| Orion Health Says New Zealand Could Lead The World In Health IT |
With growing momentum in health reform globally, Orion Health’s vision is to see New Zealand become the first country in the world to offer a national electronic health record (EHR) and once again become the world’s leading healthcare system.Auckland, NZ - 26 March 2010 - While New Zealand has in the past lacked the vision and leadership at a national level to support such an initiative, Orion Health CEO, Ian McCrae believes the tide has now turned.“We are already seeing a move in New Zealand towards centralisation of regional electronic solutions for discharge summaries and referrals which is the first step towards putting the pieces of the puzzle together for a national shared patient record.“ he said. “We’re just missing the overall picture for the jigsaw” Mr McCrae is encouraged to see the momentum growing amongst its New Zealand customers across the health sector, in alignment with the initiatives suggested in the Horne report – issued in August last year - which recommended consolidation of regional initiatives and called for a national EHR. McCrae is in favor of the Horne report. “Why stop at regional solutions? Let’s go national. The population of one region in Spain, Norway or even Canada is larger than the population of New Zealand”. He says establishing a national EHR in New Zealand would be far simpler than in many other countries, because of the country’s existing IT infrastructure and an upsurge in understanding how shared electronic health information can improve the health status of populations as well as improve efficiencies in healthcare delivery. “Orion Health’s expertise globally puts us in a prime position to help restore New Zealand’s healthcare system to be the top performing healthcare system in the world.” The New Zealand-owned software company is transforming the way the way patients are treated, using its innovative software and infrastructure to implement regional EHR solutions across the globe. “In Norway, for instance, we are working with the country’s largest health authority which includes a total of 69,000 employees across 16 hospitals, covering the health needs of nearly 2.7 million inhabitants. And in Alaska, we work with SEARHC, a health organisation connecting remote Alaska Native communities scattered over an area the size of New Zealand’s South Island.” Recently, Orion Health signed an agreement with Northern Ireland, which will see them pilot a new Electronic Care Record (similar to an EHR). The one-year pilot phase will see hospitals and GP practices across two of the five Health and Social Care Trusts begin to share medical records and basic social care information. Gestion Sanitaria de Mallorca (GESMA), which consists of three medical facilities focusing on social-medical issues in Spain, will use Orion Health’s software to allow clinicians, nurses, psychiatrists and community care workers to share information about patient's healthcare and co-develop care plans. Ian McCrae said Spain’s proposed EHR solution will provide a single comprehensive view of patient data for users, helping to reduce errors by streamlining information transfer, and provides an internet based electronic patient summary which contains all of the patient’s medical history, procedures performed and tests run. Background notes and clarifications: National EHRs enable healthcare providers to transform the way patients are cared for, by coordinating the transfer of care across primary and secondary providers. Orion Health’s vision for an EHR is to have a summary of all the patient's clinical assessments and care records drawn from across a wide region. This will enable all the providers (including GP’s hospitals, and community health providers) to collect and share information electronically about the patient. The EHR creates a complete health record about the patient that can be accessed by providers wherever the patient is seen. The benefits of nationalising the provision of electronic health IT includes:
New Zealand is far more advanced than most countries in the world as it has the foundations at a national level, which will make the implementation of a national solution much simpler:
About Orion Health Ltd. Orion Health’s easy-to-use solutions and applications improve patient care and clinical decision-making by providing integrated health data in a single, unified view. By enhancing existing healthcare information systems, the Orion Health® Rhapsody® Integration Engine, Concerto® Portal and workflow solutions, provide healthcare workers with easy access to patient data and trends, and reduce errors and omissions by streamlining information transfer. Worldwide, Orion Health is implementing health information communities involving over 35 million patients with hundreds of thousands of active users. Orion Health’s partners include leading health system integrators and IT vendors. Orion Health has more than 1,000 clients around the world including the New Zealand Ministry of Health and Auckland District Health Board, HealthAlliance, ACT Health and New South Wales Health (Australia), Health Infoway (Canada) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). More information can be found at www.orionhealth.com. 
 
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