For Official Use Only
Board
Agenda Item 5: CEO Report
Meeting date: 11 October 2017Page 3 of 4
For Official Use Only
For Official Use Only
Board
Agenda Item 5: CEO Report
Board
Agenda Item 5
CEO Report
Meeting: 11 October 2017
For Official Use Only
The Australian Digital Health Agency’s first priority is the security and privacy of personal health information – it is a core focus of the new National Digital Health Strategy and it is fundamental to our responsibilities as System Operator of the My Health Record system.
The My Health Records Act 2012 provides a series of important protections for an individual’s privacy – including the right to determine if a clinical provider can see their personal information, and to be provided with real time access alerts by SMS or email, if they choose. Related legislation confirms that registered clinical professionals able to access a patient’s My Health Record must have individual and organisational authentication, access to conformant software, and the consent of the patient when they do so for the first time.
In September 2017, the Agency gave evidence to a Senate inquiry that was investigating newspaper reports that Medicare information was being sold illegally on the so-called Dark Web. The terms of reference of the inquiry asked the Senate to consider whether this apparent breach could impact public confidence in the expansion of the My Health Record system.
This was an important opportunity to confirm the security and privacy protections that the My Health Record system provides citizens. We were able to clarify for Senators that Medicare numbers cannot be used to access the My Health Record system and that there is no direct or technical connection between the HPOS system and the My Health Record system. The Agency’s inquiry submission, which has been circulated to the Board for information and is available on our website, provides a clear explanation of the steps and safeguards in place governing both connecting and accessing a My Health Record for consumers and clinicians. I’d like to thank my colleagues, including Dr Kim Webber, Mr Garth McDonald, MrTonyKitzelmann and their teams for developing the submission, which has been well received by stakeholders.
As the Board will note in the papers on the progress of the My Health Record Expansion Program, much preparatory work has been done to ensure provider readiness ahead of communication with the public – a key focus of which is the development of accessible resources that explain and confirm the security and privacy protections. I am grateful to colleagues in clinical and consumer peak bodies, including the RACGP, AMA, Pharmacy Guild, PSA, Consumer Health Forum and ACRRM, for their collaboration in the design of this readiness activity.
In parallel, the Agency continues to develop its cyber security capability. A small team attended a summit meeting with the National Health Service (NHS) in England last month to discuss improved collaboration on a number of digital health policy imperatives, including between the NHS Cyber Security centre, operated by NHS Digital, and our own Cyber Security Centre. The NHS was particularly impacted by the recent incidence of the Wannacry virus and insights shared are already helping the Agency with its approach to surveillance and prevention.
Engaging with the community
Together with other colleagues, I met with health service leaders in Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales to discuss the developing plans for expansion of the My Health Record system and implementation of the National Digital Health Strategy. I met with the new Commonwealth Health Secretary, Ms Glenys Beauchamp PSM, and attended a meeting of the Digital Transformation Committee, a sub-committee of the Cabinet, with the Minister for Health, the Hon Greg Hunt MP (the Minister), to brief them on progress with the MyHealth Record system. We also met with key partners, including the National Nursing Executive Group, the Commission for Safety and Quality, the MSIA, the Allied Health Professional Association, the Australian Diagnostic Imaging Association, the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists, and Health Direct Australia. I attended meetings of the Inter-Governmental Committee on Healthcare Providers’ Access to Medicare Numbers, chaired by Professor Peter Shergold, the Healthcare Leaders’ Forum, the Australian Genomic Health Alliance and Australian Digital Health Agency joint committee on Digital Health and Genomics, and the expert advisory group to the Innovation and Science Council.
The Agency continues to prioritise clinical collaboration in the co-design of services. Associate Professor Chris Pearce, chair of the Australian College of Health Informatics, is to chair the new My Health Record Product Improvement Group which will provide advice and oversight on its design and development. It meets for the first time this month.
Developing international collaborations in Digital Health
Digital health is a key priority for many countries and international partnership is an important part of our responsibilities under the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability (Establishing the Australian Digital Health Agency) Rule2016. We are working with a number of countries to investigate the feasibility of a Global Digital Health Partnership, as the Board is aware.
Rachel de Sain visited clinicians, industry and government stakeholders in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland to better understand the impact of digital health initiatives such as patient records, secure messaging, paper free prescriptions and driving innovation in mobile health apps in this region and how the lessons that have been learnt can be applied to our work in Australia.
Last month, I attended ‘Australia in India Business Week’ in New Delhi, India, at the invitation of Austrade. The Australian Government recently agreed a Memorandum of Understanding to foster increased collaboration in health – digital health is a key focus. In this context I had meetings with Indian government health officials. I also met with the chief information officers of Singapore and of the NHS in England to discuss co-operation and the development of the proposed Global Digital Health Partnership.
As I meet with foreign government and business representatives, I see clear prospects for Australia to turn our innovation in ‘connected healthcare’ into a major export opportunity in the region and the world. Funding commitments by the Commonwealth, state and territory governments over recent years, supported by a vibrant innovation community and a healthcare community willing to try new ways of providing health services, has created significant interest in Australia’s progress in connecting healthcare services through technology and data. The Agency is working with Austrade and the Minister’s office to foster opportunities for Australian business to showcase what we’re achieving in Australia, and open doors for industry into the Asia Pacific region and the broader global economy.
Improving the culture of the organisation: Implementing Organisational Excellence
The Board will be receiving an update on Organisational Excellence in this meeting. The new performance and appraisal process, which ensures all members of our team have clear objectives, has been instituted. All senior leaders in the Agency attended the first of a series of Leadership Day meetings to agree a series of 90-day action plans to build momentum around positive culture change in the Agency. The Culture Change Working Forum, led by team members, presented me with an update on progress with initiatives they have proposed to support the development of the Agency as an excellent employer.
Workplan delivery
The Agency is delivering the 2017/18 work program in line with schedule and budget. Key achievements in the first quarter include:
· Securing agreements with 24 pathology and diagnostic imaging labs to connect their systems to the My Health Record and start uploading reports to the My Health Record by 30 June 2018, and another 6 contracts under negotiation. This is a major milestone to help us achieve 60% of Australia’s pathology labs and 50% of diagnostic imaging labs uploading to the My Health Record by June 2018, with our goal to increase this to 80% of pathology and 70% of diagnostic imaging labs connected and uploading by the end of 2018. Initial project meetings were held with the pathology and diagnostic imaging organisation teams in September to kick off these projects.
· Supporting public and private healthcare providers to connect their clinical information systems to the My Health Record. In September, NT Health starting sending up structured dispense records to the My Health Record from their public hospital medicines system, so that the medicines dispensed to a patient at the point they are discharged from an NT public hospital will be sent as a structured AMT-coded dispense record to the My Health Record, rather than embedded in a discharge summary.
· Initiating secure messaging across multiple messaging systems and clinical information systems. These projects make use of the technical development and standards work the Agency started in 2016 with the software industry, with the intention that changes to software and systems will be able to workinteroperably in a way that can be scaled nationally.
The updated developer portal went live with a new look interface to support software developers and other industry parties to better engage with the Agency to understand our products and services, find relevant specifications and information to support them to integrate and build enhancements to their products and services that integrate with our infrastructure safely and securely.
The Agency made good progress in all our other strategic programs and continued to operate national infrastructure to high levels of availability and reliability.
I am pleased to confirm that Ms Bettina McMahon has taken on the role of Chief Operating Officer with responsibility to the CEO for delivery of the Agency work plan.
The national expansion of My Health Record
A particular focus has been on the safe, effective transition of call centre and facetoface customer services from the Department of Human Services to the Agency, as required under the Commonwealth Budget Measure. The Board will consider the options in this meeting.
The Australian Health Minister’s Advisory Committee (AHMAC) has asked for regular updates on the progress of the My Health Record Expansion Program and has invited me to join the new Health Services’ Principal Committee, which will be responsible for providing strategic health reform advice.
The Agency hosted the first meeting of the My Health Record Expansion Program Benefits Measurement Steering Group with membership from the departments of Health, Finance, Human Services, the Digital Transformation Agency and the states and territories. It also has a number of independent academic and expert members. The committee, co-chaired by Ms McMahon and Clinical Professor Meredith Makeham, Chief Medical Adviser, is tasked with oversight of the scope and design of the benefits measurement of My Health Record and of the broader National Digital Health Strategy. The Board will receive an update in this meeting.
Professor Makeham recently visited Cairns in North Queensland – one of the opt out trial sites – to discuss benefits measurement with clinical and consumer leaders including Dr Liz Jones, an obstetrician. ‘It's been the game changer for me in this region because everyone is in it,’ Dr Jones told her. ‘When a patient calls the hospital, the midwife looks at their most recent updated pregnancy information on the My Health Record and we can plan what health services they require when they are coming in to have their baby. If it’s a potential emergency, we can plan theatre and staffing. With the paper pregnancy hand-held record, we would not see that information until the patient walks in the door.’
My Health Record is now the main tool that Dr Jones uses for managing pregnancy records between her rooms, the hospital and the patient’s GP; she has not used paper-based pregnancy records for over a year.
Implementation of the National Digital Health Strategy
The first meeting of the jurisdictions to confirm the four year Intergovernmental Agreement to fund the Agency’s activity to implement the National Digital Health Strategy 2018-22 took place in September.
CLEARED BY: / Name / Tim KelseyPosition / Chief Executive Officer
Meeting date: 11 October 2017Page 3 of 4
For Official Use Only