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Dr. Albert Chan, chief of digital patient experience at Sutter Health, says health systems have to get better at interpreting data in novel ways to make good on their promise to patients.

With more than a decade of experience as a registered nurse, Angela Ryan combines her clinical experience with her knowledge in health informatics toward the practical, meaningful and integrated use of digital health tools in Australia. In this interview with Healthcare IT News, she shares more on her role as the chief clinical information officer (CCIO) at the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) and talks about why the My Health Record is a key pillar in Australia’s National Digital Health Strategy. Q. Could you tell us more about your role as CCIO of ADHA and your background in healthcare? A. In my role as chief clinical information officer at the Australian Digital Health Agency, I work collaboratively across the health system to develop and maintain strong relationships with key stakeholders in the community to promote adoption and meaningful clinical use of digital health services and technologies, to deliver benefit to all Australians. A key priority is ensuring strong clinical engagement with the National Digital Health Strategy and associated programs and services – including the My Health Record system – and clinical input and assurance into the design, development and delivery of digital health systems. The role provides clinical leadership for the implementation, advancement and optimisation of digital systems nationally. I’m a clinician with a background in health informatics, and decades of experience in hospitals and public sector organisations, with an emphasis on governance, design, development and deployment of digital health strategies and technologies. Before moving into digital health, I had more than 14 years’ experience as a registered nurse, including paediatric and adult intensive care. I am now able to apply my understanding of health systems and practice not just to optimise technology design and rollout, but to act as an effective agent of change, building engagement and momentum around transformational programs. Q. What are some of the latest projects/developments that you are currently working on at ADHA? A. The Australian Digital Health Agency is setting out the pathway to achieve our goals in the National Digital Health Strategy, to support the premise that “A workforce confidently using digital health technologies to deliver health and care will be required to address the technology adoption challenge and calls for supporting the workforce to better adapt to, use and embrace the changes and opportunities created by digital health innovation.” A digitally enabled workforce for Australia will benefit consumers, healthcare professionals and the broader health system. In addition, future innovations and approaches to healthcare delivery, such as applied data analytics, and technologies such as machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced robotics, will require a shift in the skills mix of the healthcare workforce in order to obtain the greatest benefit of these advances for healthcare consumers. To support this, the Agency is undertaking a program to consult the health sector and other relevant stakeholders on strategies to address the enablement of the workforce and any perceived gaps. Our aim is to develop a holistic understanding of the potential skills and workforce shortages and develop strategies to address them. This will culminate in the development of a National Digital Health Workforce and Education Roadmap. The roadmap will be a focal point for a National Digital Health Workforce and Education Summit being planned for later in 2019. This event will bring together stakeholders from across the sector to consider the roadmap and agree the practical actions required to deliver the workforce Australia needs. Q. From your experience both as nurse and in healthcare informatics, what do you feel are the greatest challenges in the journey toward achieving better health outcomes through digital health? A. Striving to deliver real-time improvements in clinician workflow is the holy grail for me, but I know that we aren’t there yet. That said, l also know that many of my colleagues are deeply invested in this as an outcome, and recognise that to truly deliver on improvements in patient outcomes, we need to improve the way digital tools and technologies work inside healthcare environments. It might keep me awake at night, but I do believe we’ll see real change in the not-so-distant future. Q. In 2017, you were awarded a Churchill Fellowship to study methods to prevent patient harm through national digital health safety governance. Could you share with us some of your key insights/findings from the study, especially through your visits to the UK, USA and Canada? A. My Fellowship trip was life-changing and I met so many people who gave their time, their insights and knowledge so generously – Australia can undoubtedly benefit from this wealth of experience.  I developed a set of recommendations that drew on the overall findings and principles articulated within my Churchill report. I also drew on the premise of the ‘Health Information Technology (HIT) Safety Center’ model developed in the USA. I did this in part as it is the only fully elaborated model supported by an extensive evidence base, the structure of which is informed by learnings beyond the USA borders. The Center was originally recommended by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Report ‘Health IT and Patient Safety: Building Safer Systems for Better Care’, published in 2012, with a subsequent commitment by the Obama administration to establish the roadmap to develop the Center.  It was further endorsed through the USA Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act (FDASIA) of 2015. While the Center has not been implemented as it was originally envisioned, many of its proposed members are active in the ‘Partnership for Health IT Safety’, a multi-stakeholder collaborative of more than 50 organisations that come together to analyse safety events and hazards, identify, and share solutions and safe practices, and inform policymakers and the broader healthcare community about priorities for health IT safety. I contend that Australia should assemble a taskforce of experts from across the health sector, to include clinicians, consumers, government, researchers, policy makers and industry to develop the vision, mission, outcomes and roadmap for better coordinated digital health patient safety in Australia. The taskforce’s expressed purpose is to ensure digital health is safer for patients and will build upon the significant progress already made in Australia, and internationally. More information can be obtained here.   

Perry Flowers, Vice President, Medical Affairs, Enterprise Medication Management at BD, discusses the need for connected solution models when a single-platform is not enough.

In the decade-and-a-half since the startling “To Err is Human” report, it’s still hard to discern whether billions invested in electronic medical records are improving patient safety.

Most people will experience at least one diagnostic error -- an inaccurate or delayed diagnosis -- in their lifetime, sometimes with devastating consequences, according to a new report from the Institute of Medicine.

"Population health" is a term that is widely used in healthcare, but not universally understood. Various definitions emphasize outcomes, measurement or accountability. So what does population health truly mean?

As debate swirls about a recent Institute of Medicine report suggesting that electronic health records collect more non-clinical patient data for population health research, a new poll suggest patients are mostly willing to offer access to anonymized health information -- but only to an extent.

The Institute of Medicine has issued a new report calling for standardized social and behavioral data to be included in electronic health records. That may be good for population health research, but could be unwelcome news for system developers, and for physicians who already complain that EHRs are burdensome and distract from care delivery.

As the U.S. population grows, the physician workforce shrinks, and information technology fundamentally changes the way care is delivered, the Institute of Medicine says graduate medical education needs an overhaul.

It's a chilling reality -- one often overlooked in annual mortality statistics: Preventable medical errors persist as the No. 3 killer in the U.S. -- third only to heart disease and cancer -- claiming the lives of some 400,000 people each year. At a Congressional hearing July 17, patient safety officials put their best ideas forward on how to solve the crisis, with IT often at the center of discussions.