NZ Health Inc: Orion, Medtech and CSC team up with an eye on EHR

Three of the largest IT suppliers to the New Zealand healthcare sector have teamed up to develop what they call a world-leading, integrated, precision medicine solution for the country that would also provide an obvious platform on which to build the recently announced national electronic health record (EHR).

In a joint statement, the three organisations said they will work together to join hospital-level clinical data with primary care data and personal health data, which when linked to genomics, microbiomics, proteomics and other new health information types, will enable a truly personalised healthcare system for New Zealanders.

Orion Health CEO Ian McCrae said the joint vision of the partners is to deliver a “collective data ecosystem” that supports health and social investment.

“Being able to target people who need support earlier, predicting the risk of people most in need and supporting people across their journey through life – where they live, work and play – would be a game-changer for health and social services,” Mr McCrae said.

“Enabling a precision medicine approach will ultimately drive personalised healthcare combining all information unique to a person to identify prevention and treatment strategies which will be effective for them based on genetic, environmental and lifestyle factors.”

While they do not specifically say they will bid to build the national EHR, all three are already heavily involved in existing national and regional shared health information programs that form the foundations for what the NZ government says it is hoping to achieve.

Medtech is the dominant practice management system used in NZ general practice, with an estimated 85 per cent share of the GP desktop market. It also markets the ManageMyHealth patient portal that is being used in a number of district health board (DHB) and primary health organisation (PHO) eHealth projects.

CSC’s webPAS patient administration system is widely used in NZ hospitals and its MedChart medications management system is being rolled out nationally as the single EMM solution for the whole country. This is envisaged to eventually move beyond the acute setting to also enable integrated medications management in the community.

Amongst many other projects, Orion Health is rolling out the national, single clinical workstation through which hospital clinicians can view electronic medical records and other clinical information systems. It is also building the South Island Patient Information Care System (PICS), provides a consolidated view of clinical information systems for the Auckland, Waitemata and Counties Manukau DHBs, and supplies the EMR for Central region hospitals.

The three companies all work together as well, with Medtech and CSC involved in a collaboration to allow GPs to access CSC’s UltraGenda enterprise resource management system through ManageMyHealth to participate in the coordination of schedules and view and book appointments with secondary care facilities.

Mr McCrae said the partners expect and fully welcome other New Zealand technology and service organisations to join them and believe a commitment to open, multi-sectorial collaboration and partnership is critical.

“As the largest software providers to the New Zealand health system, collaboratively Orion Health, Medtech and CSC believe they have an obligation to support a NZ Health Inc. approach, and work with other key partners in the sector, including the New Zealand government,” he said.

“We need to leverage the current health system investments better and focus on a human-centred design to support personalised medicine.

“Together, New Zealand providers can lead the way – not only delivering upon the government’s vision for a national electronic health record, but more importantly enabling the delivery of a completely new model for healthcare, deeply personalised to the needs of individuals.

“This approach fully endorses the focus areas outlined in the new draft New Zealand Health Strategy, specifically the strategic themes of People Powered, Closer to Home and a Smart System.”

Medtech CEO Vino Ramayah said the key components for delivering the vision could already be found within New Zealand’s borders.

“Orion Health, Medtech and CSC are already caring for the health and wellbeing of millions of New Zealanders through our services, and working together will allow us to achieve a global-leading health system,” Mr Ramayah said.

“Medtech is committed to empowering individual New Zealanders, working with their doctors, to manage their own health and wellness. We are delighted to be working with Orion Health and CSC to deliver a more integrated and personalised service.

“There will be significant benefits to both individuals and the broader healthcare system by achieving seamless information flows between primary and secondary care.”

Stephen Miller, New Zealand director and country manager for CSC, said the through the partnership, the three New Zealand companies will start to break down the silos that exist between systems, ensuring a ‘whole of person’ healthcare approach.

“This is consistent with CSC’s efforts globally and our aspirations to facilitate greater participation and personalisation of care with the consumer involved in organising and coordinating their own care,” Mr Miller said.

“A whole new world of health is upon us and New Zealand could be the global leader in the transformation.”

Tunstall wraps update of Find-Me Watch in time for Christmas

Tunstall Healthcare is set to release an update of its Find-Me Tunstall Watch – which combines the features of a personal response system, GPS tracker and fall detector all in one – to the Australian and New Zealand markets in time for Christmas.

While the watch was designed to support people living with dementia, it is also suitable for those who want extra reassurance while at home, work or out in the community, as well as people living with a disability or a chronic disease.

It is also suitable for people who need to send a silent duress alert, who require immediate emergency assistance in a duress situation, and those who work alone or in potentially hazardous environments, such as community nurses.

Tunstall CIO Geoff Feakes said the next generation Find-Me Tunstall Watch offered greater choice for clients and carers.

“Tunstall’s vision was to have the carers watch act as an extension beyond the connected home that would allow us to monitor the client in their community,” Mr Feakes said.

“With the advanced features in the new version, we can really offer a more complex service. It’s built to assist and look after the client, but with the carer in mind.”

The updated version will include rapid magnetic charging for longer lasting batteries. With 3G capability, it is also future proofed for the next generation of mobile network and will function wherever there is mobile coverage.

The watch also offers an unobtrusive duress alert for those who may feel vulnerable in the community, and allows two-way conversation between the client and Tunstall’s 24-hour monitoring centre, or alternatively, their carer.

The watch also enables the creation of safe zones and geo-fencing, with real-time tracking, meaning a care consultant is able to accurately locate the wearer and direct responders to the precise location.

It is also waterproof and comes equipped with fall detection and sensors that can trigger an alert if a client has taken off their watch.

Mr Feakes said his team was in the final testing phases of the pre-production units at the moment, with an aim to have production units available for Christmas.

“As Tunstall is a global organisation, we are also looking at the potential for the watch to fit into other markets in our territories in Asia, Europe and the Americas,” he said.

INS LifeGuard rolls out converged medical alarm and telehealth platform

Australian-owned medical alarm firm INS LifeGuard has rolled out a converged medical alarm, telehealth and assistive technologies platform through its new LifeGuard SmartHome IP Dialler (IPD) device, featuring a number of optional services aimed at ageing-in-place.

INS LifeGuard’s medical alarm service is monitored by experienced nurses and is aimed at people living at home and the independent living and retirement village markets.

The SmartHome IPD features a dock with a purpose-built tablet and telephone that allows providers to offer optional services to residents. It runs off a built-in M2M SIM card, eliminating the need for residents to have a home phone line, but it can also operate off an existing Ethernet or WiFi connection with the M2M SIM card as a back-up.

The device can be used as a standard home telephone to call friends and family with one touch, and calls can also be shared between the SmartHome IPD and LifeGuard’s Mobile and SmartWatch devices.

The IPD can also provide basic internet browsing and social media applications such as Facebook, YouTube and email, as well as basic home automation features such as automatically turning on/off power points and lights, or locking or unlocking doors. These features can be controlled wirelessly from the device, or by the remote nurse.

The new product can now also provide remote monitoring and virtual GP consultation services. Vital signs measurements can be captured and stored through the device and sent to a nurse at INS LifeGuard’s emergency response centre for monitoring.

This service includes a monthly nursing review with a registered nurse and is available on a monthly subscription basis.

INS is also offering fee-for-service virtual GP consultations by both phone and video, which is also available on a subscription basis to receive low-level prescriptions and referrals to other health professionals.

The device can also be used for home security, using wireless infra-red detectors for round the clock monitoring. And for independent living sites and retirement villages, the system can also provide a concierge service, so with a simple press of a button, it can arrange home maintenance, health care, personal shoppers and taxi bookings.

For community care organisations, the services provided through INS LifeGuard can be covered under CDC or NDIS funding models and assistance provided with case management through a free online reporting and review portal.

The company also provides mobile alarm systems through the new LifeGuard Mobile or LifeGuard SmartWatch. These are fully featured portable medical alarms that work just like standard pendant or wrist transmitters.

By pressing the HELP button on the LifeGuard Mobile or SmartWatch, an alarm is sent to INS LifeGuard’s 24/7 emergency response centre. The devices feature a built-in GPS locator so users can be located in an emergency even if they are not able to respond to the nurses.

INS Group managing director Claude Rafin said INS LifeGuard has been deploying its new technologies and services to various sites around the country over the past few months.

“The SmartHome IPD has been a long time in development, and we’re very proud of it,” Mr Rafin said. “Our team has worked hard to develop products and services that enable people to remain living at home for longer whilst helping them manage any chronic health conditions.”

Mr Rafin said the SmartHome IPD can directly replace analogue-based medical alarm systems and is fully NBN compatible.

PCEHR needs some big-picture thinking: AHHA

The federal government needs to do some big-picture thinking about how the rebadged PCEHR will work with the rest of the health system and to ensure previous mistakes are not repeated if it is to make a success of the national infrastructure, the Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association (AHHA) says.

The AHHA and the Deeble Institute for Health Policy Research have released a briefing paper on the PCEHR, soon to be renamed the My Health Record, outlining three key implementation concerns that need to be tackled if the system is to gain the confidence of users, particularly in light of moves to an opt-out model.

These concerns include a lack of registered users, system use and clinical utility; opt-out versus opt-in registration; and governance.

The paper, written by the AHHA’s advocacy director Krister Partel, makes a number of recommendations, including that the government hold a wide-ranging review of security and privacy safeguards before the opt-out trials begin, as well as the development of a comprehensive communications and engagement strategy, something that AHHA CEO Alison Verhoeven said is not generally a strength of governments.

Ms Verhoeven said the association was in favour of an opt-out model to ensure better support from consumers, but said the model will need to be designed hand in hand with a robust way to convey to consumers what it is that the record does, what the benefits are of having it, and also what the security arrangements are around it.

“That’s informed consent, and then if people choose to opt out, it enables them to make decisions that suit their own particular needs and concerns,” Ms Verhoeven said. “We are supportive of opt out but informed consent has to be part of that, which is about understanding the purpose, the benefits and the security arrangements.”

Security and privacy reviews are both strong recommendations in the briefing paper, despite privacy arrangements having been covered at great length when the system was first being designed in 2010-11. Department of Health special adviser Paul Madden told a Senate Estimates committee recently that privacy impact assessments (PIA) have been carried out on the ramifications an opt-out system following the government’s decision to throw its support behind a move to the new model.

But despite most consumers keeping their access controls at the default settings and few studies showing people were overly concerned about healthcare providers looking at their health information, privacy is still a major issue that needs to be confronted before there is wider acceptance of the system, Ms Verhoeven said.

“There are cohorts of consumers for whom privacy is really an issue,” she said. “For example, people who might have sexually transmitted diseases or mental health issues and the like. For them, security and privacy becomes a real issue.

“And there are people who don’t want governments and others to know about them and interfere in their daily lives, and think governments have more information than they need to have.

“But it’s also about the way that we convey the message about the benefits of a health record. Some of the concerns that people have about how their information might be accessed and how it might be used – putting aside the question of how it is stored – may actually be alleviated if there is better information provided to consumers about the benefits of the health record and what it might actually mean for them in terms of access to better care.”

The Deeble Institute briefing paper also recommends the development of a comprehensive communications and engagement strategy, both for consumers and healthcare providers. One criticism of both the Labor and Coalition governments’ handling of the system has been the lack of marketing to consumers, with few having even heard of it.

Ms Verhoeven agrees, but makes the point that social marketing isn’t necessarily the forte of government.

“They approach things in quite a different way than for example an advertiser might approach it to engage with consumers,” she said. “There is something we can learn from the way that the corporate world, the commercial world, engages with consumers in order to change behaviours and to drive interest.

“We only need to look at how organisations like Facebook and Twitter can get people to share all sorts of information without too much concern. Even those who sign up to buy health-related apps are giving away lots of information.”

Ms Verhoeven said changing the branding of the PCEHR – which she described as sounding like a particular model of a washing machine – was the essential first step. “Fortunately that has now moved on and we can look at some more focused branding which actually speaks to consumers. The choice of the word ‘My’ in My Health Record is about consumer ownership and hopefully that packs a little bit of a message.”

As the briefing paper points out, the uploading of clinical documents to the system to date has been poor, but Ms Verhoeven said international and local experience shows that there is a tipping point where there will be sufficient critical mass in terms of consumers having a record, and clinicians knowing how to use it and choosing to upload documents that are meaningful to other clinicians.

“More and more of that will happen and it will snowball,” she said. “We’ve seen for example the Northern Territory with their My eHealth Record as a model, and internationally there are a number of demonstrations of that sort of critical tipping point as well.

“I think the next challenge for the government is to make sure that the opt-out mechanism, perhaps combined with some of the incentive arrangements around payments … some of those combined tactics might actually encourage greater use of the system and that would be to the benefit of us all.”

However, what the government will then need to do is some big-picture thinking about its role in terms of governance, she said.

“The Commonwealth has an important role in terms of stewardship in the health system and part of that requires them to have some big-picture thinking about how the health system should work and how the different parts interact together.

“One of those is around having consumers involved actively in governance arrangements, it’s around having providers involved, potentially academics and commercial providers also who could drive that forward. What I’m interested in is the role that the Commonwealth sees that it has.

“If you have the role as the steward then that is great. They have obviously got to have a role in developing some of the underpinning national infrastructure, but they also have a challenge to be able to think big and to look ahead. I’m not sure that’s exactly what they doing at the moment.”

In addition to thinking big, the government needs to look at what software developers, healthcare providers and consumers themselves are doing in terms of developing eHealth solutions, with particular concentration on the pace at which government works.

“If you think about what consumers want and the interest that consumers have in using tools like health apps to manage and monitor their own health and keep their own health record, they need to think about how they are going to harness the power of that to actually mobilise resources across the health system in an efficient manner,” she said. “That is the challenge.”

The AHHA has been contracted by the government to develop training platforms for opt-out. While she can’t go into too much detail as yet as to what those platforms entail, Ms Verhoeven said the prime element is training on the changes that are likely to be made, both for consumers and for healthcare providers.

Many GP and aged care software vendors developed their own training videos and packages for their customers after a distinct lack of this sort of support from the government in the early years of the PCEHR. Medicare Locals also did a lot of work on developing resources and assisting healthcare organisations to go through onerous task of signing up to the system.

The AHHA’s training resources, on the other hand, are going to be much more about the change management requirements, Ms Verhoeven said.

“It is quite a major shift from an opt-in to an opt-out mechanism and to actually run those trials in a meaningful way, so clinicians have to be able to understand what the changes might mean for them in terms of their businesses and consumers in terms of their records,” she said.

“There is training required around that but anyone who’s used any software system needs to access some sort of either FAQ or helpdesk or online training depending on the complexity of the issue that is being dealt with. Change management is complex and training needs to go hand-in-hand with that.”

The tender requires the AHHA to produce training packages to support the change management process for the revised form of the record and the revised arrangements for consumers. The benefits of the record in its changed format will also be promoted through training, along with the medico-legal arrangements that come with it and how it actually works in clinical information systems as well, she said.

The AHHA/Deeble Institute briefing paper is available for download here (PDF).

Change fatigue: AAPM rejects timeframes for PCEHR meaningful use

The Australian Association of Practice Management (AAPM) has come out strongly against proposed changes to the eHealth Practice Incentive Program (ePIP) which would link the payment to ‘meaningful use’ of the PCEHR, saying the timeframes are far too tight in light of the numerous reviews the government has launched into primary care.

In its submission to the Department of Health’s discussion paper on changes to the ePIP, which canvassed linking payments to use of the PCEHR or shared health summary (SHS) upload targets, the AAPM said it fully supports the intent of the discussion paper in terms of promoting the active and meaningful use of the system, to be renamed My Health Record, but that it also has “serious concerns” about the proposed mechanisms.

It particularly objects to the proposed timeframes for implementation in light of the review into the Medicare Benefits Schedule, the review of the Primary Healthcare Advisory Group and the trials of opt-out models for the PCEHR, set to start next year.

“The start date of February 6th is not practical as it does not allow sufficient time to properly consult with stakeholders or to implement new processes,” the submission states.

“To push through these changes while the MBS review, PHC Advisory Group and opt-out My Health Record trial are all pending is premature and adds further to the disjointed nature of the healthcare system. The industry is already fatigued by constant changes.

“Implementing yet another change without it being properly planned and aligned with the outcomes of these important national reviews does not make any sense. It is likely to create further fragmentation and inefficiencies when the aim of eHealth is to reduce fragmentation and improve the efficiency of the health system.

“AAPM strongly argues that the government should hold off on these measures and develop a strategy for active and meaningful use of My Health Record that is aligned with the outcomes of the MBS review, PHC Advisory Group and opt-out My Health Record trial.”

The AAPM, which represents members running specialist medical and allied health practices as well as general practices, is particularly keen to see secure messaging more widely used and supports keeping it as one of the five current requirements for the ePIP.

However, it says that until allied health providers and specialists begin using secure messaging, it would be difficult to demonstrate active and meaningful use.

The organisation agrees that uploading SHSs should be the initial priority for demonstrating use of My Health Record for patients with a chronic disease, but does not want to see this linked to the ePIP.

It says a more effective means of increasing the active and meaningful use of the system would be to change the Medicare descriptor for chronic disease, health assessment and mental health MBS items, to include the requirement for uploading of a shared health summary.

Even better would be a block-funding model for chronic disease and complex conditions, in which the requirement for uploading documents would be embedded in the criteria for funding.

“However, to make this approach worthwhile, the requirement should be extended to the selected allied health providers who would also need to update the health record to receive their share of the funding,” it says.

“That way the record becomes a useful source of information for the allied health providers and improves the efficiency of communication between providers. If the allied health providers could send their reports to the referring practitioner by secure messaging and at the same time upload their reports to My Health Record, there would be genuine use of the system as it was designed, rather than just counting uploads for the sake of achieving a target.”

The association also strongly rejects a proposal to link the ePIP to training and education requirements, saying there is enough pressure on GPs in maintaining their knowledge base and credentials.

“In conclusion, AAPM is very keen to contribute to the promoting and action towards increasing the active and meaningful use of the eHealth infrastructure. We believe that the future viability of our health system is dependent on the effective electronic connectivity and efficient and secure transfer of patient information between providers across the entire system.

“AAPM is however concerned that the measures proposed in this discussion paper are ill timed and need to be delayed until the other aspects of health reform are determined.”

It recommends that in future, critical data be automatically extracted from the patient record and uploaded to guarantee that the information contained in the PCEHR is current and accurate.

“Pathology, diagnostic imaging reports, and hospital reports must also become readily available in My Health Record to encourage meaningful use by GPs,” it says. “If the GP is the only provider uploading information to the My Health Record it will continue to be difficult to encourage ‘meaningful use’ as they already have access to this data in their own clinical software.”

Structured reports and feedback can improve general practice data quality

A Sydney study has shown that the use of structured data quality reports (SDQR) along with feedback sessions can improve the quality of routinely collected data in general practice electronic health records, although the improvements didn’t quite meet targets set by the RACGP.

The study, conducted by Jane Taggart, Siaw-Teng Liaw and Hairong Yu of the Centre for Primary Health Care & Equity at the University of NSW, looked at four general practices in south-western Sydney over a 12-month period, with feedback sessions conducted at four, eight and 12 months with practice principals and practice managers.

The practices all participate in the university’s electronic Practice Based Research Network (ePBRN), with data regularly extracted from their clinical information systems using the GRHANITE extraction and linkage software and examined for completeness, correctness, consistency and duplication of records.

In this study, the researchers looked at whether structured reports could improve EHR data quality for demographic information and clinical measurements such as date of birth, gender, height, weight, waist circumference, BMI, Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander status, smoking, alcohol consumption, blood pressure, country of birth and allergies.

The SDQRs emphasised data quality metrics for each practice, compared with the previous reports and aggregate of all four practices, and benchmarked against the RACGP standards for data collection.

The patients were all “RACGP-active”, or those who had three or more visits in the two years prior to the data extraction.

The research found that while the quality of all of the variables measured improved significantly over the 12 months, particularly for recording allergies, only on two measures did they meet RACGP targets of “working towards” or “routinely recording” certain data, as set out in its Standards for General Practice 4th edition.

For example, at the start of the study, there were high rates of completeness of information recorded for gender (99 per cent) and date of birth (100 per cent) and relatively high rates for smoking (68 per cent).

However, the researchers report that recording of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander status (44 per cent), alcohol consumption (eight per cent), height (32 per cent), weight (37 per cent), waist circumference (five per cent) and BMI (17 per cent) were low. Allergies (84 per cent) had a relatively high rate while the recording of country of birth (two per cent) was low.

Apart from date of birth, all of these variables were below the RACGP targets.

Over the 12 month study, the recording of date of birth remained perfect and gender near perfect (99.99 per cent) and there were also significant positive changes in all other study variables.

“However, only date of birth and allergies (95 per cent) met the RACGP targets for all practices at the end of the 12 months,” they write. Smoking was almost at target (73 per cent), but the recording of alcohol assessment and consumption were well below.

“Most practices were working on improving their recording of height (37 per cent), weight (43 per cent) and BMI (21 per cent).”

Feedback from GPs explained a lot of this. “I think it is all about time constraints …” one said.

“Computerisation … does help but it takes the focus off why the patient is here and to get that balance I am still struggling with it and I will still struggle until I finish working as a general practitioner,” said another.

Others said things like measuring waist circumference in obese patients was uncomfortable, and alcohol assessment is difficult when patients are often not forthcoming on their drinking habits.

The researchers found that GPs and practice managers were proactive about implementing change in response to the reports and feedback, with some talking about ways to improve and achieve goals such as the RACGP standards for completeness of records.

“Benchmarking against their peers was a motivator for quality improvement, especially when their performance was lower than the average for the ePBRN,” they write.

The inability to reach the RACGP targets might mean that the targets are a bit unrealistic, the authors say. “The RACGP could consider including specific targets that are more useful and measurable so that practices have a clearer understanding of what they should be aiming to achieve in order to provide quality care.

“Taken together, these findings suggest that a multi-pronged and ecological approach across the data production cycle is required to improve the quality of data in EHRs.”

However, they say that the lack of a control group in the study makes it difficult to suggest a causal relationship or exclude other causal factors.

‘Structured data quality reports to improve EHR data quality’ is published in the International Journal of Medical Informatics.

Spark prepares to shut down paging network

Spark New Zealand plans to decommission its legacy paging network in two years’ time but is preparing contingency plans for some of its customers who are likely to continue using pagers, including emergency services and hospitals.

Spark issued a statement this week saying it would turn off its network on March 31, 2017. Paging is being retired around the world with many major telcos already having turned off or sold off their networks as businesses jump ship to mobiles and smartphones.

Spark said the paging system was introduced to New Zealand in 1988 and at its peak in 1994 there were 61 million paging users globally, but the pager market has seen a precipitous decline in the last decade. In New Zealand, paging has declined by 65 per cent in the last two years.

The underlying analogue network is also more vulnerable to outages and is increasingly uneconomic to maintain.

However, healthcare may prove to be the last hold-out for pagers. One industry expert told Pulse+IT last year that the acute care sector in particular is still holding firm to pagers as many healthcare workers only need one-way communications.

Spark chief operating officer David Havercroft said the company had looked for a buyer to for the network but hadn’t been able to find one.

“Our decision to shut the paging network has not been taken lightly – we’ve spent the last 18 months reviewing other options, but demand has been declining for more than 10 years and it has become apparent that it’s time to plan for the retirement of the paging service,” Mr Havercroft said.

“How we communicate with each other has evolved well beyond the capability allowed for by one-way paging. Much of our customer base has migrated away from pagers to mobile telephony using 4G LTE networks and smartphones.”

Mr Havercroft said Spark planned to work closely with all of its customers, including important government, health and emergency services clients, over the next 20 months to identify their needs and transition them to a new appropriate digital solution.

“Options for some customers, like the health industry, could include providing their own on-site paging network at hospitals,” he said.

Vensa Health gears up for mHealth portal with growth grant

Auckland-based mobile health technology firm Vensa Health will use an R&D growth grant from Callaghan Innovation to invest further in the apps-based version of its platform it is set to launch next year.

Vensa Health is best known for developing the TXT2Remind SMS-based patient reminder system that is widely used for smoking cessation support as well as immunisation, cervical screening and heart health reminders.

The company says over 650 general practices in New Zealand currently use its solutions to deliver health messages, appointment, screening and medication reminders to over three million Kiwis a year. It is integrated into the Medtech32, VIP and myPractice practice management systems.

It also has an mHealth+ platform designed to handle communications for enterprise capability in hospitals.

Vensa Health CEO Ahmad Jubbawey said the company was now developing an open apps-based mHealth platform to allow patients to connect with their health provider.

“This will allow health providers to introduce new models of care, predominantly in primary care, and patients to receive care more conveniently and efficiently from their health providers,” Mr Jubbawey said in a statement.

“The growth grant will give our R&D program an immediate boost and brings us a step closer to launching our new apps based patient portal platform in 2016. Our new technology will both help the company to scale and open up international markets.”

Mr Jubbawey said the company has been developing its next generation technology for the last two years and had invested a lot of time on user experience.

He plans to release the next generation platform next year in New Zealand and Australia.

Callaghan Innovation’s growth grants meet 20 per cent of the cost of a firm’s R&D program up to $15 million over three years.

International health IT week in review: August 2

Pulse+IT’s weekly weekend round-up of international health IT and eHealth news:

Will Cerner sink or swim under weight of DoD EHR contract?
Health Data Management ~ Joseph Goedert ~ 30/07/2015

Now that Cerner’s suite of electronic health records will over the next decade power the Military Health System, the question arises on whether the vendor is up to the mammoth task.


DHMSM aftermath: Sorting out the winners and losers
FierceEMR ~ Dan Bowman ~ 30/07/2015

The triumph of Cerner’s team for the Pentagon’s highly coveted electronic health record contract had as much to do with the Kansas City, Missouri, company’s perceived strength on the interoperability front and its government experience as it did with rival Epic’s inability to “play nice” with other systems, according to industry analysts.


Cerner surprises in beating Epic for DoD EHR
Health Data Management ~ Joseph Goedert ~ 30/07/2015

“I’m stunned,” says longtime vendor selection consultant Vince Ciotti of the Defense Department’s pick of Cerner Corp. to be the new electronic health records vendor for the Military Health System.


DoD awards Cerner, Leidos, Accenture EHR contract
HealthcareITNews ~ Tom Sullivan ~ 29/07/2015

The US Department of Defense handed down the largest and most-anticipated electronic health record system contract in history late Wednesday.


Leidos, Cerner team wins coveted DoD EHR contract
Health Data Management ~ Greg Slabodkin ~ 29/07/2015

Major government contractor Leidos and software vendor Cerner Corp. have been awarded a multi-billion dollar contract to provide the U.S. military with a commercial-off-the-shelf electronic health records system, beating two other finalist teams that included vendors Epic Systems and Allscripts.


Eleven trusts benefit from Lorenzo cash
Digital Health News ~ Thomas Meek ~ 30/07/2015

Eleven NHS trusts in the North, Midlands and East have been approved tens of millions of pounds of central funding from the Department of Health to deploy CSC’s Lorenzo electronic patient record.


Microsoft eyes guidelines for consumer health wearables
mHealth News ~ Eric Wicklund ~ 29/07/2015

Microsoft is joining the effort to create guidelines for developers of wearables and mHealth apps.


Chelsea does e-obs on mobile
Digital Health News ~ Rebecca McBeth ~ 29/07/2015

Chelsea and Westminster Hospital staff are using the ThinkVitals electronic observations tool on mobile devices for faster detection of deteriorating patients.


How open source electronic patient records deliver better software
EhealthNews.eu ~ eHealthnews.eu ~ 29/07/2015

The clinical and business benefits of the use of open source software in the NHS have been laid out in full in a challenging white paper from healthcare software pioneer IMS MAXIMS.


Survey: Nearly 20 percent of community hospitals want to change EHR vendors
FierceEMR ~ Marla Durben Hirsch ~ 28/07/2015

Now that the electronic health record market has matured, nearly 20 percent of community hospitals are actively looking to replace their EHR vendors, according to the latest report from peer60.


EHRs far from interoperable – still
HealthcareITNews ~ Bernie Monegain ~ 28/07/2015

The most valued patient data resides in the EHR, yet EHRs are architected to perpetuate data silos.


New tool IDs patient fall risk in 10 minutes
Health Data Management ~ Joseph Goedert ~ 28/07/2015

A new electronic health records-agnostic tool from Cerner can identify patients at risk for falls with a 90 accuracy rate, according to the vendor.


Stables kickstarts ‘great endeavour’
Digital Health News ~ Thomas Meek & Jon Hoeksma ~ 27/07/2015

Emis co-founder Dr David Stables has invested millions of his personal fortune in a “grand endeavour” aimed at revolutionising the way the NHS shares information.


Congress considers putting brakes on stage 3
Health Data Management ~ Joseph Goedert ~ 27/07/2015

Federal lawmakers are noticing some dark clouds surrounding the electronic health records meaningful use program to prod providers to adopt EHRs.


Athenahealth CEO predicts ‘healthcare Internet’ in five years
FierceHealthIT ~ Susan D. Hall ~ 27/07/2015

Athenahealth CEO Jonathan Bush foresees a “healthcare Internet” in place within five years.


NIST guide aims to protect patient information on mobile devices
FierceEMR ~ Marla Durben Hirsch ~ 27/07/2015

The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) has published a new guide to help healthcare providers make mobile devices that use or contain patient electronic health data more secure.


DoD EHR modernization set to rock marketplace
HealthcareITNews ~ Mike Miliard ~ 24/07/2015

When the Defense Department put out a request for proposals last summer for its massive electronic health record replacement project, it sent shockwaves through the health IT realm.


Providers, vendors blamed for information blocking in Senate hearing
Health Data Management ~ Greg Slabodkin ~ 24/07/2015

Information blocking – both by providers and vendors – is preventing the sharing of patients’ electronic health records and dashing any hope of realizing true EHR interoperability,


Anthem to buy Cigna for $48.4 billion after year of talks
Health Data Management ~ Bloomberg ~ 24/07/2015

Anthem Inc. struck a deal to buy rival Cigna Corp. for $48.4 billion, wrapping up almost a year of contentious negotiations and potentially creating the largest health insurer in the U.S.


Rapid growth predicted for mHealth in Asia Pacific

The increasing use of smartphones will play a pivotal role in transforming healthcare, with analysts predicting the global mobile health market will grow at an impressive compound annual growth rate of 33.5 per cent in the next five years.

The rally is likely to be led by the continued growth of mobile cellular networks in Asian countries, coupled with increased affordability of compatible smartphone devices and growing awareness among patients of connected healthcare applications.

Reports suggest that by 2017, the Asia Pacific region will have nearly three billion smartphone users out of a predicted 5.10 billion across the globe.

But apart from advancements in mobile technology, the projected growth in the mHealth market is attributed largely to an increase in sedentary lifestyles in Asian countries, which is expected to trigger a rise in chronic healthcare problems.

Unchecked population growth in countries like China and India, and a rise in the number of senior citizens in countries like Singapore and Japan, are some of the other influential factors that are pushing the expansion of healthcare facilities in Asia. Solutions like telehealth monitoring, which leverage the power of smartphones to connect to medical devices and allow healthcare providers to track patients in real time, will be a huge leap towards smarter and cost-efficient healthcare.

The rapid growth of the market in the region is also attributed to a rise in the number of government incentives and reforms aimed at supporting mobile healthcare.

Countries like Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and India are reframing their healthcare policies and encouraging more start-ups to use disruptive technology to solve key medical challenges.

Singapore, for example, is currently providing a framework for healthcare start-ups to design, develop and test innovative solutions. Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia are opening up their markets to foreign healthcare players to provide reliable cross-vendor medical services.

Jacques Durand, medical director of Doctor Gratis and Medika Consulting in Indonesia, believes that mHealth solutions will play a pivotal role in changing patient behaviour as technology provides a sustainable model for healthcare providers to deliver rich and accurate medical information through regulated channels.

“Asia is going to be one of the fastest growing mHealth markets, primarily because of the ubiquity of smartphones and the monumental growth potential of developing economies in the upcoming years,” Dr Durand said.

“Patients are now becoming increasingly aware about the symptoms and the available treatment options. But, more than that, they want to be constantly involved in the whole diagnosis process. They want a tracking mechanism that helps them assess their conditions and want instant and reliable resolutions to their medical queries.”

Dr Durand is a co-founder of Doctor Gratis, one of the largest telemedicine platforms in Asia with a presence in more than 13 Asian countries. He believes that the key challenge in expanding to diverse geographies is to scale up to the local parameters, since every market is different.

“Asia’s healthcare is different than the western healthcare system, since countries like Europe and US have specific and well-defined operating policies, while I believe the Asian healthcare segment is still in metamorphosis,” he said. “Digital healthcare start-ups looking towards Asia have to look and experiment with different strategies rather than simply waiting for the system to get evolved.”

Dr Durand believes that although western countries have more technological prowess, the biggest growth in mHealth will come from developing countries in Asia, as they present far bigger market opportunities.

While the outlook seems promising, there are numerous challenges involved with scaling up mobile health architecture in Asian economies, including the relatively underdeveloped technology infrastructure, unclear compliance policies, and lower accuracy of wearable devices. It will also be a learning curve for practitioners, patients and pharma brands, as they will have to evolve the traditional healthcare model to integrate digital channels and practices.

According to Dr Durand, even though the mHealth market could go on to provide actual clinical services, it will still need supervision from expert physicians and specialists.

“You can plug in a thousand devices, measuring all sorts of data, but the patient does not know how to make sense of it,” he said. “Also, not all wearable devices are reliable and medically accurate. A patient still needs a qualified physician to understand the data and make better informed decisions.”