Healthcare identifiers to kickstart e-health implementation
AMA President, Dr Andrew Pesce, said today that the AMA is pleased that the Healthcare Identifiers legislation has been passed by the Parliament and now looks forward to an acceleration of the implementation of e-Health programs in Australia.
Dr Pesce said healthcare identifiers are an important building block for electronic health records.
“Healthcare identifiers will facilitate the timely and accurate sharing of electronic patient information to improve medical care in Australia,” Dr Pesce said.
“The legislation very clearly provides for the healthcare identifiers to be used solely to identify individuals for the purposes of accessing and sharing individual electronic health information.
“Any privacy concerns about the sharing of electronic patient information will need to be dealt with in future legislation that will be required to cover the arrangements for electronic health records.
“The AMA has actively pushed for the identifiers and was involved in discussions on the development of the legislation.
“We acknowledge the significant and tireless efforts of former AMA President, Dr Mukesh Haikerwal, in the development of the healthcare identifiers and pushing for the passage of the legislation in the final hours of the Parliamentary sittings yesterday.
“The AMA is keen to see the funding allocated in the 2010-11 Budget directed to building the infrastructure to connect up patient information across the health care sector so that a summary electronic health record can finally become a reality,” Dr Pesce said.
25 June 2010
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