This popped up today and is worth pointing out - if only to welcome back Mark Metherell (late of Farifax) back writing on Health / e-Health.
Do look now, there’s a revolution
Mark Metherell | Dec 18, 2012 9:03AM | EMAIL | PRINT
The e-health revolution has begun with a whimper. As Associate Professor Craig Fry writes below, the lack of public awareness about the introduction of such a far-reaching development is a shame.
The low-key approach also appears to be part of a quietly-quietly tactic by the Federal Government. That stems partly from the delay and snag-prone nature of the national e-health project which has been promised for the past decade, sucked in many hundreds of millions of dollars and not yet shown much return.
The delicate issue of patient privacy and the big brother overtones of national patient record system, which encouraged the Government to make it an opt in rather than opt out scheme, also explains the lack of popular engagement with this revolution.
On the basis of troubled experience in other countries’ e-health developments, a hesitant start may have some virtue.
But the Government’s small-target approach means the transformational benefit of e-health is struggling to reach enough Australians.
Read the rest actual blog here:
An interesting set of comments - I feel it is a trifle optimistic and rather exaggerates what may be obtained as benefits, but wonder what others think.
David.