Interesting Developments On The NEHRS Front. An App For Nippers and Their Parents And Disclosure Of Little Clinical Use Of The NEHRS.

This popped up today.

Australia launches child's e-health record app

Xinhua | 2013-6-2 10:38:01

By Agencies

Australian Minister for Health, Tanya Plibersek, on Sunday launched a new mobile app that allows parents to keep their children's important health, growth and development information at their fingertips.

Plibersek said the My Child's eHealth Record app lets parents add and monitor information like immunisations, height, weight, and development milestones.

"There's a lot of health information that parents need to keep track of in the early years of their child's growth, including immunisations, their growth rates and their development milestones, " said Plibersek.

"The app connects parents to their child's eHealth record, which is a new function added recently as part of the ongoing rollout of the government's national eHealth record system."

Developed in Australia, the My Child's eHealth Record app is the first smartphone app developed for the Australian government's eHealth record system.

Before downloading and using the app, parents must have registered their child or children for a personally controlled eHealth record.

The app then allows parents to view and add information to the Child Development part of their child's eHealth record.

This includes personal measurements for a baby or young child's head circumference, height and weight, information and reminders about immunisations and child health checks, and observations by parents about their children's personal growth and achievements.

Full article is here

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/786039.shtml

Here is the press release:

MyChild's eHealth Record app puts children's health information at parents' fingertips.

New mobile app allows parents to keep their children's important health, growth and development information at their fingertips.

02 June 2013

The Minister for Health, Tanya Plibersek, today launched a new mobile app that allows parents to keep their children’s important health, growth and development information at their fingertips.

Ms Plibersek said the My Child’s eHealth Record app lets parents add and monitor information like immunisations, height, weight, and development milestones.

“This App will mean that parents can have vital information about their children’s health, like their immunisation status, at their fingertips all of the time,” said Ms Plibersek.

“It doesn’t replace the Blue Book or its equivalents, but if a parent is asked by a childcare centre about their child’s immunisation status, they are very likely to have their mobile with them even if they are not carrying the blue book.

“There’s a lot of health information that parents need to keep track of in the early years of their child’s growth, including immunisations, their growth rates and their development milestones.

“The app connects parents to their child’s eHealth record, which is a new function added recently as part of the ongoing rollout of the Government’s national eHealth record system.

“The My Child’s eHealth Record app is yet another way for parents to keep track of their family’s key health information, and adds to the clinical and personal information the eHealth record system can already hold for an individual,” the Minister said.

Developed in Australia, the My Child’s eHealth Record app is the first smartphone app developed for the Australian Government’s eHealth record system.

Before downloading and using the app, parents must have registered their child or children for a personally controlled eHealth record.

The app then allows parents to view and add information to the Child Development part of their child’s eHealth record.

This includes personal measurements for a baby or young child’s head circumference, height and weight, information and reminders about immunisations and child health checks, and observations by parents about their children’s personal growth and achievements.

“While a baby’s measurements should be taken by a trained healthcare professional, parents can add this information directly to their child’s eHealth record via the app,” Ms Plibersek said.

“The eHealth record system is designed to hold more and more health information as a child grows. So registering a baby or young child is a practical step parents can take that means their children will have a lifetime health record available electronically.”

Information about the My Child’s eHealth Record app is available from www.ehealth.gov.au, including links to download the app.

eHealth key facts:

• The total number of people who have registered for an eHealth record is 215,813 – current at Friday May 31.
• In the past week, more than 30,000 people have registered for an eHealth record.
• More than 3,300 healthcare provider organisations have now signed on to the eHealth record system.
• And there are 4,265 individual doctors, nurses and other healthcare providers throughout Australia who have been authorised by their organisations to access the Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record (PCEHR) system.
• As of 31 May, more than 15.25 million documents had been uploaded to the PCEHR system. This includes:
• 2,315 clinical documents (shared health summaries, discharge summaries, event summaries)
• 17,266 consumer documents (consumer health summaries, notes, advance care custodian)
• 15.23 million Medicare documents (MBS/DVA/PBS, ACIR, organ donor)
• 200 Child eHealth record documents
• 91 Prescription and Dispense View (National Prescription and Dispense Repository).

Further information about registering for an eHealth record is available from www.ehealth.gov.au or 1800 723 471.

Link is here:

http://www.health.gov.au/internet/ministers/publishing.nsf/Content/mr-yr13-tp-tp055.htm

I look forward to comments on the app. It looks to me to be very much like a desperate attempt to have something up and working to prevent the whole thing being shut down after the election.

It is also interesting that this could all be seen as scope creep given there was no real mention of the functionality being introduced here, in the Final ConOps.

The usage data on the NEHRS really shows there is bulk Medicare Data and zilch in the way of any other information presently in the system. 200,000 patients registered and about 2000 clinical documents! They are spinning this information like a top in my view.

Amazingly little clinical use for a billion dollars a year after the so called launch that actually wasn’t.

David.