Australia’s First and Only Health IT Magazine
PULSE IT
Issue
May
22 2011
Mobility Cloud connected mobile devices James Kavanagh examines the intersection between mobile devices and the Internet. Using technology to prevent medication errors Dr Chaolin Chang advocates the use of technology to reduce medication errors in aged care settings. Mobile key in the dialogue of care Rachel de Sain highlights some practical applications of mobile technology in the delivery of healthcare. Cloud computing in the health sector Alberto Tinazzi provides an overview of cloud computing and its applicability to the health sector.
08 12 13 15 16 18 21 22 25
The PCEHR – Boon or Boondoggle? iSOFT MedChart gains traction in the NHS Speech Solutions revises voice recognition pricing Orion Health nominated for six NZ Hi-Tech Awards Best Practice holds inaugural Summit Data Governance conference preview Rural and Remote Telehealth conference preview Communicare and MMXe announce partnership Ascribe deploys Symphony in Eastern Health region
www.pulseitmagazine.com.au
Want to know more about eHealth? Whether you are a consumer, healthcare manager, healthcare provider or vendor, you need a central location to quickly find and access eHealth information.
Welcome to:
www.ehealthinfo.gov.au Your gateway to the emerging world of modern healthcare. Discover how information technology is delivering a more reliable and efficient health system. Featuring: • The Healthcare Identifiers (HI) Service which commenced operations on 1 July 2010. Access fact sheets for individuals, healthcare providers, healthcare organisations, and medical software vendors • How eHealth systems are being designed to maximize security and privacy • Why a national certification capability is an essential foundation for safe, secure and interoperable eHealth solutions in Australia • The latest Federal, State and Territory government eHealth initiatives • The delivery of a standard clinical language for use across Australia’s eHealth implementations and how it is a significant step towards improving the quality and safety of healthcare
www.ehealthinfo.gov.au is jointly brought to you by Australia’s Federal, State and Territory health authorities and the National EHealth Transition Authority (NEHTA) to help you explore the eHealth concept and stay in touch with the latest innovations as they unfold.
National E-Health Transition Authority www.nehta.gov.au
“ The speed at which medical service is provided will be
faster.
Better information means there is less chance of things going wrong.” Devendra Maisnam Business Analyst, Information Modeller
Leading the progression of eHealth in Australia Join the NEHTA team The National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA) was established by the Australian Commonwealth, State and Territory governments on 5 July 2005 to develop better ways of electronically collecting and securely exchanging health information. NEHTA is the lead organisation supporting the national vision for eHealth in Australia.
See how NEHTA’s work is helping to enable a better health system and support the Government’s goal of personally controlled electronic health records for all Australians. Go to: www.nehta.gov.au
Use your health, informatics, analytical, project or architecture skills and join the NEHTA team who are making eHealth a reality in Australia
For up to date information on current opportunities see: www.nehta.gov.au ““The
flexibility
is brilliant – the opportunity and understanding of my situation after maternity leave is a huge help.” Amy Richardson HR Business Partner
“The idea of being involved in something that could make a difference in Australia. You can actually see at the end of the line, your work has made a
difference.” Tony Warren System Administrator
NEHTA is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Only people with the right to work in Australia may apply for these positions.
Enquiries and applications can be directed to: careers@nehta.gov.au
PULSE IT +
Publisher Pulse Magazine PO Box 7194 Yarralumla ACT 2600 Australia ABN: 19 923 710 562 www.pulseitmagazine.com.au
Editor Simon James Australia: +61 2 8006 5185 New Zealand: +64 9 889 3185 simon.james@pulseitmagazine.com.au
Subscription Enquiries subscribe@pulseitmagazine.com.au
Advertising Enquiries ads@pulseitmagazine.com.au
About Pulse+IT Pulse+IT is Australia’s first and only Health IT magazine. With an international distribution exceeding 37,000 copies, it is also one of the higest circulating health publications in Australasia. 32,000 copies of Pulse+IT are distributed to GPs, specialists, practice managers and the IT professionals that support them. In addition, over 5,000 copies of Pulse+IT are distributed to health information managers, health informaticians, and IT decision makers in hospitals, day surgeries and aged care facilities.
Pages 32, 34, 36 and 38 MOBILITY
Looking ahead The next three editions of Pulse+IT will feature a selection of articles covering the following themes: • July 2011 - Medical Devices • September 2011 - Consumer eHealth • November 2011 - Electronic Prescribing Pulse+IT welcomes feature articles and guest editorial submissions relating to these themes, as well as articles relating to eHealth more broadly. Submission guidelines and deadlines are available online: http://www.pulseitmagazine.com.au/editorial
ISSN: 1835-1522 Contributors Tom Bowden, Dr Chaolin Chang, Peter Fleming, Simon James, James Kavanagh, Rachel de Sain, Dr Geoffrey Sayer, Cara Sayer‑Bourne and Alberto Tinazzi.
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 has no affiliation with any organisation, including, but not limited to Health Services Australia, Sony, Health Scope, UBM Medica, the New Zealand College of General Practitioners, or the Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Services Council, all who produce publications that include the word “Pulse” in their titles.
Copyright 2011 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.
Pulse+IT acknowledges the support of the following organisations, each of whom supply copies of Pulse+IT to their members.
Page 8 PERSONAL HEALTH RECORDS
Page 36 MOBILE PHONES
Page 38 CLOUD COMPUTING
Editorials
Features
News
Page 6 STARTUP Editor Simon James introduces the 22nd edition of Pulse+IT.
Page 32 FEATURE ARTICLE James Kavanagh examines the intersection between mobile devices and the Internet.
Page 12 iSOFT MedChart gains traction in the National Health Service
Page 8 GUEST EDITORIAL Reflecting on the relative progress being made in the US and UK, Tom Bowden questions whether Australia’s approach to patient controlled health records is sound. Page 28 NEHTA Peter Fleming, CEO of the National E-Health Transition Authority provides an update on the PCEHR rollout and an overview of the nine project sites recently selected for funding. Page 30 MSIA Dr Geoffrey Sayer from the Medical Software Industry Association cautions that the human qualities of empathy, respect and regard should not be overlooked in the development of the PCEHR.
Page 34 FEATURE ARTICLE Dr Chaolin Chang advocates the use of technology to reduce medication errors. Page 36 FEATURE ARTICLE Rachel de Sain highlights some practical applications of mobile technology in the delivery of healthcare.
Page 13 Speech Solutions revises voice recognition pricing Page 15 Orion Health nominated for six New Zealand Hi-Tech Awards Page 16 Best Practice holds inaugural Summit, debuts new version Page 18 HISA to host Data Governance conference in May
Page 38 FEATURE ARTICLE Alberto Tinazzi provides an overview of cloud computing and its applicability to the health sector.
Page 21 Rural and Remote Telehealth Conference coming to Cairns
Resources
Page 22 Communicare Systems and MMXe announce plans for partnership
Page 26 EVENTS CALENDAR Up and coming Health IT, Health, and IT events. Page 44 MARKET PLACE The Pulse+IT Directory profiles Australasia’s most innovative and influential eHealth organisations.
Page 25 Ascribe completes deployment of Symphony emergency department solution in Eastern Health region
EDITORIAL
Pulse+IT: 2011.2 Simon James
BIT, BComm Editor, Pulse+IT Phone (AU): +61 2 8006 5185 Phone (NZ): +64 9 889 3185 simon.james@pulseitmagazine.com.au
Welcome to the 22nd edition of Pulse+IT, Australia’s
understanding of eHealth to review our events calendar
first and only Health IT magazine.
on page 26 of this edition and ‘save the date’ where
possible.
In this edition, James Kavanagh examines the
intersection between modern mobile devices and
the Internet, Dr Chaolin Chang advocates the use of
new conferences organised by the Health Informatics
mobile technology to reduce medication errors in aged
Society of Australia (HISA), namely the Data
care settings, Rachel de Sain highlights some practical
Governance Conference (May 19-20, Melbourne) and
examples of mobile technology used in the delivery of
the Rural and Remote Telehealth Conference (May
healthcare, and Alberto Tinazzi provides an overview
29-31, Cairns), both of which are previewed in this
of cloud computing and its applicability to the health
edition’s Bits and Bytes news section.
sector.
This edition also features a range of articles on
including the AGPN’s eHealth Conference (August
the Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record,
1-2, Brisbane), a consumer eHealth event dubbed
with National E-Health Transition Authority CEO
HealthBeyond (August 1-4, Brisbane), and Australia’s
Peter Fleming, Medical Software Industry Association
longest
President Dr Geoffrey Sayer, and Tom Bowden all
Informatics Conference (August 1-5, Brisbane).
contributing articles on the topic.
running
eHealth
event,
HISA’s
Health
September sees the HIMSS AsiaPac event come
This edition’s Bits and Bytes news section traverses
to Australia for the first time (September 20-23, Melbourne), with the event incorporating the Health
iSOFT’s recent medication management wins in
Information Management Association of Australia’s
the NHS, Ascribe’s deployment of its Symphony
National Conference.
emergency department solution in Victoria, a plan
by Communicare Systems and The University of
Association of Practice Managers National Conference
Western Australia’s Centre for Software Practice to
(October 18-21, Perth) is a must attend event for
collaborate on the future development of software
medical practices looking to evaluate their software
for Aboriginal health services and other primary care
options, the event known for attracting the who’s who
settings, and Orion Health’s bundle of nominations in
of GP and specialist software developers.
the New Zealand Hi-Tech Awards. Having attended the
inaugural Best Practice Summit in March, a report on
conference circuit — at least for this editor — is the
the event and the key product announcements made
Health Informatics New Zealand Conference and
during the conference is also included, as is an update
Exhibition (Auckland, November 23-25).
Save the date
Pulse+IT
August plays host to a suite of affiliated events,
a range of timely eHealth developments, covering
on a voice recognition system for Genie users.
6
Notable events on the horizon include a pair of
To be held later in the year, the Australian
Rounding out what will be a very busy eHealth
Looking ahead The next edition of Pulse+IT will focus on medical
As eHealth garners increasing interest from both
devices, with an emphasis on products that can
government and the private sector, the number of
integrate with popular Australasian clinical software
events devoted to the topic is rising rapidly.
solutions.
With some of these events scheduled to commence
As always, if you have any suggestions for future
in just a few short weeks, and with many more set
articles, would like to contribute to an edition, or would
to sneak up rapidly on the other side of tax time, I
simply like to discuss your experiences with eHealth,
encourage readers interested in gaining a deeper
don’t hesitate to get in touch.
www.pulseitmagazine.com.au
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EDITORIAL
The Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record – Boon or Boondoggle? Tom Bowden
Dip BIA, MBA CEO, HealthLink tom.bowden@healthlink.net
In 1513 Niccolo Machiavelli wrote: “There is nothing
more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor
needs to have a high degree of certainty that the
more dangerous to manage than the creation of a
information in the record is complete, accurate and
new order of things.” In many respects we need to
genuinely useful. This is much easier to achieve if all
salute the team at the National E-Health Transition
of the patient’s information is in one place (in the case
Authority (NEHTA) for being brave enough to try and
of Kaiser’s My Health Manager) and more difficult to
create significant and disruptive change to a health
do in the case of the NHS’ HealthSpace when source
system bound together with the arcane and confusing
information comes from multiple systems and there is
paper‑based communication paradigms that have
significant distrust in the quality of the information.1
remained unchanged for over a century.
electronic health record system either follows:
The Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record
To make a PCEHR system work, the patient
I put forward the viewpoint that the creation of an
(PCEHR) is a good idea at the sound-bite level, but
• A virtuous cycle, whereby all parties see value in
does it have the key ingredients that will be needed
the system working; where all parties trust the
to bring about structural change and galvanise a
integrity and completeness of the information
new (electronic) order of things? Will it follow in the
within the records system, and trust the motives
footsteps of Kaiser Permanente’s highly successful ‘My
and abilities of the other parties who collaborate in
Health Manager’ system? Or will it mimic the British
a shared electronic health record system’s creation.
Government’s ‘HealthSpace’ personal health records
• Or a vicious cycle, whereby no matter how much
service, which has been a spectacular failure?
money is put into it, none of the parties are able to
Between them, Britain’s HealthSpace and Kaiser
set aside their own self interest to create a record
Permanente’s My Health Manager system provide
system to a sufficient degree of quality that they
an excellent contrast in approaches. HealthSpace
can all use. As a consequence, the completeness
was designed to be a component of a much larger
and quality of whatever information is held within
government owned and run health records system.
the system is questioned at every level and the
Only 0.13% of patients tried it. The majority of those
system ‘fails to launch’ or staggers forward at
who tried it only used it once. On the other hand, usage
considerable cost.
of Kaiser Permanente’s My Health Manager personal
The success or failure of Australia’s PCEHR will
health records system has grown steadily due to the
substantially depend upon the country’s ability to
constant addition of features and a major emphasis on
create the right set of conditions for a virtuous cycle
user-friendliness. It now provides electronic access to
of PCEHR maintenance and creation. Without a
58% of Kaiser’s enrolled patients (more than 3 million
favourable set of conditions, the PCEHR will simply be
people use it).
a set of vapour trails and another case study in wishful thinking.
Author Info
To make the PCEHR successful, we need to ensure
that the information within it is complete and trusted Tom Bowden is CEO of HealthLink Ltd, a 70 person company providing Health-system Integration services to more than 9,000 individual healthcare organisations across New Zealand and Australia.
by all of the parties that need to rely upon it. Most importantly we need to acknowledge that the PCEHR itself will be a subset of information derived from a much larger record or set of patient records and all the information within the larger set of records needs
8
Pulse+IT
www.pulseitmagazine.com.au
to be complete and accurate (not just the
in addressing it when making the health
important to identify the key stakeholders
relatively small amount of information
system more efficient is regarded by all
whose information is needed to form
viewable by the patient).
as a matter of urgency? I can only assume
the building blocks of a shared health
that NEHTA has insufficient understanding
record system. We need to work with
PCEHR initiative enters a virtuous cycle?
of the issue and for that reason is totally
these source system owners to get the
dismissive of it. Any more Machiavellian
quality of their information output up to a
How do we ensure that Australia’s We need to address the fundamental
issue
patient
assumptions as to why this is so would
satisfactory level. In order to ‘encourage’
information into good shape. In particular
of
getting
our
basic
probably be inappropriate at this juncture.
these parties to change the way they store
that means focusing hard on the quality
To propel the Australian PCEHR
and distribute core record information, we
and usability of pathology and radiology
initiative forward into a virtuous cycle,
need to understand what they need to do
information, discharge summaries and
whereby patients can begin to see value
to change and why they appear to be so
specialist reports. These have to be robust
in gaining access to their health records,
reluctant to do so of their own accord, and
enough to become the basic building
we must ensure that all stakeholders
then we need to find the ways in which we
blocks of a health records architecture.
in the system can be confident that
can ‘persuade them to support the cause’.
At the moment, over 30 million sets
the information within those records is
After all is said and done, very few of us are
of pathology tests are created throughout
complete, accurate and capable of being
happy with the poor level of automation
Australia each year.2 Unfortunately their
aggregated and reused. Success depends
evident in the Australian health system.
format is not standardised, they have no
entirely upon removal of any risk. In
uniform coding and their basic structure
order to achieve the level of integrity
not interested in preserving the status
differs from laboratory to laboratory. Until
required, it is essential that we grasp the
quo; I want to overthrow it.” We need
this information can be reliably, seamlessly
nettle now and focus upon clinical record
to make the guardians of the status quo
aggregated, and is able to be re-used
standardisation at all levels.
throw down their weapons, and we need
and combined with other health record
The likelihood of whether or not
to do that quickly. Failure to do so will
information, the concept of a shared
the PCEHR will be a huge success or a
unquestionably mean an ignominious end
record (of any kind) remains a pipe dream.
multi‑million dollar flop is dependent upon
for the PCEHR.
Despite a number of commentators
whether we can take the Kaiser approach
remarking upon the primitive level of
(highly relevant, completely dependable
References
standardisation and coding within the
information, improved upon over time) or
1. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/
basic clinical messaging across Australia,
the NHS approach (based on information
very little has been done to address this
yielded from a system that no one trusts
fundamental issue. So, what is behind
nor particularly wants to support).
document/DOD%20paper%20+%20
this problem? Why is there no progress
append.pdf
To ‘create a new order of things’, it is
As Niccolo Machiavelli said: “I’m
scriefullreport.pdf 2. http://www.aapp.asn.au/images/
www.pulseitmagazine.com.au
www.pulseitmagazine.com.au
Pulse+IT
9
Kelvin’s eHealth Journey
1
3
Greeted by medical centre receptionist Lucy Black, the receptionist is logged into her computer and Kelvin is then added to the waiting list by Lucy.
Kelvin is on holiday in far North Queensland Kelvin lives in Croydon, Victoria with his wife Betty. He is reasonably healthy, only suffering from hypertension that is well controlled with medication. He has an allergy to Penicillin. Over a period of three weeks he develops cramps and pain in his abdomen when he eats fatty food.
Kelvin’s IHI number is retrieved from the HI service electronically and seamlessly added to the local practice record. Kelvin takes a seat in the waiting room.
He is under the care of Dr Adam Jones at his local GP Practice.
2
GP consultation
4
Dr Grant opens Kelvin’s medical record on his PC which now also includes his Healthcare Identifier. Kelvin complains to Dr Grant of cramps in his stomach, especially after eating pizza and fish and chips which he has suffered from for about three weeks.
Kelvin presents to a medical centre While on holidays his condition gets worse and he presents to a medical centre in the town he is staying.
National E-Health Transition Authority
Dr Grant performs an examination and makes a provisional diagnosis of gallstones. He then orders an ultrasound which confirms the presence of gallstones. After discussing with Kelvin, Dr Grant refers to a General Surgeon: Dr James Brecker at Bay Hill Hospital. The referral is sent electronically via secure messaging.
Kelvin’s eHealth Journey is brought to you by the National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA). NEHTA is the lead organisation supporting the national vision for eHealth in Australia.
7 5
Specialist consultation
Pharmacy Kelvin takes his prescription from Dr Brecker to a Community Pharmacy. The pharmacist scans the prescription barcode. The prescription is retrieved from the PES (Prescription Exchange Service) and dispensed.
8
Dr James Brecker receives the e-referral. Frank is booked in for an appointment by his GP’s staff. Dr Brecker reviews Kelvin’s ultrasound, performs an examination and determines that Kelvin needs surgery to remove the gallstones.
6
Pathology As per the recommendations on Kelvin’s discharge summary, he has a follow-up blood test for liver function done on the day he is to return home from holiday. The GP has requested that the pathology test results be copied to Kelvin’s usual GP.
Admission to hospital for surgery Kelvin is admitted to the General Surgery ward. Kelvin then undergoes surgery by Dr Brecker, and he makes an uneventful recovery. Kelvin is discharged three days later, much improved and is referred back to his GP for follow up. An e-discharge summary is sent to Dr Adam Jones, his local GP.
For more information about NEHTA visit www.nehta.gov.au For more information about eHealth including the Healthcare Identifier (HI) Service visit www.ehealthinfo.gov.au
9 Returns from holiday Kelvin goes home without receiving his results but on his return home he goes to his usual GP who has received the blood test results and a copy of the discharge summary. After consultation with Kelvin, Dr Jones confirms that the blood tests are normal.
What a wonderful outcome!
BITS & BYTES AGPN and RACGP to collaborate on eHealth Against the backdrop of lucrative funding for the rollout of eHealth pilot projects,
iSOFT MedChart gains traction in the National Health Service
the Royal Australian College of General
iSOFT has announced the rollout of its
being part of a much larger company with
Practitioners (RACGP) and the Australian
MedChart
management
a global presence and leadership postition
General Practice Network (AGPN) have
solution in the Pennine Acute Hospitals
in eHealth has allowed us to extend our
signalled plans to collaborate on eHealth.
NHS Trust and Stockport NHS Foundation
reach,” Dr Ainge said.
In a statement, RACGP President
medication
Trust, both of which are located in northern
Professor Claire Jackson highlighted the
England.
MedChart has been deployed in several
important role general practice will play in
hospitals throughout Australasia, including
advancing the national eHealth agenda.
medication charts with an electronic
in St Vincent’s and Dunedin Hospitals.
“General practice is the cornerstone of
system that allows clinicians to enter
the healthcare system, with 83 percent of
treatment orders, and track prescriptions
al in 2010 titled The effectiveness of an
the Australian population consulting a GP at
and medication records. MedChart also
electronic medication management system
least once a year. The ongoing relationship
has full medical decision support, alerting
to reduce prescribing errors in hospital,
between a patient and their GP is at the
the doctor to any patient allergies or bad
looked at the impact of a MedChart
heart of high quality healthcare. The first
drug combinations.
deployment in the inpatient mental
person a patient will consult regarding the
The system has been designed as a
health unit of St Vincent’s Hospital. The
PCEHR will be their GP,” Professor Jackson
“best of breed” solution, with localisations
study highlighted an over 50% decrease
said.
performed
achieve
in prescribing errors attributed to the
The Personally Controlled Electronic
MedChart is designed to replace paper
as
necessary
to
Prior to winning contracts in the NHS,
Research published by Westbrook et
integration with other clinical and patient
introduction of electronic medication
Health Record (PCEHR) is a system
administration systems.
management, a finding understood to be
proposed by Government that will allow
supported by as yet unpublished research
patients to view, maintain and apportion
by iSOFT as part of its 2009 acquisition
conducted in the Dunedin Hospital.
access to their own set of health records.
of Hatrix, a Canberra-based software
The MedChart solution was purchased
iSOFT Systems clinical director Dr
AGPN Chair Dr Emil Djakic stated that
development firm founded by Dr John
Dennis Armstrong said he would be
collaboration with the RACGP will ensure
Ainge and Dr Dennis Armstrong. Having
taking the learnings from the St Vincent’s
that patients and their primary healthcare
been pioneers in the Australian general
research to the UK, where he will be
providers will have access to relevant
practice clinical software market, the
leading the implementation and training
resources, education and tools to assist
two GPs identified a need for medication
local doctors for the next three months.
them to utilise eHealth technology.
management software in acute settings
“Working together on eHealth will
when hospitals started deploying the
enable us to engage more organisations
company’s GP solution, citing a lack
and associations to build the framework for
of products designed specifically for
the adoption of primary healthcare eHealth
hospitals.
in Australia.
improved
“The RACGP and AGPN are in a
Below – MedChart founders Dr Dennis Armstrong and Dr John Ainge, who sold their company Hatrix to iSoft in 2009.
Despite the recognised need for medication
management
position to strategically design the quality
in hospitals, Dr Ainge recalls that the
of work expected within the eHealth
organisational size of Hatrix prior to
agenda and by collaborating on the
its acquisition by iSOFT was a major
design, implementation and management
impediment,
of eHealth programs we can minimise
hospital customers unwilling to engage
duplication of resources and services.
a small business for the provision of such
solutions.
“The RACGP and AGPN are now inviting
“The Trusts are very excited and
with
many
potential
other organisations to engage with them on
how they can also be part of this strategic
didn’t have the leverage to attract business
collaboration,” Dr Djakic said.
from abroad despite our success, but now
“As a small, independent company we
12 Pulse+IT
www.pulseitmagazine.com.au
BITS & BYTES clinicians are lining up to be the first to try
prescribing, dispensing or administration
the new system,” Dr Armstrong said.
stage, which can result in the wrong
“As clinicians we understand the needs
medication, wrong or missed dose, with
of our peers and the processes required
potentially serious medical consequences
to help eliminate medication errors at the
for the patient.”
Speech Solutions revises voice recognition pricing Speech Solutions has announced a revised
Speech Solutions, “They don’t really care
pricing model for its MedSpeech voice
what happens after that as long as the
recognition system, which is currently
letter comes back efficiently.”
available to practices running Genie.
MedSpeech
The previous upfront cost for the
Speech Solutions is now offering to
Genie
users
for
solution — around $5500+GST per doctor
$199.95+GST per month with a 24 month
— proved an impediment to adoption
commitment. This arrangement allows for
for
notwithstanding
unlimited dictations to be made with no
the positive feedback the solution has
many
practices,
upfront costs. Typists and other practice
garnered from early adopters of the
support staff are able to install a version
system.
of the software that allows them to review
and edit dictations, but not dictate notes
As previously reported by Pulse+IT,
Genie released its interface to MedSpeech
themselves.
in late 2010. The MedSpeech dictation
window launched through Genie allows
pricing arrangements — introduced in
doctors to construct the body of a
March — have been successful in increasing
letter using their voice alone. Patient
the number of doctors using MedSpeech.
demographic details are already present
in the Genie letter template, negating the
are paying anything from $600 to $2000
need for this information to be dictated.
a month for transcription, so to be able
Corrections can be made by the doctor
to get their transcription done for $200 is
during the dictation process if required, or
almost surreal. They sign up for 24 months
left for a practice staff member to action.
but we have included a 45 day cooling off
The software is designed exclusively for
period to allow doctors to properly trial the
the medical industry and is built upon an
system.”
extensive medical vocabulary.
Unlike
other
voice
Mr Habib indicated that the new
“I’ve spoken to a few doctors and they
With Genie Solutions’ interface to
recognition
MedSpeech completed, Mr Habib is
solutions that require users to undertake a
now seeking to work with other clinical
prolonged period of training, MedSpeech
software
has the user dictate five minutes worth of
company’s potential user base. Mr Habib
prescribed text. The system is designed
indicated that HCN is working to integrate
to learn the nuances of the user’s voice
the MedSpeech solution with Blue Chip,
and vocabulary, with high accuracy levels
with other practice software solutions
achieved after 30-60 minutes of dictation.
slated for future consideration. Speech
“Realistically they [specialists] are
Solutions also plans to make MedSpeech
seeing 30-50 patients a day. They don’t
compatible with Macintosh workstations
want to fiddle, they just want to dictate,”
by the end of this year.
explains Rafic Habib, Managing Director of
www.pulseitmagazine.com.au
developers
to
expand
his
— Cara Sayer-Bourne
Pulse+IT 13
HealthBeyond The Interactive E-Health Experience
The Debut
1-4 August 2011, Brisbane at HIC 2011
The 2012 Roadshow
taking e-health to Australians in their cities and regional centres
HealthBeyond is an interactive experience which will take e-health to the Australian public. It will create a virtual e-health world and present Australia’s vision for e-health to a national audience; educate and inform consumers and health professionals as to the scope of e-health and showcase a healthcare future enabled by e-health. It will support and promote e-health literacy amongst healthcare consumers. Do you have product(s) that you would like to showcase at HealthBeyond? Would you like to be kept informed of developments at HealthBeyond HQ? Perhaps you would like to get involved in the strategic advisory committee? Complete an expression of interest at www.healthbeyond.org.au
Join HealthBeyond and bring your e-health vision to life
Proudly supported by
BITS & BYTES
Orion Health nominated for six New Zealand Hi-Tech Awards
Global Health pursues allied health market
Orion Health has been named as a finalist
the contribution they have made as an
solution bundled with Monkey Software’s
in six categories in the New Zealand
industry leader.
flagship optometry solution, Optomate.
Hi-Tech Awards, including the Software
Product Award for their Electronic Health
been implemented in over 30 countries,
distributed with the next release of
Record (EHR) solution, Hi-Tech Company
including the US, Canada and the UK.
Optomate, and will ship to both new and
of the Year and Hi-Tech Company of the
“Whilst who becomes the winner is
existing users of the optometry software.
Decade.
always in the hands — and minds — of
Monkey Software has indicated that over
The New Zealand Hi-Tech Awards
the judges, we already consider the Orion
1000 optometrists will have access to the
recognise achievements in the New
Health EHR solution to be a winner. It is
ReferralNet software once the upgrade
Zealand technology industry. Companies
winning most major projects we bid for;
process has been completed.
enter themselves into the categories and
from Alaska to Singapore, Maine and
are then selected to be finalists by a panel
Louisiana, and we are not expecting this to
where
of international and local judges.
change as we pursue the myriad of deals
messaging solutions is almost universal
coming up in the short term.
— largely driven by electronic pathology
“Being nominated as a finalist is
Global Health and has announced a deal that will see its ReferralNet messaging
Orion Health’s other solutions have
The ReferralNet software will be
Unlike the general practice market the
penetration
of
secure
always another validation that we are on
be
and radiology reporting — the level of
the right track, but to be nominated in six
flexible and configurable, and able to
computerisation and the uptake of secure
categories is truly outstanding,” says Ian
meet a multitude of variations. Australia’s
messaging by allied health professionals is
McCrae, CEO of Orion Health, “What it
emphasis on ensuring consumers have
low by comparison.
does show is that the Orion Health team
the ability to access their medical records
is excellent across many disciplines, from
as well as control privacy settings of the
Strategic Business Development Manager
making sure we attract and retain the
records, is an example of the regional
Alby Creevey said: “Global Health is
best people, to creating great software
variations a good vendor must take into
committed to supporting the national
that puts our customers first and improves
account in developing an EHR solution.
eHealth
patient health.”
Our highly flexible solution ranges from
aligned with the Australian Government’s
“Great
technology
needs
to
In
a
statement,
agenda.
Global
Health’s
ReferralNet
is
well
This is the first year that the NZTE
high level national infrastructure through
standards and specifications for eHealth
Hi-Tech Company of the Decade award will
to ensuring the local GP is at the forefront
secure messaging. We are excited by the
be presented. Previous Supreme Award
of the care relationship.”
opportunity that allows us to provide secure
winners are invited to be finalists by the
messaging delivery services to over 1,000
panel of judges based on the company’s
place on May 6 in Wellington.
continued success and growth, as well as
The New Zealand Hi-Tech Awards take — Cara Sayer-Bourne
Australian optometrists.”
In a related development, Global Health
has also announced plans to deploy its Below – Orion Health CEO Ian McCrae, whose company has been nominated for six New Zealand Hi-Tech Awards.
ReferralNet messaging solution throughout selected HEARINGLife clinics in Victoria to better track incoming referals and facilitate the electronic transmission of Audiology reports to general practitioners.
HEARINGLife’s
National
Marketing
Manger, Duncan Armour, said “...we can also send all details of the appointment back to the GP so they are kept in the loop the whole time. From a patient experience point of view, ReferralNet makes the process easy and not at all confusing, which for our demographic is important.”
www.pulseitmagazine.com.au
Pulse+IT 15
BITS & BYTES
Best Practice holds inaugural Summit, debuts new version
D I SC OV E R SOMETHING NEW
iPhone app Available on the
App Store or call 1800 800 629
Speaking at the launch of the inaugural
concerns about the potential liability the
Best Practice Summit, company founder,
Medicare Australia developer contracts
Dr Frank Pyefinch, previewed a selection of
impose on software vendors.
new features included in the latest version
of Best Practice. Best Practice is a clinical
provider identifiers are also included
and practice management solution which
in the new build. Unlike patient IHIs,
counts over 1400 Australian general and
practices and providers are required to
specialist practices as customers.
apply for their identifier numbers through
The new version, dubbed “Build 532”
Medicare Australia and the Australian
includes many enhancements ranging
Health Practitioners Regulation Authority
from simple inclusions such as the addition
(AHPRA) respectively.
of fields for postal address details in the
patient demographic screen, through
announced by Dr Pyefinch, the revamped
to
more
comprehensive
Fields for practice identifiers and
Of the new features in Build 532
functionality
Document Scanning Module garnered the
including a new Document Scanning
most interest from Summit attendees.
Module.
The software now supports a workflow
The Skin Module in the new version
that allows practice staff to bulk scan
of Best Practice includes a wider range of
documents and subsequently allocate
drawing templates and the appointment
these documents to clinician ‘inboxes’.
book now permits small icons to be
Clinicians can then review and action these
displayed in each cell to more easily
documents
differentiate appointment types.
a process that historically required the
clinician to review documents in hard copy
Acknowledging ongoing government
electronically,
streamlining
eHealth initiatives, the software now
prior to them being scanned.
allows practices to insert patient Individual
Healthcare Identifiers (IHI) into the patient
version of Best Practice now allows
demographic screen. These numbers were
users to view PDFs within the program,
allocated to all Australians by Medicare
negating the need for an extra program
in 2010 to simplify the linking of data
— like Adobe Acrobat — to be launched.
between
systems,
Leveraging this interface improvement,
however they have not yet been used on
Build 532 allows for the display of
any meaningful scale pending requisite
pathology results containing graphical
development by software vendors.
content.
disparate
clinical
In a related improvement, the new
In
collaboration
with
both
After entering a patient’s 16 digit IHI,
Healthscope and HealthLink, Dr Pyefinch
the software performs a basic check to
has developed this feature to allow users
ensure the number is a valid IHI. Future
to switch between displaying traditional
versions of the software will allow practices
text based pathology results and a more
to
richly
automatically
retrieve
and
verify
formatted
representation
patient IHIs from the Medicare Australia
containing graphs, diagrams or photos.
Healthcare Identifier Service, negating the
The underlying ‘atomic’ data imported
need for practice staff to have to manually
from the HL7 clinical message is retained,
enter such numbers. Automatic retrieval
which allows the system to intelligently
of IHIs has been shunned by most medical
process such information in ways that PDF
software developers to date, many citing
does not support.
16 Pulse+IT
www.pulseitmagazine.com.au
BITS & BYTES
Build 532 includes an expanded range
Concluding
the
event, his
Frank
Pyefinch
with other PDF resources, can now be
development priorities for the remainder
displayed within Best Practice. A library
of 2011. Amongst these is the building of
of 3D video animations are also included
interfaces to various EFTPOS terminals
in the new version. Published by Push Pull
developed by Tyro, the National Australia
Medical, these visual patient resources
Bank and the Commonwealth Bank. Such
have been packaged under Best Practice’s
interfaces would negate the need for
existing subscription pricing structure.
practice staff to have to manually re-key
Finally, the new version of Best
payment amounts into their EFTPOS
Practice includes integrated spell checking
terminals, a process which is susceptible
functionality in the Word Processing
to both transcription error and fraud. Dr
Module, which is typically used by doctors
Pyefinch has also flagged an intention to
to write referral and other letters.
integrate Best Practice with a range of
ECG and Spirometer devices.
All delegates were presented with a
outlined
Dr
of patient education sheets, which along
company’s
disk containing Best Practice Build 532 at
the conclusion of the three day event. The
present in Build 532, Dr Pyefinch flagged
official widespread rollout of the software
an intention to engage with the National
followed in the coming days, with the
E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA) to
update distributed via the Best Practice
incorporate many of its key specifications.
online software update service, and via
Amongst these is an interface to the
DVD on request.
Medicare Australia Healthcare Identifier
During his presentation, Dr Pyefinch
Service, SNOMED CT functionality, and
indicated that Best Practice is currently
development related to the Government’s
able to convert data from MD2, MD3,
Personally Controlled Electronic Health
MedTech32
Record (PCEHR) system.
and
Promed
Clinical.
A
As highlighted by some enhancements
conversion routine for practices looking
to convert data from Practix is also under
Practice Summit are available at the
A selection of photos from the Best
development and is due for release in the
Pulse+IT
coming weeks.
facebook.com/pulseitmagazine.
Page:
http://www.
Below – Dr Frank Pyefinch presenting a session at the innaugural Best Practice Summit, which was held in Bargara (near Bundaberg) in mid-March.
www.pulseitmagazine.com.au
Pulse+IT 17
BITS & BYTES Pavilion Health releases PICQ version 7 Pavilion Health has announced the release of Performance Indicators for Coding
HISA to host inaugural Data Governance Conference in May
Quality (PICQ 7.0) Enterprise and Local
The
of
feature plenary sessions presented by Jeff
Health Network versions.
Australia and its Healthcare Management
Schmitt (Harvard Pilgrim Health Care,
Health
Informatics
Society
PICQ is a set of indicators which
Informatics and Computing (health-mic)
USA); John Zelcer (National E-Health
identifies records in admitted patient
special interest group will hold its inaugural
Transition Authority); Prof Louisa Jorm
morbidity data-sets that may be incorrectly
Data Governance Conference in May.
(University of Western Sydney); Michael
coded
The first Australian event of its kind, the
Steine (NCS); David Kalisch (Australian
Standards. The software looks at the
conference will focus on ‘Data Governance:
Institute of Health and Welfare); Grant
disease and procedures codes used in a
Concepts, Current Concerns and Emerging
Robinson (International Association for
hospital data-set record, and identifies
Issues’, ‘Data Governance in Practice’, and
Information and Data Quality) and Stan
inconsistencies.
‘Data Access and Availability’.
Capp (InterSystems).
based
on
Australian
PICQ
was
Coding
originally
developed by the University of Sydney and
was sold to Pavilion Health last year.
health‑mic special interest group founder,
the conference will feature a multitude of
The release of PICQ 7.0 provides
Dr Chris Bain, believes the increasing
concurrent sessions grouped under the
managers with increased benchmark and
prominence of these themes necessitates
themes ‘Data Governance Framework’,
performance reporting that offer greater
the event. “I think the recent discussions
‘Data Quality’, ‘Stakeholder Perspectives’,
support, with graphics across nine filters
about
‘Managing Access’, and ‘Problems in
that
specific
perspective, and the ongoing slow burning
Health Systems’.
reporting requirements. This includes an
of eHealth have come to a point where
enhanced identification and correction
those of us who are working in data can
Robert Hillard, Janette Bennett, Janaka
system of potential coding errors, the
really see a need to focus in and specialise
Dissanayake, Felicity Flack, Ronald Hicks,
measurement of data accuracy throughout
in this area. Although a lot of these
Mark Matthews, David Millichap, Ross
time, benchmarking across coders, and the
activities have been happening in different
Nable, Judy Evans, Pat Grantham, Jennifer
identification of training requirements for
ways, it’s more about forming a common
Heath, David Stokes, Emma Hossack,
coders and clinicians. The software uses
understanding of the breadth of activity
Simon
more than 1200 queries that can set off 300
under a data governance banner,” said Dr
Patricia Williams, Laurie Hawkins, Steve
indicators, supporting the seventh edition
Bain.
Toal, Paul Macdonald, Susan Smith, Sue
of ICD-10-AM.
Data
Evans, Neville Board, Paddy Dewan,
“The quality of disease and hospital
Governance as, “the leveraging of people,
Alexandra Gorelik, Chris Van Leuvan,
procedure is growing in importance,”
process and technology in a systematic
Jannette Collier, Neville Board, Jon Patrick,
explains
and
way so that organisations can use data
Chris Farmer, Aditya Ghose, Mary Lam,
Programs Manager of Pavilion Health.
as a corporate asset,” believes that Data
Timothy Moon and Naomi Rafael.
”Hospitals increasingly want to use their
Governance is becoming increasingly
data to improve decision making and
relevant as the debate over the sharing of
three concurrent workshops focusing
resource management in the provision of
health records comes to the forefront.
on ‘Data Governance at the Coalface’
health care services.”
“It is already important in many
(Susan Smith), ‘Data Governance for
accommodate
Joe
customer
Berry,
Operations
Director
Dr
new
Bain,
of
the
models
who
conference
from
a
and
federal
describes
In addition to the plenary sessions,
Presenting
these
McBribe,
sessions
Tatiana
are
Stebakova,
The conference will conclude with
Features to be implemented into PICQ
ways from a corporate reporting point.
Managers’ (Dr Campbell Miller), and ‘Data
throughout the year were identified by
Elements of it have already been in finance
Governance:
workshops, under the guidance of the
departments and parts of audits programs.
information
PICQ Advisory Board. The Advisory Board
It’s just trying to — from an organisational
Watson).
is composed of government organisation
point of view — give it a home and give it a
representatives, health industry ‘thought
lightning rod for action,” said Dr Bain.
Conference takes place on May 19-20 in
leaders’, clinicians, researchers and end
Melbourne, with delegate registration now
users.
by Dr Bain and Fran Thorn (Secretary, — Cara Sayer-Bourne
The conference, which will be opened
Department of Health, Victoria), will
18 Pulse+IT
The
safely for
providing
quality
health-mic
care’
quality (Fiona
Data Governance
open. — Cara Sayer-Bourne
www.pulseitmagazine.com.au
Clinical decision making unleashed Allowing clinicians to make timely and informed decisions, the iSOFT Mobility Suite provides instant access to clinical patient information from underlying systems, at the point of care or remotely. For example: • Immediate access to diagnostic results and PACS images
• Availability of up-to-date patient history and current medications • The ability to view dynamic patient lists
Ava il
able for immed iat iSO users FT’s of ely web PAS
• Remote approval of patient treatment Evidence both locally and overseas indicates that the implementation of clinical systems needs to be both incremental and pragmatic to succeed. Importantly, ease of use and time saving benefits to clinicians are paramount for user uptake. The iSOFT Mobility Suite utilises Apple’s mobile device technology to provide clinicians with access to patient information through the intuitive and increasingly familiar interface, which provides for more natural data entry and viewing capabilities. To see the iSOFT Mobility Suite in action view the video at:
www.isofthealth.com/MobilitySuite.aspx Or to read the iSOFT Mobility Suite brochure visit:
www.isofthealth.com/MobilitySuiteBrochure.aspx
E ANZMarketandSolutions@isofthealth.com P 02 8251 6700
iSOFT Mobility Suite is an independent solution and has not been authorised, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. iPad and iPhone are a trademark of Apple Inc.
Cabrini Health now rolling out iSOFT Mobility Suite for doctors to access clinical results and patient information via iPads.
BITS & BYTES
Rural and Remote Telehealth Conference coming to Cairns
Vensa Health appoints new executives Vensa Health has appointed two new executives, with Cornelius Dirven taking
The Health Informatics Society of Australia
of
Networking
over the position of National Sales Director
(HISA) will hold their inaugural Rural and
Foundation of India, will address the
and Anossis Oliveira commencing as
Remote Telehealth Conference in May.
Apollo
Telemedicine
conference on telehealth issues. Dr Edward
General Manager ICT.
a
Brown has won a number of awards for his
scientific society for those interested in
work in telehealth, being chosen as one
Mobile Health (mHealth) provider. Their
health informatics. The event, organised
of 25 ‘Tranformational Canadians’ by the
‘Txt2Remind’ practice-patient messaging
by leaders in the telehealth industry,
Globe and Mail, CTV and Cyberpresse in
system assists primary and secondary
brings together a range of national and
2010. Professor Ganapanthy is a pioneer
health providers to send mobile text
international guest speakers to discuss the
of telemedicine in India, assisting in the
message
various themes of the conference, which
deployment of 10,000 telehealth end
health promotion messages. The system is
include: ‘The Clinical User Experience’,
points.
used by 500 GP surgeries and throughout a
‘Clinical Workflow Integration and EHR’,
number of District Health Boards.
‘National Broadband Network Design
entitled ‘Practical Aspect of Telehealth’.
and Opportunities’, and ‘The Practice of
The 90 minute session will cover outreach
Vensa Health, is pleased with his company’s
Telehealth’.
services and explain how to establish
recent appointments, explaining: “Our
Established
in
1992,
HISA
is
The conference features a session
Vensa Health is an Auckland-based
appointment
reminders
and
Ahmad Jubbawey, the Chief Executive of
Michael Gill, the chair and driving
video services in clinics, featuring a
vision is to be a leading player in the global
force behind the conference, believes that
sophisticated, real-time demonstration of
mHealth market. Having the right team on
telehealth in a rising agenda item in health
the use of telehealth video services.
board will help us achieve our goal. With the
circles, stating, “the treatment of image
new appointments we hope to improve our
for clinical, diagnostic and consultative
Geoffrey
purposes is rapidly increasing. There’s a
with the Department of Health and
business problems in the sector.”
whole range of telehealth services out
Ageing, the Department of Broadband
there and we thought it was time to pull
Communications and Digital Economy,
the health sector, working in both Holland
together the interest groups and started to
and National E-Health Transition Authority
and New Zealand. Mr Oliveira founded a
explore a more strategic approach to what
(NEHTA). The hypothetical will deal
software development company in Brazil,
is going on.”
with healthcare and the government’s
selling the company in 2003 and migrating
Event organisers will also facilitate a Robertson-style
hypothetical
market-share, as well as solve fundamental Mr Dirven has spent his entire career in
positioning in the sector, as well as the
to New Zealand.
necessitates the conference — the first
NBN.
of its kind in Australia — with “30 leading
working in their new roles and helping to
lights in the telehealth sphere; people from
item numbers for video‑based telehealth
address the needs of the healthcare sector.
just about every state and every health
will be announced during the conference.
jurisdiction.”
He explains, “The previous issue was that
about healthcare and increasing efficiencies
James Fergerson from the National
specialists had access to item numbers and
in the sector using smart IT solutions. I’m
Health Service of Britain, and Professor
could therefore have their services paid
excited to join the team at Vensa Health
John Wilson from Monash University
for, but a GP couldn’t be remunerated on
and look forward to making a positive
will be key note speakers at the event.
the same telehealth consult. That was then
contribution not only to the company but
Professor Wilson recently appeared on
modified and changed by the government
to the sector also.”
ABC Television’s ‘Four Corners’ program,
to allow both endpoints to charge an item
discussing
number.”
rewarding area,” says Mr Anossis, “ICT
Network (NBN).
The Rural and Remote Telehealth
can help make some real healthcare
Other speakers such as Dr Edward
Conference will be held on May 29-31
improvements and Vensa Health is a
Brown, CEO and founder of the Ontario
at the Cairns Convention Centre, with
company that is very focused on improving
Telemedicine
delegate registration now open.
well-being.”
It is such reasons that Mr Gill believes
the
National
Network
Broadband
(OTN),
and
Professor K. Ganapanthy, the President
www.pulseitmagazine.com.au
Mr Gill is hopeful that the new Medicare
— Cara Sayer-Bourne
Pulse+IT 21
Both executives are looking forward to
Mr Dirven explains, “I am passionate
“mHealth is a very exciting and
— Cara Sayer-Bourne
BITS & BYTES eJHI releases 9th issue The Electronic Journal of Health Informatics (eJHI) has released its latest issue, Volume 6, Number 1 (2011).
Communicare Systems and MMEx announce plans for partnership
Guest-edited by Vitali Sintchenko and
Communicare Systems and The University
company’s products.
Peter Croll, the edition is a special issue on
of Western Australia’s Centre for Software
the 2009 Health Informatics Conference
Practice (CSP) have announced plans to
it is a much greater standardisation across
(HIC). It includes an editorial on the special
collaborate on what they are describing as
the whole Aboriginal health sector in terms
proceedings of the conferences with papers
a next generation health platform. The two
of the process and the protocols. The
on a wide range of health informatics topics:
organisations have signed a memorandum
collaboration will involve close consultation
“Building SNOMED CT References Sets for
of understanding to formalise a negotiation
with user groups and will provide greater
Use as Interface Terminologies” (P. Hansen,
process that may ultimately lead to the
scope and opportunity for health service
M.Giermanski, M. Dujmovic, J. Passenger
release of a unified software offering.
and affiliate body representation,” said Mr
& M. Lawley), “A Preliminary Investigation
Dunstan.
of an Integration Tool to Improve Access to
the University of Western Australia said a
Information Resources in Clinical Software”
memorandum of understanding between
proposed arrangements, customers would
(J. Calabretto), “Patients and Health Care
the CSP and Communicare Systems
not be beholden to the operations of a
Providers’ Concerns about the Privacy of
would bring together new technologies
single company as software products
Electronic Health Records: A Review of
to improve patient care, particularly in
would be owned by the not-for-profit
the Literature” (N. Shaw, A. Kulkarni & R.
remote areas and in the field of Aboriginal
entity, which would be free to contract out
Mador), “A Preliminary Investigation of
health.
ongoing development and maintenance.
Complex Adaptive Systems as a Model for
Explaining Organisational Change Caused
a web-based eHealth platform used for
self‑determination and control over the
by the Introduction of Health Information
secure information sharing and clinical
way the IT system is developed. They
Systems” (K. Diment, P. Yu & K. Garrety),
patient management.
have the certainty that we’re not going
“Intensive Care Unit Nurse Workflow During
The Communicare patient healthcare
to be taken over by a company that takes
Shift Change Prior to the Introduction
system was designed for the use of primary
the product off in a direction that doesn’t
of a Critical Care Clinical Information
healthcare workers and nurses, with the
interest our customers,” said Mr Dunstan.
System” (N. Shaw, M. Ballermann, R.
software used extensively in Aboriginal
Hagtvedt, S. Ho, D. Mayes & N. Gibney),
community controlled health services
combination of resources from both
“Benefits Measurement from the Use of an
across Australia, as well as in other primary
the CSP and Communicare would allow
Automated Anaesthetic Record Keeping
care organisations.
the new entity to deliver customers an
System (AARK)” (Sue McLellan, M. Galvin &
updated technology platform.
D. McMaugh), “Developing Measurements
the University of Western Australia and
of the Quality of Electronic versus Paper-
Communicare will both be contributing
the functions of MMEx that are missing
based Nursing Documentation in Aged
their intellectual property to the new
in Communicare. Things like electronic
Care Homes” (N. Wang, P. Yu, D. Hailey & D.
venture, with the ultimate goal of creating
medication management and the ability to
Oxlade), “Efficacy of Electronic Discharge
a national, not-for-profit organisation
synchronise and share patient information
Summaries: A Case Study Demonstrating
owned
through a central record. MMEx also has
Early Results at Two Hospitals” (J. Forsythe,
organisations. Communicare Systems and
capabilities for telehealth.
A. MacDonald, M. Strachan & D. Evans),
UWA are currently working with several
“A SpatioTemporal Model for Seasonal
peak bodies that represent Aboriginal
to provide MMEx and Communicare’s
Influenza” (S. Edlund, M. Bromberg, G.
health services in an effort to establish the
service excellence and build on the
Chodick & J. Douglas) and “Dynamic
new entity.
reputation
Programming Algorithms for Discovery
Communicare’s Managing Director,
consumers while bringing innovation and
of Antibiotic
Brian Dunstan, overviewed the benefits of
strong research ties through the Centre,”
the proposed collaborative arrangements
says Professor Glance.
Resistance
in
Microbial
Genomes” (M.E. Helal & V. Sintchenko). — Cara Sayer-Bourne
Associate Professor David Glance of
The CSP’s flagship product, MMEx, is
Under the proposed arrangements,
by
Aboriginal
health
sector
for both existing and potential users of his
22 Pulse+IT
“One thing that I hope will come out of
He went on to stress that under the
“It gives them more security and
Professor Glance indicated that the
“The aim would be to bring across
“The combined operation will continue
of
working
closely
with
— Cara Sayer-Bourne
www.pulseitmagazine.com.au
australia’s premier & largest e-health conference
hic
1 - 5 august
brisbane
2011
the transformative power of innovation www.hisa.org.au/hic2011
BITS & BYTES
Ascribe completes deployment of Symphony emergency department solution in Eastern Health region
Ambulance Service upgrades Case Management System The Ambulance Service of NSW is extending its use of Resolve’s Case Management System with the inclusion of a new solution to address the processes of the Death and
Ascribe has announced the ‘go live’ of
and the doctors, whereas nurses tend to
Disability Unit (D&D). This follows the
its Symphony Emergency Department
prefer using a stationary PC, except when
use of the system within the Professional
solution in the Maroondah Hospital. The
they are doing shift handover,” said Ms
Standards and Conduct Unit (PSCU) of the
hospital is the third in the Eastern Health
Laracuente.
Ambulance Service.
region of Victoria to install the solution,
following deployments at Box Hill Hospital
smartphone to interact with Symphony
and owned global provider of workflow
in March 2010 and Angliss Hospital a
stated: “The application is user-friendly so
management
month later.
Dr
Archer,
who
uses
his
HTC
Resolve is an Australian operated solutions.
becoming proficient at using it in real-time
Management
workflow was quite painless and simple,
interested parties’ information to be
patient triage and tracking, clinical orders,
and also faster than we thought it would
attached to a case, and can also handle
bed management, progress notes and
be. Ascribe’s Emergency Department
the storage and retrieval of emails and
clinical documentation, and electronic
solution is now a valuable tool in our
documents relating to the case. The system
discharge summaries, a feature set that
clinical patient management, the system
has the ability to create documents with the
has been well received by both clinicians
also provides us with the data we need to
information gathered and exporting these
and nurses at Maroondah Hospital.
manage the department and patient care
to Microsoft Word. Documents generated
more efficiently.”
are automatically stored in the Resolve
The
Symphony
solution
“The Ascribe Emergency Department
Manager
department at Maroondah and at the
Department was also pleased with the
other two Eastern Health sites of Box
workflow changes brought about by the
according to the matters being dealt
Hill
Symphony rollout.
with, allowing the information to be
“The nurses are now recording all
filtered and presented as required by the
Department Director at Maroondah. “The
of their triage, patient assessment, care
user. All parties are notified of any new
implementation and go-live went very
planning and nursing notes electronically
changes or actions. In addition, Resolve’s
smoothly and staff are impressed with
within the Ascribe solution. The use of the
Case Management System features an
the system. The support given from the
iPad mobile device for handover is great
in-built permissions system, which defines
Ascribe implementation team and Eastern
and a very useful timesaver. The transition
and restricts users’ activity by role and
Health IT staff was great.”
to Ascribe was well planned with a high
responsibility, to shield selected users from
Symphony has been deployed in the
level of end-user input to the configuration
sensitive or inappropriate data.
hospital using Citrix, which allows the
and workflow design. This made the
software to be accessed using a range
go-live quite seamless and even for those
Management System will replace the
of mobile devices, as well as with more
who are not very tech savvy,” stated Ms
existing spreadsheet used to manage
traditional computing platforms. Toni
Vermeulen.
and
Laracuente, Head of Ascribe’s Point of Care
Division indicated that hospital staff are
health
Ascribe’s
D&D Unit’s data capture and management
making good use of the various platforms
Symphony solution, with the Maroondah
requirements. It will also provider additional
Symphony is being made available on.
installation
benefits that will ensure the timely
and
Peter
Angliss Archer,
Hospital,” Emergency
at
Nurse
Maroondah
Unit
platform, along with any correspondence
the way we want to work, both in our
Dr
Vermeulen,
all
Hospital
Lisa
for
application has been configured to suit
said
Ms
allows
Case
includes
System
Their
Emergency
Eastern Health is the fourth Victorian service
to
following
deploy
deployments
in
related to the case. The
The
system
move
track
categorises
towards
requests,
a
the
case
Case
implementing
a
configuration of Resolve that meets the
department,
the Barwon Health (Geelong Hospital),
completion of each step in the process.
mobile devices are supplementing, rather
Southern Health (Monash Medical Centre,
than replacing larger computers. They
Dandenong Hospital and Casey Hospital)
for the Health and Wellness Unit, and Risk
are really good for staff that are mobile
and Melbourne Health (Royal Melbourne
Management Unit in the future.
between patients, such as bed managers
Hospital) regions.
“In
the
emergency
www.pulseitmagazine.com.au
Further rollouts of Resolve are planned
— Cara Sayer-Bourne
Pulse+IT 25
EVENTS MAY
JUNE
OCTOBER
The 3rd Annual GP Super Clinics Summit 5 May - 6 May Brisbane, QLD P: +61 2 9080 4300 W: www.informa.com.au
HISA NSW Branch Meeting - Clinical Excellence Commission and AGM 23 June Sydney, NSW P: +61 3 9388 0555 W: www.hisa.org.au/nsw
Royal Australian College of General Practitioners GP 11 Conference 6 October - 8 October Hobart, TAS P: +61 3 8699 0414 W: www.gp11.com.au
AUGUST
2011 Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators Annual Conference 12 October - 14 October Melbourne, VIC P: +61 3 9824 4699 W: www.racma.edu.au
12th International HL7 Interoperability Conference 13 May - 14 May Orlando, USA P: +1 734 677 7777 W: www.ihic2011.org HL7 International 16 May - 20 May Orlando, USA W: www.hl7.org Data Governance Conference 19 May - 20 May Melbourne, VIC P: +61 3 9388 0555 W: www.hisa.org.au/data-governance General Practitioner Conference and Exhibition 20 May - 22 May Sydney, NSW P: +61 2 9211 7454 W: www.gpce.com.au RACP Congress 2011 22 May - 25 May Darwin, NT P: +61 3 9645 6311 W: www.racpcongress2011.com.au 2nd Annual Managing Ward Finances & Budgets Conference 23 May - 24 May Brisbane, QLD P: +61 2 9080 4300 W: www.iir.com.au Rural and Remote Telehealth Conference 29 May - 31 May Cairns, QLD P: +61 3 9388 0555 W: www.hisa.org.au/telehealth eHealth@CeBIT 31 May - 2 June Sydney, NSW P: +61 2 9280 3400 W: www.ehealthexpo.com.au
26 Pulse+IT
AGPN eHealth Conference 1 August - 2 August Brisbane, QLD P: +61 2 6228 0800 W: www.agpn.com.au HealthBeyond 1 August - 4 August Brisbane, QLD P: +61 3 9388 0555 W: www.healthbeyond.org.au HISA Health Informatics Conference (HIC2011) 1 August - 5 August Brisbane, QLD P: +61 3 9388 0555 W: www.hisa.org.au/hic2011 HISA NSW Branch Meeting - Health Informatics Research 18 August Sydney, NSW P: +61 3 9388 0555 W: www.hisa.org.au/nsw
SEPTEMBER HIMAA National Conference 2011 20 September - 23 September Melbourne, VIC P: +61 2 9887 5001 W: www.himaa.org.au HIMSS AsiaPac 2011 20 September - 23 September Melbourne, VIC P: +65 9848 5259 W: www.himssasiapac.org HISA NSW Branch Meeting - Electronic Medical Record 6 October Sydney, NSW P: +61 3 9388 0555 W: www.hisa.org.au/nsw
Australian Association of Practice Managers National Conference 18 October - 21 October Perth, WA P: +61 3 6231 2999 W: www.aapm.org.au 9th National Allied Health Conference 23 October - 25 October Melbourne, VIC P: +61 2 9265 0700 W:www.alliedhealthconference.com.au
NOVEMBER General Practitioner Conference and Exhibition 11 November- 13 November Melbourne, VIC P: +61 2 9211 7454 W: www.gpce.com.au Australian General Practice Network National Forum 2011 16 November - 19 November Melbourne, VIC P: +61 2 6228 0835 W: www.gpnetworkforum.com.au 10th Annual Health Informatics New Zealand Conference and Exhibition 23 November - 25 November Auckland, New Zealand W: www.hinz.org.nz
Online Calendar
To view a comprehensive list of Australian, New Zealand and International Health IT, Health, and IT events, visit the Pulse+IT website: http://bit.ly/gFr0Vk
www.pulseitmagazine.com.au
Incorporating HIMAA 2011 National Conference
The place to connect with global leaders who are advancing healthcare through IT.
The HIMSS AsiaPac 2011 Conference & Leadership Summit, incorporating the HIMAA 2011 National Conference, will provide for unlimited networking with the best minds in health care and technology. For both attendees and exhibitors, this provides tremendous opportunities to exchange ideas and stay on top of the latest developments in technology, policy and industry practice. Save the date!
20-23 September 2011 melbourne Convention and exhibition Centre www.himssasiapac.org/11 For inquiries Mr. Gabriel Sim, HIMSS Asia Pacific | +65 9299 0802 | gsim@himss.org For HIMAA Corporate members Ms. Rose Wong, HIMAA | +61 2 9887 5001 | himaa@himaa.org.au
Diamond Sponsor
Gold Sponsor
Supported by
NEHTA
eHealth takes shape across Australian communities In March 2011 the Commonwealth Government announced another nine eHealth sites across Australia (in addition to the three sites announced in late 2010)
Peter Fleming Chief Executive NEHTA
for the national Personally Controlled Electronic Health Records (PCEHR) project. This is a significant step forward on the road to a nationally integrated eHealth system.
It is an exciting time for the development of
eHealth in Australia, with eHealth taking shape across Australian communities.
The nine sites were selected following a competitive
process by the Department of Health and Ageing and the National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA). All organisations managing these projects are now in the process of developing their implementation plans to ensure their work programs clearly meet national
coverage across the Australian healthcare sector,
objectives. It is worth taking a look at what these lead
deliver early benefits and demonstrate new and
sites are expected to achieve.
innovative concepts.
The approach to building a national PCEHR
Together, the nine sites offer:
system is twofold. Based on a combination of ‘top
• Targeting of a broad number of key groups such
down’ national initiatives and ‘bottom up’ lead
as mothers and newborns, aged care, people with
implementation projects the approach allows for the
chronic conditions, palliative care and Indigenous
delivery of tangible eHealth project outcomes on the
populations.
ground across Australia — critical for building clinical, consumer and political support for the national PCEHR
• Coverage of all Australian states and territories and rural and regional communities.
agenda — whilst at the same time ensuring a focus on
• Inclusion of a number of healthcare sectors —
the national frameworks and actions required to deliver
public and private, primary care, aged care and
a national electronically interoperable healthcare
private specialists.
system.
• Broad coverage of the vendor community, with
The key objectives of the eHealth sites are to
vendors comprising the majority of the market in
achieve national demographic coverage, widespread
acute and primary care involved in one or more of
Author Info
the sites. Peter Fleming is the Chief Executive of the National E-Health Transition Authority Limited, which was established by the Australian Commonwealth, State and Territory governments on 5 July 2005 to develop better ways of electronically collecting and securely exchanging health information. NEHTA is the lead organisation supporting the national vision for eHealth in Australia and is jointly funded by the Australian Government and all State and Territory Governments.
• Projects which test and support broad consumer engagement and registration. • The broad set of functions that the PCEHR will need to provide so that lessons and foundations can be derived to support the development of national infrastructure. In addition to Health Summaries, Discharge Summaries
28 Pulse+IT
and
Medications,
the
www.pulseitmagazine.com.au
Brisbane South General Practice Division
Northern Territory Department of Health and Families
Will develop a substantial major capital city PCEHR system and
Will provide the residents of the Northern Territory with
will bring two Divisions of General Practice onboard (Brisbane
access to a PCEHR-aligned shared electronic health record.
South and Ipswich & West Moreton) and public and private
In particular the project will focus on indigenous communities
hospitals, allied health and GPs. The project will target people
and also extend into six East Kimberley hospitals in Western
with disabilities and their carers, war veterans and war widows
Australia and to remote Aboriginal Community Controlled
and children commencing school.
Health Services in South Australia.
Greater Western Sydney eHealth Consortium (NSW Health)
St Vincent’s and Mater Health Sydney
Will focus on high priority consumer groups in the Greater
hospitals and other health professionals through the delivery
Western Sydney region, including mothers and babies, aged
of key PCEHR components including GP health summaries, GP
and chronic and complex diseases, Aboriginal medical services
referrals and interoperability between two major Australian
and the culturally and linguistically diverse population. The
shared electronic health record solutions, Smart Health
project will include secure messaging and eReferral programs
Solutions and Precedence Healthcare.
Will improve clinical communication across the participating
and a medical imaging repository.
Cradle Coast Electronic Health Information Exchange Medibank Private
Targets aged and palliative care patients and their families,
Will implement a PCEHR and Personal Health Diary called
palliative care medical specialists and clinical nurse consultants
‘Health Book’. The solution will initially target all customers and
in north-west Tasmania.
their providers enrolled in Medibank’s Health Management and
Mater Misericordiae Health Services Brisbane
Chronic Disease Management programs.
Will implement a PCEHR for maternity patients and newborn
FRED IT MedView Project
babies for the Brisbane area.
This is the first time a project will provide a solution that will allow Australian clinicians to see a combined list of prescribed
Calvary Health Care ACT
and dispensed medications regardless of how many different
Strong focus on aged and palliative care and will test existing
doctors and pharmacies the patient has attended.
eHealth solutions under the new national PCEHR foundations.
Figure 1 – The nine new locations selected to lead the roll-out of eHealth records
portfolio
overview of the nine sites.
the PCEHR across consumers and key
Health Diary and Consumer Portal
also
includes
Personal
One of the most important aspects
healthcare sectors so they are in essence
implementations.
about the approach is that these sites
serving as a catalyst for kicking off eHealth
• Delivery of early benefits in a range of
will help lead the way in developing and
around the country.
areas, including improved coordination
informing future planning of eHealth,
of care, enhanced continuity of care,
improving technology and identifying what
Further Information
improved medication management and
works well and what could work better.
Further details on the PCEHR and lead
the delivery of sustainable components
implementation sites is available from
which will enable later integration with
sites on their implementation planning.
http://www.yourhealth.gov.au
the national infrastructure.
The sites will deliver a solid foundation
NEHTA website: http://www.nehta.gov.au/
Figure 1 shows a more detailed
for the future national deployment of
ehealth-implementation/pcehr-lead-sites
www.pulseitmagazine.com.au
NEHTA is working closely with these
and
the
Pulse+IT 29
MSIA
Who Cares? Empathy, Respect, Regard and the PCEHR
Dr Geoffrey Sayer BSc(Psychol), MCH, PhD President, MSIA president@msia.com.au
If we consider the Personally Controlled Electronic
does seem that there is little regard for what the PCEHR
Health Record (PCEHR) it appears that many have
was set out to achieve — empowerment of people with
forgotten the impact that empathy, regard and respect
empathy, respect and regard. If we don’t consider these
have on people’s health and healthcare delivery. We
qualities from the outset, the participation levels will be
often forget that for many people who are having
low and will not deliver cost effective benefits, leading
health related issues that it is the feeling that someone
to the scuttling of further eHealth funding. While no
cares that brings so much value to the healthcare
one wants to throw good money after bad, if we don’t
experience. Healthcare is dominated by technology
seize the opportunity and use the funding effectively we
with medicines; surgical procedures; scanning devices;
will not deliver the most tangible benefits from eHealth
pathology tests; computers; software; and implantable
ever in this country. But let’s not forget the basic human
devices — many of which have the backing of millions,
qualities we are after in healthcare.
tens of millions and almost scarily in many cases,
hundreds of millions of dollars. However, it is the
applications have already considered the impact
human qualities of empathy, regard and respect that
their solutions have on the caring process in terms of
have arguably the most significant impact on health
empathy, respect and regard, but we seem reluctant
outcomes and how people feel about their health
to consider them when one considers the PCEHR
and the healthcare they have received. We have $467
Concept of Operations. The PCEHR is essentially a
million allocated to delivering of the PCEHR in its first
communication enabler — not just a storage container
budgetary consideration. The disturbing thing when I
of data that gives some vague sense of control of
last checked: empathy, regard and respect are free but
what goes into the pot. Isn’t communication leading
at times it seems it is unobtainable with the PCEHR. It is
to engagement a two way conversation of issues
something money can’t buy.
and options? We don’t seem to consider the impact
It
seems
for
many
stakeholders
that
It is fair to say that existing health software
the
that communication mediums are already having on
conversations concerned with empathy, regard and
peoples’ lives when it comes to health. Rather, we are
respect are only just beginning now. Just 15 months to
concerned with stifling the conversations; controlling
go, but are we actually listening, do we actually care?
what is accessible; preventing patients (if clinicians in
The political side seems to be more concerned with
some quarters have their way) from documenting their
media releases; the debate between clinicians is who will
health and healthcare delivery in their PCEHR.
really be in control of the information; and the designers
are making the process so prescriptive we are limiting
around the world. I can be provided an update by
choice. Choice — a basic tenant of empowerment. As
the ones I love; be assured that things are well or be
an observer and participant — maybe an ineffectual
provided with an insight into how a person is feeling.
participant it seems — of the many things to do with
I can provide advice; assurance; regard; express
the road map of foundation pieces and the PCEHR it
respect for the decision making and follow-up earlier
Instant messaging, SMS and texting are flipping
decisions. I can send an image with text commentary
Author Info
from the highlands of New Zealand to Australia using As well as being President of MSIA, Geoffrey is General Manager Australia of HealthLink. He has spent the past 20 years working as an epidemiologist. For the past 10 years Geoffrey has occupied senior management positions in medical software companies.
my iPhone and get a reaction in minutes. This medium allows a light touch approach that can be escalated to a more involved process. Using instant messaging, SMS and texting it is possible to be empathetic; bring joy; connect with people; remove a sense of isolation and give confidence that things are going well. Now I
30 Pulse+IT
www.pulseitmagazine.com.au
know many will frown upon my simplistic
really is no difference between an IHI and
supporting empathy, regard and respect.
view of instant messaging, SMS and
a Medical Record Number (MRN). It allows
These seemed to have been forgotten
texting as a means of healthcare delivery.
machines to work better to make sure only
in the push for a PCEHR. I am aware
There will be medico‑legal arguments
your data from one system is matched with
that it will be argued that Wave 2 will be
about patient safety and quality of care.
your data in another system. However,
showcasing existing capabilities and will
There will be arguments about privacy
IHIs used as part of an indexing service
be delivering foundation pieces. However,
concerns. However it is a medium that is
for the PCEHR can pull greater amounts
in the push for apparent benefits there
so widespread; has such ease of use; and
of sensitive data together. Given this
will be a push for deliverables, possibly
a medium that individuals who use it have
capability there has been concern that IHIs
at the expense of the emotional qualities
‘opted in’ to. It is an existing capability. It
and PCEHR will expose an unnecessary
that will make a difference. Many will
is an empowering medium and creates
privacy risk. The challenge is that data
argue that Information Technology (IT)
a
information.
can be stored at disparate locations and is
and Information Management (IM) are
Effectively with instant messaging, SMS
only relevant when linked with identifiable
emotionally neutral. That IT and IM are just
and texting individuals are consenting
information. If we store data anonymously,
tools — technology that frees up clinicians’
and controlling their own privacy policies.
then the following is possible:
time and not utilised for the direct benefit
Individuals have already consented to the
IHI number: 8003768974932891
of the people that clinicians are serving.
process.
Diagnosis: HIV Positive
I beg to differ. IT and IM are enablers;
Should we just be a meaningless
empowering tools; they can be emotional
the access control processes with the
number? In an electronic world you can be.
charging; and even a comforting medium
PCEHR unmanageable for all except
Does that mean you are losing empathy?
that people are using throughout the
the intellectually elite. Why doesn’t the
This approach certainly considers respect
community everyday already. Yet we are
PCEHR Concept of Operations take into
and regard for privacy associated with
not using it, as well as we could, in the area
consideration ease of use? Does the
confidential information. While this is a
where we already know what the impact of
proposed PCEHR consider the impact
simplistic view, when it comes to privacy
caring has on people with emotional angst;
that it will have on empathy, regard and
there is a trade-off between usability,
worry; relief; and joy that is part and parcel
respect? Does it empower patients in a way
cost, risk of a breach and the access/
of health and healthcare delivery.
that allows them choice — allows them to
authentication method decided upon.
have a “Personally Controlled” Electronic
As the complexity of the privacy model
commitment from government, clinicians
Health Record primarily for their use? Does
increases the ability for people to effectively
and industry to ensure the PCEHR is
it have the right balance of privacy and the
manage their privacy decreases. There are
sensitive to the actual concerns of the users
ability for sharing of valued confidential
many people who will want varying levels
of the PCEHR. We need to listen to those
information?
of control. If you want greater control you
people wanting to have greater control over
Concerns around the PCEHR largely
are able to opt in when a provider of such
their health and the healthcare they receive.
focus on issues around privacy and the
a system delivers something that meets
Let’s respect the roles and responsibilities
ability
platform
for
sharing
In contrast we are looking to make
to
aggregate
disparate
There
has
to
be
longer
term
data
the control level you are after. If we are to
of all stakeholders and remind ourselves
through an indexing service. While we
get choice for patients we need to look at
of our roles, and not assume we are able to
want to ensure that privacy is regarded
methods that will allow innovation in the
represent the views of other stakeholders.
and respected, there are a number of
sector. Not stifle innovation and ignore
Let clinicians be clinicians; consumers
misconceptions about the PCEHR, the role
current approaches, but rather build on
be consumers; industry be industry; and
of an indexing service and Individual Health
existing capabilities — capabilities that are
government be government. Let’s examine
Identifiers (IHIs). The IHI is simply a number
already effective in dealing with respect
the existing technologies inside and outside
that tells you nothing at all about the
and regard for the handling of confidential
of health to serve as a basis for progressing
associated individual. There is no specific
health information.
eHealth. Let’s not be so prescriptive that
privacy link between IHIs and the PCEHR
It is not just a PCEHR that will deliver
we lose fundamental elements of empathy,
— it will just be another data element that
better health and healthcare delivery,
respect and regard, which is so important
can be used to reference (index) a health
but a number of existing applications
for peoples’ health and the healthcare they
record. From a privacy perspective, there
that are already in play — already
receive.
www.pulseitmagazine.com.au
Pulse+IT 31
FEATURE
Cloud connected mobile devices James Kavanagh
Healthcare Technology Lead Microsoft Australia jamesk@microsoft.com
How cloud computing provides the foundation for mobile devices in healthcare
predictions of the total number of Internet-connected
Mobile smartphone devices are proliferating at a
public and private cloud computing infrastructure
staggering rate, driven by consumer appeal and the
is predicted to more than double from $3.1bn to
ability to pick and choose from tens of thousands of
$6.4bn. With pervasive connectivity between devices
available ‘apps’. Each app is a self-contained program
and to a range of cloud computing services, each
that serves a specific need. In healthcare, we are
device becomes a gateway to continuous monitoring,
already seeing many apps purpose-built for condition
visualisation and interaction with medical or other
management, exercise and wellness self-support,
data.
medical alerts and even radiology image sharing. With
devices by the same time — numbering some 22 billion devices globally. In the same period, investment in
intuitive, accessible mobile experiences integrated with
Drivers of cloud computing adoption
data, and connectivity services increasingly supported
So why is it that cloud services are becoming the
by cloud computing, technology is being used in
essential foundation for these mobile experiences?
scenarios that were previously unimaginable.
Firstly, it’s simply a question of economics. When
Microsoft has a focus on stimulating and
upfront capital costs for infrastructure are borne by
supporting these scenarios. For example, finalists in
a cloud computing provider, the application operator
Microsoft’s global competition for student innovation,
only pays for computing resources that are actually
Imagine Cup, built a solution that combined an
used. With capacity provisioned on demand, a cloud
inexpensive ultrasound device with a mobile tablet and
enabled scenario can be rapidly deployed and scaled
Microsoft Azure cloud storage. The intent is to provide
to meet unpredictable demand. In response to the
ultrasound imaging that can be performed in regions of
H1N1 pandemic in the US and the Queensland flood
Africa with remote image interpretation and archiving.
emergency locally, Microsoft leveraged its Azure
In the United States, organisations like MedApps with
platform to rapidly deploy and scale applications to
their CloudCare platform are providing multi‑function
gather information and provide assistance.
personal monitoring devices that stream data
continuously to cloud based personal health records.
part of the story. Cloud computing also provides a fabric
But even these scenarios are bounded in quite
of services for identity and access control, storage,
conventional models of data gathering and user
processing, interoperability and integration, data
interaction. Globally more than 450 million smart
analysis and management of content. Identity services
phone devices will be sold in 2011, 50% more than
in the cloud based on OpenID enable consumers to
last year and this is expected to grow to more than 1
create a single identity for use across many different
billion devices by 2015. But even this is dwarfed by
applications and devices, while cloud based secure
1
But these utility and scale characteristics are only
token services can provide an interoperable mechanism
Author Info
for access control and authorisation. These services can James leads the technology strategy of Microsoft Australia for the healthcare industry across the hospital, community, primary and aged care. For the past thirteen years he has guided software architecture and innovation in government and healthcare.
eliminate the cumbersome and inadequate controls that are commonly found on websites that employ only user names and passwords.
Other cloud services such as Microsoft Azure
AppFabric provide a mechanism for secure messaging, directory lookup and interoperability. These services
32 Pulse+IT
www.pulseitmagazine.com.au
can
enable
resilient
communication
between
security measures in our hospitals and clinics.
clinical applications using open standards or secure
However, although security is an essential component
connectivity between medical devices and other
of strong privacy safeguards in all online computing
data endpoints. They build on and extend the core
environments,
cloud computing services for access to on demand
Consumers, clinicians and organisations are willing to
computing and storage. Taken together these services
use cloud computing only if they trust that their data
compose a complete backend platform on which
will remain private and secure. The ability of cloud
any healthcare application can be deployed, with the
computing providers to live up to these expectations is
frontend platform being desktop, web browser, tablet
critical not only for the future of cloud computing but
or mobile devices. It is the complementary nature of
also for protecting our fundamental right to privacy.
these two platforms that is driving the mutual advance
of mobile device and cloud computing technology in
and public policy issues remain to be solved in order
healthcare scenarios.
for both mobile and cloud computing to fully thrive.
Software developers who are building these
But these issues are not holding back adoption of cloud
cloud‑connected device experiences need a set
connected mobile experiences. Indeed, the Federal
of platform assets including tools, programming
Government recently made strong recommendations
languages, runtimes, and skills to accelerate their path
for agencies to take the first step of adopting
to development, deployment, and commercialisation.
public cloud services for public facing “unclassified”
The question of privacy
security
alone
is
not
sufficient.
In Australia, a number of regulatory, jurisdictional,
government services.2 Over the next few years we will see a vibrant movement towards greater use of these
It’s not a black and white choice between physical
cloud connected mobile technologies, a movement
infrastructure deployed on premise versus vast, shared
that will help reshape how clinicians access the
infrastructure held within global mega datacentres.
information they need and patients participate in their
In reality, there are many intermediate options such
own care.
as private cloud and hosted services. In healthcare, the most appropriate choice often boils down to
References
preferences around regulatory requirements and
1. Worldwide Smartphone 2011–2015 Forecast and
control.
Analysis, IDC Study #227367, Mar 2011
Security countermeasures and controls in public
2. Cloud Computing Strategic Direction Paper, April
cloud infrastructure far surpass typical healthcare
2011, The Department of Finance and Deregulation
Figure 1: The architecture of a cloud-connected mobile platform.
www.pulseitmagazine.com.au
Pulse+IT 33
FEATURE
How a mobile solution can prevent medication administration errors in aged care Dr Chaolin Chang
PhD, MMgmt, GradDipBusSys, BSc Manager, Product Strategy and Development, iCare changc@icare.com.au
There is a plethora of mobile devices on the market
1. Medications are often administered at the point of
today for aged care providers to choose from. They range from devices targeted predominantly at
care; 2. Administering medications are repetitive tasks;
consumers, such as Apple’s iPad and Samsung’s Galaxy
and
Tablet, to industry grade devices, such as Panasonic’s
3. The mobile device can be used as reminders to
Toughbook series. In between, there is a wide range
nursing staff for allergies, additional medication, or
of Microsoft Windows based tablets, which have been
medication due.
around for some years.
Mobile devices are particularly suited for point of
drive the medication policy at the operational level.
care solutions but they should be the means to an end
For instance, the solution could ensure a valid reason is
rather than the starting point. This article will look at
always entered by the nursing staff for any medication
how to choose a mobile solution by using a common
that is missed.
issue faced by many aged care providers today —
medication administration errors.
used to drive the solution because the gap between
A study of medication administration errors in long
what the mobile solution provides and your existing
term elderly inpatients in Japan revealed that the top
medication policy will determine the effort required to
three errors are crushing tablets without authorisation,
re-train staff.
omission without valid reasons and not signing for
an administered medication. These three types of
to a possible mobile solution for PRN administration.
errors are also commonly observed in many aged care
facilities in Australia.
between the current workflow and the possible mobile
These errors often occur when nursing staff
solution. The steps carried out by the mobile solution
are distracted during the medication round or the
are shown in italic. When the mobile solution mirrors
registered nurse is simply too busy. The problem is
current workflow, staff are not required to be re-trained
exacerbated by the use of paper medication charts
extensively to adopt the new solution.
and signing sheets. The use of Dose Administration
Aid (DAA) helps to improve omission in packed
such as checking of past administration history and
medications but it is still up to the nursing staff to
recording PRN administration in resident’s progress
identify all additional medications from doctors’ hand
notes are handled by the mobile solution. By moving
writen orders.
these chores from the existing workflow to the mobile
solution, nursing staff will have more time to deal with
1
A mobile solution is particularly suited to
medication administration because:
A well executed mobile solution will allow you to
It is imperative that existing medication policy is
The Figure 1 compares steps of a current workflow As you can see, there is no difference in steps
Steps that are crucial to prevent medication errors
other tasks at hand. Registered nurses can focus on medication management rather than handing out pills.
Author Info
Dr Chaolin (Charles) Chang received his PhD in Computing from Monash University in 1995. He also has a Master degree of Management and Graduate Diploma in Business System. Since 1995 he is being developing IT products for start-up firms in retail, customer service, and health care. Dr Chang specialises in integrated web and mobility solutions.
Any
mobile
solution
used
for
medication
management needs to provide the following key features: 1. Flexible workflow so it can be catered for different scenarios without incurring costly re-programming work; 2. Display of drug administration history at the point
34 Pulse+IT
www.pulseitmagazine.com.au
of care; and 3. Prompt the user essential medication information of the resident in concern.
Finally, for a mobile solution to deliver the
should also meet your infection control policy and can be used to enforce medication management policy at the operational level.
expected return, medication policy must drive the
References
mobile solution. The selection of the mobile device
1. H. Ito and S. Yamazum, Common types of
should be considered in the context of ease of cleaning,
medications errors on long-term psychiatric care
durability, battery life, and of course cost of each unit
units, International Journal for Quality in Health
and its accessories. The device selected for the job
Care 2003: Vol. 15, No. 3, pp. 207-212
Figure 1 – PRN administration workflow comparison. Current workflow
Possible mobile solution workflow
1. Nurse has identified the need for PRN administration
1. Nurse has identified the need for PRN administration
2. Nurse checks dosage and direction of the PRN on medication chart
2. Nurse enters the mobile solution and is authenticated
3. Nurse checks past administration of PRN on signing sheet and resident’s progress note
3. The mobile solution prompts the dosage, direction and past administration of the PRN to the nurse
4. Nurse administers PRN
4. Nurse administers PRN
5. Nurse signs on signing sheet
5. Nurse acknowledges the administration on the mobile device
6. Nurse records on resident’s progress note
6. The mobile solution makes an entry in the resident’s progress notes
HPOS makes it easier for you to do business with Medicare Australia
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www.pulseitmagazine.com.au
• Track and Scale—view progress towards reducing return of service obligations as part of the Rural Health Workforce initiative • Healthcare Identifiers (HI) Service—view your provider and organisation HI details and access a directory of HI providers. HPOS continues to provide a range of services to make it easier to do business with Medicare Australia, such as: • Patient Verification—confirm and search patient Medicare card details • manage existing banking details • Medicare services—Easyclaim processing and payment reports, manage provider details and add a new Medicare practice location. For more information go to www.medicareaustralia.gov.au/hpos
4588.02.11 (22.02.11)
Health Professional Online Services (HPOS) gives health professionals and delegated practice staff access to Medicare Australia’s online services through a single entry point.
Pulse+IT 35
FEATURE
Mobile key in the dialogue of care Rachel de Sain
Director, Flaxworks rdesain@flaxworks.com.au
Mobile: the word means different things to different
within hospitals with smart phones? Would developing
people. In fact when I was working as Director of
mobile centric enterprise applications enable smoother
Mobile at MTV Networks in London a few years ago,
communication between care teams?
I was asked if that meant I looked after the mobile
homes on location shoots. Yes, really!
shared equipment, mobiles can also act as a remote
Being able to locate people, and importantly,
Understanding and integration of mobile has come
log in or authorisation tool for access to other ICT
a long way since then, with mobile strategy now a key
equipment. The amount of time, and in turn money,
component for business in many industries. Advances
wasted looking for people, equipment, waiting to log
in device design and capability, processing power,
onto machines could be greatly improved if smart
operating system enhancements, faster connectivity
applications were developed that were carried with you
and download speeds — fuelled by a commercially
on your mobile device.
driven application environment — have led to explosive
growth in the uptake, acceptance and usage of mobile
their care plans should also be investigated and can
phones for far more than just talk and text.
provide a variety of operational improvements, from
Integrating patients’ own mobile phones into
To take advantage of new mobile technology,
simple appointment reminder texts — which have been
infrastructure investment is required and this has been
shown to reduce no shows — to specific applications to
sadly lacking within the public health service. Apart
monitor or track certain symptoms such as mood and
from pagers and standard ‘call centric’ devices, most
exercise.
healthcare professionals are not equipped with smart
mobile devices, unless they bought it themselves.
about the more complex smart phone features and
I experienced this firsthand late last year following
possible applications, however a range of benefits
major abdominal surgery. After ten days recovering in
can be achieved through the use of simple voice and
hospital I was sent home, but my scar was not looking
messaging services.
too good. Given the pain, time and difficulty in getting
back to the hospital, I was grateful that my nurse was
clinic while I was in Cape Town in March this year, and
a 26 year old with an iPhone and a healthy dose of
spoke with the wonderful women working there about
common sense. She gave me her personal mobile
how mobile phones are improving health outcomes for
number and said, “MMS me some photos of the scar
patients. In townships like Langa, where the average
and I’ll discuss it with the surgeon and see whether you
weekly wage would cover about two Melbourne
need to come in”. The surgeon promptly determined
coffees, people struggle to get to a clinic and worry
the wound was healing OK, and said I was to monitor it
about the costs involved. Yet 90% of people own a
and send him more pictures direct to his personal email
mobile phone.
address if anything changed.
What would a cost benefit analysis show us if we
go door to door informing people of free testing. The
were to look at equipping healthcare professionals
issue then arises that people have to return to a clinic to
A lot of press and excitement has been generated
I was fortunate enough to be invited to visit at TB
Tents are set up in the townships and TB nurses will
get their results. By simply taking the mobile numbers
Author Info
of people when they are tested they are provided with a Rachel consultants on digital strategy, is part of the clinical leads & consumer reference forum at NEHTA, she is a board member for VIC ICT for Women, and previously held positions on the board at AIMIA Victoria and HISA.
lifeline, a connection, a way to continue the healthcare conversation and ensure that if required, these people get treated. Given the cramped living environments and highly infectious nature of these sorts of diseases, that care is provided to the family and community as well. They have seen great results and infection rates
36 Pulse+IT
www.pulseitmagazine.com.au
are coming down.
has shown baseline improvements in
role in enabling continued conversation
In India, a country with a tele-density
adherence. Studies are ongoing to look at
between
(as of July 2010) of 58% with a 2.5%
the reduction in care requirements after
patient, and are an essential tool in the
monthly growth rate — although arguably
implementing these services, but a major
fight to reduce the cost of healthcare and
a larger actual usage base given shared
winning factor to me is that the users
improve outcomes for patients.
and pay phones — there have been a
were happy, stating unanimously that the
number of research initiatives looking at
system was effective at reaching out to
you of your appointment; a recorded
the improvements mobile connectivity
them without any side effects.
message asking you to ‘press 1’ to confirm
can play in reducing the healthcare needs
Although Australia has a lower number
you have taken the day’s medicine; or an
of minority communities. One such project
of marginalised communities and less
iPhone app that utilises GPS to enable you
looked at providing a mobile service for
extreme poverty than India and South
to record your exercise and present your
urban sex workers in Bangalore. This
Africa, there are lessons to be learnt. A very
progress in a creative graphical format,
group, generally having a dual identity, is
smart medical student at the University of
there are many ways mobile phones can
often marginalised by society and is at risk
Cape Town summed it up by saying, “We
help migrate us from a ‘find and fix’ service
of HIV and other STIs.
continue to have a major proportion of
provider centric model of care to a patient
healthcare
practitioner
and
Whether it’s a simple SMS reminding
Using voice content, phones are
our population struggling with 3rd world
centric preventative one.
unconstrained by literacy concerns and
disease, compounded with the western
mimic existing formats of everyday
first world increases of cardiovascular,
of care rather than a one off event and
conversation.
diabetes and other chronic disease. We’ve
therefore it makes sense to use the most
reminders of appointments, medication
got the worst of both worlds.”
effective communication tool out there —
as well as microfinance repayments and
the mobile phone.
The
service
provides
Yet mobile phones are playing a key
Multiple Video Source Billing Scheduling
Letters HL7
Secure Workflow
Evolving
Devices
Robust Clinical coding
Adaptive
Instant Messaging
Endoscopy Claim management
Video
Multilingual
General Practice
Hospital
Radiology
“Liszt” - Live Video
Presence Tasks Lists
Intuitive
Healthcare is a dialogue; a continuum
SOA
Banking
Themed
Specialist
Totalcare
Appointments
Multi disciplinary
SQL
Day Surgery
SMS
Complete
Endoscopy Machines Integrated DRG Grouper
Access Control
medical management software
Paperless Electronic Records
Waitroom Reliability
Efficiency
Integrated
Reporting
Personalised
Dashboards and Workbench
Still Images
totalcare www.pulseitmagazine.com.au
Elegant
Modularity
Surgical Audit
Auditable
Admissions
Touch Screen Technology
web www.totalcare.net.au email info@totalcare.net.au
phone +61 7 3252 2425 skype skype.totalcare.net.au
Pulse+IT 37
FEATURE
Cloud computing in the health sector – ready for the prime time? Alberto Tinazzi
IT Security Consultant eHealth Security Services atinazzi@ehealthsecurity.com.au
What is cloud computing?
the customers have to install and configure on their
Cloud computing is a new term that is being
computers and servers, the software is centrally hosted
increasingly used thanks to the large interest the media
and made available to customers via the Internet.
are showing on the topic. But what is cloud computing
What makes this service attractive is that software
exactly?
maintenance is handled by the vendor.
Should
health
professionals
consider
cloud computing? What implications will a health
professional be facing if considering the adoption of
development environments that customers use to
this technology?
build their own applications.
Typically services, data and applications are located
With Platform as a Service, the provider offers
the business premises. Under a cloud computing
‘Going cloud’ is a business decision, not an IT one
arrangement, data, applications and services are
The advantages of ‘going cloud’ for an organisation
situated in specialised data centres and made available
include:
to the end user via the Internet.
• Reduced upfront costs of computer equipment;
• Flexible on-demand processing capacity;
on the end user’s machine or on servers located on
The US National Institute of Standards and
Technology defines cloud computing as: “...a model for
• Collaborative capabilities;
enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network
• Reduced operational ongoing costs;
access to a shared pool of configurable computing
• A reduced carbon footprint; and
resources (e.g. networks, servers, storage, applications
• Improved business continuity.
and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and
released with minimal management effort or service
obsolete servers with new ones, greatly reducing the
provider interaction...”1
up-front costs and downtime. The organisation only
needs to pay an ongoing fee to their cloud service
There are three delivery models for cloud
An organisation no longer needs to replace
computing services:
provider, which in exchange supplies processing power,
• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
memory, storage space and network access.
• Software as a Service (SaaS)
• Platform as a Service (PaaS)
environments is the flexible on-demand processing
In Infrastructure as a Service the cloud provider
capacity, which makes the provisioning for new servers
offers a range of virtualised infrastructure components
a simple task. If the business grows and more resources
such as virtual network devices, virtual storage devices
are required, the customer will simply have to acquire
and virtual servers to meet customer specifications.
more resources from the provider. Most of the time, a
new server can be provisioned within minutes.
Software as a Service represents a new way of
delivering software. Rather than selling software that
Another great advantage of cloud computing
The collaborative capabilities introduced by
Author Info
cloud computing allows businesses to explore new Alberto Tinazzi is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP). He works as an independent information security consultant specialised in the healthcare sector. He has 16 years experience as an IT professional, specialised in information management and security. He has spent the last 10 years working within the health sector covering a number of different roles within the Division of General Practice Network.
opportunities for interacting with their customers and business partners.
The ongoing costs of managing IT infrastructure
may also be reduced as customers do not have to worry about air conditioning, power, physical security, scheduled maintenance, breakages and other related costs.
38 Pulse+IT
www.pulseitmagazine.com.au
Facilitated by the more efficient use
may be running a test environment that
not protect their passwords adequately.
of computer hardware and the reduced
requires minimal protection while another
Two‑factor-authentication (e.g. user name
requirements of air conditioning and
tenant may be running a critical application
and password, plus a one-time password
electrical power, cloud computing also
handling sensitive data. There may be
or digital certificate) will provide greater
plays a very important role in reducing an
consequences impacting on all other
protection in a SaaS scenario.
organisation’s carbon footprint.
tenants if the first system misbehaves or is
taken over by malicious intruders.
for
Cloud computing has great potential
providers
should
account
isolating
for such issues to provide a secure
responsible for securing the applications
solution to ensure business continuity in
multi‑tenant environment, in reality, due
that they develop.
case of major disasters, such as floods, fire
to the complexity of the cloud environment
or earthquakes. However, it also introduces
these events are not always easy to detect
protecting operating systems and data,
a number of new issues, particularly related
or prevent.
while providers should ensure adequate
to the sensitiveness of clinical records and
Often, cloud providers may be able
network segmentation and proper data
their protection, which should be properly
to offer very sophisticated approaches
partitioning between customers’ systems.
considered and addressed.
to security beyond the capability of
IaaS customers are still responsible for
many businesses. However, a customer
backing up data, implementing access
should not take this for granted. Typically,
control mechanisms, establishing services
Most large enterprises have their own
customers and cloud providers share
that should be available over the Internet,
private cloud infrastructure, but small and
the responsibility of security and privacy
installing and maintaining software and so
medium businesses looking to embrace
and each cloud model implies different
on.
cloud computing will have to rely on public
responsibilities for each party.
or community clouds. These type of cloud
responsible for backing up customers’ data
models operate in multi-tenancy mode,
for
and
(mostly SaaS or managed PaaS and IaaS) it
meaning that a single physical server or
applications, while customers will have
is important to check with the vendor how
a storage device is partitioned among
to be careful to protect their access
long it would take to recover data in the
various customers.
credentials. Under SaaS, password based
case of a problem. This should be clearly
securing
customers’
data
while
computing
better mobility as well as provides a
SaaS providers should be responsible
environments,
customers’
for healthcare operators as it enables
Cloud and security
While
PaaS providers should be responsible customers
are
IaaS customers are responsible for
In circumstances where the provider is
In a multi-tenant environment each
authentication may not be a suitable
stated in the Service Level Agreement
customer may have different security
option to protect the data. Individual
(SLA).
requirements. For example, a tenant
users may select weak passwords or may
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Pulse+IT 39
measures should be considered to prevent
protection and security best practice,
meaning that they can have as many
providers from abusing customer data.
customers should rely on the provider’s
interruptions of 29 minutes as they wish
Information stored on the cloud and
current certifications, which may include
without legally breaking the agreement.
travelling over the Internet should be
ISO27001, DSD Gateway Certification,
encrypted and only the customer should
ASCI-33, the Protective Security Manual
for direct losses and exclude liability
know the key or password to decrypt the
and PCI-DSS.
for indirect losses. They may not offer
data.
A very important aspect which should
adequate compensation for the damages
Most SLAs provide limited liability
The SLA or contract may specifically
be carefully assessed when selecting a
caused by unscheduled downtime, data
exclude provider liability regarding data
cloud service provider is their Service Level
loss or privacy violations.
protection, security and backups thus
Agreement. This document describes the
leaving customers solely responsible for
service and states priorities, responsibilities
happen in the event of a security breach
the protection of their data.
and warranties. It will state things such as
and it should also stipulate the obligation
the performance of the service in terms
of the provider to inform the customer of
of connection speed, service uptime,
such breach.
Things to consider when choosing a cloud
A SLA should clearly state what would
allocated resources and more.
While the customer may be able to take
or no infrastructure and resell services
care of some aspects of security and data
service provided and establishes penalties
provided
integrity, such as maintaining independent
if the service provided falls below an
providers will pass onto their customers
back-ups and using data encryption, other
agreed level. For instance, the agreement
conditions reflected by the SLA they have
aspects of data security in a cloud based
may establish a credit on the monthly
in place with their suppliers. As such, their
environment are outside of the customer’s
fees paid by the customer if a service
customers are unable to negotiate on
control and knowledge. This includes the
availability falls below the agreed 99.0%.
these conditions.
physical security of the data centre, virus
Note that 99% availability may sound
protection, protection against external
good in the first instance, but it equates to
cloud reseller is that they may change
attacks and maintaining data security as it
three and a half days of downtime over a
supplier without letting their customers
is transferred between data centres.
year. Also, the SLA may exclude from the
know about it. This could have serious
This underlines the importance of
calculation some types of outages such as
consequences as data may be transferred
choosing a reputable service provider
scheduled maintenance, failure caused by
overseas without the customer even
with strong data protection policies and
third parties and so on.
knowing it. This particularly applies to
procedures. As it would be impractical, if
Some providers may offer 100%
SaaS providers as they may be delivering
not impossible, for a customer to assess
availability not counting outages that are
their services through an infrastructure
the provider’s compliance with data
below a certain threshold (e.g. 30 minutes),
(IaaS) managed by another provider.
Typically a SLA states the quality of the
vendors.
These
Another issue with working with a
- Healthpoint Technologies
- Alcidion
- DoctorWare Australia, Smartrooms
- Healthways Inc
- Ambulance Australia
- Ambulance Victoria, VACIS
- Deltra Pty Ltd, Practice Pro
- DrsDesk Software
- Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority
- Episoft
- Cancer Council of Victoria
- Global Health
- Best Practice Software - CDC Systems - charmhealth
- Cardio Vascular Systems
- Cloud9 Software
- Communicare Systems
e
other
- CompuDoc Medical
- Clintel Healthsolve, The Specialist
40 Pulse+IT
by
- Abaki
- Access GP
Clinical software providers who integrate MIMS medicines information and decision support into their applications to ensure that clinicians have the most trusted information available at all times.
Some cloud providers own limited
- Equipoise International, Totalcare - Genie Solutions
- Healthsoft Australia
- Houston Medical Australia - Incisive Medical Systems - InterSystems
- International SOS (Australasia) - Intrahealth Systems, Profile - iSoft Group
• Locum
• Patient Safety International
• MHAGIC
• Practix
• MasterCare
- Godbar Software P/L - GPComplete
- Health Track Medical Systems - HealthCare Software
• MedChart • Classic
• ePharmacy
- Jam Software
- Lane Cove General Practice
www.pulseitmagazine.com.au
When choosing a cloud provider it
in developing countries offering cheaper
responsible may be a very expensive
is also very important to verify that the
labour, rent and services.
exercise. For this reason it is important
connection speed between cloud and site
that the agreement with the service
is adequate. Aspects such as availability,
legislation
and
provider includes a ‘choice of law’ clause
traffic throughput, latency and packet
copyright. Most of the largest cloud
which ensures that disputes are handled
loss should be seriously evaluated. A tool
providers reside in the US, however US
in Australia rather than overseas. Also, the
to measure connectivity performance
legislation about privacy and data handling
agreement should state that Australian
between a customer’s site and some of
is significantly different from Australian
law will apply even if the provider resides
the most popular providers (including a
regulations. For instance the US Patriot
in another country. Typically, however,
few Australians) can be found at http://
Act gives the FBI the right of accessing
agreements are developed by service
cloudharmony.com/speedtest.
any data stored within the US, even if it
providers and therefore contain clauses
belongs to foreign companies.
which play in their favour. Large corporate
Other risks introduced by cloud
Some countries may have inadequate
in
fact
privacy
2
of
or government customers may be able
case of a local disaster. A provider should
“transborder data flows” as established
to negotiate these terms but for small
replicate customers’ data across multiple
by NPP 9 of the Privacy Amendment
to medium businesses, the chance of
data centres geographically distant to one
(Private Sector) Act 2000,3 which states
negotiating a customised agreement is
another.
that organisations thinking of transferring
likely to be slim.
The customer should be very careful
data offshore should seek individuals’
when selecting a provider by gathering
consent and that they need to disclose
Jumping off the clouds
customer feedback, selecting providers
that information stored overseas may
While everybody seems to be talking about
with proven technical competence and
not be protected by Australian law. NPP9
joining the cloud not many discuss how to
economic stability.
also stipulates that the organisation must
leave the cloud. As cloud computing is a
take reasonable steps to ensure that
very new field, it still lacks the adoption
data exported overseas will be handled
of commonly agreed on standards. Each
A very important aspect to consider
in accordance to the Australian National
cloud provider has its own proprietary
when selecting a cloud provider is the
Privacy Principles.
system making it very difficult for a
location your data will be stored. Storing
customer to transfer services to a different
data overseas introduces the very serious
provides that a company keeping financial
provider, or even back on-site.
problem of data sovereignty.
records overseas, must inform ASIC about
The cloud computing model is driven
is
to
computing are related to resiliency in the
Where does a cloud live?
There
relating
the
issue
The Australian Corporations Act 20014
Proprietary
standards
are
often
where the records are kept.
intentionally used by some vendors to ‘lock
by economies of scale. For this reason,
in’ a customer. A customer should ensure
data may be stored in data centres located
happens
- Manrex Pty Ltd; Webstercare
- Practicare
- MediFlex
- Promedicus
- Mater Public Hospital - Medical - Objects
- Mednetwork Systems - Medtech Global
- Merck Sharp and Dohme - MMex
- Mountain Top Systems - Mouse Soft
- Mx Solutions - NPS
- NIB Health Funds
overseas,
prosecuting
the
that the provider has a well documented
- Promadis
- Queensland Emergency Services - Queensland Eye Institute - Queensland Government - Shexie Medical System - SmartHealth
- Software for Specialists - Stat Health
- Sydney Adventist Hospital - SurgiWare
- Pen Computer Systems
- Telethon Institute for Child Health Research
- Pharmacy Computer Solutions
- Zedmed
- Pharmacy4U
If a data leakage or a privacy breach
A special thank you to all those who partner with us to deliver our trusted medicines information and decision support to the point of care.
The team at MIMS
- Western Australia Police
www.pulseitmagazine.com.au
Pulse+IT 41
business when opting for the cloud.
vendor-neutral format before committing
Is ‘going cloud’ the right option for my practice?
to it. This is particularly important in SaaS
Contrary to what many believe, cloud does
while a cloud based solution may be more
as data may have to be imported into a
not completely eliminate the need for an
expensive in the long run, the cost of a
new software product.
IT support person and actually brings along
physical server has typically to be faced
process to export customer data in a
Some agreements may state that
Something else to keep in mind is that
new responsibilities which may not have
up-front. In the example shown in Figure
the provider is entitled to delete data on
been previously considered.
1, it would be a total of $3,909.60 plus
cancellation of the service. The customer
ongoing costs.
may be solely responsible for data retrieval
wagon, consider very carefully all the
which has to be organised before the
aspects and variables involved. Costs are
Defence established a set of guidelines
termination of the service. Some providers,
very relevant but they shouldn’t be the
for government agencies considering
however, reserve the right to terminate the
only deciding factor when ‘going cloud’.
cloud computing.6 Despite the intended
agreement immediately without notice in
As a guide, Figure 1 shows a comparison
audience, these guidelines are also relevant
some circumstances.
between an entry level physical server and
for private healthcare operators due to the
So before jumping on this cloud band
The
Australian
Department
of
Another issue that customers should
a cloud based server with similar technical
extremely sensitive information handled
consider when migrating away from a
specifications offered by some of the
in this sector. These guidelines make the
cloud provider concerns data sanitisation.
leading Australian based providers. These
following important observations:
How do we know that our data have been
cost estimates do not consider the cost of
• Cloud computing should not be used
completely and properly erased from the
server and software configuration.
to store highly confidential/sensitive
provider’s system? Unless the storage
The scope of this cost comparison
information. The Privacy Amendment
space allocated to us has been properly
is not to establish which model is more
(Private Sector) Act 2000 as well
overwritten, data stored on it may be
convenient, since the variables considered
as the Guidelines on Privacy in the
recovered by the next customer who
fluctuate constantly, but it highlights
Private Health Sector for health service
moves into ‘our’ storage space.
5
HealthLink/Medinexus HalfbePage 180 xby120 IT Magstipulate that health records which variables should considered a Puseproviders
connecting healthcare
42 Pulse+IT
www.pulseitmagazine.com.au
should be considered as such.
bankruptcy?
data classification schemes should be
• A copy of data stored on the cloud
• Data sovereignty. Where is your data
should be kept locally or with a second
physically stored? Data stored overseas
fully independent provider.
may be subject to the legislation of the
standard
host country.
management — Implementation guide for
• Data sanitisation, or in other words,
customised to the specific organisation. Section 4.4 of the HB 174—2003 Information
security
what happens to your data when you
Practices considering cloud computing
the health sector7 establishes a scheme
leave the provider, as well as what
should establish a classification system
based on four classification levels as
procedures the provider has in place to
based on the sensitivity of the data they
summarised in Figure 2.
dispose of obsolete or non-functional
handle and then perform a risk analysis to
storage media.
determine which data may be suitable for
to decide what data are suitable to be
storage in the cloud.
stored in the cloud.
• Data ownership. Do you retain legal ownership of your data, or does
it belong to the vendor and may
many
Health
professionals
operate
in
depending
on
cloud computing should ultimately seek
be considered an asset for sale by
their specialisation, size of the business
guidance from their representative bodies,
liquidators if the vendor declares
and other relevant factors. Therefore,
particularly with regards to compliance
different
ways
Data classification is useful particularly
Health
professionals
considering
with legal obligations and accreditation Monthly cost
Physical Server (over 3 years)
Cloud Server
Server and operative system
$55.60
$190.00
UPS
$20.00
$0.00
Backup
$33.00
$30.00
Power
$73.00
$0.00
$0.00
$30.00
$181.60
$250.00
Internet traffic Total
standards.
References References are available online at the Pulse+IT website: http://bit.ly/kFDg7b Figure 1 – Left – An indicative cost comparison between a traditional and cloud computing server hosting arrangement. Figure 2 – Below – A data sensitivity classification model.
Level
Description
Protection
Public
Information that if made public will not have detrimental impact to the business or to the customer. For example, information brochures, website, etc.
This information requires to be carefully assessed for accuracy and protected against unauthorised modification, as it may have a negative impact on the reputation of the organisation.
Internal Only
Information that if disclosed may cause minor damage or embarrassment to the health provider or to a patient. Examples: internal telephone and address books, internal project details, general email correspondence, etc.
No external access. Internal access provided on a selective basis. Electronic information should be password protected. Paper information should not be left around or on desks. This information may be emailed.
Confidential - Health Information
Information that if disclosed, destroyed or altered or misused may cause severe damage to the organisation or to the patient. Examples: patient data, medical records, identified research data, radiology and pathology results, etc.
Access should be granted on a need-to-know basis. Electronic information should be password protected and possibly encrypted. Paper information when not in use should be kept in locked cabinets, drawers, rooms, safes, etc. Electronic transfer should occur only in an encrypted format.
Confidential - Non Health Information
Information that if disclosed, destroyed or altered or misused may cause severe damage to the organisation or to a third party. Examples: staff and salary information, accounts data, patient bank accounts, digital certificates, lists of passwords, business plans and other business sensitive documentation, etc.
Access should be granted on a need-to-know basis. Electronic information should be password protected and possibly encrypted. Paper information when not in use should be kept in locked cabinets, drawers, rooms, safes, etc. Electronic transfer should occur only in an encrypted format.
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Pulse+IT 43
Advantech Australia AAPM
P: 1800 196 000 or +61 3 9095 8712 F: +61 3 9329 2524 E: headoffice@aapm.org.au W: www.aapm.org.au The Australian Association of Practice Managers (AAPM) represents Practice Managers and the profession of Practice Management. Founded in 1979, AAPM is a non-profit, national association recognised as the professional body dedicated to supporting effective Practice Management in the healthcare profession. The Australian Association of Practice Managers: • Represents Practice Managers and the profession of Practice Management throughout the healthcare industry. • Promotes professional development and the code of ethics through leadership and education. • Provides specialised services and networks to support quality Practice Management.
Advantech’s medical computing platforms are designed to enhance the quality and efficiency of healthcare for patients and users alike. All products match the performance of commercial PCs and tough medical safety ratings like UL60601-1 and EN60601-1; adding to this they are all IPX1 certified dust resistant and come with water dripproof enclosures. Advantech offers long term support and a proven track record of reliability. The medical range extends through: • Point-of-Care Terminals. • Mini-PC and Medical Imaging Displays. • Mobile Medical Tablets. • Patient Infotainment Terminals. Advantech is also an official distributor of Microsoft Windows Embedded software across Australia & New Zealand.
P: +61 3 5335 2220 F: +61 3 5335 2211 E: argus@argusconnect.com.au W: www.argusdca.com.au
P: +61 412 746 457 F: +61 3 9569 9449 E: Secretary@ACHI.org.au W: www.ACHI.org.au
The Australasian College of Health Informatics is Australasia’s Health Informatics professional body, representing the interests of a broad range of clinical and non-clinical e-health professionals. ACHI is the community of Health Informatics thought-leaders in Australasia. ACHI is committed to quality, standards and ethical practice in the Health Informatics profession. More information is available at: www.ACHI.org.au Join the ACHI Info email list at: www.ACHI.org.au/List
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P: 1300 720 274 F: 1300 364 008 E: marketing@ch2.net.au W: www.ch2.net.au
Clifford Hallam Healthcare (CH2) is today Australia’s largest pharmaceutical and medical healthcare service provider with a catalogue of over 15,000 products servicing metro, regional and rural customers across Australia.
Best Practice
P: +61 7 4155 8800 F: +61 7 4153 2093 E: sales@bpsoftware.com.au W: www.bpsoftware.com.au 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 MD) • Integrated Best Practice (clinical/ management) • Top Pocket (PDA companion software for Pocket PC)
Cerner Corporation Pty Limited P: +61 2 9900 4800 F: +61 2 9900 4990 E: AsiaPacific@cerner.com W: www.cerner.com.au
Argus
Australasian College of Health Informatics
CH2 (Clifford Hallam Healthcare)
P: 1300 308 531 F: +61 3 9797 0199 E: info@advantech.net.au W: www.advantech.net.au
Argus provides and supports Argus secure messaging software that enables doctors and healthcare organisations to exchange clinical documents securely and reliably. Argus can be used to send specialist reports to referring doctors but it can also exchange pathology and radiology reports, hospital discharge summaries and notification 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 chosen by 65 Divisions of General Practice across Australia through the ARGUS AFFINITY program.
Cerner is a leading supplier of healthcare information systems and our Millennium suite of solutions has been successfully installed in over 1200 sites across the globe. Cerner’s technology has been designed so that it can be adapted to meet the needs of the very different healthcare delivery systems that exist, with a universal framework that allows clinician workflow to seamlessly span role and venue. Our innovative leadership is allowing us to push boundaries by: • Leveraging clinical and pharmaceutical data for new discoveries in Condition Management and Personalised Medicine • Connecting the community with personal and community health records • Seamlessly connecting the patient record across the continuum of care
Supported by a National Network, CH2 utilises local knowledge and local people to provide pharmaceuticals, medical consumables and equipment products to the healthcare market. CH2 is represented by a National Sales Force as well as a local Customer Service team in each state. CH2 understands the value of quality data and are committed to implementing the GS1 system throughout our business and with our partners. The use of EANCOM standard messages, Global Trade Item Numbers (GTIN) for product identification, Global Location Numbers (GLN) for location information and Serial Shipping Container Code (SSCC) labels are paramount to our industry moving forward. CH2 are passionate supporters of these philosophies and believe the uplift in quality systems will result in improved patient safety. CH2 are currently working with partners to implement the National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA) National Product Catalogue. “Our aim is to be a great company to do business with. The right product, at the right price, at the right time.” WardBox® is CH2’s direct to ward distribution system. It is a just in time replenishment system where orders are created in a theatre or ward area and then transmitted electronically to one of CH2’s warehouses using SOS or an EDI interface. The service incorporates barcode scanning technology, direct delivery to individual wards or departments, monthly invoicing and comprehensive reporting. WardBox® is designed to assist our customers in reducing purchasing and supply operating costs. This valuable service increases supply chain efficiencies, improves service delivery models and assists in achieving economies of scale. WardBox® distribution is used for pharmaceuticals, medical, surgical and general supplies at numerous healthcare facilities. In 2009 CH2 won the ASCLA Information Management Award and are gold sponsors for the ASCLA Awards 2010.
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DoctorBill
Cutting Edge Software Communicare Systems
P: +61 8 6212 6900 F: +61 8 6212 6980 E: sales@communicaresystems.com.au W: www.communicaresystems.com.au Established in 1994, Communicare Systems have built an enviable reputation for delivering results, supported by excellent service based on mutual respect, mutual trust and mutual benefit. Communicare is the electronic medical records and practice management system of choice for Aboriginal Health Services employing multidisciplinary holistic healthcare, featuring: • Ease of use for all providers • Shared electronic health records • Standards based electronic messaging • Comprehensive easy to use automated reporting • Scalable from small service to multi organisational enterprise • Multi axial security and access logging
Computer Initiatives
P: 1300 85 39 39 (Melbourne) P: 1300 85 39 85 (Brisbane / GC) E: tim@cinet.com.au W: www.cinet.com.au Computer Initiatives has been supporting the medical profession for over 15 years. Providing IT consultancy services, quality hardware, professional support with qualified engineers. Recommended and preferred by a number of Divisions of General Practice and specialist software providers we: • Supply and install of hardware/ software and peripherals • Implement disaster recovery and replication plans • Remote monitoring and diagnosis • Advanced networking deployment and support • Prompt and competitive support • Internet configurations and content filtering services • Security audits, configurations and monitoring • Regular maintenance services • Microsoft Gold Partner and a Microsoft Small Business Specialist
P: 1300 237 638 F: +61 3 9787 8210 E: enquiries@cesoft.com.au W: www.cesoft.com.au Cutting Edge produces affordable, intuitive billing solutions for Mac, Windows, Linux and iPad. Cutting Edge is ideal for practitioners who prefer to maintain control of their own billing from a number of sites. Cutting Edge Software is approved by Medicare Australia to manage your electronic: • Verification of Medicare and Fund membership • Bulk Bill and Medicare claims • DVA paperless claims • Inpatient claims to Health Funds We have solutions tailor-made for • Anaesthetists • Surgeons/Surgical Assistants • Physicians • GPs • Allied Health The software comes with up-to-date schedules for MBS/Rebate, Gap Cover (all registered health funds), Workers’ Compensation, Transport Accident authorities and DVA.
Direct Control
P: 1300 557 550 F: +61 7 5478 5520 E: support@directcontrol.com.au W: www.directcontrol.com.au Direct CONTROL is an affordable, intuitive and educational Medical Billing and Scheduling application for Practitioners of all Disciplines. Seamless integration with Outlook, MYOB or Quickbooks. Direct CONTROL’s Clinical Module manages Episodes of Care and includes State, Federal and Health Fund Statistical Reporting for Day Surgeries/Hospitals. Direct CONTROL facilitates Medical Billing Australia-wide and overseas. Included is all Medicare, DVA, Work Cover, Private Health Insurance fee schedules with built in rules relevant to each medical discipline (allied health, general practice, surgeons, physicians, anaesthetists, pathologists, radiologists, day surgeries/hospitals). Ideal for the single practitioner or the multidisciplinary Practice. Direct CONTROL supports ALL your Business needs letting you and your staff get on with earning a living doing what you enjoy most … Patient Care.
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Digital Medical Systems P: 1300 865 977 F: +61 3 9753 3049 E: inform@dgs.com.au W: www.dgs.com.au
Easier ICT is a technology partnership with DMS — we make I.T. work for you. DIGITAL MEDICAL SYSTEMS has provided ICT solutions and services to medical practice clients across Australia since 1990. We have specialist expertise and experience in the installation and support of leading medical software applications. DMS is a Business Partner for IBM, Lenovo, HP and Microsoft. Other leading ICT brands include Trend Micro, Symantec, CA, Cisco, Toshiba, Canon, Epson, Kyocera, Fujitsu and Brother. Accreditation is easier with the customised DMS IT Systems Documentation. Ensure your practice has the best quality IT policy, security and maintenance program that meets and exceeds the standards guidelines from the RACGP and AGPAL and GPA. World leading DTech provides 24x7 near Real-Time Monitoring and Management that alerts and enables our engineers to quickly troubleshoot and solve problems of security, network, Internet, Server and software remotely on almost any client computer system or device. Medical IT systems are automatically maintained by DTech to the most highly available status to minimize downtime by preventing problems from occurring or reducing their impact. Proactive, Flexible, Consistent, Reliable, Audited, and Affordable — for even the smallest practice. Call DMS for: • Systems Analysis & Consulting • Solutions Design • Procurement & supply of hardware, software, network and peripheral products • Installation & Configuration • Support Services inc Help Desk • DTech Monitoring, Maintenance & Management • Disaster Recovery solutions • Fully managed & automated Online Backup customised for clinical data Easier IT — we make I.T. work for you.
P: 1300 237 638 F: +61 3 9787 8210 E: sales@doctorbill.com.au W: www.doctorbill.com.au DoctorBill is a simple and secure way for doctors to accept online payments through a single portal without the need to setup a website. You can accept direct deposits, credit card via PayPal® or your existing Merchant Facility if you have one. All of the available payment methods are secure and can be used with confidence. We provide you with a customised website address to put on your stationery which directs your patients to your practice’s DoctorBill page. For an example of what patients will see when using the service, visit: www.DoctorBill.com.au/DrExample If you already have a website, you can easily place a link to direct patients to the page. Patients receive a receipt and your practice is advised by email when payments are made. Setting up DoctorBill for your practice is easy and affordable, and transactions cost just 90 cents each (excluding bank fees).
eHealth Education Pty Ltd
P: +61 3 9653 9433 F: +61 3 9653 9307 E: info@ehealtheducation.net W: www.ehealtheducation.net • The Registered Training Organisation specialising in quality Health Informatics education provided by senior, education qualified HI professionals. Educational programs are designed to up-skill clinicians, technical staff, consumers and administrators in healthcare. • Delivery options include focused workshops, single subject courses or fully integrated programs delivered face to face or online through our extensive and quality assured online education delivery infrastructure. • Servicing professional and education organisations, we also aim to support professional and healthcare education providers. You can deliver your material using EHE infrastructure, or we can help you develop and/or deliver quality educational material.
Pulse+IT 45
eHealth Security Services
P: 1300 399 116 / +61 2 9016 5378 F: +61 2 9016 5379 E: info@ehealthsecurity.com.au W: www.ehealthsecurity.com.au eHealth Security Services (eHSS) specialises in the provision of security as a service and offers an extensive range of Managed IT Services including IT Support for small to medium businesses in the health sector. eHSS’ MediAccess® service provides comprehensive and cost-effective managed security and remote access solutions. eHSS has thorough knowledge and understanding of IT matters in the health industry and its regulatory aspects. eHSS has extensive experience reviewing and assisting with organisational policies and procedures and technical implementations against applicable standards.
Equipoise (International) Pty Ltd Totalcare P: +61 7 3252 2425 F: +61 7 3252 2410 S: skype.totalcare.net.au E: sales@totalcare.net.au W: www.totalcare.net.au
Equipoise International Pty Ltd (EQI) is the developer and supplier of the ‘Totalcare’ clinical and office management system. Used since 1995 by health care facilities across Australia including General and Specialist practice, Radiology, Day Surgery and Hospitals. Totalcare is a fully integrated Clinical, Office and Management software suite. Totalcare is stable, scalable, customisable and easy to learn and use. From a small practice to a distributed, multi site, multi disciplinary corporate entity or hospital, Totalcare can provide a solution for your needs.
GE Healthcare Australia Pty Ltd P: +61 2 9846 4000 F: +61 2 9846 4001 E: GEHCinfo@ge.com W: www.gehealthcare.com
Global Health
GE Healthcare is a $17 billion business of General Electric Co. and provides a broad portfolio of healthcare technologies and services. GE Healthcare’s ‘Healthymagination’ initiative is a $6 billion commitment to improve healthcare through innovation - reducing costs, improving quality and expanding access for millions of people. A leader in solutions for the entire healthcare enterprise. GE Healthcare has extensive global experience in successful ehealth implementations and offers a broad ehealth solution portfolio including Personal Health Manager, Provider Portal, Master Patient Index and Health Information Exchange Solutions. GE Healthcare also provides the Centricity® suite of integrated information technology for enterprise hospital information systems and specialist clinical information solutions, for theatre, anaesthesia, intensive care, cardiovascular, radiology and maternity.
P: +61 3 9675 0600 F: +61 3 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. The portfolio consists of 3 core brands: ReferralNet promotes a secure technology platform which connects all facets of all the healthcare industry with encrypted and online messaging and claiming functionality. MasterCare is a suite of health information management systems that provides healthcare practitioners with tools to collect, manage and access clinical and patient information at the point of care. is a secure and confidential online health record that lets you keep all health information current, organised and in one place.
Extensia Emerging Health Solutions P: 02 8853 4700 F: 02 9659 9366 E: mail@emerging.com.au W: www.emerging.com.au
Emerging Health Solutions (EHS) is a web-based Clinical Information System for hospitals that is patientcentric capturing and providing appropriate, timely, clinical information in a secure and auditable environment. to assist clinicians deliver effective, quality care. Our prestigious clients include St Vincents & Mater Health Sydney and the Government of South Australia Department of Health. EHS has integrated Sabacare’s Clinical Care Classifiaction (CCC) System, a diagnosis framework integrated in SNOMED CT. EHS’ extensive list of modules work seamlessly with other systems via our integrated interface engine which accepts HL7 and other accepted Health IT standard protocols complying with the Australian Technical Specification: ATS 5822:2010 eHealth Secure Message Delivery.
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P: +61 7 3292 0222 F: +61 7 3292 0221 E: enquiries@extensia.com.au W: www.extensia.com.au Extensia links healthcare providers, consumers and their communities to deliver better and more efficient health care outcomes. The products used to do this can be custom branded for all Organisations and include: • RecordPoint – a proven Shared Electronic Health Record that links all clinical systems, hospital settings, care plan tools and any other sources of information available. It provides a secure means of sharing critical patient data in a privacy compliant and logical structure. • EPRX – an Electronic Patient Referral Exchange and Directory. It streamlines the process of selecting a provider and completing a referral. Patient information is transferred seamlessly from clinical software, then the most relevant providers, services and products are presented instantly and referral documents are created automatically and sent electronically.
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 practices a reliable alternative in accreditation. GPA is committed to offering a flexible accreditation program that understands the needs of busy GPs and practice staff. GPA assigns all practices an individual quality accreditation manager to support practices with their accreditation.
Genie Solutions
P: +61 7 3870 4085 F: +61 7 3870 4462 E: info@geniesolutions.com.au W: www.geniesolutions.com.au Genie is a fully integrated appointments, billing and clinical management package for Specialists and GPs.
Choose GPA for more support, improved service and greater choice.
Genie runs on both Windows and Mac OS X, or a combination of both. With over 2000 sites, it is now the number one choice of Australian specialists.
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HealthSolve
P: +61 8 8203 0500 E: info@healthsolve.com.au W: www.healthsolve.com.au
Health Communication Network P: +61 2 9906 6633 F: +61 2 9906 8910 E: hcn@hcn.com.au W: www.hcn.com.au
Health Communication Network (HCN) is the leading provider of clinical and practice management software for Australian GPs and Specialists and supplies Australia’s major hospitals with online Knowledge resources. 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 • 3,600 GP Practices use PracSoft • 800 Specialist Practices use Blue Chip and • 2,100 Specialists use Medical Director • Leading suppliers of Knowledge Resources to Australia’s major hospitals
HealthSolve provides Care Management systems for aged, acute, and community care that can be shared across all health care sectors.
Health Informatics New Zealand E: admin@hinz.org.nz W: www.hinz.org.nz
Health Informatics New Zealand (HINZ) is a national, not-for-profit organisation whose focus is to facilitate improvements in business processes and patient care in the health sector through the application of appropriate information technologies. HINZ acts as a single portal for the collection and dissemination of information about the New Zealand Health Informatics Industry. Membership is for anyone who has an interest in health and informatics.
Health Informatics Society of Australia
Health Information Management Association Australia P: +61 2 9887 5001 F: +61 2 9887 5895 E: himaa@himaa.org.au W: www.himaa.org.au
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 is also a Registered Training Organisation conducting, by distance education, “industry standard” training courses in Medical Terminology and ICD-10-AM, ACHI and ACS clinical coding.
P: +61 3 9388 0555 F: +61 3 9388 2086 E: hisa@hisa.org.au W: www.hisa.org.au
HealthEasy
P: +61 7 5665 7995 F: +61 7 5502 6543 E: info@healtheasy.com.au W: www.healtheasy.com.au HealthEasy is a 100 percent web‑based “Cloud Computing” solution as used by leading Web 2.0 apps like BaseCamp and SalesForce. • • • • • •
No hardware upgrades No local Server needed No manual software upgrades No local backups required No contracts (pay monthly) Runs on Windows, Mac & Linux
eHealth Initiatives Support: • Electronic Prescribing (eRX) • Personal Health Record (IEHR) • Unique Health ID (UHI) Built using Open Source tools with source code available. We invite expressions of interest from all sectors of the industry.
The Health Informatics Society of Australia is a membership based not-for-profit organisation which has been supporting and representing Australia’s health informatics and e-health community for almost 20 years. HISA aims to improve healthcare through the use of technology and information. We: • Provide a national focus for e-health, health informatics, its practitioners, industry and a broad range of stakeholders • Support, promote and advocate • Provide opportunities for networking, learning and professional development • Are effective champions for the value of health informatics HISA members are part of a national network of people and organisations building a healthcare future enabled by e-health. Join the growing community of organisations and individuals who are committed to, and passionate about, health reform enabled by e-health.
HealthLink
P: 1800 125 036 (AU) P: 0800 288 887 (NZ) E: enquiries@healthlink.net W: www.healthlink.net Australia’s and New Zealand’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 70 percent of GPs use for diagnostic, specialist and hospital communications.
Features: • Web-based. • Flexible, dynamic, and highly configurable. • Mirror your specific work flow and document style. • Resident/client centric with a focus on the whole “journey.” • Brings together administration, staff, providers, and facilities.
Houston Medical
P: 1800 420 066 or +61 2 9669 1844 P: 0800 401 111 or +64 7 834 9354 F: +61 2 9669 1791 E: houston@houstonmedical.net W: www.houstonmedical.net INTEGRATION ACROSS THE PRACTICE Houston Medical delivers one streamlined system integrating medical equipment with financial, claiming and administrative areas that works reliably and securely for small practices through to large multi‑disciplinary practices. GREATER ROI VIP.net for medical specialists and VIP Allied for General practice/Allied Health delivers great ROI through smoother workflow, improved data quality, boosted productivity and reduced costs. FLEXIBLE Individually configurable, Houston’s systems support you in the way you work and deliver better results. TRUSTED Houston delivers software that you can trust - built on 20 years experience and used by many hundreds of leading practices across Australasia and beyond. Our first customer is still a customer.
Demonstrations available under NDA due to late 2010 release.
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Pulse+IT 47
InterSystems
P: +61 2 9380 7111 F: +61 2 9380 7121 E: anz.query@InterSystems.com W: www.InterSystems.com InterSystems Corporation is the worldwide leader in software for connected healthcare. With headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and offices in 24 countries, InterSystems provides advanced software technologies for breakthrough applications. InterSystems TrakCare™ is a Web‑based healthcare information system that rapidly delivers the benefits of an Electronic Patient Record. InterSystems CACHÉ® is a high performance object database that makes applications faster and more scalable. InterSystems Ensemble® is a seamless platform for integration and the development of connectable applications. InterSystems HealthShare™ is a platform that enables the fastest creation of an Electronic Health Record for regional or national health information exchange. InterSystems DeepSee™ is software that makes it possible to embed real-time business intelligence in transactional applications.
iSOFT
P: +61 2 8251 6700 F: +61 2 8251 6801 E: company_enquiry@isofthealth.com W: www.isofthealth.com iSOFT is one of the world’s largest providers of healthcare IT solutions. We work with healthcare professionals to design, develop and implement healthcare solutions that deliver administrative, clinical and diagnostic services to ensure continuity of care across all care settings. iSOFT provides flexible and interoperable solutions to the whole spectrum of providers, from single physician practices through to integrated national solutions supporting thousands of concurrent users. Our capacity to embrace change and keep abreast of emerging new directions in healthcare has allowed our clients to explore the exciting potential of new technologies while securing their existing investments.
JOSE & Associates
P: +61 3 9850 1350 F: 1300 889 012 E: news@jose.com.au W: www.jose.com.au JOSE and Associates – IT Management and Support for Medical Practices • Complete IT support for medical practices: • Support for most clinical and practice management software àà Support for all network topology àà Dedicated help desk àà 24/7 support - response in most cases is immediate • New practice installation • Server maintenance on a monthly basis which includes full monthly reporting • Satisfying IT accreditation standards • Data conversions • Disaster recovery and business continuity plans – monthly data restores • Australia Wide coverage • References available on request
Jam Software ISN Solutions
P: 1300 300 471 F: +61 2 9280 2665 E: info@isnsolutions.com.au W: www.isnsolutions.com.au ISN Solutions is a medical IT company that specialises in the design, setup and maintenance of computer networks for medical practices. Our consultants and engineers are dedicated to the medical industry, understand your business needs and know what is required to run a practice. We strive to take away the pain from you, on managing the day to day IT issues regardless of which medical application you use. Our claim is supported by strong industry references. Some of our solutions include but are not limited to: • A paperless practice • Speech Recognition • Capped cost medical support & maintenance plan • Ability to consult remotely • Linking your imaging equipment to your network • Medical application Support
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P: +61 427 844 645 E: ceo@msia.com.au E: president@msia.com.au W: www.msia.com.au
With the increase in government e-health initiatives, the MSIA has become increasingly active in representing the interests of all healthcare software providers. The MSIA is represented on a range of forums, working groups and committees on behalf of its members, and has negotiated a range of important changes with government and other stakeholders to benefit industry and their customers. It has built a considerable profile with Government and is now acknowledged as the official ‘voice’ for the industry. Join over 100 other companies across all areas of medical IT/IM so your voice can be heard.
MEDITECH Australia
P: +61 2 9799 1888 F: +61 2 9799 4042 E: enquiries@jamsoft.com.au W: www.jamsoft.com.au
P: +61 2 9901 6400 F: +61 2 9439 6331 E: sales@meditech.com.au W: www.meditech.com.au
MED™4i (Medical Electronic Desktop™) streamlines Health Care with easy-to-use customisable interfaces. Modular Versatility & Connectivity backed by friendly expert engineers.
Medical-Objects
Comprehensive Patient database with multiple-format billing including electronic Online Patient Verifications & Claiming to Medicare, DVA & Health funds (paperless), Letters, Prescriptions (including MIMS), Orders, e-Results, MS Office integration & CustomDB including surgical & other audits. Now with HL7 Secure Messaging.
Medical-Objects has provided secure messaging to over 10,500 health professionals with referrals, reports, letters and discharge summaries. Delivering directly into leading practice software, removing the need for scanning and faxing.
Your specific needs can be accommodated easily, onsite & remote installation, training, ongoing support including upgrades to meet the ever‑changing health requirements.
Medical Software Industry Association
A Worldwide Leader in Health Care Information Systems
P: +61 7 5456 6000 F: +61 7 3221 0220 E: info@medical-objects.com.au W: www.medical-objects.com.au
Referrals are digitally signed and encrypted, moreover, compatible with Medicare’s requirements and in line with NEHTA’s eHealth PIP direction. Using Medicare supported PKI, you can trust that referrals are digitally signed with PKI and we are working with NEHTA as an eHealth PIP eligible secure messaging vendor.
MEDITECH today stands at the forefront of the health care information systems industry. Our products serve well over 2,300 health care organisations around the world. Large health care enterprises, multi‑hospital alliances, teaching hospitals, community hospitals, rehabilitation and psychiatric chains, long-term care organisations, physicians’ offices, and home care and hospice agencies all use our Health Care Information System to bring integrated care to the populations they serve. Our experience, along with our financial and product stability, assures our customers of a long-term information systems partner to help them achieve their goals.
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MIMS Australia
P: +61 2 9902 7700 F: +61 2 9902 7701 E: info@mims.com.au W: www.mims.com.au MIMS Australia is built on a heritage of local expertise, credibility and adaptation to changing healthcare provider needs. Our information gathering, analysis and coding systems are proven and robust. MIMS information is backed by MIMS trusted, rigorous editorial process and constantly updated from a variety of sources including primary research literature. Our database and decision support modules are locally relevant, clinically reviewed and updated monthly and compatible with a host of clinical software packages. Indeed, the majority of Australian prescribing packages and many dispensing applications are supported by the MIMS medicines data base. MIMS is delivered all the ways you need – print to electronic, on the move, to your patient’s bedside or your consulting room desk. Whatever the format, MIMS has the latest information you need.
Orion Health Mouse Soft Australia Pty Ltd
P: +61 3 9888 2555 F: +61 3 9888 1752 E: sales@medicalwizard.com.au W: www.medicalwizard.com.au Medical Wizard saves time and money through greater efficiency and comprehensive integration. Throughout its 17 year history, Medical Wizard has led the way with innovative solutions. We are constantly evolving Medical Wizard to meet the challenges of the medical profession for today and tomorrow. A software of choice for discerning Specialist practices, notably Gastroenterologists, Cosmetic Surgeons, Ophthalmologists, General Surgeons, IVF Centres and Day Hospitals amongst others. All aspects of practice management from appointments, billing, clinical, theatre management and compliance reporting are covered and backed by a dedicated local support team.
P: +61 2 8298 2600 F: +61 2 8298 2666 E: admin@nehta.gov.au W: www.nehta.gov.au
P: 1300 700 300 E: info@mitshealth.com.au W: www.mitshealth.com.au Managed IT Services for the Health Industry
The National E-Health Transition Authority was established by the Australian, State and Territory governments to develop better ways of electronically collecting and securely exchanging health information. NEHTA is the lead organisation supporting the national vision for eHealth in Australia.
MITS:Health provides a full range of IT services specifically tailored for medical centres, GPs and specialists across Melbourne. • • • • • •
P: 1300 550 716 F: +61 2 9434 2301 E: Vicki.Rigg@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).
Feature Rich. Dynamic. Innovative.
NEHTA
MITS:Health
Nuance Communications
Equipment supply and installation Remote monitoring and support Data backups Networking Internet Website Development
Orion Health is a world leader in the e-health industry. We specialise in electronic health record (EHR) solutions, disease management, clinical decision support, and hospital administration tools. More than 300,000 clinicians in 30 countries use Orion Health products. Our EHR solutions have been widely adopted across Canada, Europe and the USA to enable secure cross‑organisational and regional sharing of patient information, resulting in improved patient care. Orion Health Patient Portal enables patients to access their personal medical record, request appointments, and communicate with their care providers. Our solutions are designed to support emerging health IT trends and standards, we work closely with our customers, clinicians, government bodies and other industry leaders to deliver intuitive solutions to meet your current and future needs.
Software of Excellence
P: +61 3 8872 5500 F: +61 3 8872 5524 E: sales@oasis-software.com.au W: www.oasis-software.com.au Developed in Australia by the leading practice management provider in the Dental Market, OASiS Software has now released OASiS Health. Already used by Medical Specialists, Physiotherapists, Chiropractors, Podiatrists, Physiologists and a variety of other Allied Health Professionals. With full appointment book and clinical functionality, many customers have used OASiS Health to create the paperless practice by taking advantage of OASiS Health powerful document and image handling features. Described as the most flexible practice management system available, OASiS Health specialises in Multi-Branch, Multi-Practitioner and Multi-Discipline practices. OASiS Health is designed to create a Healthy, Profitable business.
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P: +61 2 8096 0000 / +64 9 638 0600 F: +61 2 8096 0001 / +64 9 638 0699 E: enquiries@orionhealth.com W: www.orionhealth.com
Pen Computer Systems
P: +61 2 9635 8955 F: +61 2 9635 8966 E: enquiries@pencs.com.au W: www.pencs.com.au Established in 1993, Pen Computer Systems (PCS) specialises in developing information solutions for National and State eHealth initiatives in Primary Health that deliver better Chronic Disease outcomes. PCS expertise extends to: • Chronic Disease Prevention and Management • Population Health Status, Reporting and Enhanced Outcomes • Decision-Support tools delivered LIVE into the clinical consult • Web-based Electronic Health Records (EHRs) • SNOMED-CT and HL7 Standards Frameworks Our Clinical Audit Tool (CAT) for example delivers an intuitive population reporting and patient identification extension to the leading GP systems in Australia. CAT delivers enhanced data quality and patient outcomes in general practice.
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The Specialist
P: +61 8 8203 0500 E: info@clintelsystems.com W: www.clintelsystems.com
Medilink
from Practice Services P/L
P: +61 3 9819 0700 F: +61 3 9819 0705 E: Sales@practiceservices.com.au W: www.practiceservices.com.au
“The Specialist” is an intuitive and comprehensive tool that allows management of patients within specialist medical practices and day surgeries. The Specialist includes 5 modules: • Accounting • Correspondence • Time Manager • Medical Records • Mobile Data Facility
Medilink Practice Management Software Key features: • 21 years young, large user base • Runs on both Macintosh™ and • Medilink = Intuitive ease of use Windows™ platforms. • Solo Drs up to Hospitals in size • Scales easily from stand-alone • Claiming via integrated EFTPOS users, to multi-site networks. àà and/or integrated HICAPS • Industry standard, and readily àà and/or Medicare Online interoperable with other systems. àà and/or ECLIPSE • Comprehensive data migration • Many standard features tools for most systems. • Many optional modules • Unlimited training and support. • Links to many third party packages • Designed with the future in mind. and services • Cut debtors and boost cash flow • 17 years as an Authorised Medilink Dealer, selling, installing & training • Fixed Cost Support, Onsite or 20/02/09 14:50:20 Remote SR Logo_65x42mm.pdf
Stat Health Systems (Aust)
P: +61 7 3121 6550 F: +61 7 3219 7510 E: carla.doolan@stathealth.com.au W: www.stathealth.com.au Stat Health Systems (Aust) has built a progressive and resilient system that introduces a new level of stability and flexibility to the medical software market. Stat is an integrated clinical and practice management application which has embraced the latest Microsoft technology to build a new generation solution. Fully scalable and the only medical software application to incorporate a multi-functional intuitive interface, Stat is at the forefront of computing technology. Stat Health provide a premium support service, clinical data conversion from existing software and tailor made installation and training plans for your practice.
Real Outcomes Real Productivity Minimising Waste
Spellex
P: +61 2 8014 4573 E: info@spellex.com.au W: www.spellex.com.au Spellex has been the leading provider of comprehensive medical dictionary enhancement software to thousands of the world’s most prominent healthcare companies for 21 years. Our easy-to-use Australian medical spell checking software integrates fully with all Microsoft programmes, Web-based applications, and popular platforms.
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SmartRooms by Doctorware P: +61 3 9499 4622 F: +61 3 9499 1397 E: sales@doctorware.com.au W: www.doctorware.com.au
SmartRooms provides a comprehensive software solution for specialist practices for both Mac and Windows. Comprising both practice management and clinical software, our all-in-one patient record and superior after-sales support provides the basis for a stable and time effective software solution for specialist practices of all sizes. SmartRooms is available in an appointments and billing-only version for practices with uncomplicated software needs.
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Spellex Medical is available for end-users to ensure the medical accuracy of documents and to enhance their productivity. Spellex software development kits can also be integrated with developer’s custom programmes and Web sites. Whether you’re an individual transcriptionist or you need to provide greater medical documentation accuracy across an entire hospital or campus, Spellex has a solution that’s right for you. For a free trial of Spellex software, go to spellex.com.au and click the Free Trial tab.
Vensa Health
P: +64 9 522 9522 F: +64 9 522 9523 E: website@vensahealth.com W: www.vensahealth.com The next time you receive a text message mobile reminder or an alert from your doctor, hospital or physio you now know its done by Vensa. Vensa Health is a mobile health (mHealth) provider in the health care sector offering eHealth integrated mobile solutions, enabling text-messaging for patient communications for applications such as appointment reminders, medication reminders, test results alerts, recalls for screenings such as mamograms, immunisations and more. Vensa has invested substantially into developing products and services that offer communication solutions to better content providers with patients, including mobile text-messaging, voice, mobile sites and Telehealth services delivery.
Trend Care Systems
P: +61 7 3390 5399 F: +61 7 3390 7599 E: support@trendcare.com.au W: www.trendcare.com.au
Zedmed
A national and international award winning solution recognised for its ability to provide real benefits in the acute and sub-acute health care settings. TrendCare is an international leader for e-health solutions excelling in all of the following: • Patient dependency and nursing intensity measures. • Projecting patient throughput and workforce requirements. • Rostering and work allocation. • Efficiency, productivity and HRM reporting. • Discharge analysis, bed management and clinical handovers. • Allied health registers with extensive reporting. • Clinical pathways with variance reporting. • Patient assessments and risk analysis. • Diet ordering and reporting. • Staff health tracking and reporting.
P: +61 3 9284 3300 F: +61 3 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. Zedmed would also like to introduce to you Medical Record eXchange – a free, simple solution allowing Doctors to send patient’s medical information to insurance companies electronically. Using the latest in data extraction technology and fully encrypted, this is a secure, time-saving solution to one of the most dreaded requests Doctors receive on an almost daily basis. For more information please visit: www.medicalrecordexchange.com.au
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