NEHTA pushes for greater unity
29 January 2009
Chief Executive of the National E-Health Transitory Authority, Peter Fleming has called for a greater unison between stakeholders, in order to promote the development of Health IT infrastructure nationally.
With state and federal government bodies demanding increased levels of safety and efficiency within the healthcare sector, there is a push for the creation of uniform IT infrastructure, commencing with the incremental build-out of existing clinical and communication platforms.
After years of under-investment and fragmentation among stakeholders, Australia’s e-Health industry is overdue for the imminent shakeup which will see an increase in pilot programs in the areas of electronic medication management and hospital discharge summaries in particular.
NEHTA are working with software vendors to assess their capabilities in the move towards a unified approach to health IT. Helen Hopkins, outgoing executive director of the Consumers Health Forum, supports the move towards a national healthcare IT system stating
"Consumers want access to their health information when and where they need it, so we're continuing to push for a full e-health record,"she said.
"If that's going to take some time, they want some easier things first, such as their hospital discharge information to be sent to their GPs,"