NEHTA heralds e-health milestones and announces a plan for adoption success
17 December, 2007. Australia's e-health reform agenda took a forward step today with the release of an action plan by the National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA).
The NEHTA action plan outlines key areas for ensuring the successful adoption of measures to improve the electronic communication of critical health information.
"After working to build foundations for electronic health since the organisation was established in 2005, we are now in a position to begin to deliver some concrete applications of our work, NEHTA's Chair Dr Tony Sherbon said.
"The new Federal Government has signaled health reform and improvements in state and federal relations as major policy objectives, said Dr Sherbon. "Given also the government's emphasis on the provision and use of broadband communications, NEHTA is well-positioned to play its role in advancing e-health as part of this new agenda, he said.
"The recent independent review found NEHTA had made significant progress on our goals to date and made a number of recommendations about NEHTA's future. The action plan we are announcing today flows directly from our acceptance of all the recommendations in the review, Dr Sherbon said.
Dr Sherbon identified the action plan as also being an acknowledgement of where NEHTA now needs to go in order to expedite e-health reform in Australia.
"We have come to a point where many of the foundations to enable e-health are in a position where we can now move towards implementation and adoption. Seeking funding to establish a national system of personal electronic health records is also on our immediate horizon. The action plan that we have released will assist this process, he said.
Dr Sherbon said the case for personal electronic health records was compelling. "The safety and quality benefits are manifold. We understand the issues of equity and privacy and firmly believe that the approach developed by NEHTA will address these to the satisfaction of all our stakeholders and the Australian public.
NEHTA's Action Plan for Adoption Success and the independent review of NEHTA conducted by the Boston Consulting Group, are available on the NEHTA website at NEHTA publications.