Program
The HITWA 2013 program is available to be downloaded from the below link. This will give you information on conference timings, speakers and presentations.
Theme
The theme for HITWA 2013 is The Road to Reform: Challenges, Innovations and Success. The conference will focus on five main topics Digital Hospitals, Regional Health Developments, Big Data, Health Workforce and Primary Care.
Digital Hospitals
Interest, discussion and progress associated with the concept of a digital hospital is growing, with varying strategies nationally and
internationally aimed at 'going paperless', supporting increased mobility in health service delivery, identifying opportunities for shared access to
critical healthcare data and improving outcomes of care. This opening session will provide a practical overview of current initiatives and case studies
in digital health, with an emphasis on solutions which impact not just healthcare providers and the buildings and facilities in which they are based
but the communities they serve and the environment within which they function. Presentations will include plans and developments across WA, including
the Fiona Stanley Hospital Project, and recent digital initiatives involving the private health sector. The session will conclude with a panel
discussion, with an opportunity for panellists and delegates to consider and debate the challenges in 'collaborating for success in a digital
environment'.
Regional Health Developments
Regional Western Australia is a unique landscape, with significant challenges for heath service delivery to a population of close to 500,000
across an area of 2.5 million square kilometres. Challenges include addressing the continued burden of ill health experienced by Indigenous Australians,
ensuring access to critical health care services in rural and remote areas, attracting and retaining an appropriate workforce and managing the impact
of the fly-in-fly-out (FIFO) sector on existing and expanding health services. This session will explore changing patterns and systems of health
care delivery using new and innovative technologies and demonstrate their impact across population groups, towns and communities most in need.
Big Data
The advent of technologies which enable 'Big Data' are forecast to provide enormous benefits in terms of understanding how we can better deliver healthcare
and improve health outcomes. These new developments do, however, present a range of challenges in terms of how they are applied and used in health care settings. For example, there are many concerns around protecting privacy of confidential information and enabling adequate and appropriate security measures for protecting privacy.
Primary Care
There are 61 Medicare Locals in Australia working towards implementation of the national e-health record system including
- Healthcare Identifier integration (HI integration),
- Secure Messaging (eReferrals, eLetters etc.),
- Electronic Transfer of Prescriptions (eTP) between GPs and Pharmacy,
- Data cleansing and improvement,
- Assisting General Practices with policies regarding their use of the national e-health record system.
- Achieving meaningful use of the personally controlled electronic health record
Medicare Locals (MLs) are working towards improving the collaboration between general practices, after hours gp, community pharmacy, allied health service providers, medical and surgical specialists, registered aged care facilities and Aboriginal medical services. Sixteen of the 61 MLs have been chosen to provide services to other MLs as E-health Support Hubs. The role of the E-health Support Hub includes mentoring, supporting and leading the e-health program that is being undertaken by the ML's within their Hub and raising the level of e-health capability for each ML within the Hub. This session will discuss the elements of the national e-health record system, objective of the programme, challenges faces and provide a view of the work that has been undertake in Perth including achievements, issues using real examples from around Australia with a focus on WA.
