National survey on IT implementation

In a new nationwide survey, KM Group and HISA have unearthed some interesting insights on IT implementation in aged care, including:

• Types of applications implemented
• Factors impacting project success / failure
• Budget, time and quality - expectations vs outcomes
  
• Lessons learned

Care Planning - a hot new space

By far, the most popular area for IT expenditure is Care Planning Tools (including assessment and decision support) - almost 60% of respondents investing here in the past 18 months. Second and third were Document Management (35%) and Bed Management (30%) respectively.

Strong outlook for aged care IT expenditure 

Over 85% of respondents answered 'likely', 'very likely' or 'extremely likely' to undertake further IT implementation in the medium-term. Many expressed confidence in IT and it's ability to generate ROI in aged care, while some indicated pressure from external stakeholders as a key motivation for investment.

Full report in January's IT:informer

See January's edition of the IT:informer for comprehensive results, insights and discussion.

UHI rollout planned for 2010

The Rudd Government has released draft legislation to assign a Unique Healthcare Identifier (UHI) to health care providers and consumers.

Right now, there's no single method of accurately identifying people receiving healthcare, healthcare providers or the organisations managing care, and mismatched patient information is an acknowledged problem - so this is a solid step forward in building a more efficient, more secure health system in Australia.

People won't have to apply for an identifier - it will be allocated automatically to every Australian with a Medicare card or a Department of Veterans' Affairs treatment card. People not covered by these will be allocated identifiers on an individual basis.

UHI rollout is planned for mid-2010, with the draft legislation open for public comment until Thursday, 7 January 2010.

More on this in January's IT:informer.

Three pitfalls to avoid in becoming a SaaS vendor

Avoid capital expenditure. Reduce in-house IT infrastructure. Instantly access the latest updates. Pay as you go...

It's these selling points which are still seeing increasing demand for SaaS, attracting more and more software vendors to the cloud.

But, as many software vendors have found, converting their existing offerings to a SaaS model isn't easy. Internally, it brings dramatic changes to cash flow, product development timelines, support, sales, and last but not least, marketing. And it's not without risk on the demand-side - customers aren't very tolerant when vendors get it wrong.

NewLeaseG2M and Mural Consulting specialise in helping companies transition to the SaaS business model, and have identified the three most common challenges faced:

1. Making the marketing shift - from traditional software sales to SaaS marketing and sales
2. Lack of agility - customers expect greater responsiveness with SaaS
   
3. Balancing investments - matching cash flow against rate of return and investments

More on this from NewLeaseG2M's CEO, Walter Adamson in January's issue of IT:informer. But before then, be sure to tell us what you think, here or via the IT:informer Twitterstream.

More on EMM

Following up on yesterday's post about Electronic Medication Management (EMM), here's a cool little diagram showing how it all works (click to enlarge).

Introducing EMM

In case you don't know already, ASCA and ACAA, through the Aged Care Industry IT Council are working to implement Electronic Medication Management (EMM) in the aged care industry - an attempt to improve medication management, decision support, and ultimately, quality of care.

What's it all about?

Basically, EMM will enable GPs, pharmacists, residential aged care providers and hospitals to share clinical information - giving everyone access to a common electronic medication record.

What people think 

A series of workshops were held around Australia to introduce the idea, and to seek input from key stakeholders. Discussion was vibrant at these events, with shared frustration surrounding the duplication and inefficiencies in current processes.

Also raised was privacy - issues like who owns the centralised data, who's liable etc.

What do you think?

We'd love to know what you think about EMM - so please leave any comments you have here. And don't forget the IT:informer Twitterstream.

Development is well underway...

The design and development of the new IT:informer site is coming on really well. A little sneak peek...

Welcome to the IT:informer!

Hello and welcome to the official blog of the IT:informer - Australia's #1 source of aged care technology news, insight and opinion.

We're excited to be moving our magazine online, and invite you to follow us and join the discussion as we prepare to launch www.itinformer.com.au in early 2010.

Really looking forward to some great discussion over the summer - follow us at:

twitter.com/itinformer
twitter.com/MBarnettKMGroup

Cheers,
From everyone at IT:informer