Editorial - HINZ 2006 - Primary Care and Beyond: Building the e-Bridge to Integrated Care

I am delighted to present you with the September 2006 edition of Health Care and Informatics Review Online, which presents content from “Primary Care and Beyond: Building the e-Bridge to Integrated Care”, the Health Informatics New Zealand (HINZ) Conference and Exhibition 2006, held 9-11 August 2006 in Auckland, New Zealand.

Health Care and Informatics Review Online is in its third year as the official journal for HINZ and a key part of that role is coverage of this important event.
 
New Zealand is a world leader in health information technology – both in terms of technology use and in terms of a world-class health software industry. New Zealand benefits from a clear and ambitious Health Information Strategy, significant data integration projects at the District Health Board level, and sponsorship by Primary Health Organisations of technology programmes to enhance chronic disease management. New Zealand also benefits from the intellectual capital and infrastructure built up from long-term commitment to health information technology (IT) as illustrated through virtually ubiquitous computer use among physicians, the National Health Identifier, and the roll-out of the national Health Provider Index.^[1]

We are now at a juncture where enabling forces are pushing us to a watershed moment for integrated care. We have the networks and the experience; the interoperability standards are maturing. Diverse parts of the health care system are ready to talk to each other. It’s time to shape our vision of a better health care system of the very near future..^[2]

The conference provides a critical forum for sharing experience, learning and ideas for the future from the innovative use of health information technologies and, as such, is an important contributor to achieving this vision of integrated care.

It is our pleasure to have the opportunity to make this information even more readily available through publication of all full papers from the conference in Health Care and Informatics Review Online.
 
All submissions accepted as full papers are presented in this edition. Full papers were accepted for the conference on the basis of paper scoring and review, conducted by the HINZ scientific programme committee.

Papers cover broad and varied subject matter and reflect the innovation that is so widespread in the application of technology in the health sector in New Zealand.

A key theme across the papers is the use of innovative technology to promote higher quality and more efficient care. One example is the work by Bagheri and colleagues, who evaluated a new approach for comparing the accessibility of primary health care services in a rural setting with optimum such accessibility. This development of an accessibility tool to better explore any inequity is seen as a means towards better access to primary health care for all.

Several papers assess the use of technology and its impact in the primary care setting. For example, Judith Engelbrecht and colleagues report on research that aims to clarify how health professionals in Primary Health Organisation (PHO) practices are using computer-based information systems to help to support clinical decision making. The intention is to inform planning in relation to efficient information acquisition and sharing within the organisation, with resulting benefits for PHO members and their patients.

Of the 14 full papers presented in the conference, we include ten papers in full at this initial release of the edition. The balance of papers are included in abstract form only; it is our expectation that full papers for these will be added to the edition as soon as they are available, within the next few weeks.

1 HINZ Conference & Exhibition 2006 announcement. Available at: http://www.hinz.org.nz/media/2006_conference/HINZBrochure2006.pdf

2 HINZ Conference & Exhibition 2006 announcement. Available at: http://www.hinz.org.nz/media/2006_conference/HINZBrochure2006.pdf