RACGP launches minimum functionality project with software vendors
The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) has officially launched a new project aiming to work more closely with medical software vendors to determine minimum clinical software functionality requirements for general practice software.
First announced at the RACGP's eHealth forum in Melbourne last year, the project has the backing of the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) and promises a collaboration to ensure clinical software is "usable, secure, interoperable and fit for purpose".
Posted in Australian eHealth
Comments
What is the value-add here? Is it good enough to be telling vendors and GPs don't aim too high, lower your sights, and just develop a system which is the basic lowest common denominator. Now the College might be happy with that approach and so too might the ADHA. But in the overall scheme of things they are not of any great consequence in the real world.
The GPs, their practice managers and the vendors who service their IT needs are the important parties to consider. Will they accept just the basic lowest common denominator? and if not, why not? Do I detect in this rather rudimentary approach a failure to understand what problem they are trying to solve? Is this RACGP-ADHA project to define "minimum clinical software functionality requirements" a 'solution' looking for a 'problem'? Is this the right place to start? What vendors will divert their focus, energy and resources away from their core business activities to participating in a minimalist approach?
Dr Ian Colclough