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Tuesday, January 22, 2013

NEHTA Achieves A Really New High In Irony. An Example Of Those Who Can Do And Those Who Can’t Teach.

This links appeared a few days ago.
The direct link is here:
The title of the document is ‘Making Sense of eHealth Collaboration’ A guide to getting started.
The date of the document is October 2013 - .pdf dated 8 Jan. 2013.
The document runs to an amazing 107 pages.
Those who provided wisdom were listed as follows:
Acknowledgement NEHTA would like to thank the following groups and organisations who contributed to the development of this Guide:

  •          Accoras
  •          ACT Health
  •          Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health
  •          Australian Medicare Local Alliance
  •          Calvary Healthcare
  •          Continuity of Care Reference Group
  •          Department of Health and Ageing
  •          Department of Human Services
  •          Hunter Medicare Local
  •          Identification, Authentication, and Access Reference Group
  •          Inner East Melbourne Medicare Local
  •          Mater Health Services Brisbane
  •          Metro North Brisbane Medicare Local
  •          NSW Health
  •          Northern Territory Consortium/NT Health
  •          Queensland Health
  •          Royal Australian College of General Practitioners
  •          St. Vincent’s and Mater Health Sydney

The Disclaimer and Security On The Document Are A Fun Read.
‘Disclaimer NEHTA makes the information and other material (“Information”) in this document available in good faith but without any representation or warranty as to its accuracy or completeness. NEHTA cannot accept any responsibility for the consequences of any use of the Information. As the Information is of a general nature only, it is up to any person using or relying on the Information to ensure that it is accurate, complete and suitable for the circumstances of its use.
This publication may contain links to websites that are run by third parties. Such links are provided for the user’s  convenience and do not constitute an endorsement or a recommendation by NEHTA for itself or on behalf of DOHA, of any third party products or services. These links are provided for convenience and in good faith but may not be or remain current. NEHTA for itself and on behalf of DOHA takes reasonable care in selecting linking websites but accepts no responsibility for the accuracy, currency, reliability and correctness of information contained in linked external websites. Access and use of any linked website is at your own risk.
Security The content of this document is confidential. The information contained herein must only be used for the purpose for which it is supplied and must not be disclosed other than explicitly agreed in writing with NEHTA.’
So it seems how to collaborate in e-Health is a secret!
Moving on.....
The requirement for the document is as follows:
“The requirement for this guide emerged from recognition that there was a need to:
• Bring together the vast array of guides and materials available
• Provide a common starting point for collaborative eHealth implementation projects
• Provide insights and lessons learned specific to collaborative eHealth implementations
As part of the development of this document, a number of representatives from eHealth project teams were consulted including teams from a range of Australian jurisdictions, acute and primary care settings, public and private institutions as well as both metropolitan and remote locations. The learnings and insights they shared were invaluable in developing this document. The authors note their contribution with thanks.” (Page 6.)
Note no sign of the vendor community or the MSIA or the AMA or the RACGP. Just who is intended to collaborate with whom in all this?
The rest of the document is a summary of the basics of well-planned e-Health implementation - none of which seems to have really been followed by DoHA and NEHTA (e.g. actually have proper governance and have a decent well considered business case as well as real stakeholder engagement)
For the last 20-30 pages there is a link of what look like some quite useful resources that are said to be available at the NEHTA web site. Sadly I could not find them which was a pity. A portal with all this material would be a good idea. I wonder is it I just could not find it?
All in all this is a document that might actually have helped DoHA and NEHTA about 3 years ago - especially if they have taken notice of it. Just goes to show how useless developing “shelfware” actually is! That said it seems that some of those mentioned above as contributors do have some real clues on how things should be done!
The irony that this document turns up so late in the day is hard to bear!
David.