IfG.CC - The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center

The South Australia Government will spent $191.7 million to develop and roll out three new electronic healthcare systems in a bid to deliver a single access point for patient records and medical imaging.

Despite an otherwise tight 2012-2013 budget for the state, the government committed to developing a "digital health system" that tied together patient records and test results from disparate systems and hospitals.

South Australia Health secured $142.6 million over the next 10 years to roll out its Enterprise Patient Administration System (EPAS).

SA Health Department chief information officer David Johnston said the technology would provide faster access to patient information and lead to more responsive and informed treatment.

With an eye on “big plans, small projects”, South Australia is fast-tracking its digital reforms agenda. The state’s CIO, Bret Morris, told CIO Australia that it is focusing mostly on mobile apps and open data.

“We are shifting from eGovernment thinking to digital government thinking,” said Morris.” This gives us the opportunity to reassess where we can position ourselves in the service value chain.

Doing more with less is the mantra for the state’s “South Australia Connected – Ready for the Future” position paper. This paper, being circulated across communities and industry, crystallises core policy reforms for 2013-2014.

The Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Service is the first facility outside New South Wales to offer the national system and operators are calling on all residents to get on board.

“We are trying to encourage everybody to join on to eHealth, not just our clients,” Pangula Mannamurna administration officer Stefanie Birkholz said.

The government says feedback and ideas are already being submitted to the position paper which was released with the recent announcement by the South Australian Premier, Jay Weatherill, at an ICT Summit attended by more than 400 industry representatives.

South Australian Government Chief Information Officer, Andrew Mills, says working in partnership with the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) is helping to deliver the best ICT strategy.

Plans by the South Australian Government to roll out biometrics at a number of prisons acrosss the state have been delayed due to required construction work.

Plans for the trial were announced in May. Pending a successful trial, it will be rolled out to sites including Yatala Labour Prison, Adelaide Women’s Prison, Mobilong Prison, Port Augusta Prison, Mt Gambier Prison, Cadell Training Centre, and Port Lincoln Prison.

The paper was launched by Premier Jay Weatherill at the recent ICT Strategy Summit that attracted over 400 industry representatives.

South Australian Government Chief Information Officer Andrew Mills says working in partnership with the Australian Information Industry Association is helping to deliver the best ICT strategy.

South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill today officially released the state government’s strategy position paper, SA Connected, which sets out its plans to shorten project delivery times and improve service delivery.

“From now on, we’re not going to start up any more big ‘ICT’ projects," the draft position paper reads.

The Commonwealth Government has provided $90 million for the project under the Council of Australian Governments National Health Reform funding to improve elective surgery and emergency-department funding, with the South Australian government contributing $318 million over 10 years.

Speaking at the e-health track of CeBIT's 2012 conference, Le Blanc outlined the process through which SA Health went to transform its state-wide IT systems.

SA Health was forced to reconsider its IT systems and reporting lines because of legislative changes put in place to prepare for e-health records. Reforming the health department was a legislative requirement, relegating return on investment and other commercial considerations to be of lesser importance, according to Le Blanc. He said that the department consequently had to jump into reform headfirst.

Australia is falling behind the rest of the world in using information technology to improve the healthcare sector, according to an Australian leading the implementation of an eHealth system in Sweden.

Kerry Stratton, managing director of Healthcare for software developer InterSystems in Australia, is two months into a trial of a national electronic health records project in Sweden, and said Australia has a lot to learn from the Scandinavian country.

Throughout the world, governments are grappling with the growing challenge of providing quality, affordable healthcare. However, innovations in technology are helping to alleviate this common dilemma.

In Australia, an ageing population, shortages of healthcare providers in metropolitan and rural areas, as well as increased rates of chronic disease, are all factors placing substantial strain on the local healthcare sector. However, while these challenges continue to mount, healthcare providers are being forced to do more with less as the costs continue to rise and place increasing pressure on government budgets. In fact, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare calculates annual spending on healthcare services now exceeds $6200 per person.

The officials indicated that either the Labor party's fibre-to-the-premises or the Coalition's fibre-to-the-node plan could offer the minimum speeds and reliability levels required by telehealth and other bandwidth-intensive health IT activities.

The project demanded an investment of $620 million that was announced at the Labor's 2010 election campaign launch. As per the Labor, the new technology prone medical services were going to bring a big change in the medical service section of Australia. The project was quite comfortably going to be involved in the policies of the primary health care.

The trial is to receive AUD 4mn (US$ 3.87mn) in funding and will see elderly citizens provided with telehealth monitoring units and high-definition video conferencing systems in their homes and primary care facilities. The new equipment will monitor blood pressure, glucose levels and cardiovascular function, and will be able to send alerts to a doctor or nurse when needed.

The main component of the deal - part of a three-year strategic partnership between the two companies - will result in Healthways Australia moving the bulk of its information and communications technology to Telstra’s cloud-based and fully secure virtual servers.

The companies will also work together on the development of new health applications, such as a telematic monitoring device for diabetes Healthways Australia is trialing for Telstra.