Beverley Head
Tuesday, 25 May 2010 16:09
IT Policy -
Government Tech Policy
Page 1 of 2
To properly engage Australians in the e-health debate, it has to become an issue as significant to voters as hospital waiting lists, according to experts in the field speaking at CeBIT today.
During a panel session bringing together international experts on e-health, Mary Foley the national health practice leader for PricewaterhouseCoopers, said that although its recent surveys had found that 36 per cent of Australians supported having an electronic file containing their health records in a doctor’s office or hospital , and 30 per cent would like web based access to those records, the e-health sector was guilty of largely speaking to itself rather than the broader community.
She suggested electronic health records had to become as important an issue to the community as were hospital waiting lists in order to really engage health care consumers or patients.
In an earlier session at the conference, Kate Gunn, founder and director of Balance! Healthcare which runs GP superclinics around the country said that in general “people with chronic disease will be enthusiastic about the uptake of the technology.” Most presenters however acknowledged it will be a harder sell to other consumers.
The issue could well become an election issue with both sides of politics looking for voter support on their e-health approaches. Although the Federal Government set aside $466.7 million for the roll out of electronic health records over the next two years in its recent budget, the opposition has already pledged to pull the plug on that spending should it be elected to govern.
In the UK which has had a chequered history with e-health, average consumers of health services were somewhat more engaged and understood what e-health could deliver according to Dr Mike Bainbridge, clinical architect with the UK National Health Service. Over the last seven years the UK has invested around £30 billion in e-health.
