Melbourne East General Practice Network, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Med J Aust. 2010 Oct 4;193(7):397-8. doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2010.tb03967.x.
E-health is the health care buzzword of the moment, with a person-controlled electronic health record funded in the 2010 federal Budget and legislation to introduce health identifiers recently passed by Parliament. E-health can ease the patient journey, improve quality of care and reduce costs. Australia's health care system lags behind all other sectors of our economy in the use of computerised systems. While general practice and community pharmacy are highly computerised, the hospital sector is not. Adopting e-health is likely to result in higher quality practice, but general practice and hospitals need a mechanism for securely sharing patient data. Uncoordinated implementation of differing, incompatible systems within and between hospitals compounds a dire lack of national coordination of effort. Multiple funding streams and jurisdictions and the lack of an implementation strategy have slowed e-health development. Government programs underestimate the costs of change management and the need for training and technology. Confusion reigns about responsibilities, but governments must ensure connectivity between health care providers and recognise that the benefits will accrue into the future. The National E-Health Transition Authority has developed national open-access standards, and its foundation projects and the National Broadband Network are now coming into place. To ensure the clinical relevance, utility, safety and acceptability of e-health systems, health professionals urgently need technical capacity and expert guidance.
电子健康是当前医疗保健领域的热门词汇，2010 年联邦预算为个人控制的电子健康记录提供了资金，议会最近通过了引入健康标识符的立法。电子健康可以简化患者就医流程，提高护理质量并降低成本。澳大利亚的医疗保健系统在计算机化系统的使用方面落后于我们经济的所有其他部门。虽然一般实践和社区药房高度计算机化，但医院部门并非如此。采用电子健康可能会导致更高质量的实践，但一般实践和医院需要一种安全共享患者数据的机制。医院内部和之间不协调地实施不同的、不兼容的系统，加剧了全国努力协调不足的问题。多个资金流和管辖权以及缺乏实施策略已经减缓了电子健康的发展。政府计划低估了变革管理的成本以及培训和技术的需求。责任方面存在混乱，但政府必须确保医疗保健提供者之间的连接，并认识到未来将获得收益。国家电子健康过渡管理局制定了国家开放访问标准，其基础项目和国家宽带网络现已开始实施。为了确保电子健康系统的临床相关性、实用性、安全性和可接受性，卫生专业人员迫切需要技术能力和专家指导。
