IBM gets Oz e-health deal

The National e-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA) in Australia has forked out $23.6 million on a service for healthcare organisations to exchange e-health information.

According to Government News IBM will design and build NEHTA's National Authentication Service for Health (Nash) project.

Australian IT quotes health minister Nicola Roxon as saying: “Nash would improve the security of electronic health communications and underpin personally-controlled e-health records (PCEHR).

“It is critically important for our doctors and nurses to know communications are being sent and received by the right people when they use e-health systems," she notes.

"This system will put in place strong access control mechanisms for the PCEHR so that patients will be able to grant access to their information and track which providers have looked at their records."

The health department says the contract will allow IBM to manage the Nash project delivery, offering its hardware, software and services capabilities. This includes assistance, security and access management technologies, as well as IT infrastructure management, states IT Wire.