Australia to build national health records infrastructure

Health Minister, Nicola Roxon has commissioned a consortium, led by Accenture, to build Australia’s Personally Controlled Electronic Health Records (PCEHR) system. Accenture, with a successful track record in the delivery of Singapore’s national electronic health record earlier this year, was chosen to be the National Infrastructure Partner for the development of the PCEHR system, responsible for designing and building the physical system, for registration and viewing of e-health records.

“Health professionals will use the system to view their patients’ e-health record, which over time will include information such as health summaries and discharge summaries.

Health professionals will also be able to update this record with the most critical and up to date medical information to deliver safe and efficient healthcare,” Roxon said in an official statement. The consortium, which includes Orion Health and Oracle will play the following roles in the system development:

developing internet portals for public viewing and health care providers, providing for an audit trail that will show when and by whom a person’s record was accessed, and providing a reporting capability for critical information about the PCEHR system itself, including performance and usage. According to Roxon, every Australian who wants one will have access to a personal e-health record by July 2012.

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