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Information Transfer

26-Aug-2009 |

Both the Australian and US governments are looking at restructuring their health systems.

This is a particular big thing for the US where restructuring the health system is the holy grail of Presidential politics. Funding issues to the side, one the key aspects underlying the reforms is going to be how information is transferred between the different organisations operating in these respective health systems.

Horror stories abound about patients in hospital having the wrong limb removed, or receiving the wrong medication and these are merely some of the ill consequences of a less than effective system of information transfer within a single organisation. Imagine the problems that arise when you’re looking at information transfer across a range of organisations in a health system. This is when things get really interesting. Looking at the reforms then, it will be useful to see (especially if they get up in the US) what effect this will have on informational transfer within the health system – if any at all.