The introduction of a national eHealth record* systems appears to be progressing with delegates at the Australian Health Ministers' Conference agreeing to establishing a secure national system.
Medicines Australia's CEO Ian Chalmers says the system promises that patients will have access to more expedient and better informed medical treatment and patients and healthcare professionals will be the big winners.
Mr Chalmers says when healthcare professionals understand what treatments a patient has received and what medications have been previously prescribed and dispensed, they will be more able to quickly determine the most appropriate treatment option for that patient.
According to Mr Chalmers an eHealth record will help ensure that doctors and other health professionals prescribe the right medicine, to the right patient, at the right time and at the right dose, and represents a significant step in ensuring medicines are used correctly on order to avoid adverse outcomes through the misuse of prescription medicines.
Mr Chalmers says a national eHealth record would also shorten the time taken to complete clinical trials in Australia and would therefore improve Australia's attractiveness as a destination for global investment in clinical research.
But claims by the Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon that an Individual Healthcare Identifier (IHI) would reduce avoidable deaths in the healthcare system has been questioned by privacy advocates, who suggest that poor records management is a problem in eHealth systems.