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News stories and opinions about events, and reporting from e-health events & conferences around the world.

CHIK Health e-Nation 2012 coverage
Thu 12th April 2012
CHIK Services’ Health-e-Nation 2012 conference brought leaders from health, government and IT together for 3 days of interlinked events. The Health-e-Nation program on 28 March 2012 featured Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Dr Mukesh Haikerwal AO, Health Minister Tanya Plibersek, Dr Jonathan Schaffer, Health Department Secretary Jane Halton PSM, Professor Ricky Richardson, David E Garets and many more speakers of note. As media sponsor, eHealthspace.org has provided extensive coverage. Access all the coverage here.   more

Australian health reform and ehealth: Jane Halton keynote video and slides
Thu 5th April 2012
Jane Halton PSM, secretary of the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing, spoke at CHIK Services’ Health-e-Nation 2012 conference in March, sharing her insights as Australia’s national health records system moves closer to a reality.  "More capability is being deployed on this project than many things I have seen in health. We are building something that is important for the future," she said. Members of eHealthspace.org can view Ms Halton's keynote video and slideshow below. Related news stories: No ehealth Big...   more

Victorian ehealth project fails
Fri 18th May 2012
Victoria’s Health Minister David Davis has announced the state’s nine-year project to modernise and connect ICT systems throughout the public healthcare sector will have its funding ended on 30 June.According to an AAP report, the minister said the project had already cost $500 million, which is $140 million more than originally budgeted.Mr Davis said the government will now work on a hospital-by-hospital basis to set up individualised systems using the $100 million innovation fund allocated in this month's budget.   more

Medicare Locals in $50m ehealth rollout deal
Fri 18th May 2012
Medicare Locals will share in a $50m funding pool to assist in the roll-out of the forthcoming PCEHR. The funding is in addition to the $233m measures announced in the May federal Budget. The money is to assist Medicare Locals provide practitioner training in the PCEHR, and to drive consumer awareness at a regional level.In a statement Federal Minister for Health, Tanya Plibersek, said in addition to practical training for doctors and their practices, Medicare Locals will also assist other health care providers, Aboriginal Community...   more

Latest GP Super Clinic opens
Thu 17th May 2012
The latest federally funded GP Super Clinic has been opened in Cairns, Queensland. Speaking with eHealthspace.org, Cairns GP Super Clinic operator Kate Gunn said “It makes such a difference having our practitioners located in the one place.” Ms Gunn is founder and director of the Balance Health Care, the organisation also in charge of the Blue Mountains (NSW) Super Clinics opened in January this year.Ms Gunn explained that while the opening of the newly built premises took place this week, “We have actually been in operation for...   more

DoHA undergoes audit over GP Super Clinics
Thu 17th May 2012
The Auditor-General’s office has begun an investigation to assess the effectiveness of the Department of Health and Ageing’s administration of the GP Super Clinics program.The $650 million Super Clinics program was announced by Labor in 2009 to improve the primary health care system by increasing the focus of health promotion, illness prevention and better coordination between GPs, allied health and community services.The announcement of the investigation comes amidst ongoing criticism of the program by certain sections of the media...   more

Minister defends government approach to e-health
Thu 17th May 2012
Federal Health Minister Tanya Plibersek has used a speech on e-health reform to justify the government’s 2012-13 Budget spend and approach to the PCEHR.Speaking at the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA), the minister put last week’s $233.7 million funding boost for the national eHealth program in context, saying the government  had spent the last two years “building the foundations for the national eHealth records system”. Citing the example of the Northern Territory’s now well-established shared electronic...   more

Taking the medication to the people
Wed 16th May 2012
Six years ago nurse Carol Towers did a presentation which concluded with a cartoon of a patient looking at a computer screen. The screen was telling the patient which medication to take. “And today that’s a reality,” said Ms Towers, clinical lead on the $1.2m Royal District Nursing Service’s (RDNS) Healthy, Happy and at Home project. The project, funded by the Victorian government department of business and innovation, along with the RDNS, Telstra and La Trobe University, is using broadband to connect patients with chronic diseases to...   more

Healthways points to cloudy future with Telstra
Wed 16th May 2012
The local arm of the world’s largest telehealth provider, Healthways Australia, has inked a three-year, $1.9m deal which will see its technology infrastructure moved to a private cloud provided by Telstra. “The idea is that as we add clients and volume, we can rapidly expand our technology environment,” said Healthways director of IT, Riaan Rheeder in an interview with eHealthspace.org. Healthways provides telehealth and telephone counseling for chronic disease management to approximately 25,000 customers of private insurer HCF. It...   more

Feds phone in changes to telehealth
Tue 15th May 2012
The 2012-13 Federal Budget delivered a mixed bag of spending cuts and new investments in telehealth. On the one hand nearly $184 million in incentive payments for practitioner adoption of video technology has been redirected to the National e-Health Program. On the other, the government has given the green light to over $30 million in new telehealth trials to expand into new technical areas outside of video conferencing. Speaking with eHealthspace.org Dr Mike Civil, Telehealth Standards Taskforce Chair of RACGP said the $183.9 million...   more
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