May 26, 2019

The COO of the Australian Digital Health Agency, Bettina McMahon, talks to the challenges of their secure messaging program and its context as the Agency rolls into its consultation phase for a much broader attempt…

May 26, 2019

Our first podcast, albeit borrowed from talkinghealthtech.com.au, a new Australian health tech podcast by Peter Birch. Grahame explains the origins of FHIR and where it's heading. It's much better listening than reading!

Apr 17, 2019

If you're interested in the stories on this blog come to Wild Health Summit in Sydney using this 15% off promotional code.

May 08, 2019

Australia’s medical software industry, though peppered with some great talent, interesting start ups, and high potential emerging software platform plays, isn’t where you’d normally be looking for our next IT unicorn. But we may just…

May 08, 2019

Telstra Health, once plagued by issues of strategic discontinuity and then by its National Cancer Screening Registry contract with the Federal Government, appears to be emerging into a new and productive phase of continuity and…

May 08, 2019

The Health Informatics Society of Australia (HISA) and the Australasian College of Health Informatics (ACHI) are looking to combine forces.  Why now?

May 08, 2019

Will the appointment of the Medical Software Industry Association (MSIA)CEO to the board of the ADHA bear fruit, or conflict?

May 08, 2019

Augh. Not secure messaging again? Ex Healthlink CEO Tom Bowden has a confession to make, an offer we surely can’t refuse, and some practical tips for how our digital health Agency might crack our ongoing…

May 08, 2019

If you expected something more from a political debate on health policy than volleys of talking points and dollar figures, interspersed by a little light sledging, then you must be new here.

Apr 16, 2019

When do we cross the line where EMRs have an ROI for patient and doctor well being, as well as that of the bottom line of providers

Apr 16, 2019

If the various key stakeholders in secure messaging really walked  the talk on this vital part of healthcare interoperability in Australia, why do we have virtually no progress in the last decade? Something fundamental is…

Apr 16, 2019

Of the many roadblocks involved in unleashing the potential of digital health to transform healthcare, a key one is clinician buy-in. What if more doctors with a creative bent were attracted to a career in…

Apr 16, 2019

Many potential pitfalls in the transformation of a health system are avoidable, provided they are recognised early. Australia needs to proceed incrementally, learning as we go and tolerating error.

Apr 17, 2019

Small, portable ultrasound machines can fast-track diagnosis and are changing the face of emergency medicine, experts say.

Mar 21, 2019

How do we take our current and somewhat vaguely expressed desire for improvement in interoperability in Australia, and turn it into something real? Fast Interoperability Healthcare Resource (FHIR) founder, Grahame Grieve, has some ideas.

Mar 28, 2019

The journey of sorting out securing messaging in Australia is starting to feel a little like groundhog day

Mar 28, 2019

EMRs, the MHR, interoperability, the patient-centric imperative? Digital health has so far promised big and delivered little, especially at the coalface of health, general practice.

Feb 08, 2019

Have the rumours of the death of desktop PMS for GPs and specialists, in the wake of 'the cloud',been greatly exaggerated? The recent troubles at major PMS vendor Medical Director, and among some of the…

Mar 07, 2019

The US governments proposal to force providers and vendors to stop information would mean FHIR gets mandated as the health sharing standard across the US, and force others around the world to look at whether…

Mar 28, 2019

If you haven't caught up with this recent tome on the painful history of EMRs in the US, here's your chance. Reproduced with permission from Kaiser Health News

Mar 07, 2019

Australia’s approach to evolving healthcare web sharing standard Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) looks more strategically isolated following the US government’s recent proposal to mandate it as a platform for all health data sharing standards…

Jan 23, 2019

Apple’s decision to transform from a smartphone company to a healthcare company may change all our lives

Jan 18, 2019

Wild Health Irregular Insights is a new health tech and innovation newsletter focussing on industry led insights, opinions and analysis for Australian health technology professionals

Jan 15, 2019

There's a big difference between being a medical authority and a medical influencer. You can be both but the web and social media are blurring the lines with some likely fallout

Sep 21, 2018

At last year’s senate hearings into the My Health Record (MHR) one of the star witnesses for the defence (the defence of the MHR that is), was the Australian Digital Health Agency’s (ADHA) chief operating…

Jan 18, 2019

Thousands of records containing sensitive information such as HIV-status, past abortions and mental health issues are being requested by the police every year – and doctors and privacy experts are deeply concerned about it.

Jan 26, 2019

GP patient management software giant MedicalDirector has restructured its business significantly, letting go as many  14 staff members, according to sources.

Jan 15, 2019

What if your patients told you a lot of useful stuff before they sat down with you? And when they eventually walked in, you’d already read a summary of who they are, what they think…

Jan 18, 2019

Did the Hello Health RACGP debacle bring the long time RACGP commercial manager Craig Martin undone? If you’re trying to slide something under the media radar, then the twilight zone between Christmas and New Year…

Jan 15, 2019

Just before Xmas , the medical software industry of Australia put a very large and potentially game-changing stake in the ground, which may have a very positive impact on doctors (and patients) around the country…

Nov 18, 2018

An examination of the legislation underpinning Medicare Australia has revealed that the precedent for the police accessing MyHealthRecord without a warrant was set a long time ago. Medicare Australia is legally allowed to share linked…

Nov 15, 2018

If you think you’ve got a bad case of the travel bug, get this: Dr. John Halamka travels 400,000 miles a year. That’s equivalent to fully circling the globe 16 times.

Nov 05, 2018

Healthcare is resisting digital transformation in a manner that people should think about much more carefully. Here’s why

Aug 07, 2018

Why is that the robot is winning in the return on investment stakes against an EMR.

Aug 08, 2018

The cloud and mobile make your next look at upgrading your patient management system a potentially game-changing decision

Aug 07, 2018

Spend enough time in the tech infosphere and you’ll find that there’s no shortage of confidence in the ability of technology to make us better as humans.

Sep 21, 2018

Last week’s MHR senate inquiry spent a lot of time trying to understand what some of the numbers meant. There were so many numbers in such confusing context you got the feeling the ADHA apparatchiks…

Aug 08, 2018

The MHR isn’t everyone’s favourite government project at the moment, but there are some reasons to be cheerful.

Aug 07, 2018

Doctors, particularly GPs,  are at the epicentre of our evolving digital health landscape. But will they be gatekeepers or pawns in an evolving Game of Thrones around control of information and data distribution in the sector?

Aug 07, 2018

In a now-famous experiment in the 1970s, mothers were asked to sit across from their seated infants, but instead of saying "hello", smiling or cooing, the mothers were told to remain expressionless and unresponsive.

Aug 07, 2018

A couple of months ago the announcement that patient cloud management system start-up MediRecords had won the contract to replace the PMS of visiting doctors in Queensland Health who also practise privately, seemed to pass…

Aug 07, 2018

“All humans have three lives: public, private and secret.” – Gabriel Garcia Marques

Aug 07, 2018

The issue of the MyHealthRecord has been troubling me. I lack the eloquence to express my concerns sometimes, so please bear with me.

Aug 07, 2018

Drivers are distracted klutzes and computers could obviously do better. Self-driving cars will make all of us safer on the road.

Aug 07, 2018

Seven years after specialists were granted rebates for remote telehealth consultations, rural GPs hope their time has finally arrived to break the access barrier for patients in the bush.

Aug 07, 2018

Since the period for opting out of My Health Record began on July 16, experts in health, privacy and IT have raised concerns about the security and privacy protections of the system, and the legislation…

Aug 07, 2018

The MHR opt out launched on Monday to a raft of consumer media interviews which reveal a disturbing lack of understanding of some key issues underlying the project.

Aug 06, 2018

The messages embedded in popular mental health apps may be alienating and burdening people experiencing significant psychological difficulties, while medicalising the normal ups and downs of life, researchers say.