The My Health Record was back in the news this week as Department of Health and Australian Digital Health Agency officials were forced to undergo yet another gruelling bout of interrogation from the same Senate committee that put them through the wringer not six weeks ago.

Having handed down a report last Thursday recommending that the My Health Record opt-out period be suspended or extended for another year – an idea that was promptly rejected by Health Minister Greg Hunt last week – the same faces fronted up to Senate Estimates on Wednesday, with the same result. The only news was that about 240,000 more people had opted out since the last time the question was asked.

Last week, we asked readers whether they thought a local axe the fax campaign, based on a similar one launched in the UK to rid the NHS of its fax machines, would work on this side of the planet. While the majority of respondents to our poll did – 64.5 per cent said yes, versus 35.5 per cent saying no – many of the resulting comments on the blog and on our Facebook Chat site were not so sure. It was not so much about whether a campaign would work, but whether we should even bother.

Many of the commenters, GPs and practice staff in the main, were of the opinion that faxes were entrenched in the healthcare system for very good reason: they are quick, easy, and everyone knows how to use them. Certainly there is a recognition that they were not exactly secure and there are plenty of GPs who detest them, but there are also plenty who say they are still the easiest, most reliable form of communication.

This week Pulse+IT travelled to Canberra for the Australian Association of Practice Management (AAPM) national conference.

With practice managers typically quite influential in the information technology purchasing decisions made by practices, IT has always featured strongly at AAPM conferences, and this year was no exception.

It's just over two years ago now that the RACGP put its foot down on the continuing use of the fax in general practice, issuing a position paper calling for healthcare services and government agencies that communicate patient information with general practice to cut out the paper and move instead to secure electronic means.

The college had high hopes that this could happen in three years, what with alternative means such as secure messaging already a mature technology. But while progress has been made by the industry to achieve interoperability between secure messaging providers, the fax machines are still there, cranking out as much paper as ever.