Digital Health in Australia Laurie Hawkins, CEO, HealthServicesDirectories, Australia Email: laurie@healthservicesdirectories.com
Presentation Overview 1. Introduction 2. Common Health Sector Challenges 3. Data A Catalyst for Change Barriers to Change 4. The Relevance of Provider Directories A Start Provider Directories Experience in Victoria (Australia) The Victorian Human Services Directory The Enhancement The Australian National Health Services Directory Foundation for new E-Health Initiatives 5. What Service Directories do examples of innovation using data
Introduction Managed the successful development of the Victorian Human Services Directory (Vic HSD), which has now become a National System used across Australia. This presentation discusses the relevance of Service Directories to emerging health sector challenges with a view to long term health and social care service delivery, sustainability and innovation
Common Health Sector Challenges Challenges facing Governments and Health Care across the World Escalating demands on health and social services Ageing Populations Rising rates of Chronic Diseases Increasing costs to fund healthcare These challenges are further compounded by the need to balance Decreasing Government resources Increasing Consumer expectations Our current trajectory is not sustainable
Data: A Catalyst for Change The Australian health sector is faced with many challenges in an environment of diminishing health resources Yet it has a powerful resource growing in abundance that can fuel change
Data: A Catalyst for Change World Wide Volumes of data expanding at a exponential rate Many industry sectors seeking to embrace data with varying levels of success and impact (Facebook, Amazon, Google, etc.) Health Sector Data is typically a by-product of health care delivery Massive stockpiles of data, and growing Data overwhelmingly underutilised Data presents an incredible opportunity to help healthcare become more effective Given the ever increasing trajectory of disease impact (human and economic), when will this trend change? Can data provide the catalyst for this change?
Data: Barriers to Change Fragmented Silos Complex and costly system integration Proprietary Formats Different formats, types, databases, spreadsheets, video, etc.. Lack of coordination and collaboration across Public and Private, Not for Profit organisations How do we bring all this data together so that we can more effectively use it?
The Relevance of Provider Directories A Start Typically there are many fragmented and siloed Provider Directories across most Countries Most hospitals, aged care, community care, mental health and primary care settings independently maintain address books of local clinicians and services. Used daily by doctors, nurses and allied health professionals to aid the transfer and management of care. They range from simple lists to relatively sophisticated databases separate to or embedded within other systems The consent, management and quality of data regimes are highly variable Massive replication of systems, data, maintenance costs and resources that could otherwise be far better used
Provider Directories Experience in Victoria (Australia) Previously in Victoria Contained only General Practitioner (GP) data Massive duplication Cost Effort Data out of date Inconsistent data validation regimes No transactional or operational information e.g. opening hours, languages spoken Do not contain Not for Profit healthcare providers Impacts The capacity for Patient Centric service delivery Transfer of Care, e.g. from hospital to aged care Transfer of patient data via referrals, discharges, pathology ordering, etc. Coordinated care across service delivery teams No Single View of Health and Social Services Is there a better way?
The Victorian Human Services Directory The Enhancement The Challenge: to consolidate more than 160 statewide Provider and Practitioner Directories Amalgamation of a number of Directories used for different purposes Fragmented and duplicated Provider Directories across the State Housing Services Directory Social Services Directory Resulted in the development of a State Wide shared Services Directory, consolidating over 160 fragmented provider directories
The Victorian Human Services Directory The Directory based on Organisations includes: services offered contact details location opening hours languages spoken billing arrangements supported types of communication practitioner details (voluntary model) Secure messaging identifiers Etc.
National Health Services Directory Foundation for E-Health Initiatives The success of the Victorian Human Services Directory has resulted in it being rolled out nationally across Australia Repository of Health and Social (Human) Services data One Application Programming Interface (API or Web Service) Over 9.5 million transactions and searches/month Multiple interfaces for different stakeholders Which results in Interoperability Integrated care with the consumer at the Core Evidence Based Health Planning at regional and national level
The Australian National Health Services Directory Services National Services Directory (400,000+ Services) National Provider Directory (300,000+ accredited Health Practitioners ) National Disability Insurance Scheme Directory (NDIS) National Telehealth Directory Telephone Call Centres GP After Hours NURSE-ON-CALL Consumer Web Portals Smartphone Apps National Health Programs, e.g. Diabetes ehealth Identifiers Health Provider Identifiers - Individual (HPI-I s) Health Provider Identifiers Organisational (HPI- O s) Health Insurance Identifiers for Organizations and Providers Secure Messaging (National and Private Providers)
The Australian National Health Services Directory The National Health Services Directory (NHSD) provides the foundation for ehealth innovation at national, state and local levels.
The Australian National Health Services Directory Content Providers, Health and Social (Human) Services Organisations and Practitioners NHSD
The Australian National Health Services Directory Consumer Web Portals (Symptom Checker, Find A Health Service, Find Health Information, Mental Health, Aged Care, Carer Gateway) Smart Phone Apps National Healthmap (Services, demographics, health status, service utilisation, etc) Hospital EHR s, Clinical, Community Allied Health, Mental Health and Aged Care Systems. Allied Health, Social Care, Doctors/General Practitioners, Dentists, Pharmacists, OT, etc. NHSD Secure Messaging and National Templating Service (Discharge Summaries Pathology Reports, etc) National Health Programs, Call Centres (After Hours GP Helpline, Nurse On Call, Pregnancy Birth & Baby, etc) National Telehealth Directory (Telehealth video calls) National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS)
The Australian National Health Services Directory Consolidation of data benefits: Single View of Health, Social (Human) Services and accredited Healthcare Practitioners Elimination of many Provider Directories Different views for multiple stakeholders Health Planning at a International, National, State and Local level Amalgamation of Public, Private and Not for Profit information in one single directory Shared national health sector resource A Foundation for wider data consolidation and innovation
Innovation Consolidation of Data Sets and Visual Data Analytics A picture is worth a thousand words
National Healthmap Facilities sharing of data, resources, skills and knowledge across different organisations, Public, Private and Not For Profit (NFP) Eliminates the barriers of Silos of data held by organisations (Public and Private) to enable to enable effective sector wide information sharing across Local, National and International borders Can support 1000 s of International, National and Locally significant datasets Data Sets need to maintained once, e.g. Census data, Administrative Boundaries, etc Reusable data themes, reduce duplication of data across health sector, e.g. Cancer Theme, sub categories of Ovarian, Breast, Lung, Prostate Planning Models can be developed to incorporate a range of criteria:- Services by Time of Day/ Weekend Nursing homes & bed availability Population projections to determine future accessibility needs The free flow of Data and Interoperability
Healthmap Health Planners Policy Makers Consumers Researchers We know where Health Services are We know where consumer demand What do we need to do for the future? An example Workforce Shortages A knowledge based platform to support Evidence Based Decision Making
Smallpox Eliminated in 1980
THANK YOU Laurie Hawkins, CEO, HealthServicesDirectories, Australia Email: laurie@healthservicesdirectories.com
Healthmap Links National Healthmap (enter as Guest) Healthmap Learning 101 All Doctors in Australia Storyboards - Workface Shortages across Australia Health Services by Focus Groups Telehealth Capable Services by Focus Areas Selected Hospitalisations - New South Wales Chronic Disease - Diabetes Type 2 - Australia This shows the following for Regional and Remote Communities and health services. 'Proximity of Influence Regions' are based on Thiessen Voronoi Territories representing the partitioning of a plane into regions based on 'closeness' to points (e.g. straight line distances to nearest services). 'Proximity of Influence Region' derived data are unweighted estimates of the underlying data falling within the regions and seek to help identify: those organisations/ services potentially most suited to influencing local community health outcomes. Areas of need and relative proximity to health services to support more targeted health program delivery