This appeared last week:
ADHA extends Accenture's My Health Record support deal for $100m
By Justin Hendry on Aug 9, 2022 11:42AM
As records move to Microsoft Azure.
The federal government will pay Accenture $100 million to continue its support of My Health Record for another three years, as it looks to progressively decommission legacy infrastructure supporting the system.
The Australian Digital Health Agency entered a contract with the consultancy on Friday, bringing the total cost of the national infrastructure operator (NIO) arrangement to $741.2 million over 13 years.
The new deal replaces a decade-long contract for the design, build and integration of the system that expired at the end of June following two extensions: one for two years in October 2019 and another for a year in July 2021.
Accenture has held the lucrative NIO contract since 2011, when My Health Record was known as the Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record (PCEHR). It works with a consortium of suppliers, including Oracle and Orion Health, to support the system.
An ADHA spokesperson told iTnews the contract with Accenture was extended to “ensure the continued secure and reliable operation of the My Health Record system” as the national infrastructure modernisation program continues.
“NIO’s services are currently supporting over 60 technology infrastructure components that together make up the core of the My Health Record system,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
“The ongoing support and enhancement of these components is critical to enable the agency to respond to changing user requirements and government policy priorities while system components are successively modernised or replaced.”
Under the modernisation program, the agency has already sought to replace the Oracle API gateway underpinning the electronic health record with scalable platform exchanging and accessing health information.
Last year, it contracted Deloitte to deliver a gateway based on modern web services and standards for health information exchange and clinical terminologies such as Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) under an $18 million contract.
Having previously flagged the prospect of shifting the My Health Record to a cloud-based platform and leveraging open source software, the ADHA has also recently migrated the system to Microsoft Azure.
“The agency has migrated data to the government-certified strategic hosting services in the Microsoft Azure cloud in Australia, which meets enhanced privacy, sovereignty and security requirements for sensitive Australian government systems,” the spokesperson said.
More here:
https://www.itnews.com.au/news/adha-extends-accentures-my-health-record-support-deal-for-100m-583751
There is further coverage here:
ADHA extends Accenture's contract as My Health Record infra operator
This comes as the agency continues to modernise its national infrastructure.
By Adam Ang
August 09, 2022 09:27 PM
The Australia Digital Health Agency has extended Accenture's contract as the national infrastructure operator of My Health Record for another three years.
This is the third contract extension given to the IT consultancy, which has held the contract since 2012.
WHY IT MATTERS
While no new services will be added under the new A$100 million ($70 million) contract, the agency decided to extend its contract with Accenture "to ensure the continued secure and reliable operation of the My Health Record system," it said in an emailed statement.
As its operator, Accenture is supporting over 60 technology infrastructure components that make up the core of the My Health Record system.
THE LARGER CONTEXT
Accenture's continued support to My Health Record is "critical" to allow the ADHA to respond to changing user requirements and government policy priorities while it is undergoing a national infrastructure modernisation programme.
More here:
This follows up from a contract last year:
Accenture gets another $11m for My Health Record enhancements
By Justin Hendry on Sep 27, 2021 6:51AM
Decade-long deal climbs higher.
Accenture has been handed $11 million to further enhance the My Health Record system, bringing its long-standing national infrastructure operator (NIO) deal to $641 million.
The Australian Digital Health Agency revealed the nine-month contract with the tech giant earlier this month amid its massive national infrastructure modernisation program.
The new deal comes just two months after the AHDA extended Accenture’s decade-long umbrella deal until at least July 2022 at a cost of $42.7 million.
Accenture has held the NIO contract for the design, build and integration of the My Health Record system since 2011, when it was known as the personally controlled electronic health record (PCEHR).
A spokesperson told iTnews the contract signed this month – as well as one signed in December 2020 for $15 million – as relating to “enhancements to the My Health Record system”.
“Amendment two [is] for work undertaken in the 2020-21 financial years and amendment four [is] for work in the 2021-22 financial year,” the ADHA said.
Further enhancements to the system come as Deloitte gets to work building the new health information gateway that will support the My Health Record.
The gateway, which will be used for exchanging and accessing health information, is considered the first stage of the ehealth record refresh, called the national infrastructure modernisation program.
A future stage will see the ADHA “re-host My Health Record data and server holdings to a new contemporary hosting platform”, according to the agency’s most recent corporate plan.
More here:
https://www.itnews.com.au/news/accenture-gets-another-11m-for-my-health-record-enhancements-570292
So what we see here, if I read correctly, is another $100M being spent on maintaining the old #myHR for a year or two more just is case the new ‘modernised’ system does not cut it and a backup is needed, despite the fact that 11 months ago the old system was the “way forward. They sure have been paid a lot since all this #myHR nonsense started!
Maybe this is all because there is some truth in the rumblings I have been hearing that the Microsoft Azure platform is not quite delivering as expected?
This is a classic ‘enquiring minds want to know’ situation I reckon! We might know more if the most recent media release from the ADHA was more current than 30th March, 2022. Maybe there is a secret mailing list!
David.
Accenture's continued support to My Health Record is "critical" to allow the ADHA to respond to changing user requirements and government policy priorities while it is undergoing a national infrastructure modernisation programme.
ReplyDeleteLoosely translates to: we have lost control of the agenda and have no idea how to manage a wave of expectations for stakeholders or our own silly making.
Solution: lots of busy work and engage some voices to write a number of articles calling for my health record busy work and promises of good things to come of it