[LINK] Australian Government spending $256M to transform government but wasting $485M on failed eHealth system

[Bernard Robertson-Dunn]

On 15-May-15 12:54 AM, Chris Johnson wrote:
> The Electronic Health Record project is just one of those impossible
> things. No more money! stop it now. It's beyond the Auditor-General,
> it's beyond everyone.
...
> The failure is collective: there is no small group of individuals who
> failed to say "no, minister" (or "no, permanent secretary"), it's
> collective hubris.

Hubris - a word I have used myself in this context.

IMHO, the arrogance starts with a piece of flawed logic: "IT has been 
successfully used in many areas, therefore it should be used for health 
records." The PCEHR is a technical solution applied in an area where the 
technology is only a very small part of the problem. As Chris points 
out, the social
constraints and drivers are worse than the technical requirements. I'd 
put them at least an order of magnitude worse.

The first step in creating health information systems (that's 
information systems, not IT) is to recognise that it's all about how 
better use of information can lead to changes in the way health care 
works. Very few, if any, IT professionals know anything about how health 
care works. The number of people (including health care workers, public 
servants, IT professionals and even health infomatics people) who know 
how health care systems could be significantly improved through better 
processes based upon enhanced information is probably close to zero.

Until this is recognised, nothing the government does will work. 
Progress in health information systems has to be made slowly, 
experimentally and carefully. We are in uncharted waters and people's 
lives are at risk.

-- 

Regards
brd

Bernard Robertson-Dunn
Sydney Australia
email: brd at iimetro.com.au
web:   www.drbrd.com
web:   www.problemsfirst.com
Blog:  www.problemsfirst.com/blog