David Heath
Monday, 27 July 2009 20:19
IT Policy -
Government Tech Policy
Page 2 of 3
One amusing submission from Cerner Corporation (quoted on page 109 of the report) suggested that "Putting a young intern into a modern emergency department or intensive care unit with the current average level of systems support is like expecting a new graduate stockbroker to manage an intricate portfolio on today's sophisticated financial markets with little more than a ball-point pen and a slide rule."
The primary suggestion is that people should have much greater control over their own health information. In fact, the report states that "Our recommendation is that, by 2012, every Australian should be able to have a person-controlled electronic health record. This involves people being able:
Clearly this flies right in the face of accepted practices, well, at least those of a large proportion of private-practice health professionals. The "secret sauce" of the patient history always made it difficult for a patient to change providers (or easier, depending on the embarrassment-level of a particular ailment). The Report's authors seem to be suggesting something akin to the Open Source movement; where the power will shift from the producer to the consumer.
