Personally controlled electronic health records
Like many other countries, Australia’s health care system is facing increasing challenges to the sustainability of current health care practices.
The personally controlled electronic health record (PCEHR) system is being developed as part of the national e-health program to help meet these challenges and bring consumer-focussed electronic health capabilities to the Australian health system to drive improvements in quality, safety and access to health and medical care.
What is a PCEHR?
A personally controlled electronic health record (PCEHR) will be a secure, electronic record of your important health information.
When the system becomes available in July 2012, the PCEHR will bring key elements of your health information together in a unified record. Your information in the PCEHR system will be accessible only by you and your authorised healthcare providers. This information will allow healthcare providers to make better, more efficient decisions about your health and treatment.
The PCEHR will not hold all the information in your healthcare providers’ records, but will detail key and frequently used health care information. As PCEHRs become more widely used and the PCEHR system matures, you will be able to access your own health information online — anytime, anywhere—and so will your authorised healthcare providers. Your health care information will be protected and secure through a combination of governance arrangements, supported by information privacy and system security measures.
You will also be able to nominate which members of your family (or carers) have access to your information. For example, if you are mature-aged or chronically ill, you can nominate your partner (or a trusted person), to have access to your PCEHR.
What's happening
Privacy Impact Assessment on the PCEHR system
A detailed Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) into the PCEHR system has been undertaken by Minter Ellison Lawyers and Salinger Privacy. The PIA report made 112 recommendations.
Launch of the “Software Developers Resource Centre”
A new vendor portal has been launched by the Department of Health and Ageing (the Department) and National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA).
Plain packaging legislation receives the Royal Assent
The Australian Government's world first legislation to require all tobacco to be sold in plain packaging received the Royal Assent on 1 December 2011.
