Despite recent mention of  collaboration in e-health agendas, we still seem to be seeing old silos perpetuate or even new silos being erected in Australia. Why is this so? I think it is because we often don’t recognise a silo until we bump into it personally. Even the rush to embrace e-health is  itself, in […]

Just a whisker over 10 years ago, closely following the release of the National Electronic Health Records Task Force’s  landmark report, but before “e-health” or “electronic health records” became household words,  a National Health Online Summit was held in Adelaide. It seems like Australia has taken a few steps forward, but possibly even more  backwards, […]

Whilst we linger in the doldrums of the post-election impasse, there have been some interesting media articles regarding e-health in Australia, furnished particularly during the Health Informatics Society of Australia’s annual conference. Although I didn’t attend this year, two particularly disturbing reports have drawn my attention – one by England’s Professor Trisha Greenhalgh, worried (according […]

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 complexity in data capture, representation and exchange,  when compared with most other subdomains of health. […]

Healthbase Australia has updated the online Australian Medicines Terminology browser to the 2.14 version released today. AMT Browser (Healthbase Australia).  All deprecated versions are still available for browsing/searching. Pity the download process cannot be automated. Perhaps if this were the 1980s NEHTA could publish the updates via an FTP service. I guess e-health has a […]

There is a wide spectrum of opinion in Australia regarding how e-health should be progressed. At one end of this spectrum we have the proponents of national-scale, top-down architected and developed infrastructure, such as exemplified by HealthConnect and by the NEHTA work program. At the other end, we have those who believe that such national-scale, […]

Healthbase has provided an online AMT browser to help people explore the Australian Medicines Terminology, which is a key component of Australia’a national e-health infrastructure. NEHTA’s own distribution of the AMT is difficult to download and explore for casual users. NEHTA has made no attempt to give curious or non-technical people an easy way to […]

NEHTA has published a blueprint for its forthcoming program of work. I’m not sure why they have labelled this  a “blueprint”, rather than a plan. Possibly they have borrowed from Infoway, who have been publishing blueprints for many years, starting back in 2003. Other blogs have already commented on the blueprint, at least here and […]

HealthBase Australia is about information and knowledge to help improve health and healthcare. It is primarily focused on the use of  health informatics and information standards. This blog provides a facility for the creator of HealthBase Australia, Eric Browne, to voice his opinions and receive feedback. I hope you find it useful! The blog is […]