Here are a few I have come across this week.
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General Comment:
In general it has been a pretty quiet week, except for the announcement of the modified care delivery model for Diabetics which has been announced by the Federal Government.
As with the other announcements the reaction has been a bit mixed.
See here:
GPs see Rudd diabetes plan as `perverse' bait
- Adam Cresswell
- From: The Australian
- April 01, 2010
NURSES are pleased but doctors' organisations have split over Kevin Rudd's recipe for improving diabetes care amid warnings that it may tempt some GPs to minimise treatment to reap a profit.
Chris Mitchell, president of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, said that the college was keen to push reform, but was concerned about "perverse" incentives in the latest plan.
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I have to say the move to a disease based capitation approach does signal a pretty dramatic change from the fee for service model we have seen for the last 40 or so years under Medicare and the like.
The IT implications for GPs choosing to enrol such patients are interesting as they will need to keep track of the various activities being undertaken for the apparently fixed fee.
It is not clear present systems are set-up to optimally handle what is essentially a ‘managed care’ model for these patients.
It is also not clear just what the story is with diabetics who also have another major disease (cancer for example).
In the broader picture we are still in the dark as to the e-Health plans and it seems Victoria, NSW and WA are still not by any means totally convinced by the big picture.
The other news for the week has been a series of apparent wins and losses for iSoft. As the company is our largest Health IT company (and as I am a small shareholder) it is important to keep an eye – for me at least – on what is happening. The long interview (Item 3) is helpful is understanding what is apparently being planned and where things are up to from the CEO (Gary Cohen) directly.
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Government injects $48m to support troubled Easyclaim
- Karen Dearne
- From: The Australian
- March 30, 2010
THE federal government has spent $48 million propping up the troubled Medicare Easyclaim system, intended to allow patients to lodge claims for a rebate direct from the doctor's office.
So far, only 25 per cent of all patient claims for rebates are handled electronically, half of all claims still dealt with face to face in a Medicare office anda quarter lodged via phone or post.
Medicare Australia says Easyclaim handles 25 per cent of all patient claims initiated electronically at the doctor's front desk, compared with 75 per cent of e-patient claims lodged via Medicare Online, the channel traditionally used by practices for bulk-billing.
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http://www.zdnet.com.au/queensland-health-cio-appoints-seconds-339302179.htm
Queensland Health CIO appoints seconds
By Renai LeMay, Delimiter.com.au on March 31st, 2010
Queensland Health chief information officer Ray Brown has poached several senior Queensland IT executives to help him lead the department's IT division.
The CIO confirmed in an emailed statement yesterday that Qld Department of Premier and Cabinet CIO Phil Woolley and Brisbane Council manager of ICT Strategy Susan Heath have been appointed to roles within Brown's intimate team.
Woolley, who now holds the position of executive director, Information Division, will work closely with clinicians and corporate staff "to advance patient outcomes arising from ongoing advancements in technology service delivery", said Brown.
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http://histalk2.com/2010/04/01/histalk-interviews-gary-cohen/
HIStalk Interviews Gary Cohen
Gary Cohen is executive chairman and CEO of iSOFT of Sydney, Australia.
iSOFT is a significant global player in healthcare software, but not maybe as well known in the US. I’m interested if you have plans to increase the visibility and presence now that you’ve started with iSOFT Integration Systems.
I think that the US is the process of going through an enormous transformation both in healthcare reform, as we speak, and obviously in relation to some of the effects of the ARRA legislation in relation to how healthcare IT can change the way healthcare is delivered across the US. There is quite a lot of disruption, I suppose, in terms of the US health economy, which is bringing change.
I think that is probably the point I wanted to emphasize. I think that provides significant opening for us, I believe, particularly where we have specialized around socialized healthcare or healthcare that is more distributed rather than just obviously utilized in the hospital, or utilized in a private care facility, or whatever. But the movement of information around that network, whether it’s between the various facilities inside a hospital or the various facilities that can make it to a hospital or may interact with that hospital, such as community and so on.
The architecture and the way in which we have built our latest generation solution, Lorenzo, has obviously been around that socialized healthcare model. I think when you look at one of the requirements for Meaningful Use and a lot the climates for performance-type process; you’re going to need — particularly, as chronic illness processes involve a lot more interaction with many multidisciplinary people in a healthcare environment — solutions that enable that sort of coverage. I think that’s where we do see a significant value.
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http://www.computerworlduk.com/management/government-law/public-sector/news/index.cfm?newsid=19642
NHS £13bn IT contractors in string of critical failures
BT and CSC miss deadlines and fail on service
By Leo King, www.computerworlduk.com">www.computerworlduk.com
BT and CSC, contractors on the £12.7 billion NHS National Programme for IT, have been listed as making over 112 serious failures in the last fifteen months.
The contractors either failed to hit key milestones or provided a service that was significantly below what was paid for.
The programme is already over four years behind schedule, has a spiralling budget and has been branded in the press as being "close to imploding".
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iSOFT Group Limited (ASX:ISF) Agrees On A A$2 Million Deal With ACT Health, Australia
Sydney, Mar 31, 2010 (ABN Newswire) - iSOFT Group Limited (ASX:ISF), Australia's largest listed health information technology company, today announced a contract worth more than A$2 million with ACT Health in Australia for new patient and emergency software applications at Calvary Public Hospital.
The agreement is for the installation of iSOFT Patient Management and iSOFT Emergency at the 280-bed Calvary Hospital this year. About A$900,000 of the total consists of license fees. The agreement also has an additional component for support and maintenance.
The deal follows the roll out of similar solutions at Canberra Hospital and across community health initiatives in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), and meets ACT Health's goal of providing integrated patient care across all services. Emergency department specialists, who routinely work at both the Calvary and Canberra hospitals, will benefit from a common system.
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iSoft bags $2m ACT deal
- Karen Dearne
- From: Australian IT
- March 31, 2010
LISTED health IT firm iSoft Group has won a $2 million-plus contract to supply new patient management and emergency department software at Calvary Public Hospital in the ACT.
ACT Health chief information officer Owen Smalley said iSoft's products formed the base for integrated healthcare services across the territory, with a common system giving medical staff access to patient information across acute and community settings.
Emergency doctors routinely work at both the Calvary and Canberra hospitals, with Canberra Hospital adopting iSoft systems some time ago.
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http://www.e-health-insider.com/news/5790/isoft_7_to_extend_contracts
ISoft 7 to extend contracts
31 Mar 2010
All seven of the “out of cluster” trusts in London and the South of England that installed iSoft systems ahead of the National Programme for IT in the NHS are due to sign a new deal for iSoft systems.
In 2006, CSC and iSoft signed a deal that gave them responsibility for the seven trusts and enabled them stay with their existing systems instead of moving to Cerner Millennium, the strategic electronic patient record for London and the South.
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iSOFT Group Limited (ASX:ISF) Signs A$6.6 Million Lorenzo Renewal At St Jansdal, Netherlands
Sydney, April 1, 2010 (ABN Newswire) - iSOFT Group Limited (ASX:ISF), Australia's largest listed health information technology company, today announced that St Jansdal Hospital in the Netherlands extended its contract for iSOFT's Lorenzo solution for a further three years, in a deal worth EUR4.5 million (A$6.6 million).
iSOFT will implement additional Lorenzo patient management and clinical decision support functionality at the 340-bed public hospital at Harderwijk. Support for existing hospital information systems will continue while they are being replaced with Lorenzo solutions.
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UK looks to telehealth to address aging boomer population
March 30, 2010 — 11:57am ET | By Neil Versel
England's National Health Service faces a funding shortfall of as much as 20 million pounds ($30.2 billion) over the next few years as the country's baby boomers age. "This is making telehealth systems a subject of great interest for governments and healthcare systems looking for answers to the seemingly intractable problems that they face; in both developed and developing countries," London-based E-Health Insider reports.
But demonstration projects in three British locales have failed to recruit enough participants, so telehealth and personal-monitoring vendors are pushing the NHS to make telehealth "mainstream rather than marginal." Growth in industry organizations like the Continua Health Alliance, which is touting standards-based device interoperability, provides some cause for optimism, though.
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http://www.e-health-insider.com/news/5796/csc_misses_march_morecambe_bay_deadline
CSC misses March Morecambe Bay deadline
01 Apr 2010
CSC's future in the £12.7 billion NHS IT programme is in doubt after it failed to hit a critical end of March deadline to install Lorenzo Regional Care Release 1.9 at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust.
As a result, the Department of Health has decided not to award CSC, the local service provider for three-fifths of the NHS in England, a renegotiated LSP deal. It must now provide a credible remedial plan or risk being replaced.
Christine Connelly, the Department of Health's chief information officer, said late yesterday that the March deadline at Morecambe Bay, which she set last April, has been missed and that consequently no new deal with CSC has been signed.
“CSC has not gone live with Lorenzo 1.9 at Morecambe Bay,” said Connelly. “As a result we are not in a position to sign an MOU [Memorandum of Understanding] with CSC and will not do so.”
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Coalition would not roll out national broadband network
- Mitchell Bingemann
- From: The Australian
- March 30, 2010
THE federal Coalition, if elected, would honour national broadband network contracts already in place but would stop short of rolling out the Labor government's ambitious $43 billion fibre plan.
Opposition communications spokesman Tony Smith said a Coalition government would adopt a non-interventionist approach to competitive broadband markets such as capital cities.
It would favour mobility over speed, and aim for a swift construction timetable.
The plan will mainly benefit rural and regional Australians, whom the opposition believes have been left out as the Rudd government continues with its election promise to build an NBN.
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Prototype bionic eye has vision for the future
BRIDIE SMITH
March 31, 2010
MORE than anything else Leighton Boyd wants to see those that mean the most to him - his wife and children.
''That'd be pretty special to see them,'' he said yesterday.
Mr Boyd, 57, was diagnosed with the eye disease retinitis pigmentosa at the age of five. He now has very little vision and walks with a cane. The inherited condition has robbed him of his independence. He has never driven or worked in his trained field of electronics.
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http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/first-glimpse-of-bionic-eye-today-20100330-r8uk.html
First glimpse of bionic eye today
March 30, 2010
A Melbourne consortium will today unveil its prototype for a bionic eye.
The prototype will be revealed at the Melbourne launch of Bionic Vision Australia, which aims to improve the sight of people suffering degenerative vision loss.
Researchers hope to achieve an Australian first to implant the prototype into Australia's first bionic-eye recipient.
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Enjoy!
David.
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