HealthConnect

HealthConnect is Australia’s planned system of electronic health records. The aim of HealthConnect is to improve quality and safety in health care by ensuring important clinical information is available in a high standard, when and where it is needed. Doctors will have access to software on their desktop which will allow them to enter all of the patients information into a Queensland Health database, avoided the slower postal method for information exchange.

HealthConnect was trialed in a number of states and areas during 2004. The joint contract with the Department of Health and Ageing includes an EHT pilot in Brisbane South. In another trial in North Queensland the model was based around GPs receiving and sharing information about surgical patients with the Townsville Hospital. In 2005 trials were conducted in Tasmania at the Launceston General Hospital and across the Northern Territory.

Research consortium, Distributed Systems Technology Centre (DSTC), has been awarded a $2.9 million contract to develop technology for HealthConnect. The project’s vision is to establish a system for all Australian health consumers by 2010, although HealthConnect is facing practical challenges.

After the first round of project tests, the vision for project 2 was greatly altered. In 2007 a second phase of testing will begin using the Argus email client.

There has been some criticism of the validity of projects funded as part of HealthConnect.