[LINK] Role of Government in National ICT Policy

[Jan Whitaker]

At 08:43 AM 28/02/2012, Tom Worthington wrote:
>My knowledge of eHeath developments are somewhat limited. I have talked
>to some of the people associated with building eHealth
>systems for Australian companies and advising on the design of the
>standards. But I am by no means a specialist in the area. If you have
>information and opinions about the programs, you may wish to share them,
>so we know what is happening.

Check out two articles today, and probably dozens more over the past 
months, in the Australian. The $466mil program has blown out to over 
$760mil already.

-------------------
Labor's Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record system blows 
out to $760m
KAREN DEARNE
The Australian
February 28, 2012 12:00AM
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/labors-personally-controlled-electronic-health-record-system-blows-out-to-760m/story-e6frgakx-1226283273933

SPENDING on Labor's Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record 
system has blown out to $760 million, almost $300m more than the 
$466.7m budget.

The National E-Health Transition Authority has swallowed the original 
allocation almost whole -- it has received $466m in taxpayers' money 
since the PCEHR was announced by former health minister Nicola Roxon 
in 2010.....
-------------------

On the privacy front alone, as well as the surrounding aspects, such 
as no complete and suitable governance program:
http://www.privacy.org.au/Papers/indexPolicies.html#eH

By the dates of these submissions, this has been morphing around in 
its current venture for 4 years. I've been around these efforts since 
1998. It's not a pretty picture. And don't get me started on their 
approach to standards (or 'lack of' or 'pick a box').

A blog from a Doctor who is keeping a close eye on this program:
http://aushealthit.blogspot.com.au/
Here's a dandy:
http://aushealthit.blogspot.com.au/2011/01/pcehr-seems-to-be-still-lacking-real.html

>This is no joke: a badly designed eHealth system could kill a lot of
>people and waste hundreds of billions of dollars by misdirecting health
>resources. So far NeHTA have not killed anyone and are less than a
>decade late with delivery, so they are not doing to bad in comparison
>with other government funded projects.

Where is the data to support that assertion, either on benefits to 
derive versus the cost and how it compares to other IT projects? It 
doesn't exist. If you ask NeHTA to provide a patient risk assessment 
for this project: they haven't done one. If you can get a report, 
please let me know. We've been asking for it for a long time now.

Jan


Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com

Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or 
sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

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