A task force made up of healthcare leaders made their recommendations to invigorate Australia’s primary health care service, including the need to upgrade Australia’s Health Record. me and allow more health data to be shared.
WHAT IT’S ABOUT
The Australian Government has established a Medicare Enhancement Task Force to help identify “the most pressing investments needed for primary care.” It focuses on showing immediate actions to strengthen Medicare, the country’s universal health care program, while laying the groundwork for long-term reform and investment in the healthcare system. initial. Their recommendations also build on the government’s 10-year plan for primary care.
One of the main recommendations of the task force was to “modernize” the MHR. Specifically, it wants to share default health information with private and public doctors and services, and allow patients and care teams to use them at the point of care “to improve decision-making.” clinical decision and personalized support, safe, high quality, integrated care.”
Another recommendation is for “robust” national regulatory and governance frameworks, regulation of clinical software, and technological improvements to better connect health data across the health system.
The task force also recommends investing in better health data to study and evaluate models of care and support health system planning; help advance primary care IT infrastructure; and making it easier for Australians to “access, manage, understand and share” their own health information and find the right care through digital health savvy and navigation. increase”.
WHY IT IMPORTANT
One of the visions of the primary care systems task force is that data and digital technology be “better used to deliver information about value-based care, sharing critical information.” of patients safely to support better healthcare diagnosis and management, empower everyone to participate in their own health care, and foster insights for planning, providing resources and continuous quality improvement.”
While there has been “amazing” progress with primary healthcare’s technology adoption during the pandemic, “it’s important not to lose momentum,” the force reports. special agent said.
“Critical patient health information remains locked in closed clinical information systems and cannot be shared easily across the health system and care facilities. Even when it can be shared information sharing does not always happen as often as one would like,” the report noted.
Such issues must be addressed to prevent poor information flow from causing increased costs and worse patient outcomes, the task force said.
It also emphasizes the need to continually invest in IT infrastructure to “improve interoperability between systems, simplify and streamline data sharing and access, help improve security and resiliency of the entire health system, while accelerating progress toward a consumer-oriented health system.”
The federal government has earmarked A$750 million ($520 million) for the Medicare Enhancement Fund to provide “the highest priority investments in primary care.”
TREND TO BIGGER
Last week, the Australian Medical Association (AMA) announced position statement calling for major reform in patient data protection. “With the rapid expansion of major international private technology companies into the healthcare space, the AMA would like to see adequate regulation to ensure that patient privacy is paramount and that ownership rights are paramount. Ownership of patient data is protected and documented by law,” said Chair Professor Stephen Robson.
In an effort to reduce the cybersecurity risks posed by MHR access and connectivity systems, the operator of MHR, the Australian Digital Health Authority, is pushing for new security requirements for providers. software level. From April, all clinical information systems connected to the MHR will be compliant new security standards, in line with the Australian Cyber Security Center’s strategies to reduce cybersecurity incidents.
ON PROFILE
During a press conference, Health Secretary Mark Butler emphasized that if the MHR is to become the core of a connected digital health system, its functionality must be improved. “Currently, this is a rather outdated, cumbersome pdf format system that needs to be able to support a fully integrated, real-time digital health system. So we realized that Block responsible commonwealth move here first and upgrade nature later [MHR]”he say.
He also emphasized that medical professionals, especially specialists and imaging service providers must be able to connect with the MHR. “A patient goes to their doctor, talking about their condition and that their tests are not available for the GP to review and use as part of their diagnosis and treatment decisions – they I have to do better there.”
