This appeared at the APO Portal a few days ago.
Digital health strategy 2019–2029
30 May 2019
The Digital Health Strategy presents a vision and direction to guide future activities and investments in technology across the Territory. It outlines the direction for the ACT public health system in building the digital capabilities needed to support a sustainable, innovative and world-class health system for the ACT. The strategy also sets principles to guide the design and development of digital health capabilities to support the delivery of safe and high-quality person-centred care. Most of all, the strategy illustrates a desired future state for the ACT with regard to digital health.
This strategy was developed taking into account the strategic context in which person-centred care is delivered in the ACT. Global, national, and regional considerations were taken into account to ensure the ACT is well positioned to meet future demands and challenges.
Publication Details
Copyright: Government of the Australian Capital Territory 2019
Language: English
Published year only: 2019
Here is the link – where you can also download the (rather badly formatted) 40 page or so .pdf.
The first thing to be said is that ACT Health realises that they a really stating from a low base with this comment:
“The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) have an Analytics Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM). This model incorporates methodology and algorithms which automatically score hospitals around the world relative to their Electronic Medical Records capability. The score
scale range is between 0 – 7. Canberra Health Services have been rated as 1.5. This strategy outlines how the ACT will work towards increasing our rating and adopt a Digital Health Record.”
The second thing that is included in the strategy is the goal to move to a new digital health environment. The target is:
“A digital health environment that delivers a single, trusted health record for every person engaging with ACT Government publicly funded health services will help to enable the delivery of safe and high quality patient centred care. This will facilitate greater engagement and empowerment of the person receiving care, supporting integrated and networked models of care and service delivery, achieving the integration of research and education, and delivering a productive and efficient health workforce.
ACT Government publicly funded health services form only one part of a person’s journey, with the majority of their care received from primary and community care providers. This is particularly true of individuals with complex and chronic conditions which are increasingly prevalent across much of the Australian population.
A modern technology system would ensure that national and cross-jurisdictional initiatives such as the My Health Record could be integrated with and available to clinicians in conjunction with live up to date data from an ACT perspective.
The Directorate’s digital health environment must enable it to operate effectively as part of this broader network that delivers care to residents of the ACT and southern NSW.
As a third key point they mention they have a bit of a legacy.
“While there has been progress in technology, there remains significant areas for improvement,primarily as a result of:
• The implementation of multiple service-specific systems (a best-of-breed approach) that has led to pockets of excellence but also fragmentation and siloing of information within individual systems
• Proliferation of systems making change difficult, due to complex integration requirements (currently more than 250 systems)
• Decentralised system management
• Multiple sources of patient information
• Reliance on paper-based records (currently “hybrid records”)
• Many demands for resource allocation in a difficult fiscal environment
· Ageing infrastructure that requires investment to meet the demands of contemporary health service.
To continue building for the future, the Digital Health Strategy identifies capability focus areas over the next 10 years. It aims to address the issues highlighted above, whilst minimising risks associated with delivering on healthcare needs.”
Fourth there seems to be a rather naïve faith in technology to deliver.
“Contemporary technology will enable healthcare providers seamless access to a person’s clinical information
at the point of care. Availability of up to date information on patients is integral for clinical staff to ensure the delivery of safe and high-quality person-centred care.
A Digital Health Record would enable clinical staff to have access to their patient’s information on any device at any place. The technology would be the same across service providers and ensure that clinical staff had access to the right information at the right time to facilitate the best form of patient centred care.
Robust infrastructure will ensure ongoing seamless and secure access to clinical information and systems in a more economically sustainable manner. Automation of core administrative tasks and communication will free staff up to focus on clinical care.”
(All the quotes above are from the document mentioned above.)
As I said in a previous blog there are real change management and training issues with this ambition but a closer look leaves one wondering about the capacity to execute such a vision and just who are going to be the users, and more important just where do the GPs and specialists fit in.
I won’t write this whole program off just yet but we need a layer down in detail to see if in the ACT have even the least clue as to the complexity and risk they are taking on! I wonder what vendor would be prepared to take this on, and for how much?
What do others think?
David.
3 comments:
Oh my goodness it does sound as though the ADHA wrote this for the My Health Record. The other possibility is that ACT Health hasn't heard of the My Health Record.
Another possibility is they read the following somewhere and thought it such a good idea they should try to do it themselves; ...... that “Contemporary technology will enable healthcare providers seamless access to a person’s clinical information at the point of care. Availability of up to date information on patients is integral for clinical staff to ensure the delivery of safe and high-quality person-centred care.
A Digital Health Record would enable clinical staff to have access to their patient’s information on any device at any place. The technology would be the same across service providers and ensure that clinical staff had access to the right information at the right time to facilitate the best form of patient-centred care.
David, the answer to your question is No! They believe the snake oil coming from many Digital Health vendors who wouldn't know the "right information" if it bit them on the bum.
It might be that this jargon busting marketing is passed its sell-by date but the whole thing seems a bit unclear, a bit bland and contains quite a few errors.
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