Quote Of The Year

Timeless Quotes - Sadly The Late Paul Shetler - "Its not Your Health Record it's a Government Record Of Your Health Information"

or

H. L. Mencken - "For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong."

Wednesday, November 30, 2016

I Have To Say I Am Not Sure Just Why This Has Taken So Long? Inertia I Guess.

This appeared late last week:

Prescription approvals to move online

24 November, 2016
Doctors will no longer have to make calls to get approval for prescribing certain medications under proposed new laws.
Legislation introduced to parliament on Thursday will allow for the full-automation of a number of administrative decisions in a bid to save time, reduce errors and make the process more efficient.
"For prescribers and patients, online prescribing approvals will return precious minutes lost to telephone calls back to consultation time," Health Minister Sussan Ley said.
Around 6.8 million requests were made over the phone last financial year.
A majority of those requests will be able to be done online under the proposed measures, Ms Ley said.
More here:
There is also some coverage in Australian Doctor here:

PBS authority script line's 'Smooth Steve' to be replaced by bot

Paul Smith | 25 November, 2016 |
Authority script phone line operators will be replaced by computers under the latest attempt to streamline the system that sucks up hours of GP time.
This week, Minister for Health and Aged Care Sussan Ley introduced new legislation before Parliament allowing the PBS to make use of “computer programs for administrative actions and decision making”.
She said the legislative changes would trigger a “major leap forward in the [PBS] use of technology”, with prescriber requests processed online rather than by health department staff.
The AMA had previously estimated that 25,000 patient consultations were lost every month while doctors used the system.
Some 6.8 million telephone calls and postal requests were made each year for permission to prescribe drugs, Ms Ley said.
She claimed the changes would free up time for thousands of consultations, saying that on average doctors were currently spending one minute 27 seconds on the phone waiting for approvals.
But, while the looming revolution will be welcomed by GPs, it could mean GPs having to say goodbye to 'Steve', the mythical authority script line operator known by his husky voice
More here:
For a Government that claims to have deep digital deployment insights and motivation, and given the amount of time GPs presently waste on the phone to the PBS seeking approvals, this is well overdue.
The next thing to be watched is just how clunky or not the implementation will be. I won’t be holding my breath for a beautifully integrated and quick to use app, well integrated into the usual practice management systems.
As they say, time will tell!!
David.

This Sounds Rather Like A Success On The Part Of The Pharmacy Guild. I Hope The App Is Making A Real Difference.

This popped up last week.

MedsASSIST tops 4 million transactions

More than four million transactions have now been recorded in MedsASSIST, the Pharmacy Guild says.

As of yesterday (21 November) the codeine real-time recording and monitoring system had clocked up over four million transactions, and of these two per cent were for a deny/non-supply.
Guild data also shows that 86% of consumers who had made five or more purchases were recommended to take follow-up action, such as a referral to a doctor or pain specialist, pain management care plan, drug or alcohol service, to assist them to seek further help in managing pain and addiction.
“There is strong evidence that MedsASSIST is having an effect as intended and reducing inappropriate OTC codeine use for people who might be at risk of codeine dependency, while maintaining access for legitimate use,” the Pharmacy Guild says.
The Guild is working with Painaustralia and a number of Primary Health Networks to develop further resources to assist pharmacists and their patients to pursue alternative treatment options where chronic pain and/or dependence are suspected/apparent.
The TGA’s decision on whether or not to upschedule codeine-containing preparations which are currently OTC to doctor prescription only has been tipped to take place in the next few weeks, with Health Minister Sussan Ley telling the recent ASMI conference that the final decision would likely come before the end of the year.
However, the Guild’s commissioned report, “Fiscal impacts of codeine changes by Cadence Economics November 2015,” estimates an additional 8.7 million GP visits a year would be generated as a result of moving codeine medicines to prescription only.  
The MBS outlay of the additional GP visits is estimated to be $316.44 million each year, the Guild says.
These figures do not take into account losses in time and productivity for patients.
Costs to the PBS are also not included as these medicines would not be subsidised, although there is the potential that the higher strength, PBS-subsidised alternatives might be prescribed more often, the Guild says. Other industry sources have also indicated that they would expect this outcome.
More here:
Here is a basic outline of how the system works:

How MedsASSIST works

The pharmacist will assess the therapeutic need of a codeine medicine for the individual patient in accordance with the current practice for the supply of Pharmacist Only Medicines.
  1. The pharmacist will assess the therapeutic need of a codeine medicine for the individual patient in accordance with the current practice for the supply of Pharmacist Only Medicines.
  2. The pharmacist will then ask for a photographic ID and seek consent to record the ID number in the system which is protected, controlled and operated by the Pharmacy Guild of Australia. It is only the unique number on the photographic ID that is recorded in the system. The system does not record other details such as name, date of birth and address.
  3. If the patient does not consent to providing a photographic ID card number for recording and monitoring in the system, the pharmacist may choose not to supply the medicine because they cannot be sure it is safe to do so. In such circumstances, the pharmacist may elect to offer alternative medicines or recommend other treatment options including referral.
  4. The pharmacist also records the name and the quantity of the requested codeine medicine and reviews any previous purchases of codeine medicine.
  5. If a supply is made based on therapeutic needs, the reason for use and recommended duration of use will be recorded in the system.
  6. If the pharmacist decides it is not therapeutically appropriate to supply a codeine medicine, they will explain the reason for this decision and may provide further clinical information or recommendations to support your health. This will also be recorded in the system.
I note that the first 2 million transactions took till mid-August 2016 so the system is seemingly getting increasing use.
It will be good to see evidence of broad clinical impact in due course. Of course OTC codeine is a very commonly purchased medicine. I wonder how many packs are purchased each year?
David.

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Do You Reckon This Success In New Zealand Might Just Help Reshape Our Digital Health Strategy? A Critical Post I Believe!


This appeared a few days ago:

Online health portals prove popular in New Zealand

November 21, 2016 2PM Shannon Williams
Nearly a quarter of a million New Zealanders are now using a patient portal to access their health information, the Government has revealed.
In 2015, a $3 million funding boost gave more New Zealanders access to patient portals, included $500,000 for an awareness campaign.
Health Minister Jonathan Coleman says it great to see a significant increase in portal users.
“Patient portals enable patients to manage aspects of their own healthcare such as booking appointments, requesting repeat prescriptions and messaging clinical staff directly,” says Coleman.
“It’s great to see the number of patient portal users significantly increase from around 175,000 in June 2016 to over 241,300 in September 2016 – a 38% increase in just over three months,” he says.
Coleman says the number of practices offering a portal service has also increased over this period, from 335 to 423 - a rise of 27%.
Compared with September 2015, the number of portal users increased by around 160%, and practices offering portals increased by 56%.
“Patients can now access their personal health information whenever they need it,” says Coleman.
More here:
Well what a surprise!
Provide patients will a portal that is useful to get repeats, make appointments, check results and communicate with clinicians and they use it. Who would have guessed. Provide a myHR with none of this after 5 years of development and it gets ignored – amazing….
Maybe the myHR system should be re-designed to deliver what patients want. Is this not what the consultation should be showing?
If these points are not addressed it will be clear to all we are having a Clayton’s consultation process!
David.

Monday, November 28, 2016

Weekly Australian Health IT Links – 28th November, 2016.

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

A pretty quiet week, with some discussion on the myHR and, again, all sorts of other activity being reported on with SA’s ePAS somehow again attracting some unwanted attention.
Enjoy browsing!
-----

Can MyHealth Record be resuscitated?

Antony Scholefield and Paul Smith | 23 November, 2016 | 
Five e-health experts tell Australian Doctor whether they think the MyHealth Record system will eventually work or if the restart button needs to be pressed on the whole project.
After four years and an estimated $2 billion dollars of taxpayers’ money, the MyHealth Record system remains largely unloved and unused by GPs.
It raises serious questions about whether the whole enterprise should be put out of its misery, and become another footnote in the list of IT disasters that were big on promises and small on delivery.
However, there is still hope among some that it can be salvaged.
Tim Kelsey, a colourful e-health evangelist, has been brought in from the UK to head up the Federal Government’s Australian Digital Health Agency.
-----

Maximising My Health Record.

22 Nov 2016
There is no doubt the evolution of the shared electronic medical record, or the My Health Record as it is now known, has been a costly exercise, with more than $1 billion spent to date. Many observers would argue that is a lot of buck for little or no bang.
Certainly, the My Health Record is not yet perfect. But a recent demonstration of its use to the AMA Council of General Practice (AMACGP) was promising, and GPs who had previously dismissed it might consider taking a second look.
We all want the My Health Record to work. It has the potential to support much better patient care, particularly when your patients see another doctor or health care provider.
By uploading key medical information via a Shared Health Summary, you are making sure other doctors who may be treating your patient in an emergency situation, or while they are away on holiday, have the information they need to appropriately care for your patient, thereby reducing the likelihood of your patient experiencing an adverse medical event or unnecessary testing.
-----

MedsASSIST tops 4 million transactions

More than four million transactions have now been recorded in MedsASSIST, the Pharmacy Guild says.

As of yesterday (21 November) the codeine real-time recording and monitoring system had clocked up over four million transactions, and of these two per cent were for a deny/non-supply.
Guild data also shows that 86% of consumers who had made five or more purchases were recommended to take follow-up action, such as a referral to a doctor or pain specialist, pain management care plan, drug or alcohol service, to assist them to seek further help in managing pain and addiction.
“There is strong evidence that MedsASSIST is having an effect as intended and reducing inappropriate OTC codeine use for people who might be at risk of codeine dependency, while maintaining access for legitimate use,” the Pharmacy Guild says.
-----

Prescription approvals to move online

24 November, 2016 0 comments 
Doctors will no longer have to make calls to get approval for prescribing certain medications under proposed new laws.
Legislation introduced to parliament on Thursday will allow for the full-automation of a number of administrative decisions in a bid to save time, reduce errors and make the process more efficient.
"For prescribers and patients, online prescribing approvals will return precious minutes lost to telephone calls back to consultation time," Health Minister Sussan Ley said.
-----

PBS authority script line's 'Smooth Steve' to be replaced by bot

Paul Smith | 25 November, 2016 | 
Authority script phone line operators will be replaced by computers under the latest attempt to streamline the system that sucks up hours of GP time.
This week, Minister for Health and Aged Care Sussan Ley introduced new legislation before Parliament allowing the PBS to make use of “computer programs for administrative actions and decision making”.
She said the legislative changes would trigger a “major leap forward in the [PBS] use of technology”, with prescriber requests processed online rather than by health department staff.
The AMA had previously estimated that 25,000 patient consultations were lost every month while doctors used the system.
-----

Who will be crowned healthcare CIO of the year?

By Staff Writer on Nov 25, 2016 6:40AM

Healthy competition for the trophy.

When it comes to healthcare, time really is a critical - and often scarce - resource.
The three project leaders in the running to take out the healthcare category of the 2017 iTnews Benchmark Awards have all turned to technology to preserve this precious commodity.
All have taken very different approaches to handing time back to both the doctor and the patient, with the common end goal of improving health outcomes.
-----

Census reports highlight government IT incompetence

Inquiries by the Australian Senate and the PM's special advisor on cybersecurity highlight 'significant and obvious oversights' by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, which 'couldn't handle a predictable problem'.
By Stilgherrian for The Full Tilt | November 25, 2016 -- 02:50 GMT (13:50 AEDT) | Topic: Security
As details of the train wreck that was Australia's 2016 online Census have emerged, ZDNet has observed how it was a confluence of failure, indeed, an omnishambles of fabulous proportions. It was inexcusable.
On Thursday, though, came two reports that not only provided further evidence of incompetence at the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), but they were also official. Their subtitles said it all.
One, the report of the Senate Standing Committees on Economics inquiry into the Census, was subtitled "Issues of trust".
-----

Govt slammed over 'intimidation' on Medicare website

The activist group GetUp has slammed the federal government over its threat to an elderly man who runs a website called Save Medicare where he publishes information about government changes to healthcare services and launched a petiton asking Canberra to back off.
Last Thursday, Mark Rogers, whom GetUp described as a 66-year-old grandfather from suburban Sydney, received a legal threat from the solicitor-general asking him to take down his website within 48 hours.
He was told that he would also have to agree to never again use Medicare branding.
-----

Big Data report recommends big changes for healthcare

Antony Scholefield | 24 November, 2016 |
Most GPs would probably think the Productivity Commission’s 650-page draft report Data Availability and Use sounds incredibly boring. And they’d be right. But there’s a reason to pay attention anyway.
Many of the report’s draft recommendations, if implemented, could have a big effect on healthcare.
The report recommends that all trend data that don’t identify individuals and are not confidential should be made public and open access, or at least available on request.
That would mean Australian Doctor’s mission to find the real statistics on bulk-billing would be readily available and wouldn’t require a fee or months of waiting.
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More could be done to flag renal issues when prescribing

23 November 2016

The Issue

Impaired renal function is common, especially among older people.
Many common medicines can accumulate in these patients or further impair renal function.
This can cause a range of biochemical disturbances, particularly when the drugs are used in combination.
GPs might prescribe medicines that put the patient at risk of either of these consequences without being aware of this.
-----

HIPS November 2016 Release

Created on Friday, 25 November 2016
The Australian Digital Health Agency is pleased to announce the release of HIPS v6.1. This version supersedes and combines the functionality of HIPS v5.0 and eHealth Integration Sample Code (eHISC) v6.0, and provides the basis for all future HIPS releases.
HIPS v6.1 also provides fixes for a number of high-priority issues, and support for three views introduced with recent releases of the My Health Record system.
New functionality
HIPS v6.1 supports the following views of the My Health Record system:
  • Pathology Report View;
  • Diagnostic Imaging Report View; and
  • Health Record Overview.
-----

Two more EPAS glitches at QEH, with warnings crashes will cost patient lives

Health Reporter Katrina Stokes, The Advertiser
November 22, 2016 12:51am
TWO computer glitches at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in just 24 hours put patients’ lives at risk — and it is only a matter of time until someone dies, doctors warn.
They are calling on the State Government to scrap the controversial $422 million electronic patient records system because it is not “reliable or dependable”.
SA Health has confirmed an “IT update and server error” forced “delays” to the EPAS (Enterprise Patient Administration System) for 13 minutes between 1am and 2am on Sunday and again at 9.20pm for 40 minutes but insists there was no risk to patient safety.
The latest issue comes just two weeks after another software glitch saw the system crash at the QEH for 10 hours, with doctors labelling the situation as a “dangerous, chaotic crisis” and potentially fatal for patients.
-----

The Advertiser Editorial: Failures crash confidence in health system

The Advertiser
November 22, 2016 12:38am
TWO failures within 24 hours of the controversial computer patient management system at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital are cause for deep concern.
The latest problems with the $422 million Enterprise Patient Administration System follow a 10-hour shutdown a fortnight ago.
They come as the metropolitan hospital system is undergoing unprecedented change, both from Transforming Health reforms and the looming opening of the new $2.3 billion Royal Adelaide Hospital.
Both of these are underpinned by sensible logic — the need for a new hospital and to better manage the metropolitan hospital system. But, like the EPAS, sensible concepts are proving difficult to deliver.
-----

Maligned EPAS patient records software system suffers two more outages in Adelaide

November 22, 2016
South Australia's troubled electronic-patient records system has suffered two more outages over the weekend.
SA Health said issues with a software update and servers caused delays to EPAS for 13 minutes early on Sunday morning and another for about 40 minutes on Sunday night.
SA Health chief information officer Bill le Blanc said it did its best to minimise inconvenience to staff and patients.
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SA Health's Bill Le Blanc hits back at EPAS critics

Health authority CIO responds to electronic records system doubters
George Nott (CIO) 25 November, 2016 13:17
It’s been a trying few weeks for SA Health CIO Bill Le Blanc. Earlier this month he faced the wrath of medical unions and the scrutiny of the national media after a glitch caused an outage in the health authority’s electronic patient records system, EPAS.
Two more outages occurred over last weekend. On Tuesday morning page three of Adelaide’s The Advertiser newspaper read “EPAS fails ‘will be fatal’”. By the afternoon Le Blanc was being grilled live on radio.
“I never anticipated when I applied for this job I would have to go on radio, TV, the paper,” he said at the CIO50 awards in Sydney last night. “People screaming that IT…is basically going to kill a patient.”
-----

Personal data de-identification practically impossible: expert

The Australian government may well have to reconsider its plan to release data about its citizens for use by businesses or scientists, with a top expert in security and privacy engineering telling iTWire that de-identification of datasets so that they cannot be traced back to the original is very hard, to the point of being practically impossible.
George Danezis, professor of security and privacy engineering at University College, London, offered the response after being asked about de-identification of datasets in connection with the leak of personally identifiable details in health data that was released by the government.
Researchers at Melbourne University were able to trace back the data and after the government was made aware of this, the released dataset was taken offline.
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WA Health rules out legal action over $81m data centre blowout

By Paris Cowan on Nov 23, 2016 11:53AM

Won't chase criminal, civil charges.

WA's Department of Health has confirmed it won't take any further disciplinary action against former workers who were found signing off on data centre purchases way above their financial delegation.
Auditor-general Colin Murphy exposed the procurement scandal in February, when he revealed the agency’s ongoing data centre deal with Fujitsu threatened to balloon to $175 million despite originally being valued at just $45 million.
He tracked down dubious orders that missed checks and balances and left WA Health paying for hardware and floor space it didn’t need.
-----

Food Safety Website now live for industry and consumers

Australian ministers and the New Zealand minister responsible for food have released a revamped food safety website designed to give stakeholders better access to information about the joint Australian and New Zealand food regulation system.
Page last updated: 25 November 2016
25 November 2016
Australian ministers and the New Zealand minister responsible for food today released a revamped food safety website designed to give stakeholders better access to information about the joint Australian and New Zealand food regulation system.
Assistant Minister for Rural Health, Dr David Gillespie, launched the new website in conjunction with the Ministerial Forum on Food Regulation meeting in Brisbane.
“Food regulation is a complex system that involves all levels of the Australian and New Zealand governments,” Dr Gillespie said.
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Promise of genetic sequencing frustrated by the cost of medicines for rare cancer patients

Harriet Alexander
Published: November 24, 2016 - 11:19AM
Ann Bantoft feels like she has been asked to put a price on her son's life - and she cannot afford it.
It is the price of a wonder drug that is the young man's last hope to defeat a tumour that has proved oblivious to radiation, indifferent to chemotherapy and too perilous for surgery - and it costs $8612 a month.
But although the drug is listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, it is not subsidised for the likes of Brad Williams, because it has only been approved for melanoma patients and his tumour is growing in his brain.
-----

Online health portals prove popular in New Zealand

November 21, 2016 2PM Shannon Williams
Nearly a quarter of a million New Zealanders are now using a patient portal to access their health information, the Government has revealed.
In 2015, a $3 million funding boost gave more New Zealanders access to patient portals, included $500,000 for an awareness campaign.
Health Minister Jonathan Coleman says it great to see a significant increase in portal users.
“Patient portals enable patients to manage aspects of their own healthcare such as booking appointments, requesting repeat prescriptions and messaging clinical staff directly,” says Coleman.
-----

New online 'Australia's Health Tracker by Area' a welcome step forward

24 November 2016
A new online interactive map of health in Australia, ‘Australia’s Health Tracker by Area’ is a welcome step forward in highlighting areas for attention in health, as well as areas that could act as examples to follow, according to the nation’s leading public healthcare body, the Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association (AHHA).
‘Australia’s Health Tracker by Area’ was released today by the Australian Health Policy Collaboration at Victoria University, Melbourne, which developed the product with the Public Health Information Development Unit at Torrens University, South Australia.
‘This new digital platform provides instant mapping and localised data on deaths, for example from cancer cardiovascular disease, and suicide, as well as localised estimates of chronic diseases such as diabetes, and health risk factors such as overweight and obesity, high blood pressure and risky alcohol consumption’, said AHHA Chief Executive Alison Verhoeven.
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  • Nov 21 2016 at 10:00 AM

'Next Cochlear' 4Dx closes capital raise as FDA approval enters sight

by Yolanda Redrup
Medical imaging startup 4Dx has raised $2.5 million from a range of retail and high net worth investors, which the business will invest in its clinical trials that will see the company approved by the US Food and Drug Administration by mid next year.
The company, which already has one major deal with Los Angeles hospital Cedars Sinai to use its lung imaging technology, also has an additional $2.5 million committed that is expected to close this week, taking its total series A raise to more than $5 million. 
Chief executive Andreas Fouras said the company had developed a strong investor base featuring healthcare professionals and business bigwigs from retail, resources and banking and finance, making him confident the company could go achieve its ambitions of being as successful as Cochlear.
-----

Who’s who of Aussie ICT

November 21, 2016
VITALCARE has pioneered nurse call and critical messaging systems for over 30 years. The company designs, manufactures, installs and services the most innovative systems available through a national network of company owned branches and authorised distributors. The company provides advanced technology systems for nursing homes, retirement villages, hostels and other dependent care facilities. Since 1989 facilities in Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Canada, have chosen Vitalcare’s systems for the peace of mind they provide their residents. Vitalcare is the first manufacturer to integrate IoT (Internet of Things) technology in its two-way waterproof pendants and call points along with cloud integration for advanced reporting, supervised maintenance and data analysis. www.vitalcare.com.au
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Enjoy!
David.

Sunday, November 27, 2016

The Signals As To Just Where The myHR Is Up To Are A Bit Confusing At Present. I Wonder What Is Really Going On?

A few days I noticed this from the AMA:

Maximising My Health Record.

22 Nov 2016
There is no doubt the evolution of the shared electronic medical record, or the My Health Record as it is now known, has been a costly exercise, with more than $1 billion spent to date. Many observers would argue that is a lot of buck for little or no bang.
Certainly, the My Health Record is not yet perfect. But a recent demonstration of its use to the AMA Council of General Practice (AMACGP) was promising, and GPs who had previously dismissed it might consider taking a second look.
We all want the My Health Record to work. It has the potential to support much better patient care, particularly when your patients see another doctor or health care provider.
By uploading key medical information via a Shared Health Summary, you are making sure other doctors who may be treating your patient in an emergency situation, or while they are away on holiday, have the information they need to appropriately care for your patient, thereby reducing the likelihood of your patient experiencing an adverse medical event or unnecessary testing.
Of course, this is a two-way street. The investment you make in providing accurate and up-to-date medical information about your patient for other doctors and health care providers will be repaid when you benefit from the information they upload to another patient’s My Health Record.
The vast majority of the Government’s investment so far in e-health has funded the building blocks of the e-health system, such as the physical and governance infrastructures, enabling frameworks and privacy protections. To the GP on the ground, this does not mean much for day-to-day patient care.
However, there has been a lot of working going on in the background to make the My Health Record more useful and easy to use. The AMA sat on the Clinical Usability Group of the National eHealth Transition Authority (now Australian Digital Health Agency) and we have driven significant changes. The demonstration provided to the AMACGP highlighted how easy it is to access a My Health Record, as well as to create and upload a Shared Health Summary.
For most practices, the process for Assisted Registration of patients is also much simpler. As long as the patient is known to the practice or have their driver’s licence with them, they can be easily registered for the My Health Record using the practice’s existing clinical software. Patients do not have to be registered with MyGov to be registered this way for the My Health Record.
The My Health Record is now at a point where we can begin to realise the benefits of a shared electronic medical record.
These benefits will only come ‘on scale’ when there is a critical mass of registrants. A welcome sign has been Government’s willingness to test ‘opt-out’ arrangements to increase uptake of the My Health Record. The current trials have seen very few patients opt out and, if this trend continues, they will prove the basis for the extension of those arrangements across the whole population.
Lots more here:
This is quite an interesting article which seems to be quite enthusiastic regarding a demonstration but then lists a collection of caveats on adoption, value, access and use.
Then we had this from Australian Doctor.

Can MyHealth Record be resuscitated?

| 23 November, 2016  
Five e-health experts tell Australian Doctor whether they think the MyHealth Record system will eventually work or if the restart button needs to be pressed on the whole project.
After four years and an estimated $2 billion dollars of taxpayers’ money, the MyHealth Record system remains largely unloved and unused by GPs.
It raises serious questions about whether the whole enterprise should be put out of its misery, and become another footnote in the list of IT disasters that were big on promises and small on delivery.
However, there is still hope among some that it can be salvaged.
Tim Kelsey, a colourful e-health evangelist, has been brought in from the UK to head up the Federal Government’s Australian Digital Health Agency.
The agency’s first step is yet another consultation — lasting six months — that aims to come up with a strategic direction for e-health in Australia.
A core part of the consultation will be to figure out what changes to the system are needed to provide genuine clinical value for GPs.
At present, more than 4.3 million people have a MyHealth Record, but the clinical documents that have been uploaded to the system are arguably few in number, and their relevance to many doctors on a day-to-day basis is limited.
Before the government created a financial compulsion for GPs to participate in the scheme by making it part of the e-health Practice Incentives Program payment, only 380 GPs were uploading shared health summaries to the system.
These summaries are supposed to be the information backbone of MyHealth Record.
Here, five leading e-health experts, including Mr Kelsey, tell Australian Doctor whether they think the system will eventually work, and offer benefit to patients and GPs, or whether the restart button needs to be pressed on the whole project.
There are then 5 commentaries here with the views rather split.
See here:
Additionally late last week there was this:

HIPS November 2016 Release

Created on Friday, 25 November 2016
The Australian Digital Health Agency is pleased to announce the release of HIPS v6.1. This version supersedes and combines the functionality of HIPS v5.0 and eHealth Integration Sample Code (eHISC) v6.0, and provides the basis for all future HIPS releases.
HIPS v6.1 also provides fixes for a number of high-priority issues, and support for three views introduced with recent releases of the My Health Record system.
New functionality
HIPS v6.1 supports the following views of the My Health Record system:
  • Pathology Report View;
  • Diagnostic Imaging Report View; and
  • Health Record Overview.
Resolved issues
The release resolves a number of high-priority issues, including:
  • Removal of memory leak associated with document uploads and ADT messages; and
  • Support for multiple active episodes for the same patient.
Inherited functionality
HIPS v6.1 includes functionality from:
  • HIPS v5.0:
    • Support for Secure Message Delivery (SMD)
    • Integration with national directory services (HPD, NHSD, NEPS)
  • eHISC v6.0:
    • Dynamic generation of pathology report and diagnostic imaging report CDA documents from HL7v2 ORU messages
    • Submission of HL7v2 messages via HL7’s MLLP low-level protocol.
Who does this affect?
  • Current HIPS or eHISC users who want to adopt the new features;
  • Current HIPS or eHISC users who want to address now resolved issues;
  • Healthcare provider organisations wanting to simplify their systems’ interactions with national digital health infrastructure;
  • Diagnostic service provider organisations wanting to integrate with My Health Record system;
  • System integrators contracted by healthcare provider or diagnostic service provider organisations; and
  • Software developers who want to incorporate HIPS into their product suite.
Link is here:
This left we rather wondering just why all this had not been done ages ago. The myHR project, has, after all, been going since June 30, 2012.
I thought I would hop on to my myHR and see how it was all looking.
What I found was a system consuming an enormous amount of screen white space that needed a huge number of clicks to get anywhere. Worse, once you get there, if you can figure out the menus, you have to access documents one at a time.
As far as I am concerned what we have now seems even harder to navigate and find information than the original manifestation from a year or so ago did! Maybe the version that is integrated into practice systems is much better? (let me know).
It is also important to note that ADHA is still not publishing any usage statistics for the system and it seems more and more likely with no real evaluation the program is simply going to be rolled out nationally if the rumours can be believed.
One has to be worried the public is rather being played for mugs with all this, given the pollies have no sense of what they are getting for the money being spent.
Let me know what you think about how all this is being done….
David.

AusHealthIT Poll Number 346 – Results – 27th November, 2016.

Here are the results of the poll.

Should ADHA Commission And Publish, For Discussion, A Widely Scoped Series Of Evidence Based Research Papers As The Supporting Basis For A New National Digital Health Strategy?

Yes 95% (113)

No 4% (5)

I Have No Idea 1% (1)

Total votes: 119

A huge majority seem to think the ADHA should just get on with it and develop a deep and credible knowledge-base on which to develop the new strategy!

Over to you Tim and team!

A very large turnout of votes.

Again, many, many thanks to all those that voted!

David.