The state of NSW plans to have a fully integrated digital health service within a decade, said in early May 2018 Dr Zoran Bolevich, chief executive and chief information officer of eHealth NSW — an IT agency that delivers innovative ICT solutions across the public health system of the Australian state.
Dr Bolevich is responsible for the digital transformation of NSW Health. With a team of about 1,000 people, his agency is responsible for planning, implementing and supporting the largest digital health program in Australia.
Towards a fully digital and patient-centered healthcare system
New South Wales had set a goal that, over the next eight to ten years, « [it] will become a fully digitally enabled and integrated healthcare system that places patients, their carers and families at the center, » Dr Zoran Bolevich said in a Q&A session at Oracle Cloudworld, an international conference organized by Oracle — a company centered on the development of cloud — which was held on May 1, 2018 in Sydney, according to Computerworld.com.au.
« Imagine a future where perhaps one quarter of all healthcare services are delivered online rather than face-to-face, where patients have control over their personal health records and can choose whether they would like to have service provided by video consultation, » he told the audience.
More active patients for faster treatment
« Imagine a health system that is able to proactively target groups of patients with comprehensive health services that prevent illness and the deterioration of chronic illnesses like diabetes, and that therefore prevents unnecessary hospitalizations, » he added. « When a patient needs to go to an emergency room, he can start the process himself with his smartphone so that when he arrives, the care team is ready for him, already educated about the patient and his needs, and can start diagnosis and treatment immediately. »
Cancer treatments: NSW is looking at genomics and AI
Dr Bolevich envisions « a future where cancer treatments are supported by genomics and artificial intelligence so that clinicians can put together the best treatment protocols that will yield the best outcomes for each patient, based on his unique characteristics. »
NSW: the size and complexity of the healthcare system make its digitization challenging
New South Wales has the largest healthcare system in Australia with an annual budget of AU$21.7 billion (€13.7b; US$16.2b), 228 hospitals and 135,000 employees.
According to Zoran Bolevich, its size and complexity would make the realization of the project challenging. Another challenge would be the interoperability. « Because of the way health informatics has evolved, a lot of our systems are not able to exchange even basic information. It is a big challenge [to overcome]. »