The Australian Finacial Review Agrees With This Blog That The myHealthRecord Is Useless Rubbish And Must Be Fixed!

This appeared this morning

The digital health black hole must be fixed

The Productivity Commission’s report on the failure of the federal government’s My Health Record portal should concern all Australians not only as taxpayers, but as health care consumers in a rapidly ageing society.

May 8, 2024 – 6.38pm

The Productivity Commission’s report on the failure of the federal government’s My Health Record portal should concern all Australians not only as taxpayers, but as health care consumers in a rapidly ageing society.

Despite the $2 billion invested in what was supposed to be a centralised digital access point for patients’ most important health data, poor interoperability and clunky usability means that just a tiny fraction of the documents uploaded – 2 per cent – are viewed by other clinicians.

My Health Record aims to centralise health records, allowing patient information to be readily available to various medical professionals across the country.

And with just under a third of specialists and 6 per cent of aged care facilities using the portal, much important information remains locked in individual health providers’ digital systems.

Enabling a consumer-focused health revolution means challenging the political economy and provider capture of Medicare.

As rising health costs threaten to put unsustainable fiscal pressure on government budgets, the Productivity Commission estimates that better use of electronic health data could save upwards of $5 billion a year on avoiding duplicate tests, shortening hospital stays, creating workforce efficiencies including through AI and automation, and by enabling Telehealth to remotely manage and treat patients.

The current fragmentation of health data reflects the siloed nature of a medical system that pays different doctors and other health professionals to care for different conditions. That system is outdated when the bulk of the community’s healthcare needs involve increasing numbers of older patients with multiple chronic diseases.

The goal of health reform should be to move away from paying individual practitioners for fee–for-service inputs, and move to a system that funds comprehensive chronic care and rewards providers who keep Australians healthier.

Enabling a consumer-focused health revolution means challenging the political economy and provider capture of Medicare.

But a start can be made by ensuring patient data is electronically available with just a few clicks.

Fixing Australia’s digital health black hole is also the first step towards using big data to find out what keeps people well in an older and sicker nation.

Here is the link:

https://www.afr.com/policy/health-and-education/digital-health-black-hole-20240508-p5gw3w

I wonder how the ADHA will justify their pathetic failure and when they will actually start working on something useful!

I have done my best to have them make more sensible steps and progress!

David.