My Health Record to be rebuilt

My Health Record is set to be rebuilt and modernised, and primary care IT infrastructure uplifted, via a major government investment into digital healthcare.

The upgrades were announced late last week to coincide with the release of a report [pdf] by the Strengthening Medicare Taskforce.

Health minister Mark Butler said this year’s budget would contain funding not only to sustain the My Health Record system beyond June 30, but to significantly upgrade it.

“If genuinely it is going to be the centrepiece of a connected digital health system, we have to improve its functionality,” he said,

“Currently, it's a pretty outdated, clunky, pdf format system that needs to be able to underpin a real-time, fully-integrated digital health system. 

“So we recognise that the Commonwealth has the first responsibility to move here and to upgrade the nature of the My Health Record.”

My Health Record started life as the personally controlled electronic health record (PCEHR) in mid-2012.

The taskforce recommended in its report that the system be “modernised”, which Butler backed.

He noted that the fix would not be quick: “[It’s] going to take a significant period of time to rebuild the My Health Record, make it into a genuinely 2020 system that has the ability to underpin real-time integration and interface between patients and healthcare providers.”

In addition to reinvigorating My Health Record, the government intends to push more of the health sector - beyond general practitioners and pharmacies - to use it.

He said only 11 percent of specialists use it, and only one in five diagnostic image results is uploaded to the system.

“Time and time again, a patient goes to their doctor, talks about their conditions, and their tests are not available for the GP to look at and use as part of their diagnosis and treatment decisions,” Butler said.

“We've got to do better there.”

In addition, budget funding also needs to be found to create better connectivity and integration between clinical information systems.

“We have almost countless different clinical information systems operating at state level, Commonwealth level, and in different parts of the private sector, and they generally don't talk to themselves at all or, if they do, they don't talk to themselves very well,” Butler said.

The taskforce recommended connecting health data “across all parts of the health system, underpinned by robust national governance and legislative frameworks, regulation of clinical software and improved technology.”

It also sought an “uplift in primary care IT infrastructure”.

The report laid out a future vision “of a primary care system where… data and digital technology are better used to inform value-based care, safely share critical patient information to support better diagnosis and healthcare management, empower people to participate in their own health care, and drive insights for planning, resourcing, and continuous quality improvement.”