Work is currently underway to implement a national electronic health (eHealth) system in Australia, to allow consumers' health information to be electronically managed and exchanged.
eHealth technology will potentially enable, with a consumer's permission, health information such as prescriptions, allergies, referrals, tests and test results to be electronically transferred between health care professionals, ensuring that information is in the right place at the right time, for the benefit of health consumers.
eHealth will also assist individuals to manage and access their own health information as they require it
The main component of eHealth is the Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record (PCEHR) which is an electronic record of your health information.
The eHealth concept is similar to that behind the My Journey Personal Record contained in BCNA's My Journey Kit. The Personal Record was developed to help women keep their health information in one location, to ensure they could access it at the right place, and the right time.
Women with breast cancer living in rural and remote parts of Australia, and those with an extensive or complex medical history such as women with secondary breast cancer, stand to benefit considerably from the introduction of eHealth, ensuring that key records, test results and information is available and easily managed, when and where it's needed.
eHealth also has great potential in the future to include a wide variety of health related information, including for example, details of participation in clinical trials or other research.
BCNA supports the development of an eHealth system and believes that:
- eHealth should be implemented nationally to ensure that the system is available to all health consumers, regardless of where they live
- consumers' privacy should be protected, and consumers should have access themselves, and should be able to decide who accesses, their electronic health information
- consumers should be confident that their health information will be held and transferred in a secure and confidential manner
- an effective communication strategy should be developed, implemented and funded to ensure that consumers and health care professionals are aware of progress of this project, and the potential benefits of eHealth
- an effective communication strategy should be developed, implemented and funded to ensure that consumers and health professionals understand how to use this new system
- consumer representatives need to be involved in all stages of the development and ongoing management of this program.
More information
- For more detailed information about eHealth and the PCEHR visit the National eHealth Transition Authority (NEHTA) website.
