Here are a few I have come across this week.
Note: Each link is followed by a title and a paragraph or two. For the full article click on the link above title of the article. Note also that full access to some links may require site registration or payment.
General Comment:
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There seemed to be two big issues this week in e-Health.
First we had the Senate Estimates hearing last Thursday.
I have provided some preliminary comment here:
When Hansard is published I may provide some additional details. I also plan a second blog on the whole Portal idea sometime this week.
The second was the abrupt drop in the shares of our largest e-Health Company (iSoft) after a profit warning and downgrade.
We can only hope the recovery will be reasonably swift – as I see it as important we have at least one substantial e-Health IT provider in OZ.
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All eyes and ears on march of the cyborgs
DEBORAH SMITH SCIENCE EDITOR
June 5, 2010
''THE first generation of cyborgs is alive, well, [and] walking among us,'' says Roger Clarke, a visiting professor at the school of computer science at the Australian National University.
Heart pacemakers and mechanical hands have been the ''leading wave'' in a rapid process of cyborgisation - the development of high-tech implants and prostheses that will benefit many people but will also raise new issues for society, Professor Clarke said.
Already the deaf can hear with cochlear implants. Deep brain implants that alleviate the disabling tremors of Parkinson's disease are also in use.
On the horizon are bionic eyes to let the blind see, and muscle implants that could allow paraplegics to stand and even walk, said Rob Shepherd, director of the Bionic Ear Institute and professor of medical bionics at the University of Melbourne.
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Only three software vendors sign up to e-health identifier tests
Healthcare identifier testing environment goes unutilised over contract disagreements and lack of final specifications
- James Hutchinson (Computerworld)
- 03 June, 2010 17:00
Minister for Health and Ageing, Nicola Roxon, has announced amendments to the Healthcare Identifier Bill, which is expected to be passed before Parliament later this month.
A total of three software vendors have signed a developer agreement to take part in the National eHealth Transition Authority's (NeHTA) software testing environment for the proposed national healthcare identifier (HI) service.
The figure was announced in Senate budget estimates by a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Ageing, after a raft of berating questions from senators on the committee about e-health spending, and whether the healthcare identifier service would be able to meet its initial 1 July deadline.
One of the department's spokespeople, Raelene Thompson, assured that Medicare Australia continued consultation with the industry over the healthcare identifiers, but said it is yet to begin live testing of the system.
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Just 3 test vendors for health identifiers
By Josh Taylor, ZDNet.com.au on June 4th, 2010
Just three software vendors have signed a developer's agreement with Medicare Australia to test the Federal Government's health identifier system ahead of its planned launch in July.
In the Federal Budget last month, the Federal Government allocated $466.7 million to e-health. Individual health identifiers, unique numbers to be issued to willing Australians to help link medical information, are necessary in order for the initiatives funded by the budget to go ahead. The legislation to enable the introduction of the identifiers is expected to be entered into parliament later this month.
However, during a Federal Budget estimates hearing yesterday, it was revealed that only a small number of software providers had signed on to test their product's interoperability in Medicare's health identifier test environment.
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No strong safeguards in HI Bill, says Australian Privacy Foundation
- Karen Dearne
- From: Australian IT
- June 01, 2010
THE Healthcare Identifiers Bill will allow health authorities to link every piece of a person's medical information to a single number, without strong safeguards against deliberate or accidental abuse, the nation's peak privacy body warns.
"Amid all the fuss about networked privacy problems, consumers can't afford to overlook the bill currently before the Senate,'' says Australian Privacy Foundation health spokeswoman Juanita Fernando.
"The bill authorises health services and workers to index all of your health information - and to use and disclose it, whether you want them to or not.
"Have you ever used medication for a mild bout of depression, taken Viagra or had an STD? Sensitive information like this is already accidentally exposed all too often.
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Queensland Health pay goes to dead nurses in new bungle
- From: The Courier-Mail
- June 02, 2010
THE bungled Queensland Health payroll system has paid two dead nurses.
That is the latest admission in a series of blunders to hit the system, which has been plagued with problems since it was brought online in March.
Former Queensland Health workers have also received pays under the new SAP/WorkBrain payroll and rostering system.
Queensland Nurses Union assistant secretary Beth Mohle said the two cases of deceased nurses being paid were "totally unacceptable".
She said both had died early into the implementation of the payroll system and had subsequently received more than one fortnightly pay.
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Dead nurses paid in payroll debacle
AAP
Queensland Health has been embarrassed by revelations that two dead nurses continued to be paid as its payroll woes continue.
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Queensland Health pay keeps coming after nurse's death
- by Janelle Miles
- From: The Courier-Mail
- June 02, 2010
NURSE Val Wright died 10 weeks ago but Queensland Health continues to send fortnightly payslips to her home.
The executor of her estate, Richard Oliver, said Mrs Wright had been paid five times since her death on March 23, despite repeated calls to the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital to stop her pay.
"We're getting a payslip every fortnight. It's upsetting enough . . . without that happening," said Mr Oliver, a friend of Mrs Wright's for 35 years.
"The superannuation and the tax has been taken out, the whole bit, as if she was still alive.
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The Scoop - eHealth on life support?
Posted: Tue 1 Jun 2010 10:29AM
The federal opposition has vowed to cut the Rudd government's $467 million in e-health spending, citing structural flaws in the program. Just how critical is the future of e-health and what needs to be done? Joining The Scoop for a lively debate is Dr Mukesh Haikerwal, clinical lead at NEHTA; Malcolm Thatcher, CIO at The Mater Hospital Group; and Professor Graham Greenleaf, co-director of the Cyberspace Law and Policy Centre at the University of NSW. [audio only]
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E-health bill modified, with doctors’ input
2-Jun-2010
By Sarah Colyer
The Federal Government has announced last-minute changes to fundamental legislation for the e-health system in the hope the amendments will allow it to pass the Senate in the coming days.
The Federal Health Minister, Nicola Roxon, announced proposed changes to the Healthcare Identifiers bill this morning. The changes are aimed at increasing public confidence in the system’s privacy safeguards.
The bill sets out the legislative basis for the new 16-digit numbers for the identification of every Australian healthcare consumer and provider, in a system run by Medicare Australia.
Among the amendments, the government has proposed increased parliamentary oversight of the system, so that any changes to Medicare Australia’s role in running the system could be made only through legislation.
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Govt boosts safeguards for e-health identifiers
2nd Jun 2010
THE Federal Government has stepped up security measures within its national healthcare identifier legislation.
The revised draft of the Healthcare Identifiers Bill – which has remained stalled in the Senate since March this year – now streamlines administration requirements that healthcare providers will have to meet under the legislation.
There is also greater clarity on how they will be expected to liaise with the new Healthcare Identifiers Service, which will be responsible for issuing and maintaining the national database of Unique Healthcare Identifier (UHI) numbers for both patients and providers.
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Labor jumps the gun on e-health changes
June 3, 2010 - 12:19AM
AAP
The Rudd government is trying to stop the coalition from meddling with its plan to give every Australian an individual healthcare identification number by proposing its own changes to the regime.
The opposition in May announced it would move seven amendments to Labor's Healthcare Identifiers Bill in an effort to boost privacy and parliamentary oversight.
Opposition health and wellbeing spokesman Andrew Southcott said if the government was "bloody-minded" and refused to negotiate, "it may not have a bill" at all.
But on Wednesday, Health Minister Nicola Roxon said the government had revised the draft regulations outlining how the healthcare identifier system would work.
"The government will also propose amendments to the bill to respond to issues raised during public consultation," Ms Roxon said in a statement.
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Nicola Roxon amends health identifiers bill
- Karen Dearne
- From: Australian IT
- June 02, 2010
HEALTH Minister Nicola Roxon has agreed to amend the controversial Healthcare Identifiers Bill to address key industry and medical provider concerns, in a last-minute bid to achieve Coalition support in the Senate this month.
But opposition e-health spokesman Andrew Southcott said the government had not gone far enough, and Coalition senators would insist on further changes to ensure all outstanding concerns were addressed.
Ms Roxon agreed to two Coalition demands: to increase parliamentary oversight of the compulsory HI regime and ensure that any change in service operator - initially Medicare Australia - is made through legislation, rather than regulation; and to create more flexible arrangements for the assignment of identifiers to some healthcare providers, including a right of review.
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Calling in the experts
4-Jun-2010
General practice today relies on sophisticated computer systems, so do-it-yourself maintenance can be a risky approach. By Heather Ferguson
WHEN computers first landed in general practice, GPs with a passion for IT revelled in managing their systems. But the days of a GP looking after patients and a server are fast disappearing, according to IT experts.
General practice computer systems are now too complex for GPs to manage effectively, the experts say.
"Our advice is use an outside IT company. You are GPs, work at being GPs," says Noel Stewart, Australian Doctor computer columnist and IT manager at the North East Valley Division of General Practice in Melbourne.
"A lot of practice managers can do day-to-day stuff, such as back-up … but to set up [a computer system] we advise an outside IT company."
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HealthSMART grows on virtual servers, apps
Sixty per cent server virtualisation rate in two years
01/06/2010 13:43:00
Victoria's whole-of-health ICT strategy, HealthSMART, has grown from eight to 1000 servers in four years as it gears up to provide application services to some 140,000 end-users across the state, including the occasional iPad-wielding clinician.
HealthSMART program director, Bruce Ryan, said from an ICT perspective, Victoria's health sector consists of more than 40 discrete departments, each with its own IT infrastructure.
"About 10 years ago a number of issues were identified, including application end-of-life, a lack of standardised processes, and some important business processes were not IT-enabled," Ryan said.
"We now have an emerging focus on technology services. HealthSMART had a number of business drivers like establish DR and business continuity facilities that didn't exist, increasing IT efficiency across the sector and we are now looking at enhanced integration and middleware."
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Vic's HealthSMART keen for iPads
By Josh Taylor, ZDNet.com.au on June 1st, 2010 (17 hours ago)
Bruce Ryan, program director of Victorian e-health IT infrastructure project HealthSMART, said today that there is "considerable interest" in bringing the Apple iPad to hospitals and health departments across Victoria.
Established in 2003, as the "whole of ICT strategy" for Victorian health, HealthSMART is a state-wide project bringing together some 272 sites, 67,500 full-time employees, 150,000 users and 12,500 beds across the Victorian health system. The network now connects 40 wide area networks and two datacentres. Roaming desktops are employed throughout the network using a combination of the Citrix XenServer and XenApp virtual desktop software. Citrix is also used for bedside clinical systems that contain information such as an electronic drugs chart for patients.
Ryan told the Citrix iForum audience in Sydney today that HealthSMART was now "looking for support for emerging device formats" including the iPad.
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Medicare yet to sign contract for looming health identifier deadline
- Karen Dearne
- From: The Australian
- June 01, 2010
ONE month out from the start of the Rudd government's mandatory Healthcare Identifiers regime, Medicare is yet to sign a contract for service delivery.
The $57 million, two-year contract for Medicare to design and build the service on behalf of the National E-Health Transition Authority expired in January, but the system is yet be tested live.
To date, only 22 medical software firms out of 200 have expressed interest in building interfaces between doctors' systems and the identifier service, with only four signing a contract.
It is understood no vendors have begun work on interfaces, as technical details are not confirmed.
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NBN cost-benefit analysis would take just three days: Economist
Economic consultants call for NBN Co or Communications Department to release economic details underpinning implementation study
- James Hutchinson (Computerworld)
- 04 June, 2010 10:39
A full cost-benefit analysis of the Government's $43 billion National Broadband Network (NBN) would take just three days to complete, according to economic consultants.
Speaking to a Senate select committee on the NBN, consultants, Dr Henry Ergas and Dr Mark Harrison, agreed that the NBN Implementation Study was highly optimistic in its brief analysis of rate of return compared against government bond rates. However, the lack of a proper cost-benefit appraisal, as well as the lack of details that underpinned the study preventing a proper analysis becoming available.
"That is not what the implementation team were asked to do, it's not what they have done," Ergas said, "but, it would be certainly possible, indeed readily possible based on the great detail of information they have generated, to come to a more robustly based and contestable view as to whether the benefits from this proposed NBN exceeds its opportunity costs."
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http://phx.corporate-ir.net/External.File?item=UGFyZW50SUQ9NDg3NzJ8Q2hpbGRJRD0tMXxUeXBlPTM=&t=1
iSOFT achieves key Lorenzo milestone at Morecambe Bay
Sydney – 4 June 2010 – iSOFT Group Limited (ASX: ISF) – Australia's largest listed health information technology company, today announced that Lorenzo Release 1.9 is now installed at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust.
Morecambe Bay becomes the first acute NHS trust in England to receive iSOFT’s integrated patient management and clinical solution. With its partner CSC, iSOFT completed the implementation of this next-generation solution on 3 June 2010 at all trust sites including Furness General, Westmorland General, and Royal Lancaster Infirmary.
The project involved the training of over 3,500 staff and the migration of approximately 80 million data transactions to the new system.
Lorenzo Release 1.9 also replaces an existing iSOFT patient administration system and follows an earlier implementation of Lorenzo Release 1.0 across all surgical wards at Morecambe Bay.
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Market Update
Sydney – Wednesday 2 June 2010 – iSOFT Group Limited (ASX: ISF) – Australia's largest listed health information technology company has achieved a significant milestone with the ‘go live’ of the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust, however delays in the rollout (which were beyond the control of iSOFT), uncertainty associated with the change in UK government and a weak European economic environment have created the need to clarify iSOFT’s earnings outlook for the current fiscal year.
The ‘go live’ at Morecambe Bay, which occurred over the weekend of 29 to 31 May 2010, is a significant milestone as it represents a validation of the core underlying Lorenzo platform and the first implementation of Lorenzo Release 1.9 in a complex hospital environment.
At the same time, political uncertainty in the lead up to the recent UK election and the subsequent change in government, have together led to the deferral of decisions in relation to the English NPfiT program particularly for our partner Computer Sciences Corporation, Inc. For iSOFT, this has affected the timing and conclusion of negotiations surrounding the potential of an agreement with CSC in relation to the market opportunities in England and in particular the Southern cluster of English hospitals, as well as delays in milestone payments. The revenues associated with this agreement had been anticipated in fiscal 2010 and are now anticipated in fiscal 2011. However, as with any commercial negotiation, there is no certainty that revenues will ultimately flow.
Typically the Company earns disproportionately higher revenues in the final quarter of the fiscal year. The factors outlined above, which together with currency impacts as a result of the strong Australian dollar, have resulted in revised revenue, EBITDA and cash flow expectations for the period. Revenue for the 2010 fiscal year is being revised to the range of $440m to $455m. 2010 fiscal year EBITDA is likely to be in the range of $45M - $60M, before exceptional items. 2010 fiscal year operating cash flow has been impacted accordingly.
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iSOFT Group Limited (ASX:ISF) Appoints Dr. James Fox As Deputy Chairman
Sydney, May 31, 2010 (ABN Newswire) - iSOFT Group Limited (ASX:ISF), Australia's largest listed health information technology company today announced the appointment of Dr. James (Jim) Fox as Deputy Chairman. This decision affirms the Board's commitment to the continual process of review and development of the Company's overall corporate governance position and the composition of the Board.
Dr Fox, 57, has more than 25 years' experience as a public company director, with a track record of building technology-based companies in international markets. He is Chairman & Non-Executive Director at Biota Holdings Limited (ASX:BTA) (OTC:BTAHY), Non-Executive Director & Deputy Chairman at Elders Limited (ASX:ELD) ; and Non-Executive Director at Air New Zealand Ltd. (NZE:AIR) (PINK:ANZFY), MS Research Australia and TTP Group (U.K).
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iSoft revises down fiscal 2010 results
Comes despite reassurances in March that revenues were on track
- Tim Lohman (Computerworld)
- 02 June, 2010 13:03
- Comments
iSoft (ASX:ISF) has revised its revenues down for the full 2010 fiscal year by as much as $30 million following a confluence of market events.
In an ASX update, the e-health provider said its revenue for fiscal 2010 was now in the range of $440 to $455 million while EBITDA was now likely to be in the range of $45 to $60 million. In February the company reported a full fiscal 2010 outlook of $470 million and an EBITDA of $113 million.
The company also reported a first half fiscal 2010 results which included revenues of $237.3 million and an EBITDA of $40.8 million.
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Morecambe Bay goes live with Lorenzo 1.9
01 Jun 2010
University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust has gone live with Lorenzo Release 1.9 across its five hospital sites, E-Health Insider can exclusively reveal.
The implementation of the iSoft software, a key part of the NHS National Programme for IT, was carried out by local service provider CSC.
The trust has confirmed that it has become the first acute hospital to use the Lorenzo software with patient administration functionality. The software is being used by 3,500 staff across its five hospitals for all clinical activity.
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Enjoy!
David.
