What Is The Chance Of This Summit Being More Than An Ill Informed Talkfest? Zero I Fear!

We have had this special event announced yesterday.

E-Health Conference - Revolutionising Australia’s Health Care

28 October 2010

The nation’s leading health experts, consumer groups and information technology specialists will come together to discuss the technological revolution in the delivery of health care at the E-Health Conference.

Minister for Health and Ageing Nicola Roxon said the e-health conference to be held in Melbourne at the end of November is an important opportunity for stakeholders to discuss how Electronic health and telehealth will drive the delivery of health care into the future.

“The Gillard Government is investing almost $470 million to introduce e-health across the health system – including the introduction of personally controlled electronic health records to be rolled out from July 2012,” said Ms Roxon.

“This investment will build upon the $392 million committed to modernise the health system by providing Medicare rebates for online consultations across a range of specialties for the first time.

“This investment will help people who live in rural and regional Australia to get the health care they need. It will save patients the time and expense of travelling long distances to see medical specialists, and will help them to see the right specialist sooner.

“These reforms will derive clear benefits from the rollout of the National Broadband Network and will enable better and safer care for patients that is more responsive to their needs.

“That’s why I want to get the stakeholders together so that we can get maximum value out of the Government’s investment and ensure that there is detailed discussion about the implementation plans leading into broader community consultation.

“We have already selected three lead implementation sites – in Brisbane, East Melbourne and the Hunter Valley.

The conference – a landmark forum – will provide an important opportunity for cross-sector collaboration and discussion around the design, implementation and vision for future capabilities of the system.

Representatives from governments, industry, private and public sector health care organisations, clinicians and consumer groups will discuss how this innovative system will work into the future.

“The Gillard Government is getting on with the business of delivering improved health services to the community. E-health will help prevent medication errors that cause an estimated 190,000 hospital admissions each year, costing $660 million, and the 8% of medical errors caused by inadequate patient information.

Minister Roxon and Senator Stephen Conroy, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, will be speaking at the event.

The E-Health Summit will take place on the 30 November and 1 December at the Melbourne Convention Exhibition Centre.

For more information regarding the E-Health Conference, please contact Ms Sharon McCarter at the Department of Health and Ageing on 02 6289 3558

Press release is found here:

http://www.health.gov.au/internet/ministers/publishing.nsf/Content/mr-yr10-nr-nr161.htm?OpenDocument&yr=2010&mth=10

What is missing from all this is the link to a series of strategic and technical discussion papers to be discussed at the Summit.

The whole process is utterly back to front as well as DoHA is having this gabfest after the release of tenders for components of the PCEHR. So how exactly is the Summit going to affect what we wind up with.

The phrase ‘window dressing’ pops into mind.

Last comment - remember we have all been here before with Summits and National E-Health Strategies developed by the Boston Consulting Group in 2004 and Deloittes in 2008. Where has all that actually got us?

If some detailed informative plans, budgets and resourcing is not provided well ahead of the Summit you can be assured it will be a joke! Any serious effort at consultation and discussion would have all this mapped out and delivered with the announcement I believe.

I look forward to the discussion documents!

David.

Just How Come Is It That NEHTA can Thumb its Nose at Government? Is It Wise for It to Do So?

The following appeared late last week.

E-health group snubs local participation guidelines

• Karen Dearne
• From: The Australian
• October 19, 2010 12:00AM

THE National E-Health Transition Authority has snubbed government guidelines designed to boost local participation in its first major tender.

NEHTA cited its controversial status as a private corporation owned jointly by the federal and state governments.

The Health Department refused last week to reveal how much NEHTA spent on travel in the past financial year, saying the taxpayer-funded body was not required to report such information under its funding agreement.

Over the past year, Liberal senators Sue Boyce and Concetta Fierravanti-Wells have been pursuing details of NEHTA's spending and accountability to parliament, and Senator Boyce has expressed frustration that its representatives cannot be compelled to appear before Senate estimate hearings and inquiries.

Now NEHTA has told bidders on the large National Authentication Service for Health contract that it does not need to comply with normal agency purchasing rules.

"NEHTA is a company limited by guarantee and as such falls outside of the scope of the Australian government procurement guidelines," it said.

Under Innovation Minister Kim Carr's $19 million Australian Industry Participation program launched last year, firms bidding for federal government work must lodge a plan showing they have considered options to include local firms in their tenders.

Small to medium-size businesses now have a backer in their corner, with Mr Carr appointing Don Easter as his office's IT supplier advocate in June.

Mr Easter said he queried NEHTA's stance when the NASH tender was released.

"I wrote to them in my role as advocate, saying you have to include provisions for an industry participation plan, and they came back to me saying 'no we don't'," he said.

"That is the case. I checked with the Health Department and the AIP requirements only apply to government agencies. However, they did say they were committed to the principles of open tenders, fairness and equity."

Mr Easter said industry plans were a "light touch" approach intended to ensure opportunities for local firms were routinely considered in tender responses.

" I know a bit about authentication and there are many people in the marketplace who do this type of thing now," he said. "What's interesting is why it took NEHTA so long to put it to tender. . .

More here:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/e-health-group-snubs-local-participation-guidelines/story-e6frgakx-1225940393641

I wonder how long it is going to take the Government and Opposition to recognise they have an out of control train here that is happily spending public funds with no real oversight.

It would seem to me there is very considerable political risk for Government especially in all this. Consider the scenario that we are a year further down the track from the present. The HI Service Implementation has gone less than perfectly - with all sorts of predicable barriers to smooth implementation arising as workflow implications, costs to software providers and so on begin to bite. Combine this with a NEHTA sponsored public education program that is raising awareness but where the public is failing to see all that much actual outcome.

It is now 18 months or so since the inception of the service, with NASH and the PCEHR still to actually happen, and with the exception of the pilots not much is being delivered.

In that circumstance, which has to have at least a 50% chance of being reality, the Opposition will be able to have a picnic at Senate Estimates Committees and in the political lead up to the next election.

NEHTA would be much smarter to proactively and honestly work with Medicare to get real plans, budgets, resource requirements and so on out there as cover and risk mitigation. And they also should turn up at estimates to provide a clear account - unfiltered by DoHA - as to what is really going on, and what issues they face - so they are not torn apart in a political backlash when the issues are recognised long after the event and blame has to be apportioned.

Openness works well to protect from the damage of surprise revelations - especially in the political scene.

A little proper prophylactic disclosure could do great things for NEHTA’s reputation to say nothing of the e-Health Project in total.

I suspect the inevitable backlash, when it comes if this risk is not managed well, will just sweep both the good and the bad of NEHTA away.

David.

I Think NEHTA Needs To Do Some Serious Fence Mending and Industry Consultation!

The following popped up late yesterday.

NEHTA lead attacks e-health contracts

By Josh Taylor, ZDNet.com.au on October 26th, 2010

No vendor with half a brain would sign a developer contract with Medicare to work on software as part of the government's e-health agenda, National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA) national clinical lead Dr Mukesh Haikerwal said this morning.

When asked at an Australian Information Industry Association e-health forum in Sydney this morning why just 14 out of the 80 software developers who had a developer's kit had signed a developer's agreement with Medicare, Haikerwal said he wouldn't hide from the problem.

"I think the contracts — and this is on the public record and I've said this to the people responsible — the contracts the vendors have been asked to sign are not the sort ... that anyone with half a brain would want to sign," he said.

"If you're going to be fair dinkum about getting the vendor involved in this space you've got to make a contract that they can adhere to. [A contract] that is reasonable and is deliverable and you can't put belts and braces on them and hold them back and tie both hands behind their back and then say, now you've got to play in this space," he added.

"So I wholeheartedly agree there are problems with the contracts. And we've got to make it better. My job is to make it better. If they don't like me saying it, they can sack me that's fine. I'm very happy to go somewhere else."

Despite teething problems with getting developers onboard, the benefits e-health offered would be immediate for clinicians, Haikerwal said. In his own clinic he identified that secure messaging offered by e-health could potentially save up to $30,000 a year in the cost of scanning and sending patient documents manually.

Haikerwal admitted that delivering personally controlled e-health records in just two years was a big ask, and said that NEHTA needed help from the IT industry to meet its goals.

More worrying material here from a thorough coverage.

http://www.zdnet.com.au/nehta-lead-attacks-e-health-contracts-339306849.htm

I really don’t think there is much to add here. We have the NEHTA sponsored blogger spinning away saying how good all this is - but, as quoted, I find it very hard to see there is much good news for NEHTA and Medicare here.

My view, if their Clinical Lead finds it necessary to speak out like this there is ‘trouble at mill’!

David.

I Wonder Is There Something Here That Might Be Useful to Australia?

I noticed this the other day.

HHS Connect sets standards for sharing medical information

Open-source system lets health care organizations exchange records securely and efficiently

• By Edmund X. DeJesus
• Oct 15, 2010

Until recently, there wasn’t an easy way for federal agencies to securely and efficiently exchange health care information with one another or other organizations.

But a standards-based, open-source approach orchestrated by the Health and Human Services Department's Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT promises to do just that via the Connect program.

The Connect program supplies free software that government agencies and private-sector health care providers can use to exchange patient information.

…..

To overcome the obstacles to sharing medical information, the Federal Health Architecture at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT began developing the Connect program in 2007.

“The goal of Connect was not simply to define standards for exchanging medical information but to create the actual software necessary for federal agencies to start sharing that information securely and efficiently,” said Dr. Douglas Fridsma. Fridsma is director of ONC's Office of Interoperability and Standards and interim director of FHA and Connect.

The Connect program is an unprecedented collaboration that combines the efforts of more than 20 federal agencies to create a single platform for exchanging health information. The aim is save each federal agency the time, cost and resources needed to create a compliant system by fielding a single system that all agencies could immediately implement. Using a single system also eliminates the necessity of integrating different systems and testing them separately.

…..

It consists of three primary components.

• The Core Services Gateway enables health care organizations to locate their patients within other organizations. They can then request and securely receive pertinent documents for those patients.
• The Enterprise Service Component includes default implementations of many essential components necessary for exchanging electronic health information.
• The Universal Client Framework consists of a set of applications that organizations can adapt to create an edge system. Those applications can also serve as a reference system for testing or demonstration.

Full article here:

http://gcn.com/articles/2010/10/18/gcn-award-hhs-connect.aspx

It seems to me we should be having a close look at what has been developed here, as having been implemented in a number of locations, this is actually working software that just might be useful and which I believe can be freely accessed.

Just a thought!

David.

What Is the Chance of the NEHTA Chair Providing Much Input and Leadership Over the Next Couple of Months?

Sorry to cross over into the financial domain but this will probably be an important distractor for Mr David Gonski, AC, present Chairman of the ASX and possible future member of the merged board, as far as his focus on NEHTA is concerned.

Here is the report from yesterday:

Singapore in $8.4b ASX takeover

October 25, 2010

Update The Australian Securities Exchange and Singapore's stock exchange (SGX) have agreed on the first major consolidation of exchanges in the Asia-Pacific, in a takeover valuing the ASX at $8.4 billion.

- The combined bourse will be Asia's second largest
- SGX chief will be CEO, ASX chairman to be deputy chair
- Merger unanimously recommended by both boards
- The ACCC effectively green lights the deal
- Analysts consider the price fair value

The deal values the ASX at $48 per share - amounting to a premium of 37.3 per cent to the $34.96 price the ASX's shares traded at on Friday before news of talks broke.

ASX shares leapt on the resumption of trade today, surging as much as 26 per cent, to $43.89, before closing up $6.79 for the day, or 19 per cent, at $41.75. Shares of SGX, though, lost 5.8 per cent after its trade resume, easing to $S8.99 before clawing back some of its loss.

In the scheme of arrangement offer, SGX will pay a combination of $22.00 in cash plus 3.473 of its own shares for each ASX share.

"The offer is not near ASX's all-time high, but it is certainly great," said Mark Daniels, head of Australian equities at Aberdeen Asset Management, which owns ASX shares.

Regulator's green light

The deal will need approval from the Foreign Investment Review Board, which could be nervous about the deal as SGX is 23 per cent owned by the Financial Sector Development Fund, which is controlled by Singapore's central bank.

"There's quite a few regulatory hurdles for this, which is why the shares are trading below the notional value of the offer,'' said Tom Elliott, managing director, MM&E Capital.

''There's FIRB and parliament has to actually approve it. You've got a strange parliament, you've got the rural independents. Nothing would surprise me. It just means this is going to take a while, so there's that uncertainty," Mr Elliott. "(The price) seems pretty fair.''

However, the competition regulator effectively gave the SGX a green light earlier today to pursue the takeover, saying it did not see any major concerns.

The combined market capitalisation of the two groups was about $12.5 billion at October 22. Assets under management at the two exchanges total some $US2.3 trillion ($2.34 trillion), according to a joint release by the two companies.

Much more here:

http://www.smh.com.au/business/singapore-in-84b-asx-takeover-20101025-16zy3.html

However today it now becomes clear this is not going to happen easily.

ASX takeover faces regulatory hurdles: Swan

Georgina Robinson

October 26, 2010 - 3:23PM

Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan has warned that Singapore Exchange's $8.4 billion takeover of the Australian Securities Exchange still has a number of regulatory hurdles to clear before going ahead, as the Greens and the Coalition voice concerns over the deal.

Mr Swan told parliament today the deal would be scrutinised by the government's Foreign Investment Review Board, which would seek advice from the Australian Securities and Investment Commission and the Reserve Bank of Australia.

Parliament would also need to approve a new regulation allowing a single shareholder to own more than 15 per cent of the ASX, he said.

"The regulatory process ensures that decisions are always taken in Australia's national interest and that the market integrity of the ASX will be preserved," Mr Swan said.

A proposal of this type would be subject to ‘‘extensive regulatory considerations’’ under Australia’s foreign investment policy and the Corporations Act.

"Australia's financial system has performed better than any other during the global financial crisis and of course the ASX is an important part of our financial system's architecture.

"So we will continue to consider all transactions with the objective of carefully and methodically building Australia's reputation as a financial services hub and, as always, we will do this in the national interest."

All the details here:

http://www.smh.com.au/business/asx-takeover-faces-regulatory-hurdles-swan-20101026-171la.html

Given Mr Gonski’s well-known political and management skills I think we can be sure what is going to be keeping him flat out till Christmas at least - unless the politicians just abort it suddenly! (NEHTA hardly compares with an $8.4 billion merger that will need some considerable skill to bring off!)

I think a new interim chair might make sense till this is resolved one way or the other. No offence Mr Gonski but I think you have more than enough on your plate with the ASX!

David.

It Might Be That There Is An Important Lesson Here. Major Technology Projects Need Major Skills!

I spotted this a day or so ago.

Myki faces expensive new hurdle

Clay Lucas

October 20, 2010

THE trouble-plagued myki project has hit another snag, with the expected cost of training newsagents and 7-11 stores to sell and top up the smartcards costing $1.4 million more than originally contracted.

Despite the increased cost, the Brumby government has still not revealed when more than 700 newsagents and retailers contracted to sell and top up myki cards will begin sales.

It comes as a new staff list for the government agency overseeing myki's installation shows employee numbers growing to 161 people. This includes 13 community liaison officers and five media officers.

The government's Transport Ticketing Authority is charged with supervising the creation and rollout of myki, and managing the existing Metcard contract.

Since 2007 - the year myki was meant to be fully rolled out - the Transport Ticketing Authority has grown from just 74 staff. Kamco, the firm being paid to create and install myki for the government, today has 73 full-time staff, and 120 subcontractors.

The government's staff numbers do not include scores of ''myki mates'', employed on casual contracts as part of a $5 million government push to promote myki at rail stations and tram stops.

Transport Ticketing Authority chief executive Bernie Carolan said yesterday he would prefer that the number of people employed by his agency was shrinking, not growing. ''[But] we have got a broad range of responsibilities,'' he said.

…..

Contracts released to opposition transport spokesman Terry Mulder under freedom of information show the cost of training staff at newsagents and retail stores to sell myki will be $1.4 million more than expected when the contract to roll out myki was signed in 2005.

A source within Kamco said the government had constantly changed the specifications of what it wanted, leading to increased costs.

Adrian Darwent, a Transport Ticketing Authority spokesman, said the increase in payments to Kamco was because the number of staff needed to be trained ''could only be negotiated once the size and scope of the retail network was determined''.

Full article is here:

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/myki-faces-expensive-new-hurdle-20101019-16sk6.html

What this article raises is the whole issue of how major technology projects can underscope - often badly - the costs of technology implementation and training.

Apply this to the HI Service, NASH and PCEHR and it rapidly becomes clear that there are real risks in underestimating the change management and training resources that will be needed to get an implementation done in reasonable time and with reasonable quality. Each of these programs will involve many people, much training and substantial workflow impact.

We can see from other government programs that these issues are often under addressed and that project outcomes can be badly compromised as a result.

If these programs are to be implemented they need to be done properly and not be associated with the time, cost and staff overruns we see described above. This will be no mean feat!

In that vein a day or so ago NEHTA advertised for Senior Project Managers - Implementations.

See here for the advertisement.

http://www.nehta.gov.au/careers/729-senior-project-manager-implementations

A read through this will make you quickly realise how difficult these jobs will be and what super-human resources and backup will be needed for success.

I have to say I am by no means sure NEHTA could afford the capability profile of people who could deliver these roles. We shall see.

This looks like the sort of work that should be undertaken by a very well resourced ‘project office’ and not just one or two heavy hitters to me!

David.

Weekly Australian Health IT Links – 24 October, 2010.

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 subscription payment.

General Comment:

Another reasonable week where we had a really good set of comments on Secure Messaging and some fun at Senate Estimates. Pity there was not a bit more time for questions as there are a good few that deserve to be answered.

Those who are interested should definitely sign up to receive DoHA Tender documents for the Personally Controlled EHR.

Here is the link to sign up:

http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/eHealthpreregistration

We all can look forward to understanding just what is going on after we see these!

-----

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/10/24/3046632.htm

Online assessment helps diagnose mental illness

• Related Link: The mood assessment program (MAP)

It is hoped a new online mental health self-assessment service will help doctors achieve more accurate diagnoses for their patients.

Research by The New South Wales Black Dog Institute found sufferers of mental illness are likely to reveal more information about their condition online.

The institute has created the mood assessment program, or MAP, which is now available to GPs and psychologists all over Australia.

Patients can complete the assessment at home and doctors do not see the patients' answers, but receive an automatically generated report.

-----

http://www.zdnet.com.au/e-health-not-a-cost-cutting-measure-govt-339306789.htm

E-health not a cost-cutting measure: govt

By Josh Taylor, ZDNet.com.au on October 22nd, 2010

The Federal Government's e-health plan is not about saving taxpayer money but about using health funding more efficiently, a senior public servant has told Senate Estimates this week.

In response to a question from Labor Senator Mark Furner on what potential savings the government's $466.7 million investment in e-health programs could deliver for the taxpayer, Jane Halton, secretary for the Department of Health and Ageing, said that any savings made would ultimately be spent elsewhere in the health system.

"The thing I know about health is there is no such thing as a saving because someone else will come along and spend the money. It is like there is no such thing as an empty hospital bed. What it enables you to do though is to spend the money that you do have more wisely and more efficiently," Halton told the hearing.

-----

http://www.openaustralia.org/debates/?id=2010-10-20.71.1

Hansard Report on New E-Health Announcement

Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Petrie for her question. She, I know, is one of the members in North Brisbane who is very pleased with the lead implementation sites that are currently contracted to provide e-health services in three geographic areas across the country: northern Brisbane, the Hunter Valley and in eastern Melbourne. GP Partners in Brisbane have been leading advocates for the benefits of e-health and for the enormous potential, not just when we combine e-health and telehealth in terms of changing Medicare and providing different support for after hours GP services but when we use the power of broadband to ensure that more and more people have access in their own homes. This will also enable teleconferencing and make it possible for GPs and nurses to sit with patients and talk with specialists in the middle of town or perhaps many thousands of kilometres away. Those things will become reality.

We have already allocated $20 million worth of investments in those three lead sites. But there is another $55 million that will shortly be available. Expressions of interest will be called for. This will provide benefits for many communities, but particularly for regional communities where there is a great thirst for using new technology and changes and reforms to our health system to deliver better services. These investments and our commitment to introducing an electronic health record, to advances in telehealth and to the National Broadband Network have been widely endorsed.

-----

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/e-health-group-snubs-local-participation-guidelines/story-e6frgakx-1225940393641

E-health group snubs local participation guidelines

• Karen Dearne
• From: The Australian
• October 19, 2010 12:00AM

THE National E-Health Transition Authority has snubbed government guidelines designed to boost local participation in its first major tender.

NEHTA cited its controversial status as a private corporation owned jointly by the federal and state governments.

The Health Department refused last week to reveal how much NEHTA spent on travel in the past financial year, saying the taxpayer-funded body was not required to report such information under its funding agreement.

-----

http://www.pharmacynews.com.au/article/fine-highlights-importance-of-project-stop/524521.aspx

Fine highlights importance of Project STOP

18 October 2010 | by Nick O'Donoghue

A US pharmacy chain which received a record fine for illegally selling large amounts of pseudoephedrine has raised concerns over pharmacies not using Project STOP.

Pharmacy Guild of Australia president Kos Sclavos urged NSW pharmacists to take a lead in adopting the real-time monitoring to restrict the sale of the drug used to manufacture methamphetamine, after revealing a third of pharmacies in the state had not signed up to Project STOP.

Speaking to Pharmacy eNews following the revelations that the US’s biggest pharmacy chain, CVS Pharmacy, had been fined US$75 million for failing to restrict the sale of large quantities of the drug found in cold medications, he warned criminals in Australia were targeting pharmacisies that had not adopted a real-time system.

-----

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/doctor-in-online-tirade/story-e6freuy9-1225939622504

Doctor in online tirade

• By HELEN POW
• From: The Sunday Telegraph
• October 17, 2010 12:12AM

A DOCTOR has been caught using Facebook to publicly ridicule patients - telling his online network of friends that some were "whingers" and "dissatisfied housewives".

In a series of extraordinary breaches of medical confidentiality, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal doctors have even disparagingly named patients on social networks.

One doctor posted: "I feel like an adviser to a women's knitting club, having to suffer the whines of Mrs X and her daughter Ms X."The outrageous remarks have been described as "not uncommon" and have forced the NSW Medical Board to issue strict warnings to doctors about social networking.

The Medical Error Action Group has uncovered several inappropriate posts by doctors, including one who made sexist comments about a female patient on Facebook, stating: "Mrs X should go and get her hair done instead of complaining to me about her knees."

-----

http://ehealtheurope.net/news/6324/cambridge_starts_hunt_for_a_new_epr

Cambridge starts hunt for a new EPR

18 Oct 2010

Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust will go outside of the National Programme for IT in the NHS when procuring for an electronic patient record early next year.

The trust has committed £280,000 to developing a specification for the hospital wide IT system, following an announcement by the Department of Health that trusts will be free to select their own system, rather than taking an NPfIT-supplied system, namely Cerner’s Millennium or iSoft’s Lorenzo.

Chief executive of the hospital, Gareth Goodier told the Cambridge News that the trust is right to steer clear of the now defunct national programme.

He added: “There was a common perception that the national programme has cost a lot and not delivered much.”

-----

http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/the-tony-collins-blog/2010/10/the-share-price-of-nhs/

iSoft share price hits record low

The share price of iSoft, the supplier of "Lorenzo" software to dozens of NHS Trusts, falls to less than 10 (Aus) cents

Published 15:32, 21 October 10

The share price of NHS software supplier iSoft has fallen to a new low.

The company supplies the "Lorenzo" patient administration system to CSC. Under £3bn worth of contracts under the National Programme for IT [NPfIT] CSC is due to deliver iSoft's Lorenzo system to dozens of NHS trusts.

Other iSoft software, including the "iCM" clinical management and "iPM" patient administration system, is used widely in the NHS.

Today, for the first time, iSoft's share price fell below 10 Australian cents, which is about six pence sterling. Its share price reached a high of about 1.52 Australian dollars in 2007 which is about 95 pence sterling.

iSoft and CSC went live with Lorenzo 1.9 at Morecambe Bay in June 2010 though the two suppliers have yet to be paid for reaching the important milestone. The Department of Health's CIO Christine Connelly has said that the Lorenzo implementation at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust and at NHS Bury need to stabilise before they can be signed off by the trusts.

-----

http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/the-tony-collins-blog/2010/10/christine-connelly-cio-at-the/

Health CIO seeks new NPfIT deal with CSC

As Christine Connelly negotiates a new memorandum of understanding with CSC, can it be said the NPfIT is dead?

Published 11:20, 21 October 10

Christine Connelly, CIO at the Department of Health, is trying to negotiate a memorandum of understanding with CSC, one of the two remaining NPfIT local service providers, the other being BT.

The deal she is seeking to complete contradicts suggestions that the NPfIT is dead. CSC has about £3bn worth of national programme contracts to supply the iSoft “Lorenzo” patient administration system to NHS trusts in the England, outside of London and the south.

If the MoU is signed, CSC will take £500m less under its NPfIT contracts but will be allowed to agree new delivery schedules for Lorenzo after it failed to meet previous ones.

-----

http://www.bjhcim.co.uk/news/2010/n1010025.htm

iSOFT integrates primary care in Wales

20 October 2010

iSOFT Group Limited has announced details of the contract awarded by NHS Wales to roll out the Individual Health Record (IHR) nationwide.

The IHR will make patient information held in iSOFT’s GP systems available to local out-of-hours services and in other unscheduled care settings (eg A&E) via the Welsh Clinical Portal for hospital systems.

Initially, the company will interface its GP systems to the Adastra out-of-hours system, via an iSOFT health record system specifically customised for Wales.

-----

http://www.hc2d.co.uk/content.php?contentId=16444

iSOFT developments to help re-shape primary care in Wales

19th October 2010

iSOFT Group Limited (ASX: ISF) has been awarded a contract to work with NHS Wales to roll out the Individual Health Record (IHR) nation-wide.

The IHR will make patient information held in iSOFT’s GP systems available to local out-of-hours services and in other unscheduled care settings via the Welsh Clinical Portal. Initially, the company will interface its GP systems to the Adastra out-of-hours system, via an iSOFT health record solution specifically customised for Wales.

The solution combines extensions to iSOFT’s primary care practice systems together with iSOFT’s integration technology and electronic health record functionality, which provides the central IHR repository and viewing tool for patient records fed from the GP systems. iSOFT is implementing data streaming to transfer data from the practice systems to the repository. The streamed data conforms to the nationally agreed Welsh NHS content and data model standards, which support practice and patient opt in and out preferences, and the exclusion of sensitive patient information.

-----

http://www.e-health-insider.com/news/6316/nhs_wirral_drops_lorenzo

NHS Wirral drops Lorenzo

19 Oct 2010

NHS Wirral has dropped its planned implementation of Lorenzo Release 1.9 and is carrying out an option appraisal for an alternative system, E-Health Insider has learned.

The primary care trust, which was due to be one of the ‘fast followers’ for iSoft’s electronic patient record under the National Programme for IT in the NHS, was due to go live with the system in March 2010.

It had to delay the go-live following changes to the programme in the North, Midlands and East of England, which focused on the need to get Lorenzo live in its first acute site, University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust.

A Wirral board paper published at the end of last year stated: “The software had been due in March 2010 but has been delayed until June 2010 as a result of NHS Connecting for Health taking the programme forward via acute early adopter site Morecambe Bay.”

-----

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/health-science/british-schoolboy-exposes-phony-drug-through-twitter/story-e6frg8y6-1225940543172

British schoolboy exposes phony drug through Twitter

• From: AFP
• October 19, 2010 9:54AM

A 15-YEAR-OLD teenager from Wales has prompted a global internet campaign against a phony "miracle drug" after posting warnings about it on the social networking website Twitter.

Rhys Morgan, a 15-year-old who suffers from Crohn's disease, stumbled upon a substance called Miracle Mineral Solution (MMS) while looking into treatments for his condition, which causes swelling in the digestive tract.

"I found out about it while browsing a support forum for Crohn's disease, which I was diagnosed with earlier this year," Morgan said.

Morgan's search led him to a website run by the drug's apparent creator Jim Humble claiming that MMS was "the answer to AIDS, hepatitis A, B and C, malaria, herpes, TB, most cancers and many more of mankind's worse diseases".

-----

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/government/labors-isp-filter-plan-faces-more-delays/story-fn4htb9o-1225941055763

Labor's ISP filter plan faces more delays

• Fran Foo
• From: Australian IT
• October 20, 2010 9:45AM

LABOR'S controversial ISP filter plan faces further delays as a meeting central to the policy is postponed yet again.

Labor wants all ISPs to automatically block web pages on a secret blacklist of refused classification (RC) material. In July Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said he, alongside the Home Affairs Minister, would recommend to states and territory ministers that a review into the type of content that RC covers be conducted.

Delays to the review mean it will be at least five years before the mandatory filtering scheme comes to fruition. Labor mooted the plan in late 2007.

The Standing Committee of Attorneys-General (SCAG) was meant to discuss the RC review in a late July meeting, but that was postponed.

-----

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/security/nsw-government-slammed-by-auditor-for-not-protecting-citizens-private-info-20101020-16tav.html

NSW Government slammed by auditor for not protecting citizens' private info

October 20, 2010

Not much has been done by government agencies to ensure that people's private information is secure, the NSW Auditor-General said, despite a 10-year push to improve protection.

Auditor-General Peter Achterstraat has called on the NSW government to rethink its electronic security, saying it could not assure the public that private information was being safeguarded adequately.

Despite a series of edicts stretching back 10 years, ineffective monitoring meant the government did not know if agencies had adopted proper safeguards, Mr Achterstraat said.

-----

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/open-slather-for-hackers-on-official-databases-20101020-16ucw.html

Open slather for hackers on official databases

Brian Robins

October 21, 2010

Computer hackers could gain access to personal information held in government databases as state departments routinely ignore government edicts that tighter security be imposed.

The government rarely discloses when its computer security systems have been breached, although in a report yesterday, the NSW Auditor-General, Peter Achterstraat, confirmed the Jobs NSW website was hacked last year, with email addresses of job applicants stolen and the applicants spammed by the hackers.

Similarly, RailCorp's computer networks were infected with the Conficker virus last year. This disabled security services in its network, with data vulnerable to theft or modification by hackers.

''There could be more such breaches,'' the report said, noting that in some cases organisations may never know security has been breached.

-----

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/malcolm-turnbull-wants-productivity-commission-analysis-of-nbn/story-fn59niix-1225940910758

Malcolm Turnbull wants Productivity Commission analysis of NBN

• Matthew Franklin, David Uren
• From: The Australian
• October 20, 2010 12:00AM

JULIA Gillard could be forced to subject her $43 billion National Broadband Network to a cost-benefit analysis.

The Coalition is seeking cross-bench support for a Productivity Commission examination of the plan.

But while the Greens have refused to rule out backing the move, the government has dismissed it as a political stunt designed to delay the rollout of benefits for all Australians.

Labor first promised the NBN in 2007 and made its potential use in health and education central to its campaign for the August 21 election.

However, while the economics of the proposal were examined in a $25million implementation study, it has never been the subject of a formal cost-benefit analysis.

Opposition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull yesterday produced a private member's bill that would require the Productivity Commission to examine the project and for the government's NBN Co to publish a 10-year business plan.

-----

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/telecom-reform-law-back-on-the-table/story-e6frg8zx-1225940898626

Telecom reform law back on the table

• Mitchell Bingemann
• From: The Australian
• October 20, 2010 12:00AM

KEY legislation to reform competition in the telco sector and underpin the success of the NBN will be reintroduced to parliament today.

But new Coalition demands for transparency over the costing of the $43 billion project threaten to delay its passage.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has previously warned that failure to pass the legislation could result in a blowout of cost and timeline for the network.

The two key planks of the telco reform package were Telstra's structural separation and new measures to increase the powers of the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission.

-----

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/up-to-90-see-the-need-for-nbn-speed-20101018-16pcd.html

Up to 90% see the need for NBN speed

Lucy Battersby

October 18, 2010

NBN Co is overwhelmed by the number of households in mainland test sites signing up for an optical fibre connection to the national broadband network. In some regional towns nearly 90 per cent of houses will be connected.

In contrast, only 51 per cent of households in Tasmanian test sites agreed to a fibre connection, prompting some to question whether Australians would embrace the publicly funded project.

NBN is bringing fibre to 12,200 houses in five mainland test sites. Retail carriers are expected to start providing broadband and telephone services in about eight months.

-----

http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/364907/nbn_co_business_case_precede_implementation_study_response/?eid=-6787&uid=25465

NBN Co business case to precede implementation study response

Government reverses order of document releases, citing time pressures

• James Hutchinson (Computerworld)
• 20 October, 2010 11:36

The imminent business case from NBN Co is expected to be delivered to government before an official response to the $25 million NBN Implementation Study from McKinsey & Co and KPMG is released, reversing previous statements from communications minister, Senator Stephen Conroy.

In what became a series of heated blows between Conroy and opposing senators, a Senates budget estimates hearing into the National Broadband Network (NBN) and the operations of NBN Co revealed that chief executive, Mike Quigley, would shortly deliver the business case to government pending approval from the board. However, Liberal senator, Ian McDonald, questioned the order of process for the company and release of documents. McDonald cited a response from NBN Co to a question put on notice from a previous Senate estimates hearing that stated:

“The government has advised NBN Co to delay the submission of its business case and corporate plan until: the government has considered its response to the NBN Implementation Study and technical and business planning inputs from NBN Co and, the government and NBN Co have fully considered the implications of the financial heads of agreement and the definitive agreements with NBN Co and Telstra.”

-----

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/opinion/lets-focus-on-the-big-picture-of-the-national-broadband-network/story-e6frg9tf-1225939886830

Let's focus on the big picture of the National Broadband Network

• Mark Day
• From: The Australian
• October 18, 2010 12:00AM

THE debate about the worthiness or otherwise of the government's proposed NBN is like water down a plughole.

The devil is in the detail. Debating points are scored on small parts of a big issue. Too little attention is paid to the big picture.

While its detractors say the NBN is too expensive, not necessary and a return to socialism, I find myself in the pro camp.

To my mind, it is visionary, transformational and utterly essential to meet national aspirations to be a 21st century smart country, rather than simply a quarry. I am surprised by two things: the manner in which the NBN has morphed from a generally accepted project under Kevin Rudd to a political hot potato for the Gillard minority government, and the growing doubts being expressed even by those best positioned to benefit from the network.

-----

NASA preps '100-year spaceship' program to boldly go where none have gone before

• By Peter Farquhar, Technology Editor
• From: news.com.au
• October 21, 2010 9:35AM

• Planetary travel "within few years"
• Funded by DARPA, NASA
• First stop - moons of Mars

A SENIOR NASA official has promised to deliver a spaceship that will travel between alien worlds "within a few years".

Speaking at a conference in San Francisco on Saturday, NASA Ames director Simon Worden said his division had started a project with Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency called the "Hundred Year Starship”.

The project was kicked off recently with $1 million funding from DARPA and $100K from NASA and hopes to utilise new propulsion ideas being explored by NASA.

Star Trek fans, prepare to get excited - electric propulsion is here, according to Mr Worden.

“Anybody that watches the (Star Trek) Enterprise, you know you don’t see huge plumes of fire," he said.

"Within a few years we will see the first true prototype of a spaceship that will take us between worlds.”

-----

http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/astronomers-say-theyve-found-oldest-galaxy-ever-with-the-hubble-space-telescope/story-e6frfku0-1225941525531

Astronomers say they've found oldest galaxy ever with the Hubble Space Telescope

• From correspondents in Washington
• From: AP
• October 21, 2010 8:57AM

ASTRONOMERS believe they've found the oldest thing they've ever seen in the universe: It's a galaxy far, far away from a time long, long ago.

Hidden in a Hubble Space Telescope photo released earlier this year is a small smudge of light that European astronomers now calculate is a galaxy from 13.1 billion years ago. That's a time when the universe was very young, just shy of 600 million years old. That would make it the earliest and most distant galaxy seen so far.

By now the galaxy is so ancient it probably doesn't exist in its earlier form and has already merged into bigger neighbors, said Matthew Lehnert of the Paris Observatory, lead author of the study published online today in the journal Nature.

-----

Enjoy!

David.

AusHealthIT Poll Number 41 – Results – 24 October, 2010.

The question was:

Do You Think NEHTA Should Be Quizzed At the Senate Estimates Committee as Well as DoHA?

For Sure

- 27 (72%)

Probably

- 2 (5%)

Possibly

- 1 (2%)

No - They Don't Need To Account To Parliament

- 7 (18%)

Votes : 37

Well that is as clear as it gets. I hope someone takes notice!

Again, many thanks to those that voted!

David.