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The Royle Review


On 3rd November 2013, newly appointed Commonwealth Health Minister Peter Dutton announced a review of the PCEHR, appointing a 3 member panel headed by Richard Royle Executive Director of the UnitingCare Health group in Queensland and assisted by Dr Steve Hambleton, President Australian Medical Association and Andrew Walduck, Chief Information Officer of Australia Post. An invitation for submissions was sent on 12th November to individuals and organisations who had made prior submissions to PCEHR design or legislation inquiries. The invitees were asked to focus on the following areas:-
  • The gaps between the expectations of users and what has been delivered
  • The level of consultation with end users during the development phase T
  • he level of use of the PCEHR by health care professions in clinical settings
  • Barriers to increasing usage in clinical settings
  • Key clinician and patient usability issues
  • Work that is still required including new functions that improve the value proposition for clinicians and patients
  • Drivers and incentives to increase usage for both industry and health care professionals
  • The applicability and potential integration of comparable private sector products
  • The future role of the private sector in providing solutions
  • The policy settings required to generate private sector solutions
The report of PCEHR Review was published in May 2014. It was posted onto the Department of Health website at:-
http://health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/ehealth-record.
The Royle Report contained 38 recommendations, including changing the name of the PCEHR to My Health Record, moving towards an opt-out model for consumer participation and new governance arrangements. The government tacitly accepted the report’s recommendations which led to the amendments to the PCEHR Act 2012 being passed through parliament in March 2016. These resulted in the establishment of the Australian Digital Health Agency (formally from 1st July 2016 ) and the introduction of two opt-out trials of the My Health Record in Northern Queensland and Western Sydney.