[LINK] Contract signed for national health ID system

[Bernard Robertson-Dunn]

Contract signed for national health ID system
ABC News
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/01/12/2137148.htm

The Federal Government says a new national healthcare identifier service 
is one step closer, after a contract was signed to develop and test the 
scheme.

The service is designed to improve the transfer of patient information 
between health providers.

It will identify a person's name, date of birth, address and the names 
of their practitioners, and is the first step towards establishing a 
shared electronic health records system.

The $51 billion contract between Medicare and the National E-Health 
Transition Authority will take around two years to implement.

Federal Minister for Human Services, Joe Ludwig, says it is not an 
access card and people can decide whether or not they want to be part of 
the service.

"Privacy is a great concern to Australians, particularly in relation to 
the collection and handling of personal health information. A new 
regulatory framework would be required," he said.

"This system would be built over approximately two years or thereabouts 
and it has been developed in consultation with the Office of the Privacy 
Commissioner."

Senator Ludwig says the program will potentially save lives.

"One of the challenges out there is actually health care providers 
transferring information confidently to another health care provider so 
that they can provide services," he said.

"At the moment, there is a range of electronic paper based systems and 
there is the potential for those things to get confused, or in fact lost 
in the system."


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Regards
brd

Bernard Robertson-Dunn
Sydney Australia
brd at iimetro.com.au