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No intention to kill off the PCEHR: Royle

Written by Kate McDonald on .

The head of the federal government's inquiry into the PCEHR, Richard Royle, said the panel had no intention to “kill off” the PCEHR but to ensure the system is a useful and workable clinical tool.

According to the Health Informatics Society of Australia (HISA), Mr Royle told the HITWA 2013 conference in Perth on Friday that the PCEHR was a “genuine opportunity to set up a system that can help all Australians with their healthcare” but that usability and implementation issues needed to be addressed.

The Department of Health has released a statement on behalf of Mr Royle saying that due to the short time frame given by Health Minister Peter Dutton, no public submissions would be taken.

Instead, the panel has decided to initially invite written submissions from the 210 organisations that have previously participated in consultations on the PCEHR.

"In addition the [panel] will have more detailed meetings with a number of key stakeholders to assist the [panel] to gain the views of those people most closely involved with the system," Mr Royle said. "These stakeholders will include IT, clinical, and consumer representatives."

The panel is due to report in mid-December.

Posted in Australian eHealth

Comments   

# Terry Hannan 2013-11-12 11:34
If the model is already flawed in its design and implementation I ask will not its life span be limited and more likely self-destruct? On may perspectives the PCEHR flaunts the established implementation knowledge learnt over many decades. For example INCREMENTAL IMPLEMENTATION is one aspect. The socio-technical impacts of an IMPOSED technology as complex as an e-health (e.g. PCEHR) are often met with failure because of the effects on end users.
STAKEHOLDERS -especially clinicians must be involved at a level where they understand the critical importance of "health information management" (see WHO charter). As Coiera stated in 2003, "As Coiera stated in 2003, ‘The biggest information repository in health care lies in the people working
in it, and the biggest information system is the web of
conversations that link the actions of these individuals’. As physicians (clinicians) are a major component of this repository, the current low and inappropriate involvement of physicians in the e-health revolution are major factors in
many of the costly failures and adverse outcomes of
e-health projects". These important factors and others are not addressed by the PCEHR nor are addressed in the relevant reviewing committees. "To know is to understand"

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