Aussie e-health authority to boost progress

Dec 8, 2004: The new National E-Health Transition Authority has been set up in Australia to help avoid problems in Australia health care in the future by ensuring that all organisations use the same data standards between the systems of each jurisdiction.

Dr. Ian Reinecke, the CEO of the newly formed NEHTA, said that the current health business model is not sustainable in terms of cost, efficiency and quality of services, as long as staff have to rely on information being exchanged using physical objects and paper.

"A greater level of investment is required to break out of the current paper based model, and NEHTA will play a significant role in strategically determining the priority areas for investment in the short term.

"NEHTA will provide a focal point for stakeholders to devise and implement a national approach to connected e-health, and aim to facilitate an environment in which we can better use available information in the provision of health care."

Professor Bruce Barraclough, the chair of the Australian Council for Safety and Quality in Health Care, believes that e-health can improve safety in health care by providing more accurate data.

"To measure safety more effectively, we need to improve the reporting of incidents nationally and locally, by increasing the use of performance data at the local level, by reviewing specific data required at local, regional and national levels, and by building better systems for data collection."

Other doctors and professors believe that the e-health revolution will improve medical practice in areas of billing, record keeping, prescribing, patient history, research data and evaluation and communication between doctors and referrers.

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