Harry has been battling a combination of chronic conditions since early childhood. Now in his early 20s, his medical records were so extensive that they needed to be carried on a trolley.

Australian users of clinical information systems have told us what information they need from interoperable clinical systems. Understanding these needs will enable us to shape and prioritise the development of Australia’s digital health system.

Professor Louisa Jorm is the Foundation Director of the Centre for Big Data Research in Health at UNSW. She is an Australian leader in policy-relevant research using linked administrative health data, including hospital inpatient, mortality and Medicare data, and is a high-profile advocate for more and better use of routinely collected health data for research. We spoke to Professor Jorm recently to talk through the potential of big data in health care and how we can ensure we have the technical expertise within the Australian health care sector into the future.

Reflections of some of the pioneers of digital health in Australia.

Townsville resident Rebecca Vella believes My Health Record is an essential tool – and one that she uses often – to keep track of all of her important health information.

Pharmacist, Chris Braithwaite has worked in a variety of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health locations since graduating in 2012, including at Katherine in the Northern Territory, Mount Isa and Cape York in Queensland.

The Cairns-based obstetrician and gynaecologist Dr Elizabeth Jackson actively uses My Health Record and strongly believes digital health is the way forward for Australia’s healthcare system.

The Agency and its partner organisations are engaging with healthcare providers across Australia to prepare for the transition to an “opt out” system.

New Pharmaceutical Society of Australia guidelines, pharmacist Chris Braithwaite talks My Health Record, and TerryWhite Chemmart's three-day masterclass.

Hospital pharmacist Leonie Abbott discusses the benefits of My Health Record.

The secret? Real co-design and co-production, says Cheryl McCullagh, Director of Clinical Integration at the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network

The Australian Digital Health Agency has greatly expanded its group of Clinical Reference Leads to promote greater engagement across healthcare sectors.

Smart medical devices will transform healthcare.

A conversation with Clinical Professor Meredith Makeham, the Agency’s Chief Medical Adviser.

The Agency’s Marina Fulcher discusses what digital health means for Australia.

This article originally appeared on Australian Association of Practice Management (AAPM). Marina has over 25 years’ experience in healthcare practice management and is a Clinical Reference Lead working with the Australian Digital Health Agency on the My Health Record.

Digital health technologies will do more than just replace faxes and paper notes.

Led by the Clinical and Consumer Engagement and Clinical Governance division at the Australian Digital Health Agency.

Digital health symposium brings together leaders, advocates and healthcare providers from around the globe.

First town in Australia to connect all medical services to the My Health Record.

New report moves beyond the hype and speculation.

Dr Nathan Pinskier discusses how interoperability across the sector will benefit greatly from the adoption of secure electronic messaging.

Associate Professor Mark Naunton says that pharmacists have worked in the dark for too long, and looks forward to them having secure access to patient health information.

Agency CEO Tim Kelsey’s reflections on his recent stakeholder meetings in Western Australia.

Dr Michael Crampton was involved in the Nepean and Blue Mountains opt-out trial of My Health Record and has followed its evolution over the past few years.

Hospital pharmacist Leonie Abbott explains why having My Health Record accessible 24/7 is a huge benefit to the system.

Consumers demand access to health records anywhere and anytime.

What does this mean for Australian developers, providers and consumers?

Accurate and timely information is vital in medicine, and never more so than in emergency departments, where time is of the essence and patients may arrive in critical conditions.

Australia's famously harsh outback is an unforgiving place. To survive and prosper in such an environment requires more than just grit and self-reliance - it requires innovation. The Royal Flying Doctor Service and the School of the Air are just two of the famous Australian innovations that have helped to overcome the vast distances and support rural and remote communities.

The thought of signing her pharmacy up to My Health Record was ‘a bit daunting’ for Berowra pharmacist Carrie Leung, but with assistance from the Sydney North Primary Healthcare Network (PHN) the process was completed smoothly and successfully.

The power of My Health Record was driven home to Adelaide-based GP Dr Chris Moy in an incident where he had to review an unwell patient who had been discharged early from hospital from another state without any information about his condition or follow up.

My Health Record Expansion Programme Deputy Chair Dr Steve Hambleton discusses My Health Record.

Rachel Dienaar, a locum pharmacist who works mainly at the Nubeena Pharmacy on Tasmania’s Tasman Peninsula, recently shared her My Health Record story with Andrew Daniels as published in In The Know magazine on Friday 15 December 2017.

We talk to the British psychologist who specialises in getting big results from small well-judged inputs.

Townsville-based GP Dr Ron Malpas has been practising for 30 years.

He is Tiger Corrigan’s GP. Tiger, who is 72 years old and suffers from multiple chronic conditions was featured in the recent My Health Record Men’s Health Kit GP. Here Dr Malpas shares his experiences with My Health Record.

Tony Kitzelmann, Chief Information Security Officer at the Australian Digital Health Agency describes how the security in the My Health Record system gives consumers the power to manage their health information.

Dr John Aloizos AM shares his views on how digital health benefits him as a GP, plus how important it is to ensure clinical information systems (CIS) are updated to get the most out of My Health Record.

Over a period of three years from 2013 to 2016, Renee Downman experienced the exceptional treatment of Australia’s healthcare system for two serious health conditions. But what was different in those few years? Enter My Health Record.

In 2013, the young fitness instructor was diagnosed with Ewing...

By Bettina McMahon, Chief Operating Officer and Executive General Manager for Government and Industry Collaboration and Adoption.

Northcott is a not-for-profit organisation that provides services and innovation for people living with disability. Today Northcott is one of the largest not-for-profit disability service organisations in Australia and provides empowering, personalised services to over 13,500 people with disability, their families and carers each year.

Andrew Daniels shares his thoughts on how My Health Record can help pharmacies build digital health capabilities, as published in Post Script Australia on Monday 6 November 2017.

By Chief Medical Adviser, Meredith Makeham.

In this technologically advanced age, we are able to draw knowledge from many interesting sources which were not previously available to us.

As they are increasingly integrated into healthcare, electronic and digital technologies enable the collection of increasing amounts of data. Data which we are able to translate into knowledge, to help us make more informed decisions, and to improve the quality of services.

Professor Atul Butte, of the Stanford School of Medicine reminded us that within “mounds of data is knowledge that could change the life of a patient, or change the world.”

Chief Medical Adviser Meredith Makeham recently shared her thoughts with Healthcare IT News Australia on how digital health is transforming healthcare with benefits for Australians through My Health Record.

By Steve Renouf. In 1993, I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, and it turned out that my four sons have it too, so we all have ongoing treatment for it. Eventually I got involved with Diabetes Australia and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation as their ambassador, which led to advocacy work with the diabetic community. For the last six years, I’ve worked for the Institute of Urban Indigenous Health, which is based in the South East Corner. We started off with four Aboriginal Medical Services and have grown to 18 services. At first I wasn’t sure if I was a good fit, because it’s a Commonwealth Advisory Committee and I don’t have a medical background; I wasn’t sure what I could contribute. But I soon realised it’s important for someone to represent consumers, ensure their best interests are on the table. I see myself as a bridge between them and the medicos.

Words like "disruption" and "transformation" get bandied about a lot these days, along with their more prosaic cousins "change" and "innovation". With Australians now spending more time in front of a screen each day than they do sleeping, we are seeing the shift as consumers choose "digital first" to manage both their personal and professional lives.

Organisations have seen the writing on the wall and are seeking new ways to adapt to this changing environment in pursuit of ever-greater efficiencies and operational effectiveness.

"Cause we are living in a material world
And I am a material girl
You know that we are living in a material world
And I am a material girl"^[1]

You know these lyrics. Madonna's single "Material Girl" and its accompanying video were huge hits in 1985, and went on to define much of her career. But was she right? Is she really a material girl? And are we living in a material world? More than 30 years after she sang this song, we find that the world we live in is becoming less and less about material things, and more and more about information.

From the perspective of the national and global economy, information technology is a vast and growing sector that is displacing manufacturing in value and influence. A similar trend is apparent in the economy of our daily lives: financial transactions are routinely conducted electronically, and reliance on the physical tokens of notes and coins starts to seem quaint.

Dr Steve Hambleton, MBBS FAMA FRACGP (Hon) GAICD

Follow Dr Steve on Twitter @SteveJHambleton

Amongst my other roles, I've been a GP at the Kedron Park 7-Day Medical Centre in Brisbane for the past 29 years. Many of my patients have been in my care for a long time and I know them very well but I cannot be there for them every day. Like a lot of GPs who have been in the same practice for a long time, I mainly treat people with chronic and complex disease.

Pictured: Dr Steve Hambleton

I believe one of the responsibilities of General Practitioners is to facilitate patients’ interactions with the health system as a whole, and it’s particularly important for those with chronic ailments. For this reason, I am an early adopter of My Health Record – the secure, online digital summary of a patient’s pertinent medical information, including diagnosis, outcomes, medications, reactions and allergies.

Australia's digital health system is currently developing and evolving to best serve the community's needs, and arguably, people living in the most remote areas of the continent stand to benefit the most. Recently, Tim Kelsey, CEO, Prof Meredith Makeham, Chief Medical Advisor and I travelled to the Northern Territory to meet with a number of stakeholders, among them, Dr Sam Goodwin, the Executive Director of Medical and Clinical Services with the Central Australian Health Service. Having lived and worked in the area for 11 years, Dr Goodwin gives first-hand insights into the challenges faced by remote communities and how digital services can make a significant, positive difference.

Dr Sam Goodwin Executive Director of Medical and Clinical Services with Central Australian Health Service

The week before Christmas 2016, with temperatures peaking at 43 degrees, I travelled with our CEO, Tim Kelsey and Chief Medical Adviser, Clinical Professor Meredith Makeham to Perth, Bunbury and Busselton in Western Australia.

Dr Monica Trujillo, Chief Clinical Information Officer for the Australian Digital Health Agency, talks about how putting data and technology safely to work for patients, consumers and the healthcare professionals who look after them can help Australians live healthier, happier and more productive li...

In September 2016, I was invited to speak at HISA Queensland’s workshop for Health Data Interoperability, held at Royal Brisbane & Women’s Hospital.  As the title suggests, the workshop brought together clinicians, technologists and other health informaticians to discuss various approaches to making interoperability within digital health services a reality. Such interoperability is universally recognised as a key component for an effective, user-friendly service.

Driving through the streets of Inala, a south-west Brisbane suburb, is always memorable. The 1950s style brick-and-stucco housing is clear evidence of Inala’s origins as a post-war social housing experiment. Through the decades, disadvantage has continued to dominate the area, populated by the elderly and predominantly African, Middle Eastern and Asian communities – in particular Vietnamese, who were among Australia’s first wave of ‘Boat People’ and made Inala their home. Indigenous art work in the local parks reflect one of Queensland’s largest agglomerations of Aboriginal, Torres Strait Island and Pacific Island peoples.

Watch the National Digital Health Consultation: Findings so far to hear what Australian communities are saying about the future of health and care.

“Can you give me a call when you’re free, love mum.”

The message flashed up on my phone and my heart dropped. I knew something was up. My mum’s attempts at ‘text speak’ usually end up with half a screen of rambled shortcuts that I need to look up urban dictionary to decipher. This, on the other hand, was too short for comfort.

In light of the Australian Digital Health Agency’s commitment to delivering the best possible digital health services to Australia, we recognise the importance of going out and talking to people, hearing their individual health issues and concerns. It’s been one of the most interesting aspects of my job in the Agency’s Communications team.

I am in the school of pharmacy and medical sciences at the University of South Australia in Adelaide looking at the ceiling of Professor Libby Roughead’s office. ‘It used to be lower,’ she says. ‘We had to take out the overhead partition because somebody could have crawled through it’. This is one of the most secure offices in South Australia, perhaps the country. It is where data on the health of Australia’s 250,000 veterans is analysed. When a veteran receives their Gold card they are invited to consent to their medical information being reviewed to ensure they get the best possible care.

What's the collective noun for a group of healthcare providers? A horde? A congregation? Certainly not a gaggle. I think it should be an orchestra – just as an orchestra is made up of distinctive yet harmonious sections, so too is the healthcare industry.

Nine years ago, Fiona’s husband Peter was diagnosed with a brain tumour. It was benign and they were told that it wouldn’t kill him, but would be ‘a bit of a nuisance’. Peter, who worked as a business consultant in Western Australia, went into hospital for surgery – and then their world was shattered. There was a complication after his second operation and Peter, vulnerable to infection, contracted meningitis. He suffered brain damage and has required around-the-clock care ever since. What initially seemed like something Peter and Fiona could live with, now consumes their whole lives.

Here is our first blog post from the Agency CEO Mr Tim Kelsey.

Tim Kelsey, CEO of the Australian Digital Health Agency

Everybody in Darwin is hoping for rain: it is heating up and a humid summer is coming. We drive along the foreshore towards Palmerston, past the mangroves that mantle the ocean. I have been invited by Dr Sam Heard to come and listen to patients and staff in his practice, the Palmerston GP Super Clinic. It is a great innovation – a joint venture between Charles Darwin and Flinders universities to give local people access to comprehensive primary care services in one setting, from medical and pharmacy through to podiatry.