The Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) has launched a survey for all healthcare providers, vendors, and the public, with a view to informing parts of a new national digital health strategy which it hopes to have ready by mid 2022.
Questions are specific for one of six categories of respondents: individual healthcare provider, healthcare provider organisation, clinical bodies and consumer organisations, industry and technology organisations, general public and industry partners (e.g., government based).
The new strategy will succeed the existing strategy developed in 2017 for the period 2018 to 2022 which you can read HERE, and which includes seven key strategic pillars, presumably some of which will still be in play in some way in the new strategy:
1. Health information that is available whenever and wherever it is needed
2. Health information that can be exchanged securely
3. High-quality data with a commonly understood meaning that can be used with confidence
4. Better availability and access to prescriptions and medicines information
5. Digitally-enabled models of care that improve accessibility, quality, safety and efficiency
6. A workforce confidently using digital health technologies to deliver health and care
7. A thriving digital health industry delivering world-class innovation
In a press release announcing the survey, Australian Digital Health Agency CEO Amanda Cattermole said that Australians are now experiencing what it means to have a better-connected healthcare system.
”23 million Australians with a My Health Record now have immediate access to their vaccination status and COVID-19 test results, plus their prescriptions, information on allergies and pathology and diagnostic test results,” Ms Cattermole said.
“This means Australians have seen the benefits of digital health and in this nationwide online survey, they can tell us what the 2022-27 National Digital Health Strategy should include.”
“It’s important for as many people as possible to have their say.”
“The next National Digital Health Strategy will lay the foundations for next generation healthcare and there are no limits to what we can achieve.”
“Digital technology’s ability to record and share accurate and potentially life-saving information is the key to making healthcare delivery in Australia safer and more efficient.”
“It’s a journey that began in 2017 with the first National Digital Health Strategy and will continue with the 2022-27 National Digital Health Strategy. We will build on the success and achievements of the current model – which delivered the expansion of My Health Record, telehealth, electronic prescribing, workforce education and an extensive community engagement program to empower consumers to manage their health information,” she said.
