IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

The features were part of the department’s new $133 million ­national electronic health system that could form the cornerstone of future deployments, its key ­architects said.

The highly secretive program control group within the Health Department is the main steering body overseeing the implementation of the national personally controlled electronic health record system.

For some, digital government is no more than a new spin on the old e-government story. Some may even assume that if they just keep their head down long enough, this latest wave of change will wash over, so they can go on with business as usual.

But it is failing to deliver.

The Department of Health’s annual reportin 2012-13 shows just one-fifth of the annual budget for the scheme was spent.

However, the target went beyond the mark. But, Health Minister Tanya Plibersek said that the figures were otherwise, according to her department.

It is being said that the world as well as medicine has changed the computerization in past four decades. Nonetheless, medical records have proved resilient to its advances.

“The primary aim of any e-health system must be to improve outcomes of individual patients who choose to participate, and to also address population health improvements,” CeHA convenor Peter Brown said.

Australia has no co-ordinated approach to e-health safety and security – and with the national Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record (PCEHR) just weeks away, the risk of a safety crisis is growing daily.

In her speech at a health conference this week, Health Minister Tanya Plibersek said there were around 520,000 patients on board.

"The government set a goal to have about half a million patients on the national e-health records system by the middle of this year. Not only did we meet this goal, we’ve exceeded it," Ms Plibersek said.

Private companies and public authorities are quietly using facial recognition systems around Australia.

Despite the growing use of this controversial technology, there is little in the way of specific regulations and guidelines to govern its use.

The AMA yesterday said that the information held in the $1 billion personally controlled e-health record system couldn't be trusted as patients, not clinicians, had control over their data.

In its submission to the PCEHR review, the peak health body said that if the PCEHR was an opt-out service, it would boost consumer participation.

Technology is not inherently good or evil, but the outcomes may be, writes Dr Greg Ogle, in this article which calls on the not-for-profit sector to get in front of the issues.

There is no doubt that digital technology is changing the economy and society. Some, like World Economic Forum founder, Klaus Schwab, see it as the Fourth Industrial Revolution (the first three being: steam powered mechanical production in the late 18th century; mass production fostered by electricity and the production line from the late 19th century; and computerised technology, from the 1960s mainframes to the advent of the internet in the 1990s).

He said, "These exciting initiatives will help demonstrate how important high-speed broadband is to the future of healthcare and highlight why it should be rolled out to all Australians".

A key intent of the strategy is to break down the departmental silos that presently hold government information and services used by the public and present these in ways that match how the public uses them.

The department's e-health division head, Matthew Corkhill, ruled that it was against the public interest to release the 21-page report, Assessment of PCEHR Information Security Threat and Risk Assessments, in response to a Freedom of Information request lodged by The Australian in July.

Yesterday, Mr Bailey said that Sunraysia was fortunate to have partnered with the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute and the Royal­ Flying Doctor Service.

“Health services have had no access to these kinds of specialist services for years,” he said.

The successful e-health trial has just been completed by five of Australia’s healthcare messaging vendors - Argus Connect, Global Health, Healthlink, LRS Health, and Medical Objects – in collaboration with General Practices, the National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA) and associated government agencies.

The trial tested the use of Secure Message Delivery (SMD) capabilities.

Harbour MSP, the anchor tenant of a new computer data centre in Port Melbourne has taken more than 30 prospective clients through the new facility being developed by NextDC, an ASX-listed technology company that already has an operational data centre in Brisbane, with more under way in Canberra, Sydney and Perth.

National Information and Communications Technology Australia (NICTA) will receive an additional $42 million in 2015-16 in an effort to support Australia’s digital economy and help continue Australia’s economic strength beyond the mining boom, according to the government.

• Good news: the local ICT sector is "poised for a period of rapid expansion".
• Bad news: "the domestic supply of ICT skills has not kept pace with demand".
• Worse news: plans to improve supply are not completely convincing and so we may see yet more offshoring and 457 workers.

The Australian Workforce and Productivity Agency (AWPA) has forecasted total ICT workforce growth of approximately 33,200 workers or 7.1% between now and 2016-17, but "The reality is that the domestic supply of ICT skills has not kept pace with demand, and this will need to change if we are to move confidently into the digital century," said its CEO Robin Shreeve.

The shortage of information and communications technology workers will put extra pressure on the government to allow skilled migration.

New figures from the Australian Public Service Commission reveal that even though the number of federal public servants has reached a new high, the No 1 area of skills shortages was for technology.