A Glimmer of Hope in E-Health

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	Staff Writer articles by this author...
Editing and Researching news and stories about global and local Pharmacy Issues

Despite the frustrations that have beset e-health, there is a glimmer of hope in South Australia.
Here, the SA government has supported from the "bottom up" a simple system to connect a range of primary health practitioners, including pharmacists.
To achieve this a simple sidebar has been developed to sit on any computer desktop.
On one side it has an interface to a range of common computer health programs, while on the other, the ability to connect securely to a registered range of health professionals.
Simple to operate and cheap to develop when compared to many of the "top down" systems that have proved so wasteful.
It has been supported by all participants and funding has been extended by Nicola Roxon.
The following is a media release from the HealthConnect SA program.

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"PrimaryCare Sidebar™ supported until June 2010!

When we announced the closure of the HealthConnect SA progam in the June issue of HealthClix, we advised you we were continuing to negotiate to secure longer term funding for the PrimaryCare Sidebar™ and Communication and Shared Health Summary project and would be in touch with you again.

The good news is that through a joint initiative, SA Health and the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing have agreed to support the project until June 2010, which will enable a small project team within SA Health to continue the deployment of the PrimaryCare Sidebar™ and development and trial implementation of the Communication and Shared Health Summary solution.

Although the existing HealthConnect SA program will close as announced, a reduced project team will continue to work with key primary health care providers, stakeholders and Pen Computer Systems to ensure that our current projects are delivered and supported and opportunities for future e-Health initiatives can be explored.

The project team will be led by Cathy Teager, and we will be in touch again as soon as we are in a position to give you more details."

For further information go to www.healthconnectsa.org.au or contact Cathy Teager on 0421 281 284 or email cathy.teager@health.sa.gov.au.

Naomi Pearson

Communications Manager

HealthConnect SA

SA Health

Government of South Australia