This appeared last week.
Better use of technology should be the first priority for any healthcare service provider: Tim Kelsey
The cost on society of a paper based health service is enormous, the inefficiencies are tremendous, clinicians find their administrative burden takes them away from those crucial moments in which they can counsel their patients.
October 31, 2017, 08:13 IST
interview with ETHealthworld, Tim Kelsey, Chief Executive of the Australian Digital Health Agency, talks about the role of technology in expanding healthcare services. Edited excerpts:
About Australian Digital Health Agency
The Australian Digital Health Agency was setup in July last year and the intention by all the governments of Australia was to harness the power of modern information revolution to empower and enable clinicians to offer the industry, entrepreneurs and innovators a new platform for delivery of new services for patients and citizens and to provide citizens with new ways in which they can engage with the health and wellbeing. The agency has recently had the new national digital health strategy approved by the governments of Australia and that calls out seven key priorities for Australia.
The Australian Digital Health Agency was setup in July last year and the intention by all the governments of Australia was to harness the power of modern information revolution to empower and enable clinicians to offer the industry, entrepreneurs and innovators a new platform for delivery of new services for patients and citizens and to provide citizens with new ways in which they can engage with the health and wellbeing. The agency has recently had the new national digital health strategy approved by the governments of Australia and that calls out seven key priorities for Australia.
Programme priorities
The first of these is a programme to give every Australian citizen a personal mobile health record which they can access through the mobile telephone. They can access online, which they can share with their clinicians if they choose to. The programme will have given all Australians access to by the end of 2018 unless they choose not to have one. So, that�s the priority and new strategy.
The second priority is around providing clinicians, doctors, nurses and allied health professionals with tools that enable them to communicate securely with each other without the fax machine, to avoid paper based healthcare. India & Australia have in common the challenge of ending the age of paper based healthcare and delivering digital services that�ll enable to secure real time communication between clinicians at the frontline of delivery.
�My Health Record� is a summary of a person�s health information; it includes the medication history, pathology reports, radiology reports and many other items of information. It�s not a comprehensive EMR type presentation of information instead it has the summary of a person�s health information accessible online through their mobile telephone, something that is shared with their clinicians. It�s quite different to the concept of an electronic medical record, say in a hospital or in general practice where you have fully comprehensive records of a person�s medical history. �My Health Record� helps the clinician treat the patient to identify key history that�ll help them to prevent an error and improve the outcome for that patient.
Lots more here:
Assuming the reported heard Mr Kelsey correctly I find it interesting that a mobile personal health record is the ADHA�s highest priority.
One can only assume that what this is as an access mechanism to the myHR which will mean all the content, currency and data integrity issues remain.
In the National Digital Health Strategy (as the first point) the following is found:
1. Health information that is available whenever and wherever it is needed.
By the end of 2018, every Australian will have a My Health Record, unless they choose not to. By 2022 all healthcare providers will be able to contribute to and use health information in My Health Record on behalf of their patients, providing potentially lifesaving access to reports of their medications, allergies, laboratory tests and chronic conditions, and supporting significant improvements in the safety, quality and efficiency of healthcare for the benefit of individuals, the healthcare system and the economy. Patients and consumers will be able to access their health information at any time online and through mobile apps.
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So it seems this is due for 2022 and is what is being discussed is in the last sentence. I rather think most GPs will be offering mobile direct access to their live credible EMR records long before this occurs.
I certainly know what I would prefer to access!
David.
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