College of Health Informatics (ACHI) and Health Information Management Association of Australia (HIMAA) agreed the similarities in their respective positions on ACeH membership merited a joint approach.
The announcement came as Federal Health Minister Sussan Ley told HIC delegates today the Government valued their individual efforts.
“You are a good source of information, advice and input as the government progresses the MyHealth Record,” Minister Ley said at HIC in Brisbane.
ACHI President, Associate Professor Klaus Veil, HISA Chair Dr David Hansen and HIMAA President Sallyanne Wissmann believe in a coordinated approach. Together, the three bodies represent unparalleled expertise in digital health, health informatics and health information management.
“Our three organisations believe that the current implementation of the PCEHR does not realise the benefits originally sought and expected,” said ACHI President Klaus Veil.
“We share the concern that without effective and knowledgeable governance by the proposed ACeH, the goals originally envisaged for the PCEHR will not be achieved,” said HISA Chair David Hansen. “This level of governance cannot be achieved without representation from both the health informatics and health information management peak bodies.”
“We would welcome the opportunity to workwith the Department on improvements to the PCEHR that would enhance achieving the common goal of better healthcare for all Australians,” HIMAA President Sallyanne Wissmann said.
The Government recently called for submissions on proposed changes to legislation and governance of the PCEHR.
A joint submission by HIMAA and HISA was based on a survey of combined memberships and stakeholder networks. With more than 350 respondents HIMAA and HISA found that more than 90% of respondents either 'strongly agreed" or 'agreed' that the proposed ACeH Board and its advisory committees should include both health informatics and health information management expertise alongside healthcare providers, health care consumers and IT systems providers/innovators.
On this basis the two peak bodies recommended:
HISA and HIMAA both strongly recommend to the government that health informatics and health information management expertise be present at all levels of governance within ACeH. The skill sets, knowledge base and experience of health informatics and health
information management professionals is critical to the success of e-health initiatives.
In their submission, ACHI's academic fellows and members identified 30 recommendations they believe will enable the originally planned benefits of the PCEHR to be realised. The three recommendations regarding the proposed ACeH directly support the findings of the HIMAA/HISA survey:
That the Department consider that ACeH's brief include data governance and mandating compliance with any one or sets of Australian technical standards by a given date and that Consumers also be represented.
That the Department ensure a suitably qualified statutory authority such as ACeH effectively advise the COAG Health Council on national eHealth policy.
That the Department consider including senior expertise in health informatics, system architecture, networking, semantic interoperability, health data, system evaluation/testing/credentialing, etc. in the governance of ACeH, ACHI, HIMAA and HISA will jointly continue to pursue a common approach on the membership and governance of the proposed ACeH with the common goal of an effective national electronic health record as an enabler of better healthcare for all Australians.
For more information:
Richard Lawrance CEO HIMAA
ceo@himaa.org.au
The release is found here:
There is a supporting statement here:
Media statement - HIMAA HISA ACHI Joint statement on ACeH Membership at HIC
PEAK BODIES JOIN FORCES ON EHEALTH COUNCIL MEMBERSHIP
In a media release posted today from HISA’s Health Informatics Conference in Brisbane, Australia’s peak digital health and health information organisations agreed they would take a united position on the importance of health informatics expertise for the Australian Council for eHealth (ACeH).
The Health Informatics Society of Australia (HISA), Australian College of Health Informatics (ACHI) and Health Information Management Association of Australia (HIMAA) agreed the similarities in their respective positions on ACeH membership merited a joint approach.
The announcement came as Federal Health Minister Sussan Ley told HIC delegates today the Government valued their individual efforts.
“You are a good source of information, advice and input as the government progresses the MyHealth Record,” Minister Ley said at HIC in Brisbane.
While ACHI and HIMAA/HISA presented separate submissions in response to the federal government’s PCEHR and Health Identifiers Legislation Discussion Paper, ACHI President, Associate Professor Klaus Veil, HISA Chair David Hansen and HIMAA President Sallyanne Wissmann agreed the peak bodies would take a coordinated approach.
“Our three organisations believe that the current implementation of the PCEHR does not realise the benefits originally sought and expected,” said ACHI President Klaus Veil.
“We share the concern that without effective and knowledgeable governance by the proposed ACeH, the goals originally envisaged for the PCEHR will not be achieved,” said HISA Chair David Hansen. “This level of governance cannot be achieved without representation from both the health informatics and health information management peak bodies.”
“We would welcome the opportunity to work with the Department on improvements to the PCEHR that would enhance achieving the common goal of better healthcare for all Australians,” HIMAA President Sallyanne Wissmann said. For the full text of the media release click HERE.
For more information, contact
Richard Lawrance
HIMAA CEO
Email: ceo@himaa.org.au
Richard Lawrance
HIMAA CEO
Email: ceo@himaa.org.au
The release is found here:
To me the three peak bodies have identified a gap in the Government’s plans and I applaud them providing a co-ordinated set of comments on the need for informatics skills on the Board.
I most especially also note their concern as to just how useful the PCEHR will ever become without some considerable governance change.
What, however, worries me is that in having one or two representatives on the ACeH Board of 10+ (as you can be sure there will be) won’t guarantee the informed expert outcomes that are needed.
The key individual in the ACeH will be the CEO and the executive working with him and reporting to the Board.
It is vital the CEO and his / her senior staff all be properly experienced in e-Health and ideally be recognised experts as well as genuine leaders. It is this model what is needed are people such as David Brailer, David Blumenthal etc. who were leaders in the establishment of ONCHIT, and all who have been clinicians with strong managerial backgrounds. This is what I feel is needed.
There is no excuse for having general management skills or technology skills but no substantive e-Health knowledge and experience in the senior management of ACeH. What we need are people in control who get ‘e-health’. Nothing else is good enough I believe.
I hope some-one is listening!
David.
1 comment:
Agree completely David! The examples you cite from the US are well worth remembering. Let's hope that Canberra is listening
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