Matter of life and death— IT in the health sector
victoria-university-of-wellington
Wed Oct 07 2009 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)
Matter of life and death— IT in the health sector
Wednesday, 7 October 2009, 10:20 am
Press Release: Victoria University of Wellington
A Victoria University professor says that errors in the information technology (IT) systems of New Zealand’s health sector can be a matter of life and death.
In her inaugural lecture next Tuesday, Professor Rowena Cullen—from Victoria’s School of Information Management—will outline some of the successful uses of health IT, and possible reasons for the apparent failure of many health IT projects.
Professor Cullen says unlike other areas where IT plays a major role—such as banking—human lives are at risk if mistakes happen.
“If the bank puts money in the wrong person’s account it can usually be fixed—but when you make a mistake in health it can be a matter of life and death.”
She says sophisticated technology is routinely used for medical diagnosis, to record and share patient information, and to make huge amounts of medical and consumer health information available through the internet.
“The judicious use of IT in health has huge potential to benefit health care and its delivery, but globally it has proved an enormous issue. We haven’t made the gains we hoped for.”
Professor Cullen says it is often the implementation at fault, not the technology, and will use examples from New Zealand and the UK to illustrate her argument
“In the UK the national IT health programme is very centralised and top-down and seems to have been a disaster. In New Zealand the system is much more devolved—giving a lot of autonomy to bodies like DHBs—yet there have still been problems.”
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Wellington’s Capital and Coast District Health Board recently announced it would spend $4.3 million replacing its patient records system as part of a move to introduce electronic health records for Wellington patients.
The board had previously been criticised for failing to properly manage its IT systems.
Last year, chief executive Ken Whelan said problems with a computer system meant it may have missed out on millions of dollars in patient revenue. In addition Health Ministry reports found system problems at the health board meant some patient discharge summaries were not produced or sent between 2006 and 2008.
Professor Cullen says there needs to be a balance between centralised top-down and autonomous regional delivery for health IT.
Victoria University Vice-Chancellor Professor Pat Walsh says Professor Cullen has established an outstanding reputation within her areas of study.
“Working within the broad applied discipline of information management, Professor Cullen has combined an innovative approach with practical relevance. She has achieved international recognition in the research literature of three fields: health informatics, library evaluation, and e-government, as well as contributing to the practitioner environment in New Zealand.”
Professor Walsh says Victoria’s Inaugural Lecture series is an opportunity for new professors to provide family, friends, colleagues and the wider community with an insight into their specialist area of study.
“It is also an opportunity for the University to celebrate and acknowledge our valued professors.”
The public lecture is at 6pm in Old Government Buildings Lecture Theatre 2, Lambton Quay (opposite The Beehive), Wellington) on Tuesday 13 October.
ENDS
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