Health trial stalled
Karen Dearne
NOVEMBER 28, 2006
NSW doctors remain locked out of the state's $20 million electronic health
records pilot due to software problems.
Ten months after the Healthelink trial began in the Hunter Valley, the
commonly used GP packages, Medical Director and MedTech32, are still unable
to interface with the core system.
The trial was directed at patients older than 65 and younger than 15.
Out of some 380 general practices in the Hunter (over 65s) and Greater
Western Sydney (under 15s) catchment areas, only two are using the database
live.
These are both using Best Practice, clinical management software
independently released by local pioneer Frank Pyefinch.
Meanwhile, NSW Health is paying Health Communication Network and MedTech to
build the necessary interfaces.
"It has taken a while to resolve the technical issues, but we expect both
will be available very early next year," NSW Health portfolio management
director Joanna Kelly said.
More than 50 individual GPs had signed up for the trial, but most were
waiting for the Medical Director release, Ms Kelly said.
Until then, they could only look at a patient's record by logging on to the
Healthelink website.
"Technically, the project has been complicated, because we're dealing with
so many different facilities with slightly different versions of the source
systems," she said.
"It has taken us longer than expected, but we've needed to make sure each
system is right before we implement it."
To date, just under 3400 people have been automatically registered for the
pilots, with about 10 per cent subsequently deciding to opt-out.
Ms Kelly said the opt-out rate was particularly low among parents of young
children in western Sydney, at 2 per cent.
In the older group, 8 per cent have opted out.
"Clearly these are the population groups that have the most to gain from
access to medical records," she said.
The Australian
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Interesting that the new kid on the block (Best Practice) can do it
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