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Welcome to the September edition of Health Care and Informatics Review Online. This edition reflects an exciting new development for Health Care and Informatics Review Online, the adoption of this web-based journal by Health Informatics New Zealand (HINZ) as its official journal.
HINZ is a not-for-profit organisation that seeks to facilitate improved health outcomes through the dissemination and utilisation of information, knowledge and technology. Its membership is made up of those with an interest in health care and informatics.
As regular readers will know, Health Care and Informatics Review Online is dedicated to facilitating the exchange of ideas and developing a widely accessible resource of experience in clinical informatics and health care delivery.
The linking of these leading promoters of healthcare technology in New Zealand provides a valuable opportunity to showcase New Zealand’s acclaimed capability in the health informatics area.
In recognition of this expanded role for Health Care and Informatics Review Online, this edition presents a selection of presentations from the hugely successful HINZ Conference & Exhibition held in Wellington in July this year. A challenge for health informatics is to understand information technologies and methods, and develop and apply them to support the optimum care for patients at all times. The prime objective of the 2004 HINZ conference is to provide the latest information, which will assist decision making and eventually lead "Towards a Healthy Nation".
"The papers presented at the HINZ conference demonstrate innovation in clinical computing that is linked to healthcare delivery" says Dr Martin Entwistle, Chair of the Editorial Board, HCIRO. "We are able to tell that story to the world".
Included within the edition are a review of ongoing developments with the electronic health record in Australia from Peter Schloeffel of St Peters South Australia, an outline of a proposed approach for electronic decision support for the referral of patients for laboratory tests in New Zealand (Drs Stephen Chu and Chris Wong) and a paper describing a system to provide analysis and surveillance on standardised data on public health activities in Hutt Valley DHB (Toby Regan and Tony Cooke). A paper from Ken Leech of ProCare Health Limited describes a process of systematic collection of clinical information from ProCare general practices and the plans to use this information to improve chronic disease management, to better inform funding decisions and programme planning, and to demonstrate improvements in the quality of clinical care.
Finally a paper from Karolyn Kerr, describes research in progress that aims to develop a data quality strategy for the New Zealand Ministry of Health.
In addition we are pleased to present a guest editorial, also from Karolyn Kerr, which overviews each of the papers and highlights the underpinning role of Ministry initiatives in respect of data quality that support the data systems described by the other authors.
It is planned that Health Care and Informatics Review Online will publish peer-reviewed papers from future HINZ Conferences.
"This is the next logical step for HINZ" says Dr Kannan Subramaniam, Chair of Health Informatics New Zealand. "The papers that are presented at our annual conference are of a calibre that requires a credible peer-reviewed journal to take them to the world."
"Having been on the editorial board of Health Care and Informatics Review Online for over a year, I had an insider’s view of the mission of the journal. This is very similar to our own mission at HINZ. So, the question was not whether we should come together - it was about when we should make it happen!"
