Australia mulls e-health roll-out

The Northern Territory Department of Health in Australia has unveiled plans to roll out an e-health communications system across the territory in preparation for the implementation of the federal government's e-health agenda, reports ZDNet.

The e-health enterprise integration hub being implemented by InterSystems and DWS Advanced Business Solutions will build on the territory's existing secure messaging delivery system that was aligned with the standards proposed by the National e-Health Transition Authority.

The system will be able to use individual health identifiers, personally controlled e-health records and the National Authentication Service for Health.

The hub, reveals Computer World, will allow connected healthcare applications in the Northern Territory to utilise clinical data from other systems and provide a single point of integration for each application.

According to the Telecom Paper, the northern territory aims to migrate all healthcare providers to the new system within six months, followed by community providers.

There are also plans for a shared e-health repository through InterSystems' HealthShare records product, and link-ups with South Australian and West Australian health services.