MAY/JUNE2017

eHealth strategy received a big boost in the 2017/18 State Budget, with a record $536 million investment for a suite of transformative digital health initiatives over the next eight years.

Declaring eHealth “arguably the most important revolution in modern healthcare”, Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said these funds would deliver health information and services more effectively and efficiently.

“The investment will provide value and safety to patients and practitioners, decrease costs by freeing up clinician time and improve the quality and portability of healthcare services,” he said.

NSW Minister for Health and Medical Research, Brad Hazzard, announced the record level of funding for digital health in a segment broadcast on TEN Eyewitness News, citing electronic medication management (eMeds) as an example of digital systems that are enhancing the safety and quality of patient care across the state.

Also interviewed singing the praises of eMeds was Dr Andrew Hugman, who declared himself a “true believer” in the power of eMeds which is now live at 13 facilities with plans to roll out to a total of 178 facilities thanks to the additional investment announced in the Budget.

Driving the digital health revolution

ContentsChief Executive’s message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Expo registrations now open. . . . . . . . . . . 2

The Budget’s big-ticket items . . . . . . . . . . 3

eRIC extends its reach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

NSW Health stays safe

from cyber attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Ensuring eMR availability

in a disaster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Corporate IT moving

to Chatswood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

HIC 2017 to focus on

good eMR design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

eMR champions explore and

debate hot topics in new forum . . . . . . . 7

A slice of the eHealth Strategy . . . . . . . . . 8

Ensuring safe transitions of care . . . . . . . 9

The new Office of the CCIO. . . . . . . . . . . 10

National network scopes out

child health projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Hands-on help for rural LHDs . . . . . . . . . 11

Skype for Business

spreading across NSW Health. . . . . . . . . 12

Emergency physician Dr Andrew Hugman talks eMeds to TEN Eyewitness News

Check out our website atwww.ehealth.nsw.gov.au

If you’ve got a story or feedback for eHealth News, please contact Karen Fontaine on 8644 2246 or email karen.fontaine@health.nsw.gov.au

eHealthnews

eHealth News May/June 2017

2

Online registrations now openRegister to attend Expo – don’t miss out!We have already reached 1000+ registrations. All delegates are required to register online prior to the event – we will reach capacity and onsite registration will not be possible. Registration for non-NSW Health employees is $324.50 (including GST).

Register now at hsnsw-ehnswexpo.health.nsw.gov.au/registration

Featuring guest speakers Anh Do and Graeme Innes AM,

who will offer their unique takes on the Expo’s

‘Power of Connection’ theme, Expo 2017 is destined

to be a highlight on the NSW Health events calendar.

Register now to avoid disappointment!

Chief Executive’s messageA very big vote of confidence in the work we do here at eHealth NSW arrived with the NSW Government devoting more than half a billion dollars in the 2017/18 Budget towards funding our initiatives.

It’s the ultimate stamp of approval for our 10-year eHealth Strategy for NSW Health, which was supported by three business cases for funding to enable completion of Horizon 1 of the Strategy: Building Consistent Foundations.

Last year’s Budget included a portion of funding for each of the three business cases, and this 2017/18 Budget announcement includes the remainder of the funding up to the full amount recommended in the business cases.

This is fantastic news for eHealth NSW and for the entire NSW public health system as it will enable us to progress

and accelerate implementation of the

eHealth Strategy for NSW Health.

Importantly, it shows that the

Government not only understands

and supports the value proposition

that the eHealth Strategy for NSW Health offers, but has

also placed a great deal of

confidence in our ability to deliver

it across Australia’s largest public

health system.

In delivering the announcement, the

Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said these

funds will deliver health information

and services more effectively and

efficiently” and he also declared

eHealth “arguably the most important

revolution in modern healthcare”. I

couldn’t agree more.

I’m proud that the quality of our plans

and business cases, backed by the

successful delivery in partnership with

our Health Agency colleagues, has

led to a fantastic funding outcome.

Our responsibility now is to transform

it into reality and seize this unique

opportunity to create a digitally

enabled and integrated health system

in NSW.

Let’s keep up the important work we

are doing to make healthcare smarter

and safer for the people of this state

and the clinicians who care for them.

Dr Zoran Bolevich

Chief Executive

Chief Information Officer

eHealth NSW

eHealth News May/June 2017

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$286 million for the Whole of System

Digital Platform• Expansion of State Wide Infrastructure Services

• Expansion of Health Wide Area Network

• Completion of Data Centre Reform Program

• Completion of Clinical Applications Reliability Improvement Program

• A refresh of existing hardware including a progressive move to a ‘as a service’ model.

The Budget’s big-ticket itemsThe NSW Government’s investment in ICT infrastructure and systems will fund a range of initiatives, including…

“Continuing to deliver the growth and accessibility of information to NSW clinicians via HealtheNet with the inclusion of pathology results is exciting, especially as this information is also delivered to patients via My Health Record.

Our journey towards clinical information sharing and patient participation can only get stronger.”

—Julie Cashin, Program Director, HealtheNet and Integrated Care

$236 million for Digital Patient Records

• Completion of the second phase of electronic medical records (eMR2)

• An expanded rollout of eMeds to another 120 facilities across NSW on top of the 58 currently in scope

• Integrating two Cancer eMR solutions to the core eMRs

• Security enhancements to the eMRs

• Providing funding to support migration of the computer-aided dispatch solution for NSW Ambulance to the Government Data Centre

• Funding for enhancements to the Ambulance eMR

• Integration of the NSW Ambulance eMR system with the emergency department eMR solutions

• Completion of the wireless capability rollout to rural Local Health Districts.

$14 million for the

HealtheNet Pathology Results Repository

giving clinicians easier access to public hospital pathology results no matter where tests

were performed

“ Seen as a whole, these measures will result in more complete and readily accessible digital health records for patients. It’s all about creating a seamless view of a patient’s medical history to support quality care. It’s also about making clinical workflows and transitions of care safer and more efficient.”

—Mark Cope, Director, Program Delivery, eHealth NSW

“ The $26M allocated to Data Centre Reform will ensure that ALL data centre and computer facilities operated by NSW Health are relocated to the two highly resilient and secure GovDCs by the end of 2019.”

—Mark Rivers, Program Manager,

Data Centre Reform

“Delivering the capabilities of the electronic medical record (eMR)

consistently across NSW Health and unlocking its benefits for clinical care will mean

better outcomes for patients. This new funding gives us the capacity

to do just that. Importantly, it means eMeds will make medication management demonstrably

safer in almost 180 hospitals across NSW – significantly more than originally planned.”

—Jonathan Di Michiel, Program Director, eMR Connect

eHealth News May/June 2017

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eHealth NSW’s electronic Record for Intensive Care (eRIC) went live at a further two facilities in a fortnight during June. The first deployment marked eRIC’s metropolitan debut and the second made Mid North Coast Local Health District the first LHD to use eRIC in all of its hospitals.

On 13 June, St George Hospital introduced eRIC to its Intensive Care Unit (ICU). On completion of its new Acute Services Building, there will be 52 beds with eRIC, making St George the largest deployment site for 2017.

It was followed by the 19 June launch of eRIC at Coffs Harbour Health Campus, which joins pilot site Port Macquarie Base Hospital (PMBH).

“This is a significant milestone,” said Rob Paino, eRIC Program Director. “Over the past 12 months, the eRIC Program team has exceeded its initial target, deploying an additional rural facility, and completed the first LHD to use eRIC in all facilities.”

Mid North Coast LHD Chief Executive and Executive Sponsor of eRIC, Stewart Dowrick, said eRIC is improving the way clinicians care for patients.

“Before the introduction of eRIC, PMBH ICU was a paper-based unit,” said Mr Dowrick. “We now have electronic documentation, medication prescribing, and more efficient administration. This has led to enhanced clinical care to patients by improving the quality of support available to ICU clinicians and streamlining the decisions involved with the management of critically ill patients.”

PMBH’s ICU and the eRIC Program team are proving to be a winning combination, with the teams recently awarded the 2017 Mid North Coast LHD Innovation Award in the Digital Technologies Transforming Health category.

The clinical enhancements that eRIC provides are a testament to the collaborative approach delivered to design the system, which was built by clinicians for clinicians.

Ahead of state-wide implementation across 43 ICUs, eRIC is scheduled to go live at five ICUs by the end of 2017, including The Tweed Hospital, Prince of Wales Hospital, Lismore Base Hospital, Grafton Base Hospital and Blacktown Hospital.

eRIC extends its reach

Clinicians love eRIC

As Acting Nurse Unit Manager in the ICU of Coffs Harbour Health Campus, Nicole Pymont shares how eRIC provides better patient care: “Through the continuous data from devices being uploaded within one system, we can see the trends of patient information which allow clinicians to improve the quality of patient care.

“In the long term, we also hope to see improvements in documentation, medication safety, communication and handover of care. And because less time will be spent on unnecessary administrative tasks, there will be more time to care for patients.”

Nicholas Hardaker uses eRIC at Coffs Harbour Health Campus

The eRIC go-live at St George Hospital

WHAT HAPPENED?The WannaCry ransomware cryptoworm infected computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system by encrypting data and demanding ransom payments of up to $600 to restore access. From 12 May, it infected 230,000 computers in 150 countries, the most affected of which were the UK, Taiwan, Ukraine, India and Russia.

HOW DID WE DEAL WITH IT?The focus of eHealth NSW’s response was to identify vulnerable systems and infrastructure to ensure they were patched, as well as patching and monitoring the NSW Health networks and email gateways. The objective was to immediately identify potential problems, and disallow or disconnect any infected systems, preventing propagation and any large-scale outbreak.

HOW CAN WE STAY SAFE?If you haven’t already, complete eHealth NSW’s Cyber S.A.F.E user awareness training, which helps identify and avoid a phishing attack before it’s too late. Get started by logging into your My Health Learning account at www.hetionline.health.nsw.gov.au – the training appears under the “My Online Learning” section on your home page.

eHealth News May/June 2017

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It was all hands on deck when eHealth NSW’s Information Services teams undertook a series of urgent mitigation activities in response to the WannaCry ransomware attack on 150 countries in mid-May.

The biggest ransomware outbreak

in history affected the UK’s National

Health Service, triggering a complex

incident response process to

prevent and manage any potential

ransomware outbreaks within health

organisations across Australia.

eHealth NSW’s incident response

team was led by Chief Information

Security Officer Kavesh Moodley

and his team, in close collaboration

with the Technical Services and

Incident Management divisions.

Thanks to their stellar efforts around

the clock for the best part of a week

following the attack, NSW Health

has remained safe and unaffected

to date.

“This has led to zero downtime

to the delivery of critical services

for our staff and customers,” said

Kieron McGarry, Acting Director of

Information Services.

“It was a proud moment for

NSW Health to see such a well-

orchestrated and rapid response

from all levels of staff, including

executives, managers, technical

teams and end users. However, this

is an ongoing threat and we need to

remain vigilant.”

As this was a state-wide security

threat, teams from eHealth NSW

worked closely with Local Health

District Chief Information Officers

and IT directorates including

their technical teams to ensure a

coordinated system-wide approach

to managing the threat.

Other teams such as Corporate

Communications, the Australian

Digital Health Agency, the

NSW Government Chief Information

Security Office as well as other

state government agencies were

also actively engaged, ensuring

information was disseminated to the

appropriate stakeholders.

The efforts drew praise from many

LHDs, with Jon Straker, Acting

IT Director of South Eastern Sydney

LHD’s Information Management

Services Directorate, noting: “At our

risk committee meeting, attended

by Chief Executive Gerry Marr,

we discussed the response to the

WannaCry virus outbreak and the

actions taken.

“The committee and the executive

were very complimentary of

the responses and actions and I

pointed out that we leveraged the

eHealth NSW services and expertise

to help protect the LHD. Many

thanks for your ongoing support

and assistance.”

NSW Health stays safe from cyber attack

Corporate IT moving to ChatswoodCorporate IT is relocating to Chatswood on 18 September and more than 200 of its staff will soon be based across Levels 17, 18 and 19 of Zenith Tower B.

While space issues at the Gladesville site are a key driver for the move, it means Corporate IT will be co-located with the majority of the eHealth NSW workforce which will foster greater collaboration and optimise productivity and innovation.

It also gives Corporate IT the perfect opportunity to adopt New Ways of Working (NWoW).

NWoW provides employees with spaces that are designed to be conducive to good work and that are flexible and sustainable. Where an employee sits will depend on what workspace they prefer, who they need to collaborate with or whether they need a quite space for concentrated work or a more informal space to interact with colleagues.

eHealth News May/June 2017

6

eHealth NSW has signed a major contract with Cerner Corporation to ensure the continued reliability and availability of NSW Health’s electronic medical records (eMRs) even in the event of a major disaster.

The ink is now dry on the contract

which saw eHealth NSW teams and

Chief Information Officers work

together to ensure the best and most

cost-effective outcome for Local

Health Districts and Specialty Health

Networks, 15 of which use Cerner eMRs across their healthcare facilities.

As part of the Clinical Applications Reliability Improvement (CARI) Program, eMR infrastructure hosted within NSW Government Data Centres (GovDCs) will be mirrored across both so that access to eMRs can be restored within hours of a major disaster befalling the other site.

And, during twice-yearly scheduled downtimes, clinicians will have full read-only access to the eMRs.

“It’s a great outcome for our clinicians, and one they’ve been asking for,”

said David Cernjul of eHealth NSW’s eMR Connect Program.“This is all about making the eMR – which is an incredibly valuable tool when it comes to patient care – even more reliable and available for the clinicians who use it on the frontline of healthcare.”

The new disaster recovery service will be progressively implemented from the last quarter of 2017 onwards.

Every day in NSW Health facilities, more than 43,000 clinicians use the eMR to open 700,000 charts, order 245,000 tests and book 36,000 appointments electronically. These numbers are growing every week.

Ensuring eMR availability in a disaster

HIC 2017 to focus on good eMR design

eHealth NSW is lending its expertise to a full-day UX (user experience) design workshop to be held in Brisbane on Sunday 6 August as a prelude to HIC 2017, Australia’s premier health informatics conference.

In partnership with the HISA UX Community of Practice, eHealth NSW

is sponsoring the workshop which will focus on good design in

electronic health records that achieves usable and safe systems.

Three experts in the field will present, including eHealth NSW’s

Dr Anne Miller on the reasons for the importance of good design

in EHRs; the Digital Transformation Agency’s Amanda Brierley on

how we recognise good design; and University of Melbourne’s

Professor Frank Vetere on how we evaluate it.

During breakout masterclasses, panellists will demonstrate

processes for evaluating good EHR design and work with

participants as they try out new tools.

SPEAKERS INCLUDE

Dr Richard Ashby AMCEO

E-Health Queensland

Alex BurkeGroup CEOTigerspike

Matiu BushDesign Integration Lead

RSL Care and RDNS

Dr Ken CarsonSenior Medical Director

Flatiron (USA)

Lucy FalcocchioHealth System Development

Manager Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Service

Alana HendersonManaging Director

Alana Henderson Pty Limited

Matthew HoltCo-Chairman

Health 2.0 (USA)

Tony JonesHost of Q&A

ABC TV

Dr Kanav KaholGeneral Secretary

Public Health Technologies Trust (India)

Dr Kudzai KanhutuInfectious Diseases Physician

Refugee Health FellowRoyal Melbourne Hospital

Tim KelseyCEO

Australian Digital Health Agency

Prof Vishaal KishoreInnovation &Public Policy

RMIT University

Bernard Salt AMBusiness Demographics

Australia

Dr Kaveh T. SafaviSenior Managing Director

Health IndustryAccenture Health (USA)

Dr Martin SeneviratneResearch Fellow in

Biomedical InformaticsStanford University

Prof Johanna Westbrook

Director, Centre for Health Systems and Safety Research, Australian Institute of Health

Innovation

Dr Justin WongCo-FounderOncallogist

www.hisa.org.au/hic

#HIC17@hisa_hic

Come to HIC and learn how you can improve your clinical practice and patient outcomes 3 REASONS TO ATTEND

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OVER 150 PRESENTATIONS 1000 DELEGATES 50+ EXHIBITORS

Bringing together health’s most forward

thinking innovators6 - 9 AUGUST 2017 BRISBANE

Engaging with clinicians across NSW

The eMR Connect Clinical Leaders’ Network

supplements the regular Clinical Engagement

Forums hosted by eHealth NSW Chief Clinical

Information Officer Dr John Lambert. The

Clinical Engagement Forums discuss all digital

solutions used by NSW Health clinicians, and are

held at various locations around NSW and live

video web-streamed across the state.

eHealth News May/June 2017

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The inaugural eMR Connect Clinical Leaders’ Network took place in May, as a forum for clinical experts and implementation leads for electronic medical record (eMR) projects and optimisation across NSW Local Health Districts (LHDs).

In developing the eMR for NSW, the eMR Connect Program is striving to deliver high-quality, scalable and safe systems underpinned by rigorous clinical governance and meaningful engagement with clinicians and LHD teams.

The eMR Connect Clinical Leaders’ Network is shaping up as a valuable source of collective expertise for the Program, as well as an opportunity for key stakeholders to learn from others grappling with similar issues to become more informed champions for their local eMR projects.

eMR Connect Program Director Jonathan Di Michiel said that, in addition to being a collaborative

forum, the eMR Connect Clinical Leaders’ Network will be important for the success of the Program.

“As the number of NSW Health hospitals using the eMR grows, and especially as we accelerate the roll-out of electronic medication management (eMeds), it’s vital that we understand and learn from the range of clinical perspectives available to us,” Jonathan said.

“Only then can these be applied to shape smarter, safer and better health solutions in the future.”

Each session will feature a number of ‘hot topics’ around eMR implementations for exploration and debate.

At the first Clinical Leaders Network event, discussion focused on the various ‘go-live’ models adopted to date in rolling out the eMR and related functionality such as eMeds.

“The discussion confirmed that

there’s no one ‘right’ way: it’s about

understanding why a particular

approach is being taken, managing

the risks and making it work in your

location,” said Cheryl McCullagh,

Director of Clinical Integration for

Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network,

who chaired the session.

The next event will take place in

August – contact lisa.shaheen@

health.nsw.gov.au

for more information.

eMR champions explore and debate hot topics in new forum

More than 50 representatives of Local Health Districts and eHealth NSW attended the recent eMR Connect Clinical Leaders Network

eHealth News May/June 2017

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In every edition, we drill down into a section of the eHealth Strategy for NSW Health: 2016-2026. This time we look at one of the Strategy’s 11 Underpinning Principles – Standards Based Environment – and speak with Andrew Perkins, Director of eHealth NSW’s Investment, Strategy and Architecture directorate.

Andrew Perkins, Director, Investment, Strategy & Architecture

How and why is eHealth NSW putting minimum standards in place for key tasks such as consistent identification of patients and uniform sharing of information?

We are continuing to develop information standards to promote consistent ICT solution capabilities and facilitate information sharing across ICT systems. A standards-based environment helps improve the overall quality of technology solutions while also reducing integration costs and complexity.

eHealth NSW has implemented state-wide standards and solutions for managing patient identity based on a single identity across NSW Health ICT systems. The ability to consistently identify patients is based on state and national health identifier standards that provide a common secure approach to sharing of digital patient health information across care providers and with patients via the national My Health Record.

Can you provide an example of how NSW Health has successfully streamlined interoperability?

Adopting information standards provides NSW Health with a common understanding of our data collections and consistent methods for exchanging it between ICT applications. The enterprise patient repository, enterprise image repository and HealtheNet clinical repository are examples of statewide solutions that have adopted common standards that facilitate interoperability of patient information across NSW Health organisations and with private health providers via the national My Health Record.

Why is the implementation of common architecture and standards, particularly for infrastructure and data services, so important across NSW Health?

Adoption of common architecture standards helps to promote reusable and scalable solutions while providing users with a more consistent experience interacting with ICT systems. Reusable services represent opportunities to reduce IT development times and costs, and leverage investments in current platform services.

It is important to deliver a robust minimum standard of infrastructure

and network capacity so that electronic systems are reliable and secure across the state. Common data architecture and standards enable all users across NSW Health to quickly and easily comprehend information, improve trust and integrity of data, and drive consistency in data use and decision support analytics focussed on achieving improved health outcomes.

Describe the ‘brave new world’ in which minimum standards are the rule and not the exception…

Alignment of ICT systems to minimum standards is a core focus of architecture evaluations as part of eHealth investment planning, solution design and implementation assurance activities for state-wide solutions.

Minimum standards as the ‘rule’ provides a basis to foster ICT solutions that are more easily integrated and scalable across our ICT ecosystem to share relevant information across core systems, promote quality and safety and workflow continuity across care providers.

A slice of the eHealth Strategy

Standards Based Environment Adopting health information standards to facilitate and streamline the interoperability of ICT systems, reducing integration costs while improving the overall quality of delivered components.

eHealth News May/June 2017

9

Ensuring safe transitions of care

To support a continued focus on safety in health IT, a working group has examined the clinical requirements for safely transferring information between a hospital’s wards and its intensive care unit (ICU).

The initial scope of the Transitions of Care (ToC) working group focused on the handover of medication information. Last year, the group conducted detailed analysis of the issues in the various settings, including paper records and a mix of technology systems.

It became clear that to address the safety requirements, factors including people, process and technology all had a contribution to improving practices. The first phase of this work was to understand the requirements of clinicians including nursing, pharmacy, wards and ICUs.

To gather the requirements and examine best practices to support safe handover, more than 50 people attended a 6

June session, comprising clinicians and eMR Connect and electronic Record for Intensive Care (eRIC) analysts, as well as architecture and industry partners.

eHealth NSW’s Clinical Adviser, Dr Peter Kennedy, facilitated the session, with Regiane Schippers and Dr Amith Shetty leading the interactive sessions.

“This was a successful engagement and discussion with clinicians about their needs, providing everyone with an opportunity to share their experience and contribute their perspective to the priority areas,” Dr Kennedy said.

“The involvement of clinicians, technical staff and multiple industry partners in reaching consensus on the key clinical processes has set a benchmark for future projects.”

The next phase entails developing architectural requirements, which will be followed proposals from our industry partners on possible solutions. Updates will be provided in the coming months.

A mix of clinicians and eMR Connect and eRIC analysts, as well as Enterprise Architecture and industry partners, attended the 6 June workshop

This was a successful

engagement and discussion with clinicians

about their needs

eHealth News May/June 2017

10

The Office of the Chief Clinical Information Officer (OCCIO) has expanded its scope and capacity to become eHealth NSW’s principal hub for clinical engagement, innovation, design support and strategic advice.

The structure of the OCCIO is

being reshaped to support the

delivery of these services, with a

number of new team members

recently joining the team.

Three Team Leads have been

appointed to head the Strategy

and Design, Innovation, and

Operations teams, bringing with

them a wealth of valuable skills

and experience.

Maryanne Ng –

Head of Operations

Maryanne leads the Operations

Team which supports the effective

operation of the Office, including

facilitating clinical engagement

and communications.

Maryanne’s 16-year career has

been dedicated to facilitating the

many aspects of clinical research.

Most recently she was Senior

Manager of Clinical Operations

and Project Management at

the Juvenile Diabetes Research

Foundation, managing teams and

overseeing clinical projects within

a $35-million research network.

Luckman Hlambelo – Team Lead,

Strategy and Design

Luckman leads the Strategy and

Design Team to provide strategy

and policy advice as well as design

support for Clinical Solutions.

He joins the team after 10 years of

providing strategic and operations

leadership as a senior executive in

various hospitals and health care

units. He has expertise in clinical

and corporate governance, health

service planning and business

system evaluation.

Anthony Fallick – Team Lead,

Innovation

Anthony will be leading the

Innovation Team as it generates,

analyses and advises on ideas and

innovations for Clinical Solutions, and

supports their delivery.

Anthony has more than 15 years’

experience in product strategy and

management across media, health,

mobile, telecommunications, agency,

government, and not-for-profit

environments. Most recently, he was

Digital Project Consultant and Senior

Product Manager for HealthDirect

Australia. “I’m thrilled about the mix

of skills and expertise we are adding

to the OCCIO and eHealth NSW as a

whole”, said Chief Clinical Information

Officer Dr John Lambert.

“We’ve hand-picked talented people

who will help ensure the Office

delivers on its mission to build better,

safer tools that improve outcomes

for patients.

“The new teams will be rolling out

services over the coming months,

with further staff recruitment planned

for later this year. We look forward to

welcoming all new team members on

board in the near future.’

The new Office of the CCIO

eHealth News May/June 2017

11

National network scopes out child health projects

L-R: Jenny Wei from eHealth NSW; Dr Michael Brydon, Chief Executive of Sydney Children’s Hospital Network; Angela Ryan of the Australian Digital Health Agency; and Jemma Black, Petra Milnes, Steve Badham and Dr Zoran Bolevich from eHealth NSW

A series of interactive workshops were held across Australia in June to support the work of the National Collaborative Network for Child Health Informatics, which is being led by NSW Health.

On behalf of the Australian Digital Health Agency, eHealth NSW has partnered with the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network to identify and scope a number of strategic national projects and initiatives by the end of August 2017.

The aim is to harness patient-centred and clinician-friendly digital systems and capabilities to achieve positive health and wellbeing outcomes for Australian children.

Held in Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney, the themed Partnership Groups workshops brought

together Australia’s leading experts in children’s health to

achieve common understanding and commitment across

clinician, consumer, and health policy communities about

the key opportunities to better child and adolescent health.

Steve Badham, Program Manager, said: “It’s been

fantastic to see the commitment and enthusiasm of

the multi-disciplinary teams in our workshops, working

together to define how digital health technology can be

leveraged to improve the health outcomes for children and

young people.”

Following the Partnership Groups workshops, the

initiatives proposed will be given to the Network’s Expert

Reference Group in July for further validation, scoping

and prioritisation ahead of submission for potential future

funding by the Agency’s Board at the end of August.

Hands-on help for rural LHDs

In a bid to increase user confidence and improve the efficient use of the eMR application in preparation for the imminent roll-out of eMeds across rural facilities, rural-based clinicians have been provided with hands-on, follow-up support.

eMR support teams have worked with eHealth NSW’s Rural eHealth staff to offer clinicians the opportunity to grow and enhance their skills in using the eMR.

The project kicked off on 15 May in Young, with Murrumbidgee LHD reporting great enthusiasm and appreciation from frontline staff for the support shown to them.

In Young, Joy Hodges views an eMR analytics dashboard showing 100% compliance with mandatory risk assessments, allergies, height and weight completion and all notes signed in the inpatient setting

eHealth News May/June 2017

12

More than 5,000 staff working in the Far West and Western NSW Local Health Districts will soon benefit from using Skype for Business, ahead of the state-wide collaboration platform’s broader roll-out across NSW Health.

The LHDs’ Telehealth Manager Sharyn Cowie said: “Far West and Western NSW LHDs have virtual teams operating across vast distances. Access to Skype for Business will assist with team networking and with broader staff communication.”

Combining audio, video, instant messaging, screen and content sharing, presence, and outlook calendar integration into a single easy-to-use application, Skype for Business is part of the Infrastructure Portfolio’s Conference, Collaboration and Wireless (CCW) program led by Jason Matthews.

“Skype for Business has a large and growing number of fans in NSW Health,” said Shane Keys, Skype for Business Project Manager.

“Staff are quick to identify

how Skype can enhance their

collaboration and communication

experience and boost efficiency by

reducing the need to travel to and

from meetings.”

Around 3,500 staff in eHealth NSW,

HealthShare NSW, Western NSW and

Far West LHDs currently use Skype

for Business, with current capacity

for up to 40,000. This is scalable

further and will be reviewed as

demand increases.

Andrew Pedrazzini, Director of

eHealth NSW’s Infrastructure

Portfolio, said: “The Infrastructure

Office has been working hard

to deliver a robust Skype for

Business state-wide platform that

provides staff with an effective,

low-cost, feature-rich, and

scalable collaborative experience.

The great news is that Skype is

available to all eHealth NSW and

HealthShare NSW staff.”

Staff can request Skype for Business by providing their name and staff ID to the State Wide Service Desk. For more information, email EHNSW-Skype4BusinessProject@health.nsw.gov.au

Did you know?Use of Skype for Business is growing rapidly, with just one week in June featuring:

8 10,000 Skype sessions;

n 279 Skype conferences; and

0 More than 1,700 Skype audio minutes consumed.

Skype for Business spreading across NSW Health

Skype for Business is enhancing eHealth NSW headquarters, with three prototype meeting rooms recently set up on Level 13 of Zenith Tower B.

Providing a fully integrated Skype for Business videoconferencing experience, the Sydney, Brisbane, and Canberra rooms can be booked via Outlook.