Minister For Health Speaks On E-Health At HISA Conference. Spin In Full Flight! 2013

by **Admin** Sat Aug 03, 2013 2:03 am

2013 2013 2013 <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">This was delivered today.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><a href="http://www.health.gov.au/internet/ministers/publishing.nsf/Content/sp-yr13-tp-tpsp17072013.htm">http://www.health.gov.au/internet/ministers/publishing.nsf/Content/sp-yr13-tp-tpsp17072013.htm</a></div><h2 style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">Speech to the Health Informatics Conference 2013</h2><div style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">17 July 2013</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Check Against Delivery</span></b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I’m delighted to be with you here this morning.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land, and pay my respects to elders past and present.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I would also like to recognise: </span></div><ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Dr Brendan Lovelock, Chair of the Health Informatics Conference 2013 </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Dr Louise Schaper, CEO of the Health Informatics Society of Australia (HISA)</li></ul><h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: x-large; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Introduction</span></h2><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">I understand congratulations are in order.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">The Health Informatics Conference has come of age.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">Happy 21st birthday!</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">Just think back to 1992. And I know some of us would rather not.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">Technology wise, there was CD-ROM.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">Super Nintendo.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">Microsoft’s Windows 3.1.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">And according to Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull was still about two years away from ‘virtually inventing the Internet’.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">How far things have come.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">In my time with you this morning I would like to touch on three things: </div><ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Firstly, the compelling case for eHealth </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Secondly, how the Government’s built Australia’s eHealth superhighway, and </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Thirdly, how we can unleash the full potential of eHealth for patients</li></ul><h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: x-large; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The Compelling Case for eHealth </span></h2><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">I know that this audience requires little convincing of the case for eHealth.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">But when we talk so often about the minutiae of the system it’s sometimes easy to lose sight of the big picture.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">We can forget the difference eHealth is making, and will make, for patients, and for our health system.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">For patients eHealth means their medical history travels with them.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">It means fewer medication errors, and duplication of tests.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">It means better, more accurate treatment in an emergency. Put simply, eHealth could save your life.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">By way of example, the story I often use is one of an elderly man who collapsed in a shopping centre. He collapsed from a perfectly preventable interaction between medicines. The incident occurred after the man’s GP, and his specialist, changed his medication independently of each other — without knowing what the other had done. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">eHealth is making stories like that a thing of the past.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">eHealth is also a revolution in patient access to their own medical information. Information that empowers patients to make more informed decisions about their own healthcare.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">And the benefits of eHealth for our health system are just as clear.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">Every year, eHealth will help to stop around 15,000 unnecessary hospital admissions, by reducing avoidable medication related problems.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">That will make even more room for extra doctors, nurses, beds, the latest medicines, and more life changing medical research.</div><h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: x-large; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Building Australia’s eHealth Superhighway</span></h3><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">In the proud tradition of true nation building, this Government has been busy constructing the eHealth infrastructure Australia needs to secure a bright future.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">No good building, no good system can exist without a strong foundation.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">And that’s where we started with eHealth.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">This Government has built Australia’s eHealth superhighway.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">We’ve invested more than $160 million in general practices to upgrade their computer systems for eHealth. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">We’ve built the Healthcare Identifier service that has created more than 22 million digital eHealth passports - identifying every Australian for healthcare purposes.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">And we’ve built the $467 million national eHealth records system, which has the potential to connect every single Australian to every single doctor in the nation.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">A patient’s eHealth record on our national system can now hold: </div><ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">A summary of the patient’s important medical history </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">A list of medications prescribed and dispensed </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Allergy information </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Childhood immunisation records </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Child health and development information </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Hospital discharge reports </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Organ donor status </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Advanced care planning details </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Summaries of individual patient health events </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Medicare and PBS claims data, and </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Private notes patients make about their own health</li></ul><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">And in June, we launched the first smartphone app to link to the national eHealth records system – the child eHealth app.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">The app allows parents to keep their children’s important health, growth and development information at their fingertips ,and there’s been more than 5000 downloads already.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">Hospitals have also started uploading discharge summaries to patient eHealth records, with nearly every state and territory to be on board by the end of the year.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">Importantly, the Government has also paid for upgrades to the medical software doctors already use in their clinics. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">The software upgrades have been designed to make it as easy as possible for doctors to use the national eHealth system; In many cases being able to add information to a patient’s eHealth record at the click of a button.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">We’ve built the eHealth superhighway, and I’m proud to say we’ve had a lot of drivers join it already.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">The Government set a goal to have about half a million patients on the national eHealth records system by the middle of this year. Not only did we meet this goal, we’ve exceeded it.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">There are now around 520,000 patients on board.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">There are nearly 5,000 GP practices, hospitals, and other healthcare organisations signed up too, covering all the nurses, doctors and other health professionals in those organisations.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">And more than 16 million healthcare documents have been uploaded to patient eHealth records.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">We’ve put strong foundations in place, but there is more to do to unleash the full potential of eHealth for patients.</div><h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: x-large; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Unleashing the Full Potential of eHealth for Patients</span></h3><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">The future of eHealth is incredibly exciting.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">I recently announced $10 million to allow advance care plans to be put on the national eHealth records system; another important feature to help patients with end of life planning.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">Now the Government’s established the eHealth infrastructure, we’re starting to see some impressive innovations grow forth from the private sector, developed by experts like you.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">I was very pleased to hear that the 2013 HISA app competition has received entries that connect and interact with the national eHealth records system.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">This Government sees eHealth as a natural extension of our universal health system, Medicare.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">Creating better access.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">Helping every Australian get great healthcare, no matter where they live or how much they earn.<br />Which is why today I am delighted to announced a landmark next step for our national eHealth records system.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">I can reveal the Government is investing $8 million to enable pathology results and diagnostic imaging reports to be stored on a patient’s eHealth record.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">This will mean things like a patient’s blood tests and x-ray results will be stored securely online, in one place, and can travel with them wherever they go.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">It will mean patients and doctors will have even more health information available to them at the click of a button.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">And it paves the way for the diagnostic images themselves, including x-rays and MRI scans to be stored on a patient’s eHealth record. Thanks to work of this Government, that’s now on the horizon.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">An exciting piece of progress for eHealth in Australia.</div><h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: x-large; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Conclusion</span></h3><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">In some ways, I believe continued progress on eHealth over the long term is inevitable. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">And that’s because I think good reform eventually gets its day.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">But, unfortunately, in other ways, I see some very real risks to the progress of eHealth in the foreseeable future.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">I believe Australians expect a bipartisan commitment to eHealth. And so they should.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">What they don’t expect is for eHealth funding to be threatened – like we saw from those across the political divide three years ago.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">Stopping investment in eHealth means no eHealth records. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">It means patients having to repeat their medical history every time they see another doctor.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">It means unnecessary medication errors and hospital admissions – putting lives at risk.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">I am confident that what Australians want is for Australia to be a leader in eHealth, to explore the possibilities of eHealth in conjunction with other modern national infrastructure like the National Broadband Network.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">Australians want the convenience of electronic access to their medical history wherever they.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">They want control of their health information so they can make better, more informed decisions about their own care.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">I ask for our Government to be judged on our record.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">A Government that didn’t just talk, but acted on eHealth.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">And a Government that has a vision for the possibilities eHealth can unlock for patients into the future.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">-----</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">There are massive fibs, distortions and threats in all this. Feel free to pick them up in comments.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">Talk about an e-Health spruiker!</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">Truth out the windows again.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">“The Government set a goal to have about half a million patients on the national eHealth records system by the middle of this year. Not only did we meet this goal, we’ve exceeded it.”</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">Spin to die for.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">David.</div><br> 2013 2013 2013 <br><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">This was delivered today.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><a href="http://www.health.gov.au/internet/ministers/publishing.nsf/Content/sp-yr13-tp-tpsp17072013.htm">http://www.health.gov.au/internet/ministers/publishing.nsf/Content/sp-yr13-tp-tpsp17072013.htm</a></div><h2 style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">Speech to the Health Informatics Conference 2013</h2><div style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">17 July 2013</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Check Against Delivery</span></b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I’m delighted to be with you here this morning.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land, and pay my respects to elders past and present.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I would also like to recognise: </span></div><ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Dr Brendan Lovelock, Chair of the Health Informatics Conference 2013 </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Dr Louise Schaper, CEO of the Health Informatics Society of Australia (HISA)</li></ul><h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: x-large; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Introduction</span></h2><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">I understand congratulations are in order.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">The Health Informatics Conference has come of age.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">Happy 21st birthday!</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">Just think back to 1992. And I know some of us would rather not.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">Technology wise, there was CD-ROM.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">Super Nintendo.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">Microsoft’s Windows 3.1.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">And according to Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull was still about two years away from ‘virtually inventing the Internet’.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">How far things have come.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">In my time with you this morning I would like to touch on three things: </div><ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Firstly, the compelling case for eHealth </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Secondly, how the Government’s built Australia’s eHealth superhighway, and </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Thirdly, how we can unleash the full potential of eHealth for patients</li></ul><h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: x-large; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The Compelling Case for eHealth </span></h2><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">I know that this audience requires little convincing of the case for eHealth.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">But when we talk so often about the minutiae of the system it’s sometimes easy to lose sight of the big picture.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">We can forget the difference eHealth is making, and will make, for patients, and for our health system.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">For patients eHealth means their medical history travels with them.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">It means fewer medication errors, and duplication of tests.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">It means better, more accurate treatment in an emergency. Put simply, eHealth could save your life.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">By way of example, the story I often use is one of an elderly man who collapsed in a shopping centre. He collapsed from a perfectly preventable interaction between medicines. The incident occurred after the man’s GP, and his specialist, changed his medication independently of each other — without knowing what the other had done. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">eHealth is making stories like that a thing of the past.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">eHealth is also a revolution in patient access to their own medical information. Information that empowers patients to make more informed decisions about their own healthcare.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">And the benefits of eHealth for our health system are just as clear.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">Every year, eHealth will help to stop around 15,000 unnecessary hospital admissions, by reducing avoidable medication related problems.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">That will make even more room for extra doctors, nurses, beds, the latest medicines, and more life changing medical research.</div><h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: x-large; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Building Australia’s eHealth Superhighway</span></h3><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">In the proud tradition of true nation building, this Government has been busy constructing the eHealth infrastructure Australia needs to secure a bright future.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">No good building, no good system can exist without a strong foundation.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">And that’s where we started with eHealth.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">This Government has built Australia’s eHealth superhighway.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">We’ve invested more than $160 million in general practices to upgrade their computer systems for eHealth. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">We’ve built the Healthcare Identifier service that has created more than 22 million digital eHealth passports - identifying every Australian for healthcare purposes.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">And we’ve built the $467 million national eHealth records system, which has the potential to connect every single Australian to every single doctor in the nation.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">A patient’s eHealth record on our national system can now hold: </div><ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">A summary of the patient’s important medical history </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">A list of medications prescribed and dispensed </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Allergy information </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Childhood immunisation records </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Child health and development information </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Hospital discharge reports </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Organ donor status </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Advanced care planning details </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Summaries of individual patient health events </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Medicare and PBS claims data, and </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">Private notes patients make about their own health</li></ul><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">And in June, we launched the first smartphone app to link to the national eHealth records system – the child eHealth app.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">The app allows parents to keep their children’s important health, growth and development information at their fingertips ,and there’s been more than 5000 downloads already.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">Hospitals have also started uploading discharge summaries to patient eHealth records, with nearly every state and territory to be on board by the end of the year.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">Importantly, the Government has also paid for upgrades to the medical software doctors already use in their clinics. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">The software upgrades have been designed to make it as easy as possible for doctors to use the national eHealth system; In many cases being able to add information to a patient’s eHealth record at the click of a button.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">We’ve built the eHealth superhighway, and I’m proud to say we’ve had a lot of drivers join it already.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">The Government set a goal to have about half a million patients on the national eHealth records system by the middle of this year. Not only did we meet this goal, we’ve exceeded it.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">There are now around 520,000 patients on board.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">There are nearly 5,000 GP practices, hospitals, and other healthcare organisations signed up too, covering all the nurses, doctors and other health professionals in those organisations.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">And more than 16 million healthcare documents have been uploaded to patient eHealth records.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">We’ve put strong foundations in place, but there is more to do to unleash the full potential of eHealth for patients.</div><h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: x-large; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Unleashing the Full Potential of eHealth for Patients</span></h3><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">The future of eHealth is incredibly exciting.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">I recently announced $10 million to allow advance care plans to be put on the national eHealth records system; another important feature to help patients with end of life planning.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">Now the Government’s established the eHealth infrastructure, we’re starting to see some impressive innovations grow forth from the private sector, developed by experts like you.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">I was very pleased to hear that the 2013 HISA app competition has received entries that connect and interact with the national eHealth records system.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">This Government sees eHealth as a natural extension of our universal health system, Medicare.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">Creating better access.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">Helping every Australian get great healthcare, no matter where they live or how much they earn.<br />Which is why today I am delighted to announced a landmark next step for our national eHealth records system.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">I can reveal the Government is investing $8 million to enable pathology results and diagnostic imaging reports to be stored on a patient’s eHealth record.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">This will mean things like a patient’s blood tests and x-ray results will be stored securely online, in one place, and can travel with them wherever they go.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">It will mean patients and doctors will have even more health information available to them at the click of a button.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">And it paves the way for the diagnostic images themselves, including x-rays and MRI scans to be stored on a patient’s eHealth record. Thanks to work of this Government, that’s now on the horizon.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">An exciting piece of progress for eHealth in Australia.</div><h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: x-large; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Conclusion</span></h3><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">In some ways, I believe continued progress on eHealth over the long term is inevitable. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">And that’s because I think good reform eventually gets its day.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">But, unfortunately, in other ways, I see some very real risks to the progress of eHealth in the foreseeable future.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">I believe Australians expect a bipartisan commitment to eHealth. And so they should.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">What they don’t expect is for eHealth funding to be threatened – like we saw from those across the political divide three years ago.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">Stopping investment in eHealth means no eHealth records. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">It means patients having to repeat their medical history every time they see another doctor.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">It means unnecessary medication errors and hospital admissions – putting lives at risk.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">I am confident that what Australians want is for Australia to be a leader in eHealth, to explore the possibilities of eHealth in conjunction with other modern national infrastructure like the National Broadband Network.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">Australians want the convenience of electronic access to their medical history wherever they.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">They want control of their health information so they can make better, more informed decisions about their own care.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">I ask for our Government to be judged on our record.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">A Government that didn’t just talk, but acted on eHealth.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">And a Government that has a vision for the possibilities eHealth can unlock for patients into the future.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">-----</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">There are massive fibs, distortions and threats in all this. Feel free to pick them up in comments.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">Talk about an e-Health spruiker!</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">Truth out the windows again.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">“The Government set a goal to have about half a million patients on the national eHealth records system by the middle of this year. Not only did we meet this goal, we’ve exceeded it.”</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">Spin to die for.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">David.</div><br>2013 2013 2013 <br> <a href="http://www.matrixar.com/" title="Matrix ">المصفوفة : أجمل الخلفيات والصور</a>