Pulse+IT Magazine - December 2008

PULSE IT 

AUSTRALIA’S FIRST AND ONLY HEALTH IT MAGAZINE

ISSUE 10: DECEMBER 2008

Pulse IT +

Publisher Pulse Magazine PO Box 7194 Yarralumla ACT 2600

PAGE 06 STARTUP Editor Simon James introduces the tenth edition of Pulse+IT.

ABN 19 923 710 562 www.pulsemagazine.com.au Editor Simon James 0402 149 859 simon.james@pulsemagazine.com.au Editorial Enquiries editor@pulsemagazine.com.au Advertising Enquiries ads@pulsemagazine.com.au About Pulse+IT Pulse+IT is Australia’s first and only Health IT magazine. With a national distribution exceeding 40,000 copies, Pulse+IT is also Australia’s highest circulating publication directed at the health sector. 32,000 copies of Pulse+IT are distributed to GPs, specialists, practice managers and the IT professionals that support them. In addition, over 8,100 copies of Pulse+IT are distributed to key IT decision makers in hospitals, day surgeries and aged care facilities.

PAGE 24 IPHONE FOR CLINICANS Dr Henry Konopnicki outlines some of the applications available for the Apple iPhone suitable for use by clinicians.

ISSN: 1835-1522 Contributors Linda Batson, Simon James, Dr Henry Konopnicki, Dr Paul Mara, Cameron Newman, Robyn Peters, Mike Swinson.

Issue 10 Supporting Organisations Australian Association of Practice Managers (AAPM), Health Information Management Association of Australia (HIMAA), Health Informatics Society of Australia (HISA), National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA).

Disclaimer The views contained herein are not necessarily the views of Pulse Magazine or its staff. The content of any advertising or promotional material contained herein is not endorsed by the publisher. While care has been taken in the preparation of this magazine, the publisher cannot be held responsible for the accuracy of the information herein, or any consequences arising from it. Pulse Magazine is a completely independent business and has no affiliation with any organisation, including, but not limited to Health Services Australia, Sony, CMP Medica or the Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Services Council, all who produce publications under the title “Pulse”.

Copyright 2008 Pulse Magazine No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored electronically or transmitted in any form by any means without the prior written permission of the Publisher.

Subscription Rates Please visit our website for more information about subscribing to Pulse+IT.

PAGE 32 KYOCERA FS-1300D Simon James reviews the Kyocera FS-1300D, a versatile monochrome laser printer suitable for use in typical consultation settings.

PAGE 36 ONLINE TRADING Dr Paul Mara presents an introduction to online trading, modern trading platforms, and CFD derivatives.

BITS & BYTES PAGE 10

INTERVIEW: PMSC PAGE 20

VIRTUALISATION PAGE 26

FINANCIAL REPORTING PAGE 29

REGULARS PAGE 06 STARTUP Editor Simon James introduces the tenth edition of Pulse+IT. PAGE 10 BITS & BYTES Pulse+IT’s news section, delivering the latest e-Health developments from Australia and abroad.

PAGE 20 INTERVIEW: PMSC Pulse+IT checks in with Practice Management Software Company’s Managing Director, Dr Nicholas Kemp.

PAGE 38 MARKET PLACE Australia’s most innovative and influential e-Health organisations.

PAGE 22 NEHTA NEHTA introduces the National Product Catalogue, an online home for all products, prices and medications used in the Australian health system.

FEATURES PAGE 24 IPHONE FOR CLINICANS Dr Henry Konopnicki outlines some of the applications available for the Apple iPhone suitable for use by clinicians.

PAGE 29 FINANCIAL REPORTING Robyn Peters provides an overview of the fundamental financial reports and their application in the medical practice.

PAGE 34 PROJECT MANAGEMENT Linda Batson offers advice on the process of producing an effective RFP document and evaluating the subsequent responses.

PAGE 26 SERVER VIRTUALISATION Cameron Newman outlines the benefits of Virtualisation technology and its application in the medical practice.

PAGE 32 REVIEW: KYOCERA FS-1300D Simon James reviews the Kyocera FS-1300D, a versatile monochrome laser printer suitable for use in typical consultation settings.

PAGE 36 ONLINE TRADING Dr Paul Mara presents an introduction to online trading, modern trading platforms, and CFD derivatives.

www.pulsemagazine.com.au

STARTUP Simon James BIT, BComm Editor, Pulse+IT simon.james@pulsemagazine.com.au

Pulse+IT: 2008.4 Welcome to the tenth edition of Pulse+IT, Australia’s first and only Health IT magazine.

The magazine you are now reading will be the last copy of Pulse+IT to be released as a quarterly printed publication.

However fear not — unlike many print publications getting battered by the deteriorating economic conditions, Pulse+IT will move forward with an expanded frequency of “bi-monthly, less one”. That is, printed copies of Pulse+IT will be released every second month starting at the beginning of March each year, for a hard copy circulation of five editions per year.

These expansion plans have been formulated in direct response to the rapidly increasing number of Health IT related developments occurring in Australia and beyond.

As part of this development, the Pulse+IT website will be upgraded throughout January and February. Once completed, it will incorporate many of the modern technologies found on popular news‑centric websites with a view to better accommodating timely Health IT news updates.

The popular online graphical version of the printed magazine will be retained going forward.

Now Hiring!

To assist with the aforementioned expansion plans, Pulse+IT is currently undertaking to recruit staff journalists to bolster the publication’s capacity to stay on top of the latest Health IT developments. With this in mind, if you have an interest in Health IT and a penchant for writing, you may like to peruse the formal job descriptions available on the Pulse+IT website and get in touch.

MORE Partnerships FORGED I am pleased to report that the Health Information Management Association of Australia (HIMAA) has recently partnered with Pulse+IT in an arrangement that will see HIMAA provide this and all future copies of Pulse+IT as a service to their membership.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the HIMAA team for their support of Pulse+IT, and for the professional and efficient manner in which they have brought this partnership to fruition. I would also like to extend a welcome to the HIMAA membership — your feedback, ideas and contributions are

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This Edition This edition features an expanded Bits&Bytes section containing a diverse mix of articles covering several recent Health IT developments from around Australia.

Pulse+IT interviews Dr Nicholas Kemp from the Practice Management Software Company, developers of GPComplete, and NEHTA introduce the National Product Catalogue.

Dr Henry Konopnicki outlines some of the applications available for the iPhone suitable for use by clinicians, and Dr Paul Mara presents an introduction to online trading for those interested in taking more control of their investments in the current difficult climate.

Linda Batson continues her project management series, while Robyn Peters provides an overview of common financial reports. Cameron Newman outlines the benefits of Virtualisation technology, and I review the Kyocera FS-1300D, a versatile laser printer suitable for use in typical consultation settings.

Looking forward A draft features list for 2009 has been released and is available from the Pulse+IT website. While I expect this will evolve in line with readership feedback and industry developments, this resource should give readers and potential contributors a good overview of the types of themes Pulse+IT will be covering throughout 2009 — as always, your feedback and suggestions are most welcome.

Finally, my sincere thanks to all who have supported the first ten editions of Pulse+IT. I wish all a happy and safe Christmas period and look forward to hearing from you in the new year.

Simon James, Editor simon.james@pulsemagazine.com.au

Subscription packages to Pulse+IT start at just $99.

+ 

most welcome!

Pending a favourable response to this edition from members of the Health Informatics Society of Australia (HISA), a similar partnership arrangement is expected to be formalised in early 2009. With this in mind, I encourage HISA members interested in receiving future copies of Pulse+IT to respond to the feedback survey being conducted by HISA, which can be found at the HISA website.

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For more information about Pulse+IT and our special iPod subscription offer, visit our website:

www.pulsemagazine.com.au

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GPpartners attracts former NEHTA Head of Architecture The head of architecture for the National E-Health Transition Authority has joined GPpartners, Queensland’s largest Division of General Practice, to oversee the implementation of an electronic health record throughout Brisbane.

Mark Gibson has taken on the role as manager of E-health Services Development and will work with GPpartners to coordinate the introduction of e-health infrastructure and lead developments in health industry information exchange.

GPpartners deputy CEO Brett Silvester says Mr Gibson will help GPpartners consolidate its position as a national leader in e-health support for general practice and primary care.

“Although we’ve been working in this space for some time and have significant operational experience in the implementation of shared electronic health records, we’re taking the next step,” Mr Silvester said.

“Other divisions are keen to work with us on this project and so we are now expanding this system across Brisbane — at this stage our focus is connecting patients with chronic disease to the system.”

Mr Gibson brings his extensive

experience of developing and planning national e-health systems and services from his time at NEHTA and with the HealthConnect program trials.

“The GPpartners team is leading the introduction of e-health systems for new primary care services and has already established its reputation as an innovator in e-health,” Mr Gibson said.

“We plan to make e-health services a practical tool for clinicians and patients’ health management in primary care through alignment with the national e-health agenda.”

As chief executive of DSTC, Mr Gibson helped GPpartners develop the Health Record eXchange (HRX) shared care summary system, which has been operating for more than four years.

“GPpartners has been able to get the clinicians in the division linked up as well as the hospitals and allied health providers,” Mr Gibson said.

“So when patients on the system move in and out of hospital they know the records generated by their GPs will be available to hospital staff and they don’t have to retell their medical histories, it seems such a simple thing, and it’s just incredible that this information sharing is not done more widely in Australia.”

Stat Health commences deployment of practice management solution Having been in development for over two years, Stat Health Systems has started deploying their Practice Management solution in Australian specialist and general practices.

The software includes appointments, billing, and reporting functionality, all of which will be incorporated into Stat Health Systems’ forthcoming fully integrated clinical and practice management solution which is slated for release in 2009.

Starting with a new code base, the company has embraced the latest Microsoft software development technology to build a modern practice

management application that, according to the developers, provides an uncluttered, fresh approach to traditional reception functions.

Carla Doolan, Marketing Manager for Stat Health Systems said, “The novel feature that sets the Practice Management module apart from competitors’ products is a ‘multifunction’ interface that allows the user to commence a new action without being forced by the software to complete the previous action. The user has the flexibility to return to the incomplete task at any time, and can simultaneously progress an unlimited number of tasks.”

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BitS & BYTES Medicare Australia extends contract with IBM The Minister for Human Services, Senator Joe Ludwig, has announced that Medicare Australia has extended its contract with IBM Australia for the provision of IT infrastructure services.

The extension to 31 March 2010 will cost $70.3 million.

“The extension is in keeping with the Government’s plans to take a proactive and universal approach to the ICT requirements of the Human Services Portfolio,” Senator Ludwig said.

“The Portfolio is reviewing its ICT investment requirements in the context of Service Delivery Reform and the extension supports ongoing service delivery by Medicare Australia while this is underway.”

Senator Ludwig said this approach accommodates the Australian Government’s broader approach towards coordinated procurement across government.

“Greater coordination of procurement activity is critical if we are to achieve value for money for the Australian taxpayer and avoid unnecessary duplication,” he said.

“Medicare and You” Medicare Australia has introduced ‘Medicare and You’, an eLearning program, currently comprising seven interactive modules on topics which health care professionals need to know when they commence Medicare billing.

Medicare Australia’s Program Review Division General Manager Colin Bridge said the new educational tool is designed to help health care professionals better understand the Medicare program and their obligations when working with the Medicare Benefits Schedule.

“This latest online initiative will be especially helpful to doctors and other health professionals who are new to the system.

“The modules were developed by Medicare Australia after feedback from health care professionals. They told us they wanted more guidance and information on Medicare items and requirements, and we’ve responded to their calls,” Mr Bridge added.

‘Medicare & You’ has been included in the November edition of the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) CD, as part of a Department of the Health and Ageing mail-out to all health care professionals.

HATRIX honoured at aged care industry awards HATRIX has been awarded the “Aged Care ICT Company of the Year” during an event hosted by the Aged Care Association of Australia.

Dr John Ainge, Medical Director of HATRIX, accepted the award on behalf of the company and dedicated it to his staff.

Founded in 2001, HATRIX is a privately owned Australian software company based in Canberra. The company’s flagship product, MedChart, is used to replace the paper medication chart in hospitals, and increasingly in aged care and community care facilities. One of these facilities, the Terrace Gardens Nursing Home in Palmerston, NT, received a nomination at the same awards ceremony for “best implementation”.

Built on web based technology, MedChart incorporates prescribing, formal pharmacy review, and drug administration, with each of these functions underpinned by a decision support system. Dedicated to medication management, the solution incorporates multiple drug databases and is designed to interface with popular third-party clinical and administration systems.

According to the developers, MedChart improves the safety and quality of patient care and reduces costs by streamlining medication management.

“There had to be a better way of ordering, reviewing and recording medication administration than by paper or fax and MedChart is the answer”, Dr Ainge said.

Currently, GPs are able to access installations of MedChart over the Internet using a web browser. They can securely access the resident’s medication chart in real time and make necessary changes or add new medications.

MedChart’s decision support system is designed to filter many of the common prescribing errors such as resident drug allergies and drug interactions before it prepares a standard prescription for printing. MedChart also accommodates authority medications.

Plans to integrate the solution with popular GP clinical software are underway, with the intention of streamlining the prescribing process, and allowing the GP’s clinical software to import relevant medication lists from the

Tony Firth (L) and Dr John Ainge (R) shown with their ICT Company of the Year award, which was presented at the ITAC 2008 event held in Melbourne in early September.

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BitS & BYTES remote MedChart installation.

Pharmacists have access to MedChart as well, with all new and changed medication orders reflected in the system immediately. Integration into pharmacy dispensing systems will further enhance the system by removing the need for the manual entry of prescription data.

At the Aged Care facility the nurses record the administration of the medication into MedChart instead of the paper Chart. This process has improved legibility of the charts and also the auditing of the whole process as each entry is time and date stamped.

MedChart also has the capacity to validate medication sachets with a

bar code reader which is a further enhancement to the administration process.

The entirely paperless prescribing workflow being used in the Terrace Gardens’ implementation has been facilitated by a legislative dispensation enacted by eHealth NT, a progressive collaboration between the Department of Health and Ageing, the Northern Territory Department of Health and Families, and GP Network NT, the recently consolidated GP Division entity in the Northern Territory. eHealth NT has had recent success in other e-prescribing quarters, initiating an electronic GP-to-pharmacy trial earlier in the year.

Charm Health CEO wins technology award, secures major QLD Health contract Charm Health CEO Janine Garrett has taken out the 2008 Women in Technology Outstanding Achievement Award and secured a major contract with Queensland Health, all in the same week.

The award is the third Janine has received in as many years, and coincides with Charm Health successfully pitching their Oncology Information Management Solution to Queensland Health for implementation at Princess Alexandra, Gold Coast, Royal Children’s and the Royal Brisbane and Women’s hospitals.

Janine’s past award wins include the 2008 Women in Business Technology Award and the 2006 Smart Women — Smart State Business Award, all in recognition of her work to develop software applications designed to assist those treating and supporting patients with cancer.

Ms Garrett said she was very excited to be recognised.

“I was extremely surprised when my name was called out as the winner of the Outstanding Achievement Award as my fellow nominees have some amazing stories!,” she said.

“As so many businesses do, my business started because I saw a need, and if I can inspire other women, through what I have achieved then that is fantastic.”

“It takes a lot of hard work but

helping to ensure that cancer treatments are delivered in the most effective way is very satisfying.”

She said having Queensland Health sign up to use the system was also a major achievement that all staff at Charm Health were very proud of.

“We have been working on this deal for some time and have already been involved with extensive planning with Queensland Health and are looking forward to rolling out the system over the next six to twelve months.”

Ms Garrett, a pharmacist with more than a decade’s experience working in specialised areas such as oncology, saw the need for an integrated management system to ensure cancer patients received the best care during their oncology treatments, allowing doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other health care professionals to access the same up-to-date information about a particular patient.

After initially teaching herself computer programming, Ms Garrett then completed her Masters in Information Technology and has successfully launched the Charm — Oncology Information Management Solution at more than 13 hospitals nationally, the most recent deployment taking place at the Peter MacCullum Cancer Centre in Melbourne, Victoria.

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HCN forms partnership with Serials Solutions

e - H ealtH ( H ealtH i n for m atic s) cou rs es

access and management services included under the agreement includes 360 Link OpenURL link resolver, 360 Search federated search service, 360 Resource Manager e-resource management service, 360 MARC Updates OPAC updating service, and 360 Counter e-resource.

Ulrich’s Global Serials Intelligence services include Ulrichsweb for complete serials information and Ulrich’s Serials Analysis System for robust serials assessment.

HCN will supply these services to Australia’s medical community, including medical associations, hospitals, government health departments and medical libraries. Universities are excluded from the reseller arrangement.

Australians support shared electronic health records A national opinion poll has shown Australians support the introduction of an Individual Electronic Health Record (IEHR) and would agree to their medical records being included in the service.

The poll, conducted by UMR Research on behalf of the National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA), showed 82 per cent of respondents believe an IEHR would save lives and improve health services by having important medical information immediately accessible.

77 per cent of the 2,700 people surveyed across Australia indicated they would want their records added to the health record repository, however a similar proportion of respondents believed participation should be voluntary.

Security and safety around the electronic storage of medical information was also a key consideration with 79 per cent indicating it was important any future IEHR offers patients the ability to quarantine sensitive or very personal medical information. 97 per cent of respondents stated that they believed it was important that patients have the ability to interrogate the system to see

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who has accessed their medical records.

In a statement issued by NEHTA, Chief Executive, Peter Fleming said, “This research confirms Australians endorse the use of electronic health records if they are introduced with all the necessary levels of privacy and security”.

Of the 18 per cent of respondents that opposed the notion of a shared individual electronic health records system, the qualitative data collected by the researchers suggested that privacy and security were major concerns. The comparative benefits of bolstering the number of health professionals in the system were also raised as an alternative to the proposed system.

While the specific details of NEHTA’s proposed IEHR system are yet to be released, and funding for its development has not been allocated, NEHTA proposes that, “An IEHR would be achieved by a national standardisation of technologies which would enable doctors, hospitals, clinics, laboratories, general practitioners and pharmacies to electronically send and receive accurate clinical communications, irrespective of the State or Territory in which they are located.”

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Depar tment of Rural Health

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This part-time course builds on the certificate course, and consists of an additional two compulsory units and two extra electives. All units are one semester in length.

Courses are external, self-paced learning packages using electronic and/or print-based materials. They can be completed with a minimum of disruption to home and work life as there is no compulsory residential component.

This is a fee-paying course, but some Commonwealth Supported Places are available.

Applications for 2009 are open.

For more information, contact: University of Tasmania Department of Rural Health Phone: (03) 6324 4000 E-mail: Sue.Whetton@utas.edu.au www.ruralhealth.utas.edu.au/ informatics/pulse0811.php

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The Health Communication Network (HCN) has entered into a reseller partnership with Serials Solutions, a USbased provider of electronic resource management solutions. The partnership facilitates the sale of Serials Solutions 360 e-resource access and management services and Ulrich’s Global Serials Intelligence services to Australian medical organisations.

According to HCN CEO, John Frost, “This partnership delivers a good opportunity for HCN’s customers in the health library sector to enjoy the significant benefits that the Serials Solutions technology offer.

The partnership and products are complementary in all aspects.”

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BitS & BYTES TELSTRA TO RAMP UP NEXT G WIRELESS BROADBAND SPEED In early November, Telstra announced that they would be dramatically increasing the peak downlink speed of their Next G network by the end of the year.

At its annual Investor Day, Telstra hosted its first public enhanced HSPA (eHSPA) data session, showcasing the enhanced network speeds and demonstrating the capabilities of the super-fast new modem.

Speaking at the event, Mike Wright, Executive Director, Wireless Engineering and Operations said, “The new technology will unlock opportunities for many of our customers by bridging the gap between wired and wireless broadband connectivity.

“The surge in available data speeds will allow more Australians to work away from the office. They will be equipped to integrate new applications - including web conferencing, live high definition streaming video, high-speed web browsing and seamless virtual private network access - into the way they do business on the move.

“While for consumers, it means access to a whole new world of internet-hosted mobile applications and the mainstream adoption of the mobile phone as the preferred way to access and browse the Internet and email in Australia.

“Working with our partners Sierra Wireless, Qualcomm and Ericsson, we have developed the world’s fastest mobile broadband device - almost three times faster than the fastest devices currently available - which will push the speed barrier to levels not seen anywhere else on earth.”

Trials of the 21Mbps mobile broadband modem will begin in December with a full commercial launch expected to follow early next year.

GP REGISTRAR LAUNCHES “GP INSIDER” ONLINE FORUM Dr Praveen Jayarajan, a GP registrar from Melbourne, has launched a web forum for GPs and GPs in training.

Inspired by similar resources established in the UK and the USA, GP insider has been designed to facilitate discussions relating to current research, medications, treatments, clinical practice guidelines, health policy, and the future of the profession. The website can be found at www.gpinsider.com.au.

The changing face of Family Health Records The other day, our son emailed us from the UK, asking for his immunisation records. He’d applied for a job as a physiotherapist and he needed to provide immunisation records to his prospective employer, particularly Hep B and Tetanus.

While both my wife and I both clearly remembered when the immunisation occurred, it was quite another thing to locate the actual paper based record of that particular event. We had to fax it to the UK, or scan it and email it.

Ten months later we are still searching.

We rang the rural doctors practice where we were all immunised together, but they can’t put their hands on the records either because it happened quite a few years ago. Their records are probably in boxes gathering dust in a storeroom somewhere.

I looked in the fireproof deed box; found passports, our wedding and birth certificates and copies of old wills, but no health records. Then my wife looked again, (a ‘real’ look, as compared to a ‘blokes’ search!) and found the small book that holds the health records for the kids from the time they were born till they were about 12 or 13. No sign of records from their teenage years at all. We know, well at least my wife does, that a book exists with all this vital information in it; we just can’t find it for love nor money.

Where do you keep the families health records? Like us are they in books of various shape, colour and size, stored somewhere safe?

With the thought of ‘where is that bloody health book?’ lingering in my subconscious can you imagine my delight when I attended the Health Informatics Society of Australia’s (HISA) recent Health Informatics Conference (HIC’08) in Melbourne and listened to keynote speaker Neil Jordan from Microsoft outline his companies new HealthVault resource. A free online, secure, personal health record. Well, it’s free until you want to use software resources that are available as part of the product! C’mon, Microsoft giving you something for nothing!!!!

This is how the Microsoft website describes the HealthVault product: “You should be able to use your

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health information wherever and whenever you want. You should be able to share it with whoever you want and decide what they can see and can’t. HealthVault can help you do that. HealthVault offers you a way to store health information from many sources in one location, so that it’s always organised and available to you online. In the USA HealthVault is working with doctors, hospitals, employers, pharmacies, insurance providers and manufacturers of health devices — blood pressure monitors, heart rate monitors and more — to make it easy for you to add information electronically to your HealthVault record.”

Now doesn’t that beat the hell out of my family’s bits n pieces, booklets and bits of paper, stashed somewhere so safe we can’t find it. In a brief chat after his presentation, Neil Jordan told me that consumers are going to be the driving force in health over the next ten or twenty years. We are going to take charge of our own health, much more than we have ever done before. Why? I asked.

“Because the current health system isn’t coping, and if people expect the same old, same old to keep on providing what they get now, they are going to be very disappointed. We must do things smarter,” he says. Doing things smarter says Mr Jordan, includes taking responsibility for our own health and what better way to monitor that, than with the latest electronic gizmo’s linked to electronic health records that you can access anytime, anywhere.

So, back to the HealthVault website to get a better understanding of how this all works. The site uses a simple family example, David, Maria and their daughter Anna.

Let’s hope this shows someone who can track medical and health information better than my family!

Keeping track of Anna’s information Maria uses HealthVault to collect and store her 11-year-old daughter’s health data, so that she doesn’t have to find some old piece of paper when it’s time to provide immunization records. It’s online whenever she needs it.

BitS & BYTES She’s taking Anna to see a nutritionist, but the doctor’s office software doesn’t work directly with HealthVault yet.

No problem: If the doctor can send Maria a file containing nutrition guidelines, she can upload it to HealthVault. If all she gets is a piece of paper, Maria can scan and upload it, use a program that can fax it to HealthVault, or enter it herself on her computer, and print it when she needs it.

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Managing David’s blood pressure Maria finally prods David into tracking his high blood pressure, so that he can see what effect his new medication is having.

He attaches his blood pressure cuff to his computer every day, takes a reading and uploads it to his HealthVault record, where he can see a graph charting his progress — a chart that he can share with Maria. If he shares his data with Web sites that connect with HealthVault, they can analyse it and offer advice.

Preparing for a trip to the doctor David gives his doctor permission to see his blood pressure readings and medication information in HealthVault. Using his existing clinical software, David’s doctor is able to take a quick look at David’s data before his next appointment. As a result, he’s able to spend more of his time with David offering advice instead of asking questions.

Helping Maria stay fit Maria wouldn’t mind losing a few pounds, and exercises regularly. Her pedometer works with HealthVault, so after she goes walking, she attaches her pedometer to her computer and quickly uploads her distance information to her HealthVault record.

HealthVault helps her find a fitness site that can help her track her workouts and diet. She gives the site permission to see this information in her HealthVault record. In return, the site offers her useful diet and fitness advice.

Maria uses Live Search Health to find an article about fitness goals, and saves the link in her personal HealthVault scrapbook. The article says that you’re more likely to succeed if you share your goals and progress with someone close to you. She decides to take this advice and gives her sister permission to see her exercise information in her HealthVault record. She decides not to share her food diary, though — that’s a little too personal.

While I was talking to Neil Jordan, who grew up in the UK, I discovered an interesting bloke, not only does he work for Microsoft in the health space, he’s a trained Anthropologist, plays the Cello and in his spare time he sings Opera, and not just in the shower either, but semi professionally. He is excited about working with the giant world-wide company in a relatively new field, where he thinks he can make a difference to many peoples lives.

You know I have just realised that if our family had one of these new fangled electronic health records, our son could have gone online in London, downloaded his immunisation records, printed off a copy or emailed it straight to the employers HR section. All that aggravation gone. I think I’m about to sign up, problem is I need all our old health records to input them into the new electronic one.

Here’s to looking long and hard. Wish me luck!

— Mike Swinson

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The fastest way is to InterSystems Ensemble® software makes it easier for work with our innovative software products. individual hospitals to connect applications, processes, and InterSystems Ensemble® software makes it easier for healthcare professionals. This rapid integration platform individual hospitals to connect applications, processes, and® has a technology stack that includes InterSystems Caché , healthcare professionals. This rapid integration platform the world’s fastest object database. Caché’s lightning speed, has a technology stack that includes InterSystems Caché®, massive scalability, and rapid development environment the world’s fastest object database. Caché’s lightning speed, give Ensemble unmatched capabilities. massive scalability, and rapid development environment Or, if you need to securely share patient information give Ensemble unmatched capabilities. across multiple medical facilities, work with InterSystems Or, if you need to securely share patient information ™ HealthShare . This is the irst comprehensive platform across multiple medical facilities, work with InterSystems for connecting ™ separate systems to create an Electronic HealthShare . This is the irst comprehensive platform Health Record that can span a state, or even a nation. for connecting separate systems to create an Electronic InterSystems TrakCare™ is our Web-based healthcare Health Record that can span a state, or even a nation. information system. It has™patient-centric clinical and InterSystems TrakCare is our Web-based healthcare administrative modules that provide a fast track to an information system. It has patient-centric clinical and Electronic Patient Record. TrakCare was built on our administrative modules that provide a fast track to an Ensemble integration platform, so TrakCare modules will Electronic Patient Record. TrakCare was built on our connect with each other, and with your other applications.

Ensemble integration platform, so TrakCare modules will For 30 years, we’ve been a creative technology partner connect with each other, and with your other applications. for leading hospitals around the world that rely on the For 30 years, we’ve been a creative technology partner high performance of our products, and our people. for leading hospitals around the world that rely on the high performance of our products, and our people.

See product demonstrations at InterSystems.com.au/Connect See product demonstrations at InterSystems.com.au/Connect

© 2008 InterSystems Corporation. All rights reserved. InterSystems Ensemble and InterSystems Caché are registered trademarks of InterSystems Corporation. InterSystems HealthShare & InterSystems TrakCare are trademarks of InterSystems Corporation. © 2008 InterSystems Corporation.

All rights reserved. and InterSystems Other product names are the InterSystems trademarks ofEnsemble their respective vendors. Caché are registered trademarks of InterSystems Corporation. InterSystems HealthShare & InterSystems TrakCare are trademarks of InterSystems Corporation.

Other product names are the trademarks of their respective vendors.

BitS & BYTES Intersystems OPENS DOORS IN THE Middle East InterSystems Corporation have announced the opening of an office in the Middle East. Located in Dubai Healthcare City, the office will handle sales and support for all InterSystems software products in the region.

In conjunction with this office launch, InterSystems acquired key assets and staff from the company’s long-time local distributor, HBO Middle East. Leading organisations in the Middle East are already using InterSystems software products, with sites in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai.

“InterSystems now has offices in 23 countries on six continents supporting sites in 90-plus countries worldwide,” said Paul Grabscheid, InterSystems Vice President of Strategic Planning. “Our steady growth highlights the critical need for software that enables connected healthcare around the world. In the Middle East, as elsewhere around the world, there are strategic opportunities to enhance the quality, safety and convenience of patient care through the targeted use of advanced electronic patient record technologies.”

EJHI Instalment Released The fifth edition of the electronic Journal of Health Informatics (eJHI) has recently been published online (www.ejhi.net).

The eJHI is a peer reviewed publication and is the official journal of the Health Informatics Society of Australia (HISA) and the Australian College of Health Informatics (ACHI).

The instalment, Volume 3, Number 2 (2008), focuses on Health Information Systems and was guest edited by Judith Symonds, Brian Corbitt and Jeffrey Soar.

In addition to an introductory editorial, the latest edition of the journal includes five papers; Motivation and Demotivation: a Case Study of the Malawian Health Management Information System, “Understanding GP Attitudes Towards A Data Amalgamating Health Informatics System”, “Reactions and Perceptions of Healthcare Professional Towards Wireless Devices In Healthcare Environment In The Developing World: A Case Of Pakistan”, “Model-driven Service Engineering in Home Telecare” and “Towards a comprehensive understanding of health information needs”.

NEHTA releases SNOMED CT educational resources The National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA) has released two educational resources to help promote the benefits of using SNOMED CT. “SNOMED CT Overview” and “SNOMED CT” Basics are now available from the NEHTA website in a variety of downloadable multimedia formats including PDF, MP4 and WMV. Both presentations are also hosted on NEHTA’s recently established YouTube channel for online viewing.

“The purpose of creating this educational material is to effectively raise the level of awareness within the SNOMED CT user community about the many benefits and uses of the application,” said David Hislop, general manager, Terminology Services, NEHTA. SNOMED CT Overview is an 80 minute introductory presentation pitched at people such as policy makers, procurers and government representatives, who will be increasingly exposed to SNOMED CT as implementation and deployment

of NEHTA’s preferred clinical terminology becomes more widespread.

In this presentation, viewers will receive an overview of SNOMED CT, its history, requirements of use and an outline of its benefits.

SNOMED CT Basics is a more detailed 80 minute presentation aimed at healthcare and service providers, clinical supervisors, practice managers and IT professionals.

The Basics course follows on from the Overview course and aims to educate people on expressions, description logic as well as the primary and secondary uses of data.

Internationally renowned SNOMED CT expert, Kent Spackman, is the presenter of both resources.

Spackman is the Chief Terminologist for the International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation, which was formed in 2007 to continue the development and support of SNOMED CT.

Clintel Systems acquires “The Specialist” South Australian based health industry software provider, Clintel Systems Pty Ltd has recently acquired The Specialist, a fully integrated clinical and practice management software solution for Specialist and Day Surgery settings.

The Specialist was developed for both MacOS X and Windows by another South Australian based company, Medical Frontiers, a long established software vendor of systems for medical practioners.

Nick Cuthbertson, Managing Director of both Clintel Systems and its parent company, HealthSolve, said the purchase reflected the groups confidence and commitment to the continued growth of the Healthcare market, and in particular the opportunity for technology to drive improvements in the quality and cost of patient care.

“The Specialist adds to our existing range of software solutions for Health including care systems for Hospitals, and

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aged, and community care facilities.”

Mr Cuthbertson noted that the ageing population is placing increasing pressures on Health industry resources in all developed economies of the world including Australia. This pressure has lead to a strong focus on IT as a means of coping with the ballooning cost of Health and corresponds with the introduction of new IT technologies which enable IT systems to play an increasing role in efficiency and effectiveness in the Health industry.

Mr Cuthbertson said the acquisition would provide HealthSolve with the opportunity to capitalize on the convergence of systems occurring across the health industry.

“The Specialist is an acknowledged leader in terms of functionality for Medical Specialists. We will add to this our strengths in development of high quality, reliable industry standard systems backed by first class 24x7 support.”

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BitS & BYTES HealthSolve UNVEILS AGED CARE ROSTERING SYSTEM HealthSolve has announced the release of a new Rostering system designed specifically for the needs of aged & community care. Dubbed “Healthsolve RiGHTPEOPLE”, the solution can be deployed as a stand-alone system or integrated with the Healthsolve Care Management Solution.

HealthSolve Managing Director, Nick Cuthbertson, said, “Healthsolve client surveys indicate staffing as one of the most complex and time consuming tasks for management. A key function of staffing is ensuring that the right number of staff with the right skills are available at the right time to manage the requirements of residents. RiGHTPEOPLE was designed to achieve this with the flexibility to mirror the clients processes.

He noted that studies in the Aged Care industry suggest that effective staff rostering is a major determinant of an organisations financial performance, underscoring the importance of rostering.”

RiGHTPEOPLE is a web-based system, facilitating easy deployment and system maintenance. The solution incorporates an internal messaging system, supports unlimited locations and staff, and allows staff qualifications and competencies to be tracked. RiGHTPEOPLE also includes comprehensive reporting functionality, the system able to generate daily staffing lists, payroll reports, leave reports, in addition to customised reports.

PRACTICE MANAGEMENT FORUM LAUNCHED In response to the ever-increasing complexities associated with managing a modern medical practice, Doug Spiegelhauer, a GP practice manager from North Queensland, has launched an online forum devoted to the discipline.

Dubbed the “Medical Practice Management Forum” and launched in September, the free forum has already attracted over one hundred participants who are able to discuss themes including practice accreditation, IT, financial management, ongoing education and training, and medico-legal issues.

According to Mr Spiegelhauer, “Practice Management is a complex field and we can all learn something new from each other.”

The forum can be accessed at: www.practicepotential.com.au

NEHTA updates Australian Medicines Terminology The National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA) has released version 1.9 of the Australian Medicines Terminology (AMT).

The latest revision of the AMT includes — for the first time — all pharmaceutical products listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). According to NEHTA, this constitutes over 5,000 products registered for use in Australia by the Therapeutic Goods Administration, which together account for more than 80 per cent of the total volume of medicines used across the country.

The AMT, designed as the national medicines component of SNOMED CT, uniquely identifies medicines and their clinically critical components, applying standard naming conventions to ensure accuracy and consistency when describing medications.

NEHTA Chief Executive, Peter Fleming,

said the release of AMT v1.9 and its integration into the PBS was a major advance for e-health in Australia.

“Management of medication information will be a key area for health reform,” Mr Fleming said. “The adoption of AMT means pharmaceutical products will be able to be accurately identified and described by computer systems.”

“The ability to uniquely identify every marketed medication in Australia will enable greater efficiencies,” Mr Fleming said. “Efficiency in this area means fewer avoidable allergic drug reactions, fewer transcription errors, better decision support for clinicians and more effective management of Government subsidies.”

Mr Fleming went on to state that the number of products listed in the AMT will soon double, encompassing medications not listed on the PBS.

Is technology a critical tool to avert healthcare crisis?

“A smart future will see an increased use of paramedical personnel in the delivery of basic healthcare, supported by innovative information technology before medical specialists get involved.” So says Dr Lyle Berkowitz, keynote speaker at the recently held Health Informatics Society of Australia (HISA) Health Informatics Conference (HIC’08).

Lyle Berkowitz, MD, FHIMSS, is a practicing internal medicine physician and healthcare informatics expert with a passion for creating innovative solutions that improve the quality and efficiency of the healthcare system for both physicians and patients.

“If we don’t adopt new technology and change the way we deliver care, it will be harder and harder to get to see a doctor, it will cost more, the rich will cope, the poor will suffer. Many will die earlier than they would have if cost effective treatments were available. We have to act now before the healthcare system goes into meltdown.”

Dr. Berkowitz is a quietly spoken unassuming bloke, yet his message rings loud in the ears of those who understand

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the serious situation healthcare systems face in the developed world.

He serves as the Medical Director of Clinical Information Systems for the largest primary care group in the city of Chicago, he is the Program Director for the Szollosi Healthcare Innovation Program (SHIP), and president of an independent healthcare IT strategy consulting firm.

Dr. Berkowitz has researched and consulted in the field of medical informatics with a focus on creating tools and strategies to ensure physician and patient adoption of clinical information systems. He is an author, public speaker and a self confessed media junkie, he’s a physician advisor to the ABC Medical News Unit and works with a wide variety of movie, television and theatrical productions in Chicago. He’s also a Dad with two kids; although where he finds time to do that job I’m not sure.

“In America we are facing the same healthcare problems as every developed nation. An ageing population, an obesity epidemic, increasing levels of diabetes and other related problems and huge

BitS & BYTES growth in treatment options. So therefore we are seeing a demand increase, at the same time there is a supply decrease, fewer physicians, fewer nurses, fewer healthcare professionals everywhere, not just in the US.” “Actually” says Lyle, “we don’t really have a shortage of physicians, we have a problem using the physicians we already have efficiently, that’s where technology and smarter healthcare delivery comes in.”

Now get your head around the implications of that statement. We need to think smarter, use the people we have more efficiently, remove some of the mundane stuff they do and keep them doing what they are good at.

Lyle Berkowitz and other speakers at HIC’08 were all singing from the same hymn sheet, we; that is you and I, can no longer expect all our visits to the Doctor to be face to face. A lot will be virtual, online, maybe to a nurse practitioner first, then if they reckon you are seriously ill, a face to face consultation.

To complicate matters, Medicare with its rebates and payments systems will have to find innovative ways to cope with the changing world.

“We are more similar than we are diverse, we all suffer from the same medical problems of cost, quality and access to care. We have the same shortages of healthcare professionals, we don’t have enough money to fund healthcare. We all deal with the same pain, we need to develop and use new technologies to make the systems work more efficiently.”

Lyle’s mind works in interesting ways, not only does he have substantial formal medical qualifications as a specialist physician, he has an enquiring mind and an ability to think like an engineer. It’s classic left and right side brain activity.

“Technology is fine but in the end these are only tools, they need to add value, they do that by improving the health system, making it work better. It’s all about establishing where we are now, where do we want to be in ten years and how do we get there with the help of new technology.

“In our relatively small Innovation Centre, with limited budgets, we asked ourselves ‘what can we do that will improve healthcare delivery in our home town of Chicago?’ We work in niche areas, ones where we can afford to develop technology that will solve local problems and also make our health

system better. Then we can export that technology to the nation and beyond.”

“We have concentrated on outpatient care for those people who need a lot of attention, where right now a lot of time, money and resources are spent on a small number of individuals.

We know that a smart future will see an increased use of paramedical personnel, supported by information technology, delivering basic healthcare before medical specialists get involved. Doctors will have to let go of a lot of ‘stuff’ they do now and quite honestly nurses and others are much better at following protocols than many doctors.

If we don’t do this, there will be worse medical shortages than there are now, it will be harder and harder to get to see a doctor, it will cost more, the rich will cope, the poor will suffer and many will die, earlier than they would have if cost effective treatment was available.

The worst example of that is already apparent in the USA with some medical specialists in Florida establishing VIP Care clinics. Patients have to pay an annual retainer of $2000.00/year just be on the clinic’s books. They also pay fees when they access services. These doctors see fewer patients and keep their income high. They might see 200 patients a year, instead of 2000. What happens to the other 1800 who cannot afford the retainer fee? They have to find doctors in an already overstretched system. The implications of this sort of change are scary for ordinary Americans,” says Lyle.

I asked him if politicians in the US understand the seriousness of the healthcare crisis? He said, “I don’t think so, they all say we need more doctors, but that isn’t the answer, it’s not the answer in Australia either. We have to change our payment systems; in Australia that means changing the way Medicare pays doctors, that will provoke another healthcare debate. Care does not mean a face-to-face consultation with a doctor every time you feel ill. You may need to see a nurse practitioner first, the consultation may be online, yet the practice still has to be paid even if it’s an online consultation or the appointment and treatment is with a nurse in the medical clinic.”

“If we don’t adopt new technology and change the way we deliver care, the system simply will not cope, we have to act now before the healthcare system goes into meltdown.”

— Mike Swinson

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INTERVIEW: PRACTICE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE COMPANY

In our final interview for 2008, Pulse+IT checks in with Dr Nicholas Kemp, Managing Director of the Practice Management Software Company.

Pulse+IT: What products does the Practice Management Software Company (PMSC) develop for the health care sector?

We’ve developed GPComplete as a fully integrated medical and allied health software. The solution encompasses Electronic Health Record (EHR), Practice Management and Medicare Online (HIC Online) in the one system, using the one database.

Pulse+IT: What makes GPComplete different from other systems?

It probably comes down to two main aspects. First, most obviously, it’s 3-in-1, so the one system is doing everything needed by the doctor, practice manager and receptionist. But the big reason it’s valued by clients is more to do with the core focus on increasing billings.

GPComplete shaves time off all the commonly repeated tasks in the practice and therefore frees more time for seeing patients and growing the practice. It literally increases billings. Pick a scenario and the system generally gets it done faster — creating a new patient for a walk-in, entering encounter notes for a patient, moving patient from one appointment or doctor to another, conducting searches, reporting on financials and so on.

It’s also faster to go from one part of the system to another, or do a few things at the same time. It’s intuitive and it doesn’t hamper what a human being wants to do, which is often jumping from one task mid-way through it, to another one.

There are many small things the system does really well compared to others, but we almost view these as secondary to the gains in billings and patient interaction. Some of these other strengths are that you can use problem oriented notes, the search capability of the GPComplete medical records

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is extremely in‑depth, and there are advanced clinical search and financial reporting wizards that mean you can create virtually any kind of report and save it. And of course, we have web based auto-updates.

Pulse+IT: Which competing programs can you import data from?

All the common systems people are using right now are fine for transfer and all the data can come across.

For instance, we can take MD2, MD3, Best Practice, MSS, Practix, MSS and AccessGP. Pulse+IT: Does the PMSC interface with other clinical or practice management solutions?

No, it simply doesn’t have to. Again, it’s 3-in-1, one system doing it all, and using one database. This is the practice manager running the entire practice, it’s the receptionist managing appointments, requests and communications, and the doctor managing patients, entering encounter notes and making prescriptions.

Pulse+IT: How is the data conversion performed?

The data conversion tools can be run by the practice themselves, if the data is not too large. It’s automated and the programme does all the work. If the data is large, and some practices might have up to 80 gigabytes sometimes, then we can do it inhouse, for free. In these cases, we have a data conversion agreement that secures data privacy and data integrity for the client. So in either case, it’s all done for them.

Pulse+IT: What underlying database technology does GPComplete run on?

We use Firebird, and it’s proven to be a great decision. It’s the open-source version of Interbase, used by Boeing and Nokia. The thing is it’s not limited in

size and it’s free. Other databases like Microsoft SQL add a lot to the software price you end up paying and as your practice grows and the database gets bigger, you can get ‘performance throttling’ if you try to do a few tasks at the same time. To increase its size you have to pay more money yet again. We don’t have any such costs or limitations.

This has helped clients save time and money.

Pulse+IT: Which secure messaging products does the PMSC integrate with?

We integrate with Healthlink and Medical Objects.

Pulse+IT: How is training and support provided?

When a new client comes aboard, the first training is on-site, and it has to be, really. There’s a lot this system can do, and it’s easy to learn, but we find you’re very productive right away if we can provide a little structured introduction, to both the medical and administrative staff. After that, we have remote support tools. We can login securely and help a client solve a problem in realtime.

Between the upfront training and the realtime remote support, a client practice is up and running immediately, and any issue or question can be answered fast.

Pulse+IT: How many people make up the PMSC team and where are you based?

There are five of us including two dedicated developers, and two client support staff. We’re based at the Gold Coast, although we’re often liaising with other parts of the country. We have clients throughout the Eastern seaboard in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria.

Pulse+IT: Overview your pricing structure.

Our license fee is $1,000 and annual support fees are $1,000 per doctor

incrementing down as the size of the practice goes up. Naturally, the MIMS database is billed separately.

Pulse+IT: In addition to the PMSC licences, what other costs may practices have to meet?

Just the annual support fee. You don’t have any database system to buy, like Microsoft SQL, so there are no hidden costs.

Pulse+IT: How frequently does the PMSC release program updates?

MIMS updates are monthly. And every three months there’s a system update automatically. I should explain that.

We’re pretty much the most active developers in the industry. We are continually working on a log of feature requests from clients. They come up with ways we can further shave time off existing functions or introduce new time-saving or value-adding features.

Again, the focus is all about taking real-life scenarios for the doctor, receptionist or practice manager and increasing billings and the opportunity for patient interaction. So we work on this continuous log of requests, prioritise them, develop the ones that add most value and update the systems of all clients, remotely, every three months. All clients benefit from any new developments generated from

anywhere within our national client base.

Pulse+IT: Is professional IT assistance required to perform these updates?

No, not usually. A key strength of the software is its simplicity. The updates are hassle free and don’t involve our clients except in terms of letting them know about a new capability that might be of value to them. But in terms of actually achieving those regular updates, nothing at all is required of them. That in itself saves them a lot of time and money.

Pulse+IT: What recent and potential features can users of GPComplete look forward to?

We’re really looking forward to completing some data extraction tools and statistical analysis of not only patient data but financial data. These should further help our client base increase billings and refine their patient care.

For example, if you look at three recent developments, you can extrapolate and see where we might further develop.

First, the reporting system is completely unique and very powerful. You can use a wizard to search for and report on virtually any and every conceivable combination of data. If the system records it, you can create a report that includes it.

Second, you can then save that report and schedule the report to occur, automatically. Other systems need a human to initiate it. But in our case, the server wakes up and performs your scheduled tasks and emails them to anyone you have selected, so that they’re ready and waiting.

And third, everybody has task lists and you can requests tasks of people, just as if they were work orders. You can manage these tasks exactly like Outlook tasks.

Pulse+IT: Does the PMSC make use of the Australian Health Messaging Laboratory (AHML) HL7 message testing facility, and do you have any plans to have the HL7 message generation and handling functionality of the PMSC¹s products vertified by the AHML? No, not yet. There have been other requests clients have valued ahead of this.

Pulse+IT: Has NEHTA’s work program had an impact on the functional direction of your products, and the strategic direction of your business?

No, not yet.

Practice Management Software Company www.pmsc.com.au

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NEHTA

NEHTA introduces the National Product Catalogue The National Product Catalogue is a long-overdue reform for the public health system that will radically improve efficiency, increase quality and safety for patients, and save $200 million.

Australia’s health system relies on having enough of the right medical supplies, equipment and medicines on hand to treat the patients who need them, when they need them.

Until recently, however, government health departments and public hospitals have used dozens of different catalogues for ordering these products. Often they contain inconsistent product information, and purchasers had to use a variety of different systems to make their orders. Under this inefficient supply-chain, unnecessary duplication of effort was common, as were errors in ordering – it was too easy to order the wrong thing simply because a product or medicine was not identified accurately.

The National Product Catalogue is an electronic solution to the supply-chain problem: a single online home for all products, prices and medicines used in the Australian health system.

The health sector has long recognized the need for a single repository as the most effective method for making healthrelated product purchases. Now, using the National Product Catalogue, public health institutions across Australia can find out everything they need to know about the medicines, medical devices and other healthcare products they use, from the one source.

While the National Product Catalogue represents a major overhaul of existing processes in the health system, electronic procurement systems have been standard in many other industries for years.

Suppliers of products have welcomed the e-procurement solution for doing business with their government clients. No longer will they need to waste time with a different form or process for each government department – the National Product Catalogue creates one standard process for providing details electronically about any product to every health department.

Each product in the catalogue has a unique identifying barcode, much like the ones you see on retail products at the supermarket. The code for each item includes relevant purchasing information such as the size of packs or the component parts of an item. The catalogue will even list nonmedical products such as office supplies, so the public health system need only use the one source for making purchases.

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Health departments like the new electronic system for several reasons. While the immediate saving of $200 million is valuable for a health system straining to control the costs of its services, improvements in efficiency are not just about money.

The National Product Catalogue offers the potential to unlock even greater value in terms of managing risks and improving quality and safety for patients.

By allowing a public hospital to know exactly how much stock they have of any given product, for example, they can locate supplies, replace out of date stock, and avoid ordering too much or too little of any product.

Patient safety is improved because every product’s unique code ensures that the correct product is being purchased.

The accuracy of electronic procurement will reduce misidentification of medications and medical products.

And in the rare event of a product recall, the National Product Catalogue provides a reliable single source for knowing the amount of any product and its whereabouts in the health system.

The public health benefits of the National Product Catalogue are clear, which is why the system is now in place across all state health departments.

Using electronic systems to exchange health information (e-health) can make a big difference in how information on medicines and other health products is shared between providers in the healthcare sector.

The National E-Health Transition Authority, a not-for-profit company established by state and federal governments, built the National Product Catalogue as part of its mandate to develop betters ways of electronically collecting and securely exchanging health information. The Authority is now working on a suite of practical tools to help decision-makers analyse the catalogue and better understand public spending on specific products and product categories.

The introduction of the National Product Catalogue to Australia’s public health system, one of several initiatives in the electronic delivery of health services, is a welcome and long-awaited reform of the health supply-chain process. With fewer errors, greater efficiency and significant cost savings complementing real improvements to the quality of healthcare and patient safety, the National Product Catalogue is the gateway to the smoother functioning of a 21st century health system.

AAPM2009 National Conference ‘The Edge of Practice Management’ Tuesday 20 – Friday 23 October 2009 Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre It is with great pleasure and excitement that we welcome you to the AAPM 2009 National Conference hosted in Melbourne! As you will see the Conference program is one not to be missed – if it’s diversity you’re looking for then the offerings of the AAPM 2009 conference will certainly not disappoint. State-of-the-art facilities at the new Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre and a smorgasbord of hotels and multicultural dining experiences, make Melbourne ‘the place to be’ during the October 2009 conference. The Conference will offer participants an extensive range of exciting concurrent workshops. From foundation skills through to masterclass, and those in between there is something for everyone to experience. Be on the edge of practice management ... in Melbourne!

Linda Osman, Conference Convenor

Other Activities

Invited Speakers

UNE Partnerships Workshops

The Hon. Jeffrey Kennett AC Leading your way to Success

Welcome Reception and Opening of the Exhibition

Amanda Gore Transforming people and cultures from the inside out

First Time Attendees Dinner Happy Hour UNE Partnerships Cocktail Reception, Graduation and Awards Ceremony

Steve Herzberg Dealing successfully with Gen X, Y and baby boomers – practical strategies for Practice Managers Allan Pease It’s not what you say – body language Simon Thiessen Expedition

Gala Conference Dinner Convocation Corporate Governance Concurrent Session presenters and topics will be updated on the website.

Electronic Registration including accommodation information is now available. www.cdesign.com.au/aapm2009

AAPM 2009 Australian Association of Practice Managers National Conference will be hosted by AAPM Victoria.

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FEATURE Dr Henry Konopnicki MBBS (Hons), MBA, FRCPA, BSc, MAACB I am a GP with a professional passion for aged and community care. My approach was further enhanced by MBA studies leading to a strategic view. Utilising IM/ICT a virtual practice continues to evolve enabling real time collaborative care at any point of patient contact. This enables instant secure access to patient data and real time interaction with related care providers. I am involved in consulting and teaching to promote e-Health. henryk@medi7.com.au

An introduction to the iPhone for clinicians Introduction In the last 12 months there have been significant developments in the portable electronic device (PED) space. Whereas this sector was previously limited to laptops, there is now a variety of devices to suit a particular context, as seen by the increasing popularity of netbooks and ultra portable devices.

Coupled with convergence, we are now seeing devices that bundle Internet connectivity with portable communication capabilities, enabling extra Information Management Below - The Apple iPhone displaying some of the factory installed applications. There are now literally thousands of additional applications available for the device, with an increasing number of these designed specifically for clinicians.

and Information and Communication Technology (IM/ICT) portability.

Perhaps the most popular of these devices is the Apple iPhone. This phone is a portable, hand-held communication device enabling telephony, information management, Internet browsing, data synchronisation, and many other features.

Connectivity is possible over legacy mobile phone networks, 3G (HSPDA) mobile phone networks, or Wi-Fi. The iPhone’s screen, with its 320x480 pixel resolution, delivers significant clarity. Interaction with the device is by touch screen, and depending on the application in use, the screen can be viewed in landscape via simply rotating the device 90 degrees in either direction.

The iPhone’s web browser is called Safari. This browser is configured to open up a new web page for each new site being browsed, with an intuitive interface allowing the user to switch between open windows.

A basic set of applications is pre-loaded onto the iPhone with a vast array of applications downloadable from the Apple App Store. These applications vary in cost from free or a few dollars, up to $40 or $50. Due to the iPhone’s portability and connectivity options, it lends itself to use in medical applications.

Medical informatics A number of medical applications for the iPhone can enhance patient interactions in multiple consulting contexts. You only need to a search on medical applications for the iPhone to see the growing number of applications constantly being developed. These can be accessed via the App Store under the “Medical” category. There are also a significant number of patient‑centric applications available, with most of these categorised under the “Health and Fitness” category. As with all Apple-sanctioned iPhone applications, access to these programs can either be via the iPhone itself, or by using the App Store interface built into the iTunes desktop application.

Using an application like Epocrates, which can be loaded for free, you instantly have a medication referencing program.

Aside from the fact that it is USA centric, it is still a useful tool for medication enquiries including dosing and complications. It allows you to make your own notes and run comparisons with nominated medications, and also offers a free clinical service

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to download summaries of relevant journal articles.

Anatomical assistance is available from programs like Netter, which is an American anatomical atlas. Through high grade illustrations, anatomical concepts can be viewed with easy rotation and focus via the touch screen. Structures are highlighted by the touch of a finger and are extremely useful in both updating knowledge and as a consulting aid in clinical consultations.

The iPhone includes a GPS receiver that allows the current location of the user to be displayed on a Google map complete with either satellite of Google Street View imagery.

Route mapping can also be achieved with the iPhone, though at present there is no voice activated directions functionality included. The iPhone’s GPS functionality is a useful tool that would be of benefit to those GPs still doing house calls.

Connectivity With the ever growing need for instant access to data, the iPhone, with its preloaded Cisco IPsec VPN client, enables secure remote access. Coupled with an RDP (Terminal Services) application, a clinician has the ability to access medical files wherever there is Internet connectivity, either via 3G or Wi‑Fi. At present this connection can be quite slow, but with increasing 3G capacity and the eventual deployment of 4G or LTE technology capable of delivering bandwidths of up to 100MB/s, we will see significantly enhanced performance and functionality.

Documents And Email The iPhone allows email to be accessed in a variety of ways.

IMAP connectivity and preloaded SSL encryption email can facilitate access on the fly. With a variety of settings messages received and sent can be loaded locally or stored via your applications server so that you have defacto synchronisation.

Most documents attached to emails can be viewed on the phone, but the options for storing and editing these attachments is limited.

A number of web services designed for receiving incoming PDF documents have launched companion iPhone applications. One such program is called MBox, which

converts faxed documents to email, allows users to view these documents on the iPhone as PDF documents. This enables access to correspondence while away from the physical office and underpins the beginnings of the virtual medical practice. This will be further enhanced with the arrival of iPhone applications for accessing investigation results as well as secure clinical correspondence.

Shortcomings Despite the large leap forward made by Apple with the release of the iPhone, the device has a number of short comings: • Bluetooth connectivity is only basic and does not allow synchronisation to other Bluetooth enabled devices.

• The iPhone version of the Safari browser currently lacks Java and Adobe Flash support. In addition, a number of video formats are currently not accessible.

• Battery capacity is limited, and heavy use of Wi-Fi or 3G networks can deplete the battery quite quickly.

• Currently there are issues with dropped calls, a problem that was meant to be addressed by a software update.

However even though this has been improved it can still be a problem and will need to be addressed by Apple and the mobile phone carriers.

Conclusion The iPhone has reorientated the IT industry as to which device will be the primary electronic connectivity port, and other manufactures are now bringing out smart phones in direct response to some of the key features delivered by the iPhone.

The enhanced connectivity provided by the iPhone and similar devices will require medical practitioners to assess their communication strategies as well as challenge standards for accessing both medical literature and their own patient records.

There are few Australian-centric clinical applications designed specifically for the iPhone at present. However Apple’s iPhone and similar devices will increasingly provide greater portability and accessibility options for clinicians through ever increasing numbers of medical education resources, clinical support applications and connectivity tools.

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FEATURE Cameron Newman Cameron Newman has more than six years of experience working with medical clinics and hospitals in New South Wales. He is the executive director of Jabbawoki Group – a technology company that also offers a tailor-made suite of IT solutions to the medical industry. cnewman@jabbawoki.com

An introduction to Server Virtualisation Virtually speaking The word ‘virtualisation’ is thrown around as much in the IT media as the term ‘recession’ is dominating the mainstream news. Virtualisation is now becoming even more relevant, particularly to the medical industry, where any advantage in increased efficiency and reduced overheads is vital during this time of economic uncertainty.

As with any media hype, it can be difficult to cut through conflicting reports to get to the facts.

So what exactly is virtualisation? In basic terms it is a way to run multiple operating systems and servers on one computer.

This is significant when, next to wages, information technology can represent quite a hefty slice of a company’s outgoings.

Today’s present climate means the main benefit going virtual — maximising usage — makes it markedly more attractive, although it’s not entirely without its quirks.

The bottom line is that virtualisation is a reality any competitive organisation needs to face.

Virtual timeline For those who assume that virtualisation is a relatively new frontier, think again. In reality, virtualisation has a long history in the IT world and is now a mature technology.

The concept has been around for almost 50 years and actual virtualisation techniques have existed for close to 45 years. It is gaining acceptance in the small server arena after enjoying a few years in mainframe markets. This is largely due to the capability of powerful contemporary hardware and its capacity to meet the increasing emphasis being placed on efficiency in the global marketplace.

Virtualisation in a nutshell Virtualisation is the decoupling of physical server hardware (referred to as the Host hardware) from a single operating system.

Virtualisation allows a physical machine to operate many different operating systems simultaneously in isolation from each other (referred to as Guest operating systems). Each of these operating systems function the same way as a normal server and operating system do: They have their own allocation of resources on the physical computer such as memory (RAM), file space and networking components.

Server virtualisation is different from installing multiple

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applications on a single server. If you did this while running a single operating system, there would be many issues that would need to be taken into account. For example, it would be critical that the applications did not interfere with one another — some applications simply cannot run side-by-side.

For example, it’s advisable to separate servers for Microsoft’s Exchange Email Server from file sharing tasks.

There are three popular approaches to server virtualisation: The virtual machine model; the paravirtual machine model, and the virtualisation at the operating system (OS) layer.

Of these, the virtual machine model is the version which has been most widely accepted in the marketplace. It uses the host/guest arrangement in its truest version, allowing the guest operating system to run without modifications, while maximising resource efficiency. VMWare, the clear market leader in virtualisation software, uses this model and it is the most established format for the small to medium business sectors.

The virtues of virtualisation There are three main reasons why I use virtualisation at Jabbawoki: Space, time and money.

Some of the biggest drawcards of starting virtualisation in your company are the entry-level products that vendors offer for free. VMWare Server was my first introduction to virtualisation. It runs on Windows or Linux and can be installed in less than 10 minutes.

As a hosting company, we run numerous applications.

Many are just there for testing purposes, where as some are for training, and there are about a dozen used to run our own business.

Many of these applications normally require two to three servers. If we followed the golden rule of IT “One application, one server”, we simply wouldn’t have enough space in the office and data centre to house the machines required.

After converting a few machines onto the VMWare Server platform, our server list grew but our hardware requirements shrunk. Deploying a server from scratch is a time-consuming process — the installation and basic setup time can easily stretch into three days. This doesn’t even include application specific setup. With virtualisation being used almost universally at our company, we now have ready-made templates specific to our setup requirements which significantly reduce our deployment time.

When is going virtual a good idea?

The basic impetus behind server virtualisation is that many servers are underutilised. Today’s physical servers often include multiple processors, each containing multiple CPU cores. They also tend to offer large amounts of both memory and disk space.

While some servers need these types of resources, others do not. If you’re running a simple application, there is a good chance that the vast majority of a server’s capacity is not going to be utilised.

By opting for virtualisation, you can consolidate multiple systems into a single physical server. This means you can reduce the number of physical servers required by optimising the resources of the existing server.

How can virtualisation benefit my business?

There are a number of key reasons why virtualisation can be a winner for businesses. Firstly, server consolidation reduces the number of physical servers that need to be purchased, maintained and upgraded. Fewer servers mean a reduction in on-going costs for space and energy. Energy costs are represented in terms of running the infrastructure and controlling the environment (air temperature, humidity). The latter represents 20 to 40 per cent of the overall energy cost for computing infrastructure.

Secondly, virtualisation makes computing infrastructure more nimble when responding to business needs in shorter timeframes. Upgrading available resources such as RAM and CPUs on individual virtual servers takes minutes, allowing you to quickly respond to increases in demand. In addition, deploying new virtual servers takes a little more than an hour, whereas deploying a physical server may take several days.

For a medical practice there are many benefits for deploying virtualisation on their systems. The key benefits are best summarised as being growth, continuance and cost: Growth Virtualisation can give the medical practice or clinic a greater capacity to grow its business by simply adding more virtual servers. For instance one server with the necessary CPU capacity, RAM and disk space can use virtualisation to run: • File sharing • Practice management software • Organisation email systems such as Microsoft Outlook Exchange • SQL database server • Terminal Services (which enables off-site logins)

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The use of virtual servers mitigates the conflicts which normally arise when these types of applications are loaded onto one operating system. The practice can also expand its systems by simply adding new virtual operating systems to its server.

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Continuance The use of virtual servers can increase a practice’s ability to run their IT systems with minimal disruptions. A virtual server is a folder containing around 10 files that can be backed-up and copied just like any other files. This allows a practice’s server to be backed-up (including all configuration and settings) in a matter of minutes.

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The backup can be used to move the entire virtual server to another machine if required. If there are any faults with the virtual server’s underlying hardware, which is affecting the practice’s operation, they can be quickly moved to another server or PC to ensure services are back up and running.

Cost As mentioned earlier, deploying virtualisation is made relatively attractive as most of the entry-level vendor products are free.

These entry-level products have the necessary features which allow practices to run the range of systems and applications they require, without the need to upgrade to the licensed virtual server products.

Due also to the falling prices of server hardware and its increasing capacities, most servers offered on the market these days have the capacity to effectively run virtualisation. The principal investment needed is to increase the levels of memory (RAM) and hard disks on the server. Many existing servers can also be used for virtualisation if they have the ability to add the required levels of memory and disk space.

Generally the cost benefit to a medical practice is quite favourable given the systems enhanced ability to run multiple services, add new virtual servers and mitigate the loss of services and disruption to the day-to-day running of the practice.

What are virtualisation’s challenges?

Despite all its attractions, virtualisation is not without its challenges.

While many claim that the best way to understand virtualisation is by jumping in the deep end and just doing it, one of the most important things in the process of virtualisation for any production or mission-critical system is experience.

Running a single operating system can be complex in itself.

There is a large amount of hardware that the operating system has to interface with and individual applications will have distinct hardware requirements that may mirror or compete with other applications. On top of juggling these issues within a single machine, there is the all-important and frequently dreaded matter of security and redundancy.

Virtualisation takes these issues and multiplies them by a factor of at least five. Disk and memory contention is a common issue for non-virtualised systems, and in a virtualised environment these resources underpin a number of guest operating systems and their performance. When considering virtualisation it is important to be aware that some systems may not work effectively for performance reasons, having experience with virtual systems will make these stand out.

Experience leads to better choices of hardware for resource utilisation in a way that little else can.

Also, while virtualisation brings economies of scale in terms of physical hardware, these economies do not crossover to the management and maintenance of the guest operating systems. If you have a business that runs on a single server, virtualising the server will not solve the problem of having a single point of failure. Virtualisation may require that you re-evaluate your physical hardware capacity because of its enhanced performance needs.

Server virtualisation products The three leading vendors for server virtualisation are VMWare, Microsoft and Citrix.

VMWare is the current dominator of the virtualisation market, with an estimated market share between 55 and 80 per cent. Microsoft is ranked next with 8.7 per cent and Xen (Citrix) rounds out the top three with around a 3 per cent stake.

Conclusion This article has highlighted some of the benefits and drawbacks of virtualisation.

Virtualisation has fundamentally altered the landscape of computing infrastructure and how resources are managed and maintained. The key feature of this technology is not just the savings it brings, but its various benefits for all organisations regardless of their size.

Virtualisation can give practices and other businesses a bigger bang for their buck, a reduced need for many physical machines, lower running costs, faster deployment, increased performance stability for multiple applications and a heightened ability for business continuance.

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FEATURE Robyn Peters Robyn Peters is the Managing Director of CONNECT DIRECT Pty Ltd, developers of Direct CONTROL a business management software solution for the health sector. robyn.peters@directcontrol.com.au

Financial reporting and the medical practice Introduction Businesses keep books to ascertain whether or not they are making a profit or a loss. To physically view this information, reports need to be produced in either soft copy or hard copy so that they can be analysed and shared.

The advantage of computer accounting applications is that reports can be produced quickly without the time consuming job of gathering, summarising and presenting this information.

As the majority of the practice management software solutions available in Australia are not fully-integrated accounting packages, data has to be transferred to a third‑party accounting solution to get a “good picture” of how the business is functioning. This can be quite a tedious and expensive exercise, particularly if you are managing stock movement as well.

However, thanks to our having to do Business Activity Statements (BAS), this data is at least transferred more often than prior to the year 2000. Back then, you were lucky to know how your business was going financially once a year when your accountant lodged your returns to the ATO. Most medical practices lodge their BAS each quarter and therefore may only get an indication of how they are performing financially at that time.

Clearly it is far better to have your finger on the pulse of your business every day, so that you can make informed decisions within a reasonable time: • Autoclave breaks down — Can I afford a new one now or should I just pay to have it fixed?

• I need to upgrade the Server — Is this in my budget?

• I need a weeks break — Can I afford to be away?

• Increased income — What areas of the business need improvement?

• Current practice management solution not meeting business needs — Can I afford to change to another?

four hundred and fifty dollars, a summary of every transaction is included in the final reports for that particular financial year.

These transactions result in a list of what you own (Assets), less what you owe (Liabilities), leaving a value of what you are worth (Capital or Equity).

External accounting Apart from government regulations (the Australian Taxation Office, the Australian Accounting Standards Board – AASB which governs the practice of accounting and issues approved accounting standards), the main reason for the keeping of books is to ascertain whether or not the business is making a profit or a loss.

The Australian Accounting Standards Board and the Australian Accounting Research Foundation (AARF) have published a series of Statements of Accounting Concepts.

These statements are accounting guidelines for people and organisations and are viewed as being part of a set of interrelated concepts (the accounting conceptual framework).

Detailed below are three reports: The Trading Statement, the Profit and Loss Statement and the Balance Sheet for a Medical Practice. The registered business name of the Practice is A Bouncing Medical Practice. These financial reports were produced at the end of the fiscal period 30 June 20xx.

However, many organisations produce these reports on a more regular basis.

The Trading Statement A Trading Statement is illustrated below:

Financial reports It is important that the bookkeeper understands what they are trying to achieve and why.

All transactions are recorded for the financial period, usually a fiscal year, and a number of reports are extracted from these records. It is from these reports that the viability of the business can be seen as each transaction is recorded in monetary terms.

Whether it is a receipt of twenty cents or a payment of

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The Trading Statement is a financial report that is generated at a specified time, usually the end of a financial period.

The Trading Statement details the gross profit of a business by totalling all income and deducting from this the cost of sales (e.g. surgical purchases, products). It is common for a sole trader to include this report with the Profit and Loss Statement. It is then referred to as the Trading and Profit and Loss Statement.

The Profit and Loss Statement The Profit and Loss Statement is a financial report that is generated at a specified time, usually the end of a financial period.

The Profit and Loss Statement calculates the net profit generated from a business by taking the gross profit and adding any other income, such as interest received or commission received, and deducting expenses, such as advertising, bank fees and telephone bills.

A Profit and Loss Statement is illustrated below:

The Chart of Accounts An account is a detailed listing of events that affect one particular item. Each account is addressed by the name of the event and a number (account code). For example: 4-1100 5-1000 1-1100 1-5100 2-2200 6-2300 The Balance Sheet The Balance Sheet is a financial report that is generated at a specified time, usually the end of a financial period. The Balance Sheet details what a company owns (Assets), what a company owes (Liabilities), and what a company is worth (Capital or owner’s Equity).

It is the Balance Sheet that summarises the transactions for the financial period and it is often referred to as a Statement of Financial Position.

A Balance Sheet is illustrated below:

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Income - Private Cost Of Sales - Surgical Working Cheque Account Computer Hardware Accounts Payable (trade creditors) Electricity.

If keeping accounts on a manual system, they are written in a book known as the General Ledger, sometimes referred to as a Book of Accounts. Each account is usually allocated one page in the book.

A list of these accounts is referred to as a Chart of Accounts and can be thought of as the index of the General Ledger.

Listed in the chart of accounts are all the accounts as they appear in the General Ledger. They are grouped into sections, numbered, and placed in alphabetical order. Accounts can

be added to and deleted (if not active) from the Chart of Accounts as required.

The Accounting Cycle The image at the bottom of this page refers to the Accounting Cycle.

Transactions take place and are supported by documentation. Details of these transactions are then recorded into either Journals (daybooks) if the bookkeeping is being maintained manually, or keyed into the relevant module of an accounting package if the bookkeeping is being maintained on a computer.

These daybooks or modules are then sorted (classified) by transferring the totals to the General Ledger. Some accounting

packages give you the option of transferring each transaction to the General Ledger, not just the totals. Other subsidiary ledgers may be kept such as a Debtors Ledger or a Creditors Ledger. At times specified by company policy, the accounts in the General Ledger are summarised in the reports discussed previously in this article, namely: • Trading Statements • Profit and Loss Statements • The Balance Sheet

Looking Ahead In the next edition of Pulse+IT we will look at reporting GST in the medical practice, and interim reports used for business analysis.

Below - A diagram of The Accounting Cycle, showing the progression of accounting information from individual transactions to aggregated financial reports.

Transactions

Documentation

Journals (Day Books)

Debtors/Patients Ledger

Summarise by transferring totals

Creditors Ledger

(Accounts Receivable)

(post) to one book (General Ledger)

(Accounts Payable)

Trial Balances

Trading Statement

Profit and Loss Statement

Balance Sheet

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31

FEATURE Simon James BIT, BComm Editor, Pulse+IT simon.james@pulsemagazine.com.au

Review: Kyocera FS-1300D monochrome laser printer INTRODUCTION The FS-1300D is the successor to the Kyocera FS-1030D (note the different positioning of the “3” in the model number), a monochrome laser printer that was reviewed in the November 2007 edition of Pulse+IT against other printers deemed possibly suitable for deployment in a GP or Specialist consultation room environment. While the FS-1030D performed admirably against its competition, the newer FS-1300D delivers several improvements over its predecessor that warrant re‑examination.

REQUIREMENTS In the aforementioned review, the author stressed several printer characteristics that should be sought when purchasing printers for typical consulting rooms. These include: Trays, trays and more trays The most effective way to reduce the time clinicians spend printing documents in their consultation room is to minimise the need for them to have to physically handle different types of paper forms, including scripts, pathology and radiology requests, practice letterheads, and other document types.

Given that installing multiple printers in a single consultation room is likely to be undesirable for cost and ergonomic reasons, the deployment of a single printer with multiple paper trays will usually be the most viable method of reducing the time spent manually inserting the requisite paper type into the printer.

Time to first page While the top speed of both laser and ink jet printers continues to improve steadily, the fact that many printers suitable for consulting rooms can print 20 to 30 pages per minute is largely irrelevant. Rarely do doctors need to print large multi‑page documents. Instead, the vast majority of jobs sent to a consultation room printer are one or two pages in length.

Because of this usage pattern, purchasers should look for printers with a fast “time to first page“ rating.

Total cost of ownership While the purchase price of a printer is easy to measure, determining the ongoing cost of running the device is more involving. Armed with an approximation of the number of pages the printer will output each year, would-be purchasers should be mindful of the cost of toner per page, and also the cost of replacing the printer’s drum unit (a procedure that isn’t necessary with the Kyocera FS-1300D).

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Warranties, the location of service centres, and whether scheduled maintenance needs to be performed should also be considered.

FEATURES In its default configuration, the Kyocera FS-1300D ships with a single 250 page paper cassette tray in addition to a 50 page multipurpose tray, which is revealed by opening the front panel of the printer. Previous models in the Kyocera range allowed a single 250 page cassette to be added for a total of 550 pages of capacity, however the FS-1300D allows two optional 250 sheet trays to be added for a total capacity of four paper types and 800 pages.

Unfortunately, unlike the Kyocera FS-1000, FS-1010, FS‑1020D and FS-1030D, which all utilised the same optional paper tray design (PF-17), the FS-1300D breaks this long-running compatibility line, preventing owners of these superseded printers from utilising their existing investment in additional paper trays. While this is somewhat frustrating, it should be noted that Kyocera has historically done a better job of protecting their customers’ investment in such accessories than other manufacturers.

The Kyocera FS-1300D includes a USB port for connectivity, however the printer can be purchased with an optional Ethernet network card pre-installed. While not usually necessary Below - The Kyocera FS-1300D shown in its default configuration. Two additional paper cassettes can be added, for a total capacity of 4 paper types and 800 pages.

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in a consultation room, built-in networking capacity can be useful in some circumstances. The printer comes standard with 32MB of RAM, however an additional 512MB can be installed, an upgrade worth considering if the user routinely prints long and graphically complex documents.

Represented by the “D” in the model number, the Kyocera FS-1300D includes duplexing capabilities that may come in handy when patients — or their lawyers — request a copy of their entire medical record.

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 Pathologists Pathologists  Pathologist   Anaesthetists  Anaesthetists  Anaesthetists  Anaesthetists Anaesthetists  Anaesthetis  Pathologists Pathologists Pathologist  Physicians Physicians  Physicians  ROOM LEFT FOR IMPROVEMENT  Pathologists  Pathologists  Pathologists  Pathologists  Pathologists Pathologists  Pathologist  Physicians Physicians Physicians While the core features and performance profile of the  Radiologists  Physicians Radiologists  Radiologist   Physicians  Physicians   Physicians  Physicians  Radiologists  Physicians Radiologists  Physicians Radiologist Kyocera FS‑1300D rate highly, a few minor aspects of the  Surgeons  Surgeons  Surgeons   Radiologists  Radiologists  Radiologists  Radiologists printer’s design present Kyocera with the opportunity to further Radiologists  Surgeons Radiologists  Surgeons Radiologist  Surgeons  refine this class of printer.  Surgeons  Surgeons  Surgeons  Surgeons o Assistants o Assistants o Assistants o Assis  Surgeonso Assistants  Surgeons  Surgeons  o Assistants o Assistants o Assis Aesthetically, the printer’s two-tone colour scheme is slightly o General Practice o and General Allied Practice Health o and General Allied Practice o Health Gene a o Assistants o Assistants oo and Assistants o Assistants jarring when compared to the beige-only shell featured on o Assistants Assistants Assistants o Assis General Practice General Allied Practice Healtho and General Allied Practice Health Genea the printer’s predecessors. Of greater functional note, the o General Practice and Allied Health o General General o General Practice Allied and Health Allied Health Allied Ha  Online Patient Verification  o Online Patient andand Billing  Verification Online Patient and and Billing Online Verifica Pa o General Practice o Practice and General Allied Practice Health oPractice and General Allied Practice o Health Gene  Online Patient andOnline Patient and Billing  Verification Online Patient and Insurance) Billing Online Verifica author found the circular status display indicator to be less (Medicare, DVAVerification (Medicare, Private Insurance) DVA and (Medicare, Private DVA (Medicare andPa Pr  Online Patient Verification  Patient Online  Patient Online Verification Patient Online Patient Verification andOnline Billing Verification and Billing and than helpful due to its tendency to bleed light between the and Billing (Medicare, DVA and (Medicare, Private Insurance) DVA (Medicare, Private DVA (Medicare andBill Pr  Online Verification  Online Patient and Billing  Verification Patient and Insurance) Billing Online Verifica Pa  (Medicare, Automated Fee  Updates Automated to include Fee  Updates Automated to  include Fee Automate Update (Medicare, DVA andstatus Private Insurance) (Medicare, (Medicare, DVA and (Medicare, Private DVA and Insurance) DVA Private and Private Insurance) Insura plastic chambers positioned under the various printer DVAUpdates and(Medicare, Private Insurance) DVA and (Medicare, Private Insurance) DVA (Medicare and Pr  Automated Automated to include Fee Updates Automated to  include Fee Automate Update symbols. On more than one occasion during testing, this led to WorkCover,Fee CTP and WorkCover, all Health CTP Funds and WorkCover, all Health CTP WorkCove Funds and a  Automated Fee Updates to include  Automated  Automated Fee  Updates Automated Fee to Updates include Fee Updates to include to include CTP and WorkCover, all Health CTP Funds and WorkCover, all Health CTP WorkCove Funds and a  WorkCover, Automated Fee Updates Automated to include Fee Updates Automated to  include Fee Automate Update a misdiagnosis of the intervention requested by the printer.

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be, an affliction that is inherent in many printers unfortunately.

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available.

Keepand your finger on issues the Pulse Despite the minor appearance user interface noted by the author, the impressive “time to firstbusiness! page” performance and the ability for the printer to handle up to four types of paper simultaneously contribute to make the FS-1300D a suitable option for practices looking to refresh their consultation room printers.

Keep your finger on Keep theyour Pulse finger of your Keep on theyour Pulse finger Keep of your on your th business! business! busines of your Keep your Keep finger your Keep onfinger the your Pulse on finger the ofyour your on Pulse the of Pulse your ofth Keep your finger on Keep the your Pulse finger of your Keep on the Pulse finger Keep of your on your business! business! busines Keep your finger of the Pulse of your business! business!business! business! www.directcontrol.com.au www.directcontrol.com.au www.directcontrol www.dir business! business! busines

www.directcontrol.com.au www.directcontrol.com.au www.directcontrol www.dir www.directcontrol.com.au support@directcontrol.com.au www.directcontrol.com.au www.directcontrol.com.au www.directcontrol.com.au www.directcontrol.com.au www.directcontrol.com.au www.directcontrol www.dir support@directcontrol.com.au support@directcon support@ www.directcontrol.com.au support@directcontrol.com.au support@directcontrol.com.au support@directcon support@ support@directcontrol.com.ausupport@directcontrol.com.au support@directcontrol.com.au support@directcontrol.com.au 1300 55 75 50support@directcontrol.com.au 1300 support@directcontrol.com 55 75 50 support@directcon 1300 55 75support@ 1300 50 55 support@directcontrol.com.au 1300 55 75 50 1300 55 75 50 1300 55 751300 50 55 1300 55 75 50PULSE + IT 33 1300 551300 75 5055 1300 50 50 55 751300 1300 55 75 50 1300 5575 7555 5075 1300 50 55 1300 55 75 50

FEATURE Linda Bâgu Batson B Comm, MACS, PCP, is is an information systems manager with experience in many sectors, such as manufacturing, education, utilities, mining and is currently working in health. Linda is a member of the Australian Computer Society and a member of the Advisory Board, School of Information Systems, Deakin University. linda.batson@acslink.net.au

The Requirements Phase: From RFP to demonstration Great news! You have identified a need for a new information system, gone through all the right channels and now have the job to “get it done”. Taking on the task with great gusto, you’ve already identified your Executive Sponsor [refer to Pulse+IT, Edition #9, page 42] and like a tightly coiled spring, are anxious to get straight into it. But wait... proceed with caution, because this is the time you can set yourself up for success – or failure.

When the need to select a new information system arises, a vital early step is a handy document known as the Request for Proposal (RFP). This detailed and (hopefully) well structured piece of writing sets out your requirements from start to finish.

The single most important function of preparing this document, is to determine your requirements for the new system. We’ll get to that in a moment. There are certain other items that make up the complete RFP. Let’s go through them now, with the reasoning behind each.

Start with an overview of your organisation, including some history and relevant parts of the strategic plan. Major projects, past and present, are also useful to cover here. Ask the vendor to demonstrate how they have serviced this type of organisation previously and to supply references that you can contact. It will give you a good idea of whether or not they have any direct experience in the health sector, or your particular type of implementation.

The purpose of your implementation should come next.

Give a good description of why it is needed, the problem that needs to be solved (if there is one) and what you expect to gain from it. This section will form the basis for everything that follows, so keep referring back to it when determining your requirements.

Whilst you are going through the writing process, keep in mind that it will be read not only by people in your organisation, but also by vendors and developers who have no knowledge of how your environment operates. Give these people a chance to provide the best response they possibly can, by structuring your document in an easy to read fashion.

Use tables, lists and lots of dot points to enable clarity.

Discovering requirements Now for the inner workings of your new system. This is often your first chance to really sit down and nut out the essential functionality you intend to deploy. The functionality section of your document is key and you must get as much feedback as you can from your organisation.

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Rather than scheduling workshops with various managers, end users and technical people, the one-to-not-very-many approach is faster and far more efficient. Make appointments with department or unit managers who will be users of the new system and ask them to get feedback from staff on requirements before your meeting, splitting up the requirements into “essential” and “desirable”. Use these two categories in your RFP also, when documenting requirements. It will give the respondents a guide as to whether their product will fit your needs.

Ensure a small representative party is present at each of these discussions, such as an end-user, team leader and unit manager. This way, you should be able to garner an idea of what type of functionality is most important fairly quickly.

Don’t forget to include compatibility with other applications, how many users will need to connect and timeframes for implementation in your discussions.

An interesting side-effect from brainstorming in a small intimate group is finding out which issues are going to arise to affect your project. Often, end-users know about other projects going on around about the place and the impacts they are likely to have. Remember, your IT department is not always kept in the loop when projects are in the planning phase, especially if there is external funding involved.

When you are happy that you have spoken to everyone that should be involved, collate the results in a table. During the review process later on, some of these are likely to be removed or modified.

Next, insert a description of current and future hardware environments and operating systems. If your respondents aren’t able to use your technology platforms, they need to know right from the start.

As for the cost of the system, you will no doubt have a budget in mind, but this is no time to mention it. It’s better to get the right solution and then negotiate on price if it doesn’t fit with your budget. Nevertheless, you must ask the vendor to supply an estimate of the software package price in the response, so you have some idea of whether there will be any chance of making an agreement.

Now let’s move on. You’ve done well in speaking to, or getting feedback from, all the people likely to be able to help you with determining the requirements. The RFP document is well-researched, written in plain English and asks only the pertinent questions. Now is the time to check back with

your contributors and review what has been written — it will be well worth the effort if you can pick up any mistakes or modifications now.

How to release the RFP can offer some uncertainty. If your organisation doesn’t have a policy on this aspect already, you may choose to send it direct to a select number of vendors, hand-picked for their reputation to deliver a good result. This is a valid approach and will save you having to trawl through an unlimited number of lengthy responses. However, you also risk missing out on new entrants to the market, or smaller, less utilised vendors that may have just the solution that you’re looking for. If you wish to capture all possibilities, you will need to consider placing the RFP on a website and advertising — your choice.

Evaluating responses Before the responses start to trickle in, set up an evaluation chart. This can be relatively simple to do and keeping it simple is definitely best for this process. Just put all your requirements and other items that need responses (such as technology platforms) into a spreadsheet and supply a weighting next to each.

For example, create two worksheets, label one “Responses” and the other “Scores”. Split each worksheet into “Essential” and “Desirable” requirement categories. For the “Responses” worksheet, add the columns “Requirement Name”, “Vendor One Response”, “Vendor Two Response” and so on. It’s OK to use their real names as this will be kept confidential. Copy your list of requirements into the “Requirement” column and add all the vendor responses.

The “Scores” worksheet is where you do the real work.

Again, create a column for “Requirement Name” and also “Weighting”, “Vendor One Score”, “Vendor Two Score” until all the vendors have been added. The “Weighting” column is where you note the level of importance for each requirement, which you will already be familiar with from your round of discussions and consultation with stakeholders earlier.

Essential functionality should be given a weighting score of between 3 and 5, 5 being the most essential item. Desirable functionality scores either a 1 or 2, 1 being the least necessary item. Mark these down on the chart in the “Weighting” column, corresponding with each item of functionality. Next, evaluate each of the vendor responses and allocate a score. For each item of functionality the vendor can fully deliver on, give a score of 5. If unable to meet the requirement at all, score a 0. Rank each individual item and response accordingly.

When completed, add totals for the essential and desirable categories separately.

Now you have a convenient, straightforward evaluation chart to assist with reviewing and selecting the successful respondents. Here you may use your discretion to select the three top-scoring vendors. Consult with your Project Sponsor on this. If all vendors scored poorly on the desirable category, you may choose to ignore it completely and concentrate only on the essential functionality section.

Notify the top three respondents that you wish to see a demonstration of their solution. If you have advertised the RFP widely though, you may have some proposals for a custombuilt system, not off the shelf software. Which raises another question: To build or buy? But that’s a story for another day.

Introducing HealthLink’s Partner Systems

HealthLink focuses on integration with its partners’ systems and works together with them to implement and test new communications services. HealthLink’s key concern is ensuring that HealthLink enabled systems are both easy to use and 100% reliable. HealthLink believes that compromising service quality is not acceptable in today’s healthcare environment.

Tel 1800 125 036 enquiries@healthlink.net

www.healthlink.net

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FEATURE Dr Paul Mara MBBS, FRACGP, FACRRM, Dip RACOG, is a rural doctor practising in Gundagai, NSW.

An introduction to online trading With the collapse in financial markets more people are choosing to be actively involved in managing their investments to grow their wealth and plan for retirement.

This article provides a very brief introduction to some features you might look for when considering online share trading platforms.

Fees Fees for online trading vary with some providers offering low entry brokerage fees. There is usually a minimum brokerage that applies and some seemingly cheaper brokers aren’t.

Check to see at what level the percentage fee kicks in.

Typically this is around 0.1% of a position. So to purchase $20,000 worth of shares, brokerage would be $20 or whatever minimum applies. Be aware that brokerage costs include GST and are for transactions on both sides – that is buy and sell.

Order types Most online brokers allow for at least two types of orders.

These are buy or sell at market, or limit. A limit buy specifies the number of shares that you wish to purchase up to a certain price. These orders can usually be placed when the market is not opened so may suit an end of day trader. An order to buy say 1000 BHP shares at limit $25 means that the upper limit of the purchase price is $25. If the price is higher during trading and then drops to $25 then (depending on available shares from sellers and number of buyers at this price) the order will be actioned. For sellers a limit order tells the broker to sell down to that price.

Readers will note that a limit sell order cannot be used to set a protective sell required to set a stop loss level. You may, for example wish to buy a share at $25 in the expectation of a rise but recognise that at some level it’s time to bail out. I always set a fixed stop order in case the trade goes bad. A fixed or initial stop protects capital, a trailing stop is designed to protect profits. There are a number of ways to determine these levels that take into account volatility, or price movements of the share, technical levels and total trading capital. Stops are becoming increasingly available on equity platforms but may cost more in brokerage. Calculation of these stop levels are beyond the scope of this article but having the capacity to set an automatic stop is useful when you are unavailable to trade or emotion sets in. Holding onto a falling share in hope is rarely a successful strategy.

MOBILE TRADING If you’re watching a share and want to know if a certain condition is met but not watch a computer screen a price alert

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can be sent by text message.

If you want to be more mobile, online brokers and CFD providers now offer phone trading platforms for modern mobile phones such as Apple’s iPhone. Check these out before you rush in. Speed and reliability can be a problem. You will need a platform that is not just a stripped down version of the website but one specifically designed for a mobile.

There are also a range of other mobile phone applications now that provide investor tools such as portfolio watchlists and stock tickers.

Charting Charting is often quite rudimentary on equity trading platforms.

Most traders will require more sophisticated technical analysis packages to determine entry and exit points and back test systems.

Backtesting has become increasingly sophisticated with computers. You can now backtest total systems using rules to identify potential trades and entry, exits and risk management rules with historical data as a guide to how your system might work in realtime. These backtest programs also include sophisticated reports that show a range of performance indicators such as profit and loss, winning trades, drawdown and risk metrics. But beware the disclaimer clause “past performance is not necessarily a reliable indicator of future performance” comes true when you least want or expect it.

Examples of these are Metastock, Amibroker and Ezicharts and the Macintosh ProTA application.

Portfolio management It is vital that you keep track of trades, for taxation and accounting purposes and also to monitor system performance.

Platforms that maintain records of buy and sell, fees and profit and loss records obviate the need to have another program or use of a spreadsheet to keep track of trades.

DeriVATIVES AND CFDs Derivative products (so called because they are derived from share prices) have been around for many years. Examples of derivatives include options, warrants and futures contracts.

These arose historically because of the need to hedge prices, say for a farmer planting a crop.

Contracts For Difference (CFDs) are one of the most rapidly growing derivative products. Simply, these are contracts with a CFD provider or market maker that reflect the difference between buy and sell prices of a share or other financial product. In buying a CFD it is important to realise that you are not buying the underlying share, although some of the benefits

of ownership – such as payment of dividends - may accrue.

There are a number of stated attractions with CFDs. The first is leverage. CFD providers publish margin rates for shares and other instruments. For blue chip shares such as BHP this may be as low as 5% which means that $1000 can purchase exposure to price movements of $20,000 worth of BHP. Or how about buying an index such as the ASX200, where the margin is 1%. A $10,000 cash position can provide exposure to $1,000,000.

Leverage is a two edged sword with no handle and money management, important with all trading or investment, becomes critical when trading with leverage. CFD providers give examples of how leverage can work to increase your returns amazingly. But reading the fine print and fully understanding the dangers of using leverage are vital before trading these products. People can and do get burned very badly.

A second stated attraction is (at least until recently when the ban on short selling of shares made life difficult if not impossible) the capacity to short (or sell) CFDs on a number of stocks. If you think a share will go down then sell it and buy it back at a lower price, pocketing the difference. Selling something you don’t actually own takes some getting used to but it can be an effective strategy in market downturns.

Contrary to the political hype, many commentators believe the banning of short selling has actually exacerbated the downtrend — at least short sellers have to buy back in at some stage.

I also know of some people who were shorting CFDs to protect the value of their investment portfolio. The ban on shorting meant that this was no longer an option and so some investors are selling their falling stocks, exacerbating the problem.

A third stated attraction is the huge choice of products on the market. It is relatively easy to gain exposure through CFDs to overseas shares, share indices, futures markets and other less intuitive products. Interestingly this includes the United States

markets where CFDs are banned as a financial product.

Costs for CFDs include brokerage costs which are usually comparable or less than for share trades, lending costs or interest (since these are purchased on margin) for purchases, and the need to hold a margin account with the provider.

Other costs include the pricing spread between buy and sell prices which may vary at different times and for different instruments. If you’re trading a mechanical CFD system these costs can make a considerable difference to return.

Platforms for trading CFDs vary but typically offer an expanded range of order types. For shorter term trading a reliable Internet connection is mandatory.

All of these attractions have downsides. Apart from limited CFD trading through the ASX, most of the time you are dealing with a market maker that sets the rules. Read the product disclosure statement carefully and then read it again. Trading CFDs, or for that matter equities, is not for everyone. There is a learning curve that can be steep and expensive. For every winner there’s a loser and plenty of tears in an unforgiving market. In fact choosing an online broker or trading platform should be one of the last things to consider in deciding to be a more active investor. Investing or trading is not just about picking up a few tips from a magazine. Learning about financial markets can be just as demanding as learning how to manage disease. You will need to learn more about markets and analysis of products, techniques of investing and trading and money management. A good investor is one who, like a good clinician, is disciplined, thorough, keeps good records, is self motivated and even courageous. The use of computers can support these.

Disclaimer This article reflects a personal journey and the authors personal opinion only. It should not be taken as personal financial advice. Before embarking on any investment you should fully educate yourself as to the risks involved and seek appropriate advice.

Below - Online trading platforms should provide a range of tools including charting and portfolio management to support your decision making.

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Computer Initiatives

Australian Medical Association Australian General Practice Network

P: 02 6228 0800 F: 02 6228 0899 E: agpnreception@agpn.com.au W: www.agpn.com.au AGPN represents a network of 111 local organisations (Divisions) as well as eight state-based entities.

More that 90 per cent of GPs and an increasing number of practice nurses and allied health professionals are members of their local Division. The Network is involved in a wide range of activities including health promotion, early intervention and prevention strategies, chronic disease management, medical education and workforce support.

Divisions work with general practice to improve clinical information across the range of their programs, to support improved management of chronic conditions and improve efficiency, utilizing a range of Information Management (IM) tools.

Our aim is to ensure Australians have access to an accessible, high quality health system by delivering local health solutions through general practice.

AHML

P: 03 5327 9302 F: 03 5327 9307 E: j.gilbertl@ballarat.edu.au W: www.ahml.com.au AHML is a non-aligned, not-forprofit organisation whose mission is to promote and facilitate the adoption of compliant international healthcare messaging standards. AHML is providing a world-class, easyto-access message testing environment for software developers and implementers.

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P: 02 6270 5400 F: 02 6270 5499 E: ama@ama.com.au W: www.ama.com.au

The Australian Medical Association (AMA) is an independent organisation which represents more than 27,000 doctors, whether salaried or in private practice, whether general practitioners, specialists, teachers and researchers, or doctors in training.

The AMA exists to: • promote and advance ethical behaviour by the medical profession and protect the integrity and independence of the doctor/patient relationship; • promote and advance the public health; • protect the academic, professional and economic independence and the well being of medical practitioners; and • preserve and protect the political, legal and industrial interests of medical practitioners.

ArgusConnect

P: 03 5335 2220 F: 03 5335 2211 E: argus@argusconnect.com.au W: www.argusconnect.com.au ArgusConnect provides and supports Argus secure messaging software that enables doctors and healthcare organisations to exchange clinical documents securely and reliably.

Not only can Argus be used to send specialist reports to referring doctors but it can also exchange pathology and radiology reports, hospital discharge summaries and notifications between healthcare providers. Healthcare practitioners can use any of the popular clinical software packages to send reports and other clinical correspondence via Argus.

Argus is the messaging solution preferred by more than 44% of all Divisions of General Practice across Australia.

P: 1300 39 85 85 (VIC) P: 1300 39 85 39 (QLD) F: 03 9768 9058 E: tim@cinet.com.au W: www.cinet.com.au

Best Practice

P: 07 4153 1277 F: 07 4153 2093 E: sales@bpsoftware.com.au W: www.bpsoftware.com.au Contents: 8 Best Practice sets the standard for GP clinical software in Australia offering a flexible suite of products designed for the busy GP practice, including: • Best Practice Clinical (“drop-in” replacement for MD2) • Integrated Best Practice (clinical/management) • Top Pocket (PDA companion software for Pocket PC)

Business Information Technology Group P: 02 6291 9953 F: 02 6291 9963 E: kburdette@bitg.com.au W: www.bitg.com.au

BITG’s forms automation, clinical document management & document process optimisation solutions help you capture, format, scan, archive and deliver real-time access to patient information across your healthcare environment.

More than 700 healthcare facilities are already reaping the benefits by: • Maintaining quality of care and patient safety • Enhancing nursing productivity and improving operational efficiency • Reducing manual processing errors (including barcoded patient documents, ID tags and wristbands) • Eliminating costly, pre-printed forms • Minimising the risks associated with critical document delivery Now there’s a better way!

Computer Initiatives has been supporting the medical profession for over 15 years. Providing IT consultancy services, quality hardware, professional support with qualified engineers to our large customer base in Melbourne and now in Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

Recommended and preferred by a number of Divisions of General Practice and specialist software providers we are well versed in providing the following services to the professions: • Supply and install of hardware/ software and peripherals • Disaster recovery and replication plans to minimise downtime to a number of minutes • Remote monitoring and diagnosis of crucial information systems • Advanced networking deployment and support • Prompt and competitive on site support • Internet configurations and content filtering services • Security audits, configurations and monitoring • Regular maintenance services We pride ourselves in our accreditations and levels of certification. We are a Microsoft Gold Partner – the highest level of MS certification and a Microsoft Small Business Specialist

200,000: The number of copies of Pulse+IT that will be produced in 2009.

$900: The price of admission into all of these editions.

For more information about Australia’s first and only Health IT magazine, call Simon James on 0402 149 859

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“Innovative Document Management”

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Emerging Health Solutions

MY

P: 02 8853 4700 CMY F: 02 9659 9366 E: Arthur.Harris@emerging.com.au K W: www.emerginghealthsolutions. com.au

DIRECT CONTROL

P: 1300 557 550 F: +61 7 5478 5520 E: support@directcontrol.com.au W: www.directcontrol.com.au Contents: 33 Listening to what people want has resulted in the birth of a fully integrated business solution for Practitioners. The aim was to develop an affordable, intuitive, easy to use, educational business solution for Practitioners of all Disciplines that eliminates the need for double entry of data. This has been achieved with seamless integration with Outlook and MYOB. Direct CONTROL facilitates medical billing Australia wide and overseas. Included is all Medicare, DVA, WorkCover, Private Health Insurance and other billing with the latest rules and fees relevant to each medical discipline (general practice, surgeons, physicians, allied health, anaesthetists, pathologists, radiologists and day surgeries/hospitals). Ideal for both the single practitioner and the multi-disciplinary Practice.

Direct CONTROL lets you get on with earning a living doing what you enjoy most … patient care.

Emerging Health Solutions (EHS) provides - next generation electronic health records. A Clinical Information System that is patientcentric & web-based that captures and provides appropriate, timely, clinical information in a secure and auditable environment to assist clinicians deliver effective, quality care.

EHS is currently live in Australian hospitals and has been assisting the Australian health industry for over a decade. Emerging is a specialist I.T. health provider acutely aware of the privacy and security issues that rightfully exist when dealing with patient records.

Emerging has four teams: Application Development, Network Security and IT Infrastructure C Management, Helpdesk & Support and Management Services.

Emerging’s core clients include M St. Vincent’s, Mater Health Y service, and the South Australian Government Department of CM Health.

MY

P: 02 8883 4425 F: 02 8883 4426 E: info@docstock.com.au W: www.docstock.com.au DocStock is an exclusively-online store retailing quality medical equipment to Australian doctors.

As a quality medical equipment supplier, we offer you the following benefits: • Known and reliable brand names • Safe and secure payment methods • Easy access to full product information and pricing • Efficient order turn-around and delivery times • AND ALL AT DISCOUNTED PRICES!

“Innovative Data Storage”

FILE PTY LTD

P: 1300 306 407 F: 02 9317 0999 E: info@file.com.au W: www.filegroup.com.au The FILE GROUP offers a comprehensive suite of records storage and management services: • FILE Pty Limited specialises in open-shelf offsite storage and management of records.

• FILE Technology Pty Ltd supplies a turnkey RFID tracking system for the movement of records, assets and people.

• FILEVault offers a comprehensive On-line backup service using 448 bit military strength encrypted technology for desktops,FILE laptops and servers.

Logos - 42mm.pdf 25/07/2008

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Equipoise International

Founded in 1994, Equipoise International’s focus has been the development of best of breed medical management systems.

We are a proudly Australian based and owned company, with a shareholder base including clinicians, employees, and private investors.

Our flagship product - the Totalcare suite of medical software - has been in continuous development for over 12 years.

Totalcare reflects our philosophy of providing comprehensive, flexible and reliable solutions to our clients, backed by a personal, knowledgeable support team. We seek to excel in all our interactions, and to provide not just superior software, but superior service.

GENIE solutions

P: 07 3720 4085 F: 07 3720 4462 E: info@geniesolutions.com.au W: www.geniesolutions.com.au Contents: 7 Genie is a fully integrated appointments, billing and clinical management package for Specialists and GPs. Genie runs on both Windows and Mac OS X, or a combination of both. With over 1300 sites, it is now the number one choice of Australian specialists.

12:55:38 PM

The availability of these services makes the FILE GROUP the partner of choice for forward looking organisations desirous of achieving the best possible outcome in records storage and “Innovative Document Management” management.

Sydney - Brisbane - Melbourne - Perth “Innovative RFID Tracking”

CY

CMY

P: 07 3252 2425 F: 07 3252 2410 E: sales@totalcare.net.au W: www.totalcare.net.au

DOCSTOCK

“Innovative RFID Tracking”

CY

“Innovative Data Storage”

FILE VAULT

P: 1300 306 407 F: 02 9317 0999 E: info@file.com.au W: www.filevault.com.au

Secure Backup: Protection for your priceless medical data What can you do to protect your irreplaceable medical data and more?

FILE Vault Secure Backup offers a best-in-class security to backup your valuable data files continuously on-line.

• Automatically back up your medical data, administration records and more.

• Protects files against hard drive crashes, fire, theft and even accidental deletion.

• Multiple layers of security are used to ensure your files are protected during online backups.

• Easy to use

GLOBAL HEALTH

P: 03 9675 0600 F: 03 9675 0699 E: sales@global-health.com W: www.global-health.com Global Health is a premier provider of technology software solutions that connect clinicians and consumers across the healthcare industry.

ReferralNet takes advantage of email and the internet to provide a practical and secure infrastructure for delivering healthcare information efficiently to industry professionals.

ReferralNet Claims offers real time submission of claims from practices, public and private hospitals and billing agents to Health Funds, Medicare and Department of Veterans’ Affairs.

MHAGIC is the latest and most comprehensive Mental Health Assessment Generation and Information Collection system in Australia.

Locum replaces traditional paper records with a robust electronic filing system that manages patient information and improves the efficiency of medical practice.

Sydney - Brisbane - Melbourne - Perth

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HEALTH SOLVE Health Communication Network - HCN P: 02 9906 6633 F: 02 9906 8910 E: hcn@hcn.com.au W: www.hcn.com.au Contents: 11, 19, 28, 28

GPA

P: 1800 188 088 F: 1800 644 807 E: info@gpa.net.au W: www.gpa.net.au GPA ACCREDITATION plus has given general practitioners a reliable alternative in accreditation. GPA is committed to offering a flexible accreditation program that understands the needs of busy GPs and practice staff. GP is the only only accreditation provider that assigns an individual quality manager to support your practice with accreditation.

Choose GPA for more support, improved service and greater choice.

Health Communication Network (HCN) is the leading provider of clinical and practice management software for Australian GPs and Specialists.

HCN supplies 80% of Australia’s major hospitals with online Knowledge resources. HCN employs the industry’s largest software and customer services teams, dedicated to delivering new and enhanced products for Australia’s health care sector.

P: 1300 794 471 F: 07 5569 2648 E: sales@gpcomplete.com.au W: www.gpcomplete.com.au Contents: 20-21 GPComplete is the first software explicitly geared to reducing the time taken to perform common tasks in your practice, and has been shown to increase workflow by as much as 50%. It combines electronic health records, practice management and Medicare Australia Online functionality, all built on a single, open source database.

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HealthSolve solutions cover the “continuum of care” with solutions for aged, acute, community, primary, specialist, and day surgery settings that can be shared across the continuum. We provide both off the shelf and custom solutions underpinned by our design philosophies of innovation, agility, interoperability, industry standards and open architecture.

The HealthSolve Care Management System will assist you to improve quality of care, manage cost, manage risk, and improve clinical practice.

HISA

P: 03 9388 0555 F: 03 9388 2086 E: hisa@hisa.org.au W: www.hisa.org.au The Health Informatics Society of Australia (HISA) aims to improve healthcare through health informatics.

HISA: • Provides a national focus for health informatics, its practitioners, industry and users.

• Advocates on behalf of its members.

• Provides opportunities for learning and professional development in health informatics.

HCN focuses on improving patient outcomes by providing evidence based software tools to health care professionals at the point of care.

Market snapshot: • 17,000 medical professionals use Medical Director • 3,300 GP Practices use PracSoft • 800 Specialist Practices use Blue Chip and • 1,700 Specialists use Medical Director • Suppliers of Knowledge Resources to 80% of Australia’s major hospitals Visit our website to learn more about our complete offering which includes MDPlus advanced tools, GPRN data and iRIS for radiology practices.

GPComplete

P: 1800 803 118 F: 08 8203 0595 E: info@healthsolve.com.au W: www.healthsolve.com.au

HEALTHLINK

P: 1800 125 036 F: 07 3870 7768 E: enquiries@healthlink.net W: www.healthlink.net Contents: 35, 44 Australia’s largest effective secure communication network.

• Fully integrated with leading GP and Specialist clinical systems • Robust; Reliable and Fully Supported Join the network that more than 60% of GPs use for diagnostic, specialist and hospital communications.

HIMAA

P: 02 9887 5001 F: 02 9887 5895 E: himaa@himaa.org.au W: www.himaa.org.au Contents: 21 The Health Information Management Association of Australia (HIMAA) is the peak professional body of Health Information Managers in Australia.

HIMAA aims to support and promote the profession of health information management.

HIMAA also conducts, by distance education, "industry standard" training courses in Medical Terminology and ICD-10-AM, ACHI & ACS clinical coding.

HL7 AUSTRALIA P: 0412 746 457 F: 02 9475 0685 E: chair@hl7.org.au W: www.hl7.org.au

HL7 Australia is the local representative of the global Health Level 7 standards organisation. The HL7 standards are widely used in Australia to interconnect computer systems in hospitals, laboratories as well as GP and specialist practices.

HL7 Australia supports the local user and implementer community with standards, education and implementation support.

Houston Medical

P: 1800 420 066 or +61 2 9669 1844 F: +61 2 9669 1791 E: houston@houstonmedical.net W: www.houstonmedical.net Contents: 27 Houston Medical, formed 1988, leading supplier of software for Ophthalmology and Retinal Diabetic screening, installed in hospitals and practices of all types throughout New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, Dubai and Hong Kong.

After a complete re-write, Houston VIP.NET using Security Groups with User Defined Forms, allows different specialities their own desktop and workspace on a common database. Billing, appointments TXT and RSD messaging, word processing, prescribing, operating lists all integrated but separate.

Whether for day surgery, ophthalmology, cardiology, dermatology, urology, general practice, allied health, or any combination in a mixed practice, in once, out in a 1000 different ways, a truly unique concept for 2008!

Official Supporter of the Australian Olympic Team

insignia pty ltd

P: 1300 467 446 F: 1300 780 049 E: sales@insignia.com.au W: www.insignia.com.au Contents: 12 With 40 years experience in the industry, insignia is a leading, national label manufacturer.

Our focus is quality – quality award‑winning labels, quality brands and quality people. We offer labels, systems hardware, software and service to support our clients labelling needs.

JABBAWOKI

insignia manufactures a range of prime product labels, blank labels, barcode labels and laser labels: From blank labels for barcoding through to customprinted product labels, insignia can produce a label to suit any application. insignia also carries thermal labelling equipment; applicators and ink jet systems; and ribbons and ink. As well as portable, desktop and automated printer systems, insignia provides a national service infrastructure and has equipment and software training available.

Our goal is not to meet customers expectations,

P: 1300 667 685 F: 02 9211 0640 E: info@jabbawoki.com W: www.jabbawoki.com Hosting - IT Support - Programming Customised medical solutions.

but to exceed them.

WE SOLVE PROBLEMS

JOSE & Associates IT/IM ConsultaNTS P: 03 9850 1350 F: 1300 889 012 E: news@jose.com.au W: www.jose.com.au

INTERSYSTEMS IHE ASia PACIFIC P: 0412 746 457 F: 03 9388 2086 E: info@ihe.net.au W: www.ihe.net.au

Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) fills the “gap” between the creation of e-Health standards and their implementation. IHE is not “Yet Another Standard” but the missing link that facilitates easy and successful connection of e-Health computer systems

P: 02 8243 0300 F: 02 8243 0301 E: anz.query@intersystems.com W: www.InterSystems.com InterSystems provides innovative software products that enable you to create, deploy, run, and connect healthcare applications faster. InterSystems Ensemble®, our rapid integration platform, can cut IT project times in half for enterprises that need to connect applications, processes, and people. Our health information exchange platform, InterSystems HealthShare™, enables the creation of electronic health records that share clinical data across multiple organizations on a regional or national level.

InterSystems TrakCare™ is an advanced Web-based healthcare information system that rapidly delivers the benefits of an Electronic Patient Record.

Ensemble, HealthShare, and TrakCare all leverage the lightning speed, massive scalability, robust reliability, and rapid development capabilities of InterSystems Caché®, the world’s fastest object database.

Medical-Objects

P: 07 5445 5037 F: 07 3221 0220 E: info@medical-objects.com.au W: www.medical-objects.com.au Medical-Objects are a software company with a vision of a tightly connected integrated health platform. Built on open standards and strong architectural solutions, Medical-Objects provides rich messaging between all sectors of the health sector and tools that build on that messaging such as Clinical Tools for Specialists and Hospitals, Decision Support and Executable forms of Clinical Guidelines.

Medical-Objects is committed to agile software methods to deliver the highest of IT standards. Belief in the exclusive use of standards based messaging has developed our expertise and profile in standards implementation in Australia, and enables interoperability with most common clinical software including desktop and hospital systems.

JOSE and Associates are IT/IM Consultants working exclusively with General Medical Practices and other allied health organisations.

Service Model Outcomes: • Satisfying IT Accreditation Standards.

• Network standards protocols are used to ensure optimum uptime of network.

• Total ownership of all IT related problems (from Clinical s/w updates to a faulty mouse) • Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity plans and monthly reviews and test restores.

• The entire IT/IM business infrastructure is documented and updated monthly (similar to a patient record).

• Support is available 24/7 and the response in most cases is immediate. Most scheduled work is completed after the practice is closed.

• Server Maintenance on a monthly basis which includes full monthly reporting.

• Initial consultations are complementary until a detailed road map is established.

• References available on request.

MIMS AUSTRALIA P: 02 9902 7760 F: 02 9902 7701 E: info@mims.com.au W: www.mims.com.au

To cope with the demands of practicing healthcare in the real world, you need fast access to a pure source of knowledge.

MIMS is essential knowledge that Australian health professionals can trust, distilled down to crucial facts and easy to use.

Because of the rapid flow of information today, you can count on MIMS being up-to-the-minute with regular updates through print, CD ROM, PDA, online or integrated into your clinical software.

And because it is generated by a local Australian editorial team and backed by global resources, you can be sure MIMS is always relevant to your needs.

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NEHTA

P: 02 8298 2600 F: 02 8298 2666 E: admin@nehta.gov.au W: www.nehta.gov.au Contents: 2-3 The National E-Health Transition Authority identifies and fosters the development of the best technology necessary to deliver a e-health system for Australia. This includes national health IM and ICT standards and specifications.

NTS Transcription Services

P: 1300 305 998 F: 03 5722 9388 E: info@ntstranscriptions.com W: www.ntstranscriptions.com NTS provides the very latest in secure Digital Dictation and Transcription systems and couples this technology to deliver highly accurate transcriptions within 24 hours. NTS’s technology allows you to link with your Practice management systems including, but not limited to, Direct Control, Genie, Shexie, CCOS, Blue Chip, Practix, Medical Director, Profile, Zedmed, Medical-Objects, Argus and Healthlink.

With 98.5% accuracy and 24hr turnaround, our service will ensure your patient's letters arrive at their GP’s and other interested parties, sooner. Our fully secure web based systems allow Drs to dictate via hand held recorders, telephone, PDA’s or direct from the PC. We accept voice files from many of the large dictation platforms.

Letters can be viewed, edited and printed from any web connected PC and filed back to your own systems patient files. An electronic copy can also be sent to the GP through our HL7 delivery system or via third party systems like Medical Objects.

NTS will tailor the service and system to your current practice processes and requirements without compromising security and confidentiality.

We are the leaders in our Field.

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STANDARDS AUSTRALIA NUANCE COMMUNICATIONS

P: 1300 550 716 F: 02 9434 2301 E: Ben.Marosszeky@nuance.com W: www.nuance.com/au Nuance (NASDAQ: NUAN) is a leading provider of speech and imaging solutions for businesses and consumers around the world.

Its technologies, applications and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with information and how they create, share and use documents.

Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses utilise Nuance’s proven range of productivity applications which include Dragon NaturallySpeaking (speech recognition), OmniPage (OCR), PaperPort (document management) and PDF Converter Professional (PDF creation and conversion).

Pulse+ IT PULSE Magazine

P: 0402 149 859 F: 02 9475 0029 E: info@pulsemagazine.com.au W: www.pulsemagazine.com.au Pulse Magazine is the publisher of Pulse+IT, Australia’s first and only Health IT magazine.

Pulse+IT is distributed to all corners of the health sector and is enjoyed by General Practitioners, Specialists, Practice Managers, Hospital and Aged Care decision makers, Health Informaticians and Health IT Industry participants Having grown rapidly from its launch circulation of 10,000 copies in August 2006, Pulse+IT’s current quarterly distribution of 40,000 printed copies ranks it as Australia’s highest circulating health publication of any kind.

P: 02 9237 6000 F: 02 9237 6091 E: healthinformatics@standards.org.au W: www.e-health.standards.org.au Standards Australia is recognised by the Government as the peak standards body in Australia. It coordinates standardisation activities, and develops internationally aligned Australian Standards of public benefit and national interest and facilitates the accreditation of other Standards Development Organisations.

Standards Australia is the nation’s official representative at the International Standards Organisation and International Electrotechnical Commission.

Through the Australian International Design Awards it promotes excellence in design and innovation.

Wacom

P: 02 9422 6700 F: 02 9420 2272 W: www.wacom.com.au Wacom is the worldwide market leader in graphic tablet technology and interactive pen displays.

For practices looking to move toward a paperless office system, Wacom has a number of solutions that are intuitive and easy to use.

STAT HEALTH SYSTEMS

P: 07 3121 6550 F: 07 3395 0669 E: carla.doolan@stathealth.com.au W: www.stathealth.com.au Stat Health Systems was formed in 2006 by two groups of industry specialists when they agreed on a collaborative approach to development of software required by the medical industry. The goal was to build a progressive and resilient system that introduces a new level of stability and flexibility to the medical software market.

The Stat Practice program provides an uncluttered fresh approach to traditional reception functions. The software uses a combination of new Microsoft development tools with original workflow theory to produce an innovative software application with a streamlined, intuitive interface. This software is now installed and running in a specialist site in Brisbane with further installations pending.

The Stat Integrated product will be available in the first quarter of 2009.

Stat Services continues to provide a premium support service as well as Stat Online Claiming Solution (SOCS).

Zedmed

P: 03 9284 3300 F: 03 9284 3399 E: sales@zedmed.com.au W: www.zedmed.com.au Owned by Doctors who understand the challenges facing the medical profession everyday and backed by nearly 30 years of experience in medical software programming, Zedmed provides innovative, full featured and sophisticated practice management and clinical records software solutions.

From a single Specialist to a multisite GP Practice, we are renowned for our superior customer service and products that provide stability, security and ease of use. We also provide comprehensive data conversions from most software packages on the market today.

Zedmed is proud to be one of the longest serving Australian medical software solution providers, with clients nationwide.

With fast, reliable access to patient information, my prognosis is a healthier business.

How did you ever do business without Telstra Business Broadband?

With high speed, reliable internet access you could turn around patient results quicker than ever before. Telstra Business Broadband offers a range of extras to help increase productivity by keeping your patient files or systems backed up and secure, providing 24/7 Business Grade Technical Support and offering easy installation to get you started.

For more information about Telstra Business Health Solutions call 1800 094 208 or click telstra.com/business/health ŽRegistered Trade mark of Telstra Corporation Limited. ™Trade mark of Telstra Corporation Limited, ABN 33 051 775 556. TFSP1303/TBB/IP

WHEN EVERY HANDOVER IS MISSION CRITICAL.

Using electronic communications for the transfer of care between healthcare providers is a complex and exacting process. Very few organisations have demonstrated the ability to do so on any scale.

The stakes are extremely high. Every electronic referral that you send is mission critical and there is absolutely no margin for error.

Every month HealthLink is responsible for the sending of more than 36,000 electronic patient referrals, 81,000 specialist letters and the delivery of 110,000 electronic discharge summaries. HealthLink’s services are used by more than 8,000 individual Australian and New Zealand healthcare organisations. We employ a highly skilled team of staff and employ and/or contract local support staff in many areas of Australia and New Zealand.

HealthLink has demonstrated a solid track record as a manager of clinical information exchange and during the past twelve years has become a world leader in clinical messaging and health system integration.

HealthLink has a deep understanding of what is needed to support its partners’ use of electronic communications. When you are ready to commence electronic ‘Transfer of Care’ we are ready to help you to do it.

Tel 1800 125 036 enquiries@healthlink.net Integration

Standards

www.healthlink.net Scalability