"Health is without a doubt the most backwards industry in the world in its use of IT," Dr Peter Schloeffel told attendees at the Linux and Open Source in Government conference in Adelaide. Dr Schloeffel works as a GP and also runs a consultancy, Ocean Informatics, specialising in open electronic healthcare standards.
Others agree that the health industry needs urgent remedial treatment for its technology systems. "Healthcare generally lags (and therefore can learn from) the business and IT initiatives of other industries," Gartner analyst Janice Young wrote last year.
The industry-wide lack of IT savvy is particularly surprising the critical role that patient information plays in healthcare. "Health happens to be one of the most information-intensive industries in the world," said Schloeffel. Information processing accounts for between 30 and 40 per cent of total healthcare costs, he said. Spending on healthcare in Australia in 2004 is expected to top AU$60 billion.
A critical reason for the healthcare IT crisis is the lack of a generally accepted form for electronic health records (EHRs), Schloeffel said. Australia is relatively advanced in this field, with perhaps 10 per cent of records stored in electronic form. However, the US -- which dominates many aspects of the world healthcare market -- is performing less impressively. "The level of EHR use in the US is less than 1 per cent," Schloeffel said.
You could die waiting for the Health Care System and medical practises to use IT. They are so stuck in their 19th century procedures, it will take a major effort for the medical practises & procedures to enter the 21st Century. Health funding is a major problem. State & Federal bureaucracies love to duck shove their responsibilities before handing over the cash needed to run the system.
A major bottleneck is the Universities. Most of the learning process is done using verbal presentation by retired medical practitioners or 2nd class doctors who are stuck in their old ways & in need of training in modern technology or are chasing additional income and don't have time to prepare presentations for students using modern IT techniques. The 3rd area of the problem is in the Major teaching hospitals. Most are so short of funding they find it impossible to invest in the latest technology. Successive governments have reduced funding so severely that hospital administrations are constantly protecting their backsides in case they are accused of frivolous spending or else they go without because they know that appropriation approval for major IT capital spending is a hopeless waste of time.