This appeared last week.
Digital Baby Book Budget boost for parents
Investments in digital technologies and children’s health will have long term benefits for Australians.
29 May 2018
The 2018 Federal Budget, announced on 8 May, is notable for its emphasis on long--term investments in the health of Australians, particularly in children’s health and digital health technologies.
Better health from day one
New parents currently receive a hard copy “blue book” to record and track their children’s health and immunisation milestones, but this will be phased out in favour of a digital record next year. The Budget allocated $5 million to the development of a Digital Baby Book, which will let parents compile a complete medical history for their children from the very start of life, ensuring that their children need never be without the medical information they need to ensure optimal health.
$77.9 million has also been allocated to programs targeted at improving infant and maternal health, such as diet and exercise recommendations for expectant mothers, as well as free whooping cough vaccines. Together, these initiatives are expected to save money over the longer term by reducing reliance on the healthcare system in later life.
Digital health investments
$1.3 billion will be invested over 10 years in a new National Health and Medical Industry Growth Plan, which will cement Australia’s status as a global centre for medical research and innovation. This will include a $500 million investment in genomics research to develop the use of precision medicine.
Other investments include $92 million to the Digital Transformation Agency for the GovPass system, which enables unified digital identification across government services to improve access and reduce duplication. The Australian Health Institute of Health and Welfare received $30 million for technology upgrades and better data sharing capabilities.
Pharmacy gets a boost with $15.3 million allocated to introduce a national electronic prescribing system for the PBS, due to begin in October 2019. This measure will improve medicines safety and compliance, as well as overall efficiency.
Here is the link:
A bit of googling came up with this:
Digital tools set to improve child health
05/03/2018
New South Wales and Victoria are leading a new national collaboration to leverage ehealth digital tools to capture child health and developmental information electronically, as part of a new child digital health record scheme.
Led by the National Collaborative for Child Health Informatics, the initiative is set to look at the potential of offering a digital health record for every child in Australia from conception through to adolescence. Both parents and healthcare professionals will be able to access the records.
Traditionally, child health and development data has been recorded in baby books ‘coloured’ for each jurisdiction. NSW, which piloted an electronic version of its Blue Book during in 2012, will lead the digital baby book project.
The digital rollout forms part of four initiatives that aim to build a ‘longitudinal’ child health record for all Australian children moving forward. The other three initiatives, set to launch in 2019, will involve moves to see how to upload school immunisation records digitally to the Australian Immunisation Register (AIR), led by the ACT in association with Tasmania; a new national Digital Pregnancy Health Record, led by Queensland in association with South Australia; and digitising child health checks so the information can be shared electronically, led by the NT with the help of Western Australia.
The National Collaborative Network for Child Health Informatics was formed last year by eHealth NSW in partnership with the Sydney Children's Hospitals Network with support from the Australian Digital Health Agency.
The aim of the Network is to bring together Australia's leading experts in children’s health to identify nationally focused, child-centred and clinician-friendly digital health projects to positively impact the health and social outcomes of Australia’s children and their families.
“This is a unique opportunity to make a real and lasting difference to the health and wellbeing of the children – and indeed the future – of Australia,” eHealth NSW’s Chief Executive, Dr Zoran Bolevich, said. “NSW Health has a significant program of work underway to enhance our health services through effective use of digital technologies.”
Here is the link:
So we seem to have had the technology for years!
In the Budget we have this:
Infant Health – Digital Baby Book
Page last updated: 08 May 2018
Infant Health – Digital Baby Book - PDF 117 KB
The Government will invest $77.9 million in infant and maternal health. The Government will develop a national Digital Baby Book for children as an update to the traditional state and territory hard copy paediatric baby books.
The Government will invest $77.9 million in infant and maternal health. The Government will develop a national Digital Baby Book for children as an update to the traditional state and territory hard copy paediatric baby books.
Why is this important?
Most Australian families have paper records of a child’s health, development and childhood vaccinations. However, for many people, paper records are inconvenient and are often lost or not brought to appointments, which can result in delayed and potentially substandard care.
The Government will develop a national digital platform to enable families to replace the hard copy books with a digital book, which will be easier to keep track of key health information when they need it.
The Government will develop a national digital platform to enable families to replace the hard copy books with a digital book, which will be easier to keep track of key health information when they need it.
Who will benefit?
The Digital Baby Book will give every newborn Australian the opportunity to maintain a lifelong digital health record. The ability to have access to the baby’s records anytime, anywhere and be able to build a complete medical history from birth is an important benefit to support families.
How much will this cost?
This measure will cost $5 million from 2018–19 to 2019–20.
Here is the link:
So it seems we are getting a baby myHR, in app form I imagine, for each nipper.
What is interesting it that it is by no means clear if this is the myHR or something else and how the two hang together.
$5M seems almost ‘chump change’ for the ADHA – I wonder is it them, or someone else, developing the project and where the data is held.
Maybe someone who knows and can explain how it all hangs together as this seems like a very useful and worthwhile initiative?
David.
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