Last year in Australia there was an agreement amongst a number of parties, led by the Australian Department of Health, for the results of diagnostic tests to be sent to the national electronic health record system for accessing by both … Continue reading →

On its  shiny new website  under About NEHTA , NEHTA now starts its strategy statement with: “With the foundations built, the infrastructure in place…“. Nothing can be further from the truth. No amount of shouting from the rooftops, even by NEHTA’s Chairman, can change … Continue reading →

It is now over eighteen months since I publicly aired my grave concerns regarding a  critical safety issue for Australia’s Personally Controlled Electronic Health Records (PCEHR) system, which centred around the lack of scrutiny of the quality of data in … Continue reading →

Fortunately, I’m now almost old enough to have forgotten the christmas pudding ritual – helping my father cut up the suet, spread out on sheets  of newspaper on the dining room table. In those days, I was then already tall … Continue reading →

Background With the burgeoning prevalence of diabetes mellitus in Australia and many other countries, there has been an accompanying increase in blood tests for its diagnosis and treatment. One of the commonest tests used is for determining the average amount … Continue reading →

I think it is important to lay out some principles for the capture, storage, display and communication of information derived from diagnostic tests – commonly labelled in Australia as pathology and radiology. In particular, I’m concerned about maximising the reuse … Continue reading →

A common theme in e-health, particularly in Australia, is the often conflicting perspective of different participants in the healthcare landscape. I’d like to highlight a couple of these in the diagnostic testing arena. The first is a ‘business‘ issue – … Continue reading →

Why so complex? This is the first of several blogs on the subject of pathology data. Others will cover principles and pragmatic tradeoffs. There are many independent factors associated with diagnostic tests, that when combined, produce an unparalleled level of … Continue reading →