Issue 15
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eHealth records and the importance of Healthcare Identifiers
The importance of Healthcare Identifiers in the progression of eHealth in Australia cannot be understated. In the last issue we explained what Individual
Healthcare Identifiers (IHI) are and how they will help facilitate the secure transmission of an individual’s health information.
Federal Health Minister, Nicola Roxon, recently stated that “this 16 digit unique number is the first step in building a secure eHealth system…It will be the
key that unlocks the information on your medical record – an eHealth record. Your will be the owner of the key, and you will decide who gets access to your records.”*
The clear message from the Minister is that the implementation of the IHI is the first step in creating an eHealth record.
What shape and form will an eHealth record in Australia take?
The NHHRC Report recommended that an eHealth record be available to all Australians by 2012. This seems an ambitious target so initially, what is more likely to occur,
is that
the heavy users of the Australian health care system - the aged, chronically ill and the young - will be targeted to have the first eHealth records
available in 2012. This in turn means that aged care will have a significant focus for the eHealth record and aged care providers need to ensure they are ready for
this move.
Originally, it was thought, that the information within the eHealth record would be held in one large database however, this is no
longer the view. An individual’s eHealth record will be person-controlled and the linking point will be IHI.
Individuals will have health records from a variety of sources and medical information stored at a number of locations. Peter Fleming, CEO of NEHTA recently stated
that “a new indexing service would be needed to bring disparate files together at the point of care.”
IHI, secure messaging and other technical standards will help make this possible and allow an individual to manage their own
health record. Potentially, a health summary will be created and held centrally for emergency situations which may contain key details such as medication and allergy data.
Development is currently underway on iCare’s Clinical, Care and Medication Management Solution in preparation for the Individual Healthcare Identifier and the
changes that an eHealth record will bring to the Australian aged care market.
Kind regards,
Chris Gray
Managing Director
More information
The following articles provide more information regarding eHealth records:
- Nicola Roxon’s speech (*Health eNation speech (19/8/09))
- A healthy start on e-records
- Governments change direction on health e-records
 Pdf version for print.
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