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Healthcare IT

Brisbane to be Australia’s e-health “super site”

By Clarice Africa | 31 March 2011

Brisbane will lead the way as Australia’s e-Health “super site” following the announcement earlier this week of nine new e-health projects as part of the country’s national health reform programme.

Nicola Roxon, Minister for Health and Ageing said that Brisbane will have three of the 12 national e-health implementation sites. Brisbane’s South General Practice Division and Mater Misericordiae Health Services have been selected as the two implementation sites of the e-health projects and will also join the existing projects of GP partners and Queensland health.

According to Roxon, e-Health is one of the critical elements of the Gillard Government’s efforts to modernise Australia’s health system through a national health reform.

“The Brisbane e-health super-site is an exciting news for patients, as thousands of Queenslanders will be able to sign up for e-health records over the next twelve months,” Minister Roxon said.

The Brisbane South General Practice Division aims to enroll up to 25,000 patients with disabilities and their carers, war veterans and widows as well as school children onto the Personally Controlled E-Health records (PCEHR). The project will involve two divisions of general practice, public and private hospitals, allied health providers and GPs.

Meanwhile, Mater Misericordiae Health Services Brisbane will implement a PCEHR for maternity patients and newborns in the Brisbane area. It hopes to reach 9000 mothers and involve three GP divisions, and specialist obstetricians.

Minister Roxon added that the key feature of the e-health records is that it will help to provide faster diagnosis, cut down on medication errors and save patients from having to repeat their health history every time they visit a new doctor.

“Our 12 e-health lead implementation sites are aiming to have more than half a million Australians enrolled before the national launch of e-health records next year” she said.

The Government is investing up to AU$55 million (US$55 million) in the nine lead implementation sites as a part of its overall investment of AU $467 million (US$467 million) so that patients will be able to sign up for personally controlled electronic health records from 1 July 2012.

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