The Australian surveyed 100 professionals from the local commercial healthcare sector (40 percent doctors, salaries> $100,000, most in small to medium-sized companies) and came up with numerous findings both specific to their overall healthcare system and with some depth on eHealth. In Australia’s mixed public/private system, there is concern about further burdens on the public health system due to rising costs (just like the US) and lower subsidies for private insurance. Regarding eHealth, most of the findings were optimistic, but again affected negatively by government regulation (56 percent).
Because of Australia’s dispersed population, there’s hope that eHealth will ‘revolutionize care for remote communities’ (79 percent). Yet data capture/scanning/management and sharing take the lead in technology present and future, with remote monitoring a distant second. Will eHealth mitigate the pressure on the system? Despite 66 percent responding that “e-health will play a major role in ensuring a sustainable health system”, taking all the charts and graphs (PDF here) in their totality, it was hard not to discern a great deal of uncertainty. Perhaps there is thought of the Australian Government’s difficulties with instituting a national PHR and Nehta’s subsequent legal challenge by MMRGlobal [TTA 11 March]. Fear health revolution is suffering needlessly
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