Connected Health in Australia

On the Brink of Success

Connected Health in Australia will hinge on a number of factors—care setting, geographic region and organisation among them. Even so, the country's health system is sustaining some important reforms, and recent policies signal positive change.

Some key elements of the Australian e-health strategy include:

• A nationwide personally controlled electronic health record (PCEHR) system under preparation to launch in July 2012.

• Investment in technologies such as electronic referral, electronic discharge and event summaries and electronic transmission of prescriptions.

• Significant investments in an interoperable infrastructure—including health identifiers, interoperability standards and a national compliance body to review, test and certify solutions.

• Various programmes designed to deliver clinical information systems to primary and secondary care settings.

• A national vendor accreditation scheme.

As part of a sweeping study spanning eight countries, Accenture looked at how very different health systems are progressing on the journey to introduce the systematic application of healthcare IT—what Accenture calls "Connected Health". According to health industry executives and leaders who participated in the study, Australians see Connected Health as a crucial element to drive wider policy goals of improved access to healthcare services, quality of care and system efficiency.

There are three distinct stages in the journey toward Connected Health—healthcare IT adoption, health information exchange (HIE) and insight-driven healthcare. Australia is moving forwards on all three fronts:

• Healthcare IT adoption. With a $467 million investment in the national PCEHR programme, the country's National e-Health Transition Authority and the Commonwealth Government are seeking to deliver a national PCEHR system by 1 July 2012.
  
  
• HIE. While Australia is fairly well advanced in healthcare IT adoption, particularly in primary care, compared to some countries it lags somewhat in sharing information across the system.
  
  
• Insight-driven healthcare. Historically, individual organisations have shared healthcare data among themselves, but this is expected to change as Australia deploys and enhances the PCEHR system.

While Australia has made significant progress towards Connected Health over recent years, it will continue to face some specific challenges. Accenture's research points to four barriers:

• System-wide fragmentation—Despite recent efforts to co-ordinate care across the system, there is fragmentation in governance, funding and delivery, but various government policies in different stages of delivery are important steps in the right direction.
  
  
• Culture change—There are some cultural barriers to Connected Health, including buy-in to the vision and strategic plans, accepting changes in clinical workflow and navigating privacy and security concerns and requirements.
  
  
• Demonstrating and measuring benefits—Connected Health initiatives will gain support as e-health investments start showing meaningful returns, but Australia will need to measure progress and benefits to quantify the ROI.
  
  
• Political will and a consistent approach—There is concern that a change of government during the next federal election could slow progress and affect Connected Health's prospects of remaining a funding priority.

Recent government initiatives to further Connected Health will pave the way for widespread adoption of healthcare IT across Australia. This will increase quality and enhance access to care, while helping manage budgets more efficiently and effectively.

To achieve its Connected Health goals, Australia should focus on:

• Continuing to build momentum by maintaining support and funding for healthcare IT initiatives.
  
  
• Continuing to demonstrate early benefits of existing Connected Health initiatives to deliver an ROI in the short, medium and long terms.
  
  
• Continuing to deliver a change and adoption strategy that clearly and consistently articulates value and the direction of the overall Connected Health programme to key stakeholders.
  
  
• Gradually integrating the delivery of other initiatives, such as telehealth and clinical reform, to encourage clinicians to adopt healthcare IT and drive greater benefits for consumers and the health system.