By ignoring the CDC's existing system for collecting hospital data – built over 15 years and described in the article as “far from perfect” – and instead choosing to hand responsibility over to a private company called TeleTracking Technologies, what appears to be now in place is “an error-ridden and unreliable filter on hospital needs that sometimes displays nonsensical data”. Sounds like the Trump presidency in a nutshell.
Closer to home and we hear that the new CEO of Australia's Digital Health Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) has been chosen. Staff were informed yesterday, although there has been no official announcement as yet, that Terry Sweeney has secured the gig. Formerly managing director of IBM Watson Health for Asia, Dr Sweeney has flown somewhat under the radar in the local industry although he does describe himself as a global digital health entrepreneur. He featured in a since removed article in the Adelaide Advertiser just this week about a new $100 million investment fund for digital health, but how this will fit with the CRC job we don't know.
The job seems to be a difficult one as the new CEO will be the third in three years. The CRC hasn't got much to show for itself in that time besides an interesting project it's running in the aged care sector to create a minimum data set and advance the sector on the road to interoperability.
Michael Costello, who was holding the fort at the CRC while a permanent CEO was found, is expected to return to his regular gig at the Australian Digital Health Agency. We hear that Dr Sweeney also went for the top job at the agency but missed out to Amanda Cattermole, who is now settling into the driver's seat.
Elsewhere this week, the agency's industry offer for the specialist market had its first success, with Software for Specialists (S4S) integrating its Audit4 system to the My Health Record. S4S is one of 10 companies taking part in the offer, which aims to boost MyHR use among medical specialists in private practice. There was also more movement on eScripts, with the fully conformant version now being used in the wild, and active script lists to come online in the next few months. We'll have more on that next week, along with an update on the secure messaging industry offer from ADHA.
In the meantime, our poll for this week asks:
Is the Digital Health CRC living up to its promise?
Vote here and click here to comment. |