The RAND Corporation Offers A View Of the Future Of Health IT. We Need To Work At It.

This appeared a little while ago.

The Delayed Promise of Health-Care IT

• by
• Arthur L. Kellermann,
• Spencer S. Jones

February 26, 2013

Because information technology (IT) has so quickly transformed people's daily lives, we tend to forget how much things have changed from the not-so-distant past. Today, millions of people around the world regularly shop online; download entire movies, books, and other media onto wireless devices; bank at ATMs wherever they choose; and self-book entire trips and check themselves in at airports electronically.

But there is one sector of our lives where adoption of information technology has lagged conspicuously: health care.

Some parts of the world are doing better than others in this respect. Researchers from the Commonwealth Fund recently reported that some high-income countries, including the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand, have made great strides in encouraging the use of electronic medical records (EMR) among primary-care physicians. Indeed, in those countries, the practice is now nearly universal. Yet some other high-income countries, such as the United States and Canada, are not keeping up. EMR usage in America, the home of Apple and Google, stands at only 69%.

The situation in the US is particularly glaring, given that health care accounts for a bigger share of GDP than manufacturing, retail, finance, or insurance. Moreover, most health IT systems in use in America today are designed primarily to facilitate efficient billing, rather than efficient care, putting the business interests of hospitals and clinics ahead of the needs of doctors and patients. That is why many Americans can easily go online and check the health of their bank account, but cannot check the results of their most recent lab work.

Another difference between IT in US health care and in other industries is the former's lack of interoperability. In other words, a hospital's IT system often cannot “talk” to others. Even hospitals that are part of the same system sometimes struggle to share patient information.

As a result, today's health IT systems act more like a “frequent flyer card” designed to enforce customer loyalty to a particular hospital, rather than an “ATM card” that enables you and your doctor to access your health information whenever and wherever needed. Ordinarily, lack of interoperability is an irritating inconvenience. In a medical emergency, it can impose life-threatening delays in care.

A third way that health IT in America differs from consumer IT is usability. The design of most consumer Web sites is so obvious that one needs no instructions to use them. Within minutes, a seven year old can teach herself to play a complex game on an iPad.

But a newly hired neurosurgeon with 27 years of education may have to read a thick user manual, attend tedious classes, and accept periodic tutoring from a “change champion” to master the various steps required to use his hospital's IT system. Not surprisingly, despite its theoretical benefits, health IT has few fans among health-care providers. In fact, many complain that it slows them down.

Lots more here:

http://www.rand.org/blog/2013/02/the-delayed-promise-of-health-care-it.html

Especially as we consider what the next Health IT Strategy should look like we need to consider both the scale of the problem and the urgent need to address it for all our sakes.

A good summary of the problem.

David.

The Issue Of Health IT Safety Seems To Be Getting More and More Coverage. A Good Thing I Think.

This appeared a little while ago.

Ways EHRs can lead to unintended safety problems

Wrong records and failures in data transfer impede physicians and harm patients, according to an analysis of health technology incidents.

By Kevin B. O'Reilly, amednews staff. Posted Feb. 25, 2013.

In spring 2012, a surgeon tried to electronically access a patient’s radiology study in the operating room but the computer would show only a blue screen. The patient’s time under anesthesia was extended while OR staff struggled to get the display to function properly.

That is just one example of 171 health information technology-related problems reported during a nine-week period to the ECRI Institute PSO, a patient safety organization in Plymouth Meeting, Pa., that works with health systems and hospital associations in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee and elsewhere to analyze and prevent adverse events.

Eight of the incidents reported involved patient harm, and three may have contributed to patient deaths, said the institute’s 48-page report, first made privately available to the PSO’s members and partners in December 2012. The report, shared with American Medical News in February, highlights how the health IT systems meant to make care safer and more efficient can sometimes expose patients to harm.

The institute’s report did not rate whether electronic systems were any less safe than the paper records they replaced. The report is intended to alert hospitals and health systems to the unintended consequences of electronic health records.

The leading cause of problems was general malfunctions, responsible for 29% of incidents. For example, following a consultation about a patient’s wounds, a nurse at one hospital tried to enter instructions in the electronic record, but the system would not allow the nurse to type more than five characters in the comment field. Other times, medication label scanning functions failed, or an error message was incorrectly displayed every time a particular drug was ordered. One system failed to issue an alert when a pregnancy test was ordered for a male patient.

A quarter of incidents were related to data output problems, such as retrieving the wrong patient record because the system does not ask the user to validate the patient identity before proceeding. This kind of problem led to incorrect medication orders and in one case an unnecessary chest x-ray. Twenty-four percent of incidents were linked to data-input mistakes. For example, one nurse recorded blood glucose results for the wrong patient due to typing the incorrect patient identification number to access the record.

Most of remaining event reports were related to data-transfer failures, such as a case where a physician’s order to stop anticoagulant medication did not properly transfer to the pharmacy system. The patient received eight extra doses of the medication before it was stopped.

It is not enough for physicians and other health care leaders to shop carefully for IT systems, the report said. Ensuring that systems such as computerized physician order entry and electronic health records work safely has to be a continuing concern, said Karen P. Zimmer, MD, MPH, medical director of the ECRI Institute PSO.

“Minimizing the unintended consequences of health IT systems and maximizing the poten­tial of health IT to improve patient safety should be an ongoing focus of every health care organization,” she said.

The report recommends that hospitals and clinics conduct extensive tests before using a new electronic system in patient care. They also should incorporate interfaces designed to prevent errors. For example, an interface should not allow alphabetic characters in numeric entry fields. To prevent wrong-record retrievals, systems should require validation of a patient’s identity, such as the patient’s initials, gender and age, before the electronic record is opened.

Rise in EHR safety reports

The institute’s findings are just the latest to draw attention to the safety problems posed by health IT systems, such as EHRs. A December 2012 Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority study found that the number of EHR-related adverse events reported to the authority doubled in just one year, from 555 in 2010 to 1,142 in 2011. A study in February’s Critical Care Medicine showed that three-quarters of physicians’ progress notes for intensive care patients were copy-and-pasted, a practice dubbed “sloppy and paste” that experts say can lead to mistakes in care.

Lots more here:

http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2013/02/25/prsa0225.htm

This article reports a very important study that reveals that when considering the overall Health IT cost/benefit framework we need to consider both the safety of the technology as well as considering whether the Health IT actually works.

Another take on all this can be found here:

http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/jamia-reduction-in-medication-errors-in.html

This post review the good claimed from CPOE as well as the potential harm that may be noticed.

Well worth a read. All this is making it quite difficult to find clarity - with a firm evidence base - anywhere. More work and better studies are clearly needed.

To quote the end of the blog from Scot Silverstein:

“Thus, I agree with the author's conclusion (especially in view of the recent and direct-reporting ECRI PSO study) that "future research in this area will be critically important to inform policy and funding decisions regarding the development and implementation of CPOE in care delivery."

From a clinical perspective, "primum non nocere" and the avoidance of gambling billions of dollars applies, at least until a better understanding of the technology's risk/benefit ratio and how to improve it occurs.

A fraction of those billions would pay for more robust, current studies on the scale needed to get closer to the truth.”

David.

Now This Is Getting Really Silly. I Think Someone Is Rather Out Of Their Depth.

This appeared yesterday.

Guy Sebastian caught out by stalled patent probe

• by: Fran Foo
• From: The Australian
• March 12, 2013 12:00AM

SINGER Guy Sebastian has weighed in on allegations of patent infringement by the Gillard government's National E-Health Transition Authority.

MMRGlobal, the US firm investigating NEHTA for alleged patent infringements, was in talks with Sebastian's management team to fund his planned charitable foundation.

However, discussions have hit a roadblock pending the outcome of the probe, which has been delayed by NEHTA's silence.

"As a recording artist I understand the importance of being able to protect my intellectual property from being pirated around the world," Sebastian said.

In reference to the number of patents under MMR's belt, he added: "What kind of example do we set when our own government ignores intellectual property, including a company's patents already on file in 13 other countries?"

Early last month, MyMedicalRecords.com, a subsidiary of MMRGlobal, claimed that "both state and federal governments in Australia, through NEHTA, appear to be infringing on patents and other intellectual property issued to MyMedicalRecords.com".

As reported on March 5 in The Australian, MMR's investigation into the matter has been stymied by NEHTA's lack of follow-up communication.

Lots more here:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/government/guy-sebastian-caught-out-by-stalled-patent-probe/story-fn4htb9o-1226594987626

To me the issue here is that none of these claims have been tested in any Australian tribunal or court and until they are frankly no one is really sure just what rights - if any - the two Australian Patents claimed by MMRGlobal.

Claiming IP ownership on a broad concept such as the Personal Health Record it very different to claiming IP ownership on an original song I believe.

I think intervention in this case by a popular entertainer is really rather sad and ill-informed.

However I do also think that the Government, DoHA and NEHTA need to promptly address these claims. Just letting it all drift on with no public comment seems to indicate they are concerned about these claims. I hope that is not true and believe that our concerns should be promptly and officially allayed.

David.

We Look To Be Seeing Very Little Progress In E-Health Standards In Australia. Why Is That I Wonder?

I hoped onto the Standards Australia e-Health web site a few days ago. I was curious to see what had become of all those Tiger Team standards that were to be delivered to urgently. We started to hear about Tiger Teams in 2011 and they were apparently really rolling later that year.

See here:

Sunday, November 27, 2011

The Tiger Teams Are Off And Rolling. To Where Is Really Unclear!

On the 17^th November, 2011 there was a daylong meeting of the Tiger Team which is working to specify what is to be the Consolidated View of the PCEHR.

As it happens a kind soul has made available some of the documents that were used / came from this meeting.

First to provide some context.

It is intended that the PCEHR will be accessed via an Orion Systems Home Page for that particular patient.

There will be a space for the usual controls and for a document list at the left of the screen - some patient ID across the top of the screen and the Consolidated View (CV), which will include access to the Shared Health Summary and then a range of Event Summaries (Discharge Summaries, Test Results etc) will be at the right.

From this point on it would seem the design - which is due to be frozen come November, 30 - would still seem to be rather fluid with a large range of design decisions yet to actually be taken.

The focus of the meeting was on presentation of the clinical information in the screen real estate available - there apparently being confidence the data issues around the contents of all the information were already resolved. Time will tell if this is true.

Buckets more here:

http://aushealthit.blogspot.com.au/2011/11/tiger-teams-are-off-and-rolling-to.html

(I note in passing what we have from Orion looks nothing like the mock-up that is shown in the picture associated with that blog!)

Moving on to recent standards publications which can be viewed here:

http://www.e-health.standards.org.au/Home/Publications.aspx

For 2013 we seem to have this:

ATS 90006.1-2013                             Core discharge summary – Structured document template

For 2012 we have:

HB 262 (Rev)-2012                            Guidelines for messaging between diagnostics providers and health service providers

TR 5416-2012 NEW                           Guide to HL7 V2 message parsing and management of character escaping with reference to backward compatibility

AS 21667-2012                                 Health Indicators Conceptual Framework

AS 2828.1-2012 NEW                        Health records - Part 1: Paper-based health records                 

AS 2828.2(Int)-2012 NEW                 Health records - Part 2: Digitized (scanned) health record system requirements     

MP 120-2012 NEW                           Telehealth: Remote Patient Monitoring - Discussion Paper            

MP 54-2012 NEW                             Survey of standards environment for telehealth devices

AS 4700.2-2012                                Implementation of Health Level Seven (HL7) Version 2.4 - Pathology and diagnostic imaging (diagnostics)

For 2011 we have all these:

HB 308 2011                                     Location of digital signatures in HL7 V2 Messages

AS ISO 27799-2011                           Information security management in health using ISO/IEC 27002   

ATS ISO 25237-2011                          Pseudonymization                                                                  

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Essentially we have seen zilch I can detect from the much ballyhooed Tiger Teams that would actually seem to relate directly to the NEHRS and its associated functions etc…

Conceptual frameworks and guidelines seem to feature but not much that clearly seems relevant.

Another miss I would suggest. The NEHRS is hardly documented at the Standards level that I can see.

Could it just be that NEHTA and DoHA are utterly clueless when it comes to working with people who are competent and have some ideas other than those coming from the centre?

David.

AusHealthIT Poll Number 158 – Results – 12th March, 2013.

The question was:

Is The Commonwealth Health Department's Approach To E-Health Procurement Appropriate And Viable?

Sure - They Know What They Are Doing    7% (4)

Somewhere Between The Two Other Choices    5% (3)

No - They Are Just Clueless At It    86% (51)

I Have No Idea    2% (1)

Total votes: 59

Very interesting! Well that is the clearest outcome is a good while.

Again, many thanks to those that voted!

David.

Weekly Australian Health IT Links – 11th March, 2013.

Here are a few I have come across the last week or so.

Note: Each link is followed by a title and a few paragraphs. 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

When it came to assembling the week’s report I was surprised just how much interesting stuff there was to report. Rather than rabbiting on  I will let you get on and browse. Many of the links are worth a click.

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http://blogs.wsj.com/cio/2013/03/07/when-to-hit-abort-on-troubled-projects/

• March 7, 2013, 11:52 AM ET

When to Hit Abort on Troubled Projects

By Matt McWha and Shvetank Shah

Nearly 30% of the value of a large organization’s IT project portfolio—or roughly $30 million a year—is at risk due to troubled projects that won’t deliver their expected business outcomes. Worse, 20% of IT organizations don’t know whether they have troubled projects or not according to the CEB PMO Leadership Council’s latest research– although it’s pretty safe to assume that they do.

Fixing troubled projects isn’t cheap.  There are costs from delayed delivery, expanded project teams, and the use of costly external contractors and consultants. Moreover, troubled projects that should be terminated often aren’t, tying up resources that could be deployed more effectively elsewhere.

CEB research suggests that effective management of troubled projects can save up to 8% of total annual IT portfolio spending, but most IT organizations never see a dime of these savings because their approach is too narrow and too process-focused.

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http://www.australiandoctor.com.au/news/latest-news/stand-off-over-e-health-identifiers

Standoff over e-health identifiers

6 March, 2013 Paul Smith

Some GPs are apparently refusing to hand over the e-health identifier numbers that their practices need to claim the ePIP incentive.

The standoff, understood to be largely between contractor GPs and practice owners, appears to be the result of fears among doctors that giving out their Healthcare Provider Identifier (HPI-I) — a 16-digit code meant to ensure secure e-health communication — will mean they have to sign up to the personally controlled electronic health record system.

Under the new ePIP rules announced last year, practices need to supply the identifiers of all doctors working at the practice to receive the incentive payments, which can be worth up to $50,000 a year for a practice.

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http://www.pharmacydaily.com.au/news/pd-breaking-news-accc-approves-erx-medisecure-interoperability/22375

PD breaking news – ACCC approves eRx, MediSecure interoperability

Prescription exchanges allowed to communicate.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has just issued a final authorisation which will permit eRx Script Exchange to enter into a contract with MediSecure to facilitate interoperability between the rival pharmaceutical prescription exchange systems.

The move will allow a $10 million government contract to proceed (TD 23 Nov 2012), with the exchanges to each receive $660,000 to undertake the work, and a further $8.3 million available as a “PES Electronic Prescription Fee” which will see an amount ranging from 35c-85c paid to an exchange for each eligible electronic prescription downloaded and dispensed.

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http://www.smh.com.au/it-pro/government-it/making-a-game-out-of-ehealth-20130304-2ffjx.html

Making a game out of e-health

Date March 4, 2013 - 12:45PM

Cynthia Karena

Computer games and home-based self-help should be considered as part of healthcare in Australia, according to those shaping its future.

Healthcare providers, technology suppliers and developers met last week in Melbourne to discuss the challenges and opportunities for patient treatment in the next decade.

They came up with more issues than answers, but all agreed on the need to connect remote patients with their care providers more efficiently, something proponents of e-health have been hoping the national broadband network will help solve.

A series of healthcare CIO solution roundtables, promoted by the Healthcare Solutions Foundry, sponsored by Cisco, will be held across Australia in the next six months.

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http://www.canberratimes.com.au/it-pro/security-it/hospital-upgrades-computer-security-to-prevent-datadoctoring-20130228-2f9lg.html

Hospital upgrades computer security to prevent data-doctoring

Peter Jean and Lisa Cox

The Canberra Hospital will push ahead with new computer security measures designed to help prevent a repeat of the emergency department data-doctoring scandal.

Hospital executive Kate Jackson last year confessed to altering emergency department performance data and suggested that other people might also have been interfering with the system.

Investigations into the affair were hampered by the staff's widespread use of generic log-ins such as ''nurse'' and ''doctor'' to access the hospital's Emergency Department Information System (EDIS).

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http://www.racgp.org.au/yourracgp/news/fridayfacts/08-03-2013/

Electronic transfer of prescriptions – update to Medisecure and eRX users

The RACGP supports electronic transfer of prescriptions (eTP) as a prescribing process to reduce transcription errors and increase medicine safety for the community. However, the College has become aware of potentially significant issues in relation to the dispense notifications provided to general practitioners by the two proprietary eTP vendors (Medisecure and eRX). The receiving of dispense notifications is a departure from current clinical practice whereby GPs are generally unaware as to whether or not a prescription has been dispensed, unless advised by the patient at a subsequent visit. Whilst GPs may find it useful to know whether their prescriptions have been dispensed, it requires patient consent to receive or read such notification; this may impact on a GPs duty of care.

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http://www.wentwest.com.au/public/ehealth_records_whats_new.asp

eHealth Records - What's new

First Australian - 'Shared health summary' uploaded in Sydney's West

Kean-Seng Lim's Medical Practice at Mt Druitt in Sydney's West has recorded another first. This time his medical practice is the first in Australia to upload a 'shared health summary' and an event summary using the PEN Computer Systems PrimaryCare Sidebar.

The MHC Roadshow - (eHealth NEHTA truck) is in town

The first of two days of visual tours on eHealth commenced at 10am on Monday 25 February in Blacktown. The NEHTA truck tours were very well attended by Western Sydney clinicians, nurses, health practitioners and service providers along with allied health, dental and pharmaceutical organisations and private and public healthcare groups.

The MHC Roadshow is a guided tour for private and public healthcare organisations, it informs and educates healthcare providers on the key elements of eHealth. NEHTA (National EHealth Transition Authority) developed the Model Healthcare (MHC) installation to explain the eHealth story to participants - from eHealth initiatives at practices' reception, consultation, specialist, pharmacy, diagnostics, specialist, hospital and back at home.

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http://www.6minutes.com.au/news/latest-news/doctor-s-new-%E2%80%98tardis-is-for-telehealth-not-time-lo

Doctor’s new ‘tardis’ is for telehealth, not Time Lords

6 March, 2013 Sam Lee

A ‘Doctor’ in a blue box has been materialising in parts of the US, but Daleks have nothing to fear because the phone-box-like kiosks are telehealth stations rather than anything to do with time travel.

The tech company HealthSpot (healthspot.net) has been pioneering the new standalone kiosks as a way of combining telehealth with tools of the doctor’s trade such as stethoscopes BP monitors, dermoscopes and pulse oximeters.

The futuristic blue plastic kiosks are designed for people who can’t access their usual doctor, and they contain a videoconferencing screen and a range of remotely operated medical equipment to allow a doctor to perform many basic investigations while interacting with the patient by video link.

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http://ehealthspace.org/news/radiology-data-trawling-will-save-lives

Radiology data trawling will save lives

Posted Wed, 06/03/2013 - 13:23 by Fran Molloy

Dr Michelle Ananda-Rajah is an infectious diseases physician at Peter Mac Callum Cancer Centre in Melbourne who is working on an inspiring eHealth project with data-mining experts from Australia’s national information technology research body, National ICT Australia (NICTA).

The team’s innovative new project has global implications and can be used by any hospital with a CT scanner with a radiology department that generates text reports.

The research is due to be published this year with papers submitted to several major international journals.

The research team includes clinicians and IT experts who have developed a technique to monitor a potentially deadly mould infection, invasive aspergillosis, using the text used in radiology reports.

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http://www.futuregov.asia/events/futurehealth-forum-australia-2013/

Ahead of the Curve – Delivering 21st Century Healthcare

Under sweeping reforms to Australia’s healthcare system, the Federal government is rolling out an ambitious AUD $233.7 million Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record (PCEHR) Programme. The PCERHR lays the foundations for healthcare reforms – including moves to streamlining e-health services nationally.

The PCEHR and related e-health reforms are under the spotlight. Debate is growing about ways to streamline healthcare. Additionally, Australia’s over-stretched hospitals, medical facilities, and community care services are under pressure to modernise infrastructure – while using the best-available technology to deliver anywhere, any-time services.

Reports warn that Australia faces a serious healthcare crisis as the population ages – placing new pressures on healthcare and aged service providers to deliver quality care.

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http://www.nehta.gov.au/media-centre/feature-story/1005-rollout-of-the-pcehr-bulletin-feb-2013-update

Rollout of the PCEHR Bulletin - Feb 2013 Update

28 February 2013. The February 2013 bulletin Roll out of the PCEHR produced by the Department of Health and Ageing provides an update on consumer registrations, software updates, assisted registration information and more.

Find out about the new eHealth record links where organisations can download for free an eHealth badge to place on their website to allow visitors to click on the link and be directed to www.ehealth.gov.au.

•  Rollout of the PCEHR Bulletin - Feb 2013 Update (369.01 kB)

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http://www.nehta.gov.au/media-centre/feature-story/1009--another-successful-model-healthcare-community-tour

Another successful Model Healthcare Community Tour!

4 March 2013. After a small break over the new year the Model Healthcare Community roadshow kicked off again in February in Penrith and Blacktown, NSW.  The interest in the tours was outstanding with over 300 local healthcare providers registering to attend.

The MHC Roadshow is a guided tour designed to inform and educate the health workforce on the key elements of eHealth and NEHTA's foundation programs. Since the tours began last March more than 2340 healthcare providers have attended from 34 towns across Australia.

• More information

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http://www.zdnet.com/au/byo-ipads-not-the-best-medicine-for-st-vincents-hospital-7000012177/

BYO iPads not the best medicine for St Vincent's Hospital

Summary: St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne, is dipping its toes in BYOD, but conflicts with Microsoft and Apple compatibility will make it tough.

By Josh Taylor | March 6, 2013 -- 03:29 GMT (14:29 AEST)

As St Vincent's Hospital in Melbourne completes a major overhaul of its virtual desktop infrastructure, the hospital's IT division has said it is difficult to get many of its applications to work on tablets and smartphones.

St Vincent's Hospital in Melbourne has three sites, with 5,000 staff members and 800 beds. In addition to emergency care, the hospital also has an aged care facility, a hospice, and a number of satellite clinics for community care.

The hospital's IT division is set to link up and become part of a national IT group with other St Vincent's hospitals down the track, but the Melbourne hospital still has local governance under the direction of recently appointed CIO Simon Richardson.

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HealthLink Referrals Now Used by 93% of Wellington’s GPs 

Dear Colleague,

I thought you might be interested in this video which has been produced in conjunction with Wellington’s GPs, 93% of whom have now used their new electronic referrals system.  As you will see, Wellington’s GPs are extremely enthusiastic about their new system which is transforming the transfer of care between health providers and hospitals.

http://youtu.be/qwIa7rg5hzI

The main objectives were: to remove the potential for loss or misplacing of incoming referrals and to streamline the patient registration process.  This has certainly been achieved and sending electronic hospital referrals has now become a standard business process for nearly all of Wellington’s GPs.

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http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/455533/ibm_watson_will_eventually_fit_smartphone_diagnose_illness/

IBM: Watson will eventually fit on a smartphone, diagnose illness

Next up for IBM's supercomputer, passing the physicians licensing exam

• Lucas Mearian (Computerworld (US))
• 05 March, 2013 18:42

IBM's Jeopardy!-winning supercomputer, Watson, may have started out the size of a master bedroom, but it will eventually shrink to the size of a smart phone, its inventors say.

The supercomputer is currently performing "residencies" at several hospitals around the country, offering its data analytics capabilities for diagnosing and suggesting patient treatments.

IBM is also working to program Watson so that it can pass the U.S. Medical Licensing Examination. Yes, the "Dr. Watson" moniker used in the media will someday be applicable.

Even today, a Watson supercomputer with the same computational capabilities as the system that took on Jeopardy!'s all-time champions, is a fraction of its former size. And, the smaller Watson is almost two-and-a-half times faster than the original system, according to Dan Pelino, general manager of IBM's Global Healthcare & Life Sciences business.

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http://www.linkedin.com/jobs?viewJob=&jobId=5035682&srchIndex=4

Change Analyst

NEHTA - Brisbane Area, Australia

Job Description

Change Analyst

The National E-Health Transition Authority Limited (NEHTA) was established by the Australian, State and Territory governments to develop better ways of electronically collecting and securely exchanging health information.  NEHTA is the lead organisation supporting the national vision for e-health in Australia. 

NEHTA’s Adoption Benefits and Change team are driving change initiatives across the healthcare sector.  The key change projects support the delivery of benefits to the health sector in a range of areas including improved coordination of care, enhanced continuity of care, improved medication management and the delivery of sustainable components that integrate with the national infrastructure.   

Reporting to the Change Lead, the Change Specialist will form an integral part of the team, working with external stakeholders and teams assisting to develop and implement change plans and workshops.

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http://telecareaware.com/mmrglobal-ip-infringement-lawsuits-allegations-continue/

MMRGlobal IP infringement lawsuits, allegations continue

February 20, 2013 | By: Donna Cusano |

Personal Health Record (PHR) patent holder and penny-stock company MMRGlobal [TA 10 Feb] continues to keep law firms in the US, Australia and now Singapore very busy with various complaints of patent infringement, demanding monetary damages, a permanent injunction and presumably, a lucrative licensing deal.

Last week, MMRG filed in US District Court, Central District of California against health giant WebMD for their online PHR, claiming that from meetings dating back to 2007, WebMD incorporated “features and functionality that are the subject of MMR’s patents”. Today’s MMRG press release now highlights the Singapore Ministry of Health (with associated health agencies), which MMRG alleges uses PHR vendors which violate various patents–which just happen to be owned by MMRG in Singapore. 

The Singapore Government’s alleged violations were ‘discovered’ as a result of the investigation of neighbor Australia’s Nehta’s alleged patent infringements.

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http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=178404&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1786180&highlight=

MMRGlobal Investigates Possible Patent Infringement in Singapore

LOS ANGELES, CA -- (MARKETWIRE) -- 02/19/13 -- MMRGlobal, Inc. (OTCQB: MMRF) today announced that as a result of recent publicity, it has been brought to the Company's attention that vendors providing services to the Ministry of Health in Singapore appear to be infringing on patents (including Singapore patent number 200801954) and other Intellectual Property (collectively, the "MMR-IP") issued to MyMedicalRecords, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of MMRGlobal. The Company has been advised that personally-controlled health records, or Personal Health Records (PHRs), are included in programs for the Ministry of Health, the Health Promotion Board, the Health Sciences Authority and numerous other organizations in Singapore, which the Company believes is clearly part of MMR's inventions that led to its MyMedicalRecords patents. The discovery came as a result of the Company's investigations in Australia, which were reported in recent announcements that the Australian Government, both state and federal, through the National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA), appears to be infringing on two MyMedicalRecords patents.

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http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/us-firm-accuses-nehta-of-delays-in-patent-infringement-probe/story-e6frgakx-1226590257738

US firm accuses NEHTA of delays in patent infringement probe

• by: Fran Foo
• From: The Australian
• March 05, 2013 12:00AM

THE National E-Health Transition Authority has been accused of dragging its feet as a US firm tries to conclude its investigation into alleged patent infringements by the agency.

Early last month, MyMedicalRecords.com, a subsidiary of MMRGlobal, had claimed that "both state and federal governments in Australia, through NEHTA, appear to be infringing on patents and other intellectual property issued to MyMedicalRecords.com".

MMRGlobal chief executive Robert Lorsch previously said the probe should be completed no later than the end of last month.

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http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/government/csiro-developing-sensors-to-taste-disease-by-phone/story-fn4htb9o-1226590259543

CSIRO developing sensors to 'taste' disease by phone

• by: Chris Griffith
• From: The Australian
• March 05, 2013 12:00AM

DIAGNOSING diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis in the developing world could be radically improved by a sensor attached to a mobile phone being developed by Australian researchers.

Leader of CSIRO's Medical Devices Stream, Scott Martin, said 20 researchers were building a phone-attached miniature sensor capable of detecting an array of bacterial diseases using a breath sample or urine sample. It would be used in countries without adequate pathology services.

Dr Martin said the sensor contained inkjet-printed material with an electrical resistance that changed depending on the sample.

Given the lack of even 3G data services in developing countries, the phone will not be used primarily for transmitting data but for displaying test results and advising health professionals of treatments and suitable pharmaceuticals based on the findings.

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http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/companies/david-gonski-answers-singtels-call/story-fn91v9q3-1226589020144

David Gonski answers SingTel's call

• by: ANDREW WHITE
• From: The Australian
• March 03, 2013 12:00AM

FUTURE Fund chairman David Gonski has joined the board of Optus parent Singapore Telecommunications, renewing his ties with business in the island state as the No 2 Australian phone company gears up for mobile spectrum auctions next month.

The well-connected Mr Gonski joins another Australian former investment banker, AMP chairman Peter Mason, on the board of SingTel, which gets two-thirds of its revenue from the Optus fixed line and mobile phone business in Australia.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy is set kick off auctions for the latest generation of mobile spectrum, 4G, next month amid expectations the phone companies will have to pay up to $3 billion in licence fees.

N.B - David Gonski is also NEHTA’s Chairman.

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http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/experts-wary-of-ecigarettes-as-test-run-looms-20130304-2ffv0.html

Experts wary of e-cigarettes as test run looms

Date: March 4, 2013

Asher Moses

Technology Editor

The first Australian clinical trial of e-cigarettes as quit-smoking tools will kick off this year with support for the devices building, but the government and some public health experts remain wary.

E-cigarettes are battery-powered electronic tubes that simulate the effects of smoking by evaporating a liquid solution into nicotine vapour. Some of the cheaper ones mimic the look of traditional cigarettes – complete with glowing tip – but they produce only vapour, no smoke or ash.

While none have been approved for sale as a therapeutic good, the devices are legally available in Australia. However, the nicotine solution is not available because nicotine is classified as a scheduled poison, so users are forced to order them online from unregulated overseas stores.

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http://www.smh.com.au/it-pro/government-it/broadband-blues-thousands-stuck-in-the-slow-lane-20130307-2fmw4.html

Broadband blues: thousands stuck in the slow lane

Date March 7, 2013

Asher Moses

Technology Editor

Hundreds of thousands of Australians, even in capital cities, are unable to access quality home broadband due to ageing infrastructure and black spots, leading to calls for the government to change the NBN rollout to reach these areas first.

After publishing a story on internet black spots earlier this week, Fairfax Media has been contacted by dozens of people – in both capital cities and regional areas – who were denied broadband due to issues such as a lack of ADSL ports at their local exchange.

Experts have blamed Telstra for failing to upgrade creaking infrastructure because the NBN will limit the return it can get on its investment. Meanwhile many of those without broadband face over three years on dialup or expensive and patchy wireless plans as they are not part of the early NBN rollout.

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Enjoy!

David.

Here Is An Opportunity To Possibly Make A Difference To Australia’s E-Health Future. Grasp It.

After a little hunting around I have confirmed that there is definitely a revamp of the National E-Health Strategy being undertaken - as mentioned by the Pharmacy Guild President last week

See here:

http://www.pharmacynews.com.au/opinion/future-of-e-health-hinges-on-election-result

Word is that there is a pretty tight deadline, given that - despite what the pollies say - we are rapidly running up towards a Federal Election on September 14, 2013. Indeed in the article cited it is made clear that there will be major electoral influences on the direction after that date!

The reason I am discussing all this is because of three things:

1. There are a lot of readers of this blog who have direct access to DoHA etc. who will have commissioned this work.

2. The overall readership of this blog has the best, on the ground, understanding of what is working, what is not, and what we should do next and what we should scrap / modify / defer.

3. Over the last year or two the quality and scope of comments on this blog has been genuinely spectacular in terms of wisdom, insight and practicality.

The bottom line is that those who bother to assemble and upload a few ideas, suggestions can be assured they will be assessed and considered in the now underway process.

For me the following issues are the key ones.

1. How can we make governance of the e-Health actually take notice of all relevant stakeholders and how can be put in place sensible, dynamic leadership of the overall endeavour?

2. How will we be able to assess of what has been done to date in the e-Health domain what has worked and needs to be sustained, what needs to be modified and what needs to be simply canned? Once determined how will these decisions be actioned? What will be the best way to preserve and extend the successful initiatives?

3. How can we obtain real engagement of clinicians in the development and shaping of what is done in the future to ensure investment is made to achieve real positive outcomes for patients rather than the token consultation we have so often seen to date?

4. How can we get in place a real focus on ensuring that all e-Health interventions are actually evidence based?

5. How can we prevent hollowing out of the private vendor community via re-design of procurement and delivery processes?

6. How can we re-energise, support, foster and re-empower the Health IT Standards development processes?

7. How can we best take advantage of what has and is being learnt about the issues and difficulties associated with e-Health implementation in the real world as well as the issues around usability, Health IT Safety around the world? (2 pages outlining international trends hardly cuts it!)

Enough from me. Over to you to let us all know what you think! Remember this is probably a once in a five year period opportunity - given the last revision was 2008!

David.