• Home
• > Seminars
• > Health Information Strategy Speech 2005

Health Information Strategy Speech 2005

2005 Health Information Strategy for New Zealand Launched

Hon Annette King Minister of Health

4 August 2005 - Speech Notes
Health Informatics New Zealand Conference 2005

Thank you Peter (Carr) for that introduction, and thank you Ngati Whatua for welcoming everyone to the conference.

I acknowledge our welcoming party; Kannan Subramaniam and Stephen Chu from HINZ, Debbie Chin and Mike Rillstone from the Ministry and Papaarangi Reid from the Eru Pomare Research Centre.

Also your invited speakers from Canada, the United States and the UK. Kia ora, I hope you all find time to see a little of our region while you are here.

It is always a pleasure to be invited to open this conference, an event which builds every year into what is now the most important health informatics date on the New Zealand calendar.

I'm told your focus this year is on telling the New Zealand story, and I must say I'm delighted that the New Zealand story is attracting international attention, from not only across the Tasman but also further afield.

California Healthcare Foundation recently applauded our efforts in New Zealand, saying with more than 70 countries examining the potential of Information Technology in Health care, one nation with a population of less than four million has emerged as a leader. That nation was identified as New Zealand.

I can also report that I've personally received very positive feedback on our health IT achievements, particularly when I attended the World Health Assembly in Geneva.

The plenary session was devoted to the subject "Making every mother and child count" and within that context I was able to describe how our collection of information allows us to track and measure mothers and children as they pass through the life cycle of pregnancy, birth, childhood, and adolescence.

In developing this continuum of care, we know it is not possible to develop health policy and make decisions based on guesswork, prejudice or hunches. Resources, both financial and human, are too scarce for that.

We must base policy and decisions on information and evidence, and Bill Gates, who spoke in the same session, reinforced this. Evidence must be the basis for our investment in Vote Health, and this message was certainly well received in Geneva. Others are clearly thinking the same way.

All of us here today understand the value of our National Health Index number as a unique identifier for each person accessing health and disability services in New Zealand. We all understand how this number and the database provide the ability, among other things, to transfer clinical information between agencies, and to link data in national databases for monitoring, research and reporting purposes.

This information ultimately influences our strategic planning and funding into the future, and as the Minister of Health, I must say this information gives me a much stronger and confident debating position within caucus, particularly when it comes to funding.

We also understand how our National Immunisation Register (NIR) is an important step in implementing our Child Information Strategy and keeping count of children's interactions with health services. The register allows automatic notification of children who are missing out on the Meningococcal B vaccinations, for example, so they can be followed up.

If I may take a political perspective on the NIR for a moment - and it is election year - then I must point out that in the 90s, before the NIR was developed, the then National health minister said such a register was too expensive and would never work.

And recently in the House, the ACT Party claimed the teething problems associated with the introduction of the NIR - problems which had already been identified, and which were already being worked on - could undermine the confidence of parents in the whole immunisation process.

National Party health spokesperson Paul Hutchison asked how I could have bragged about the register at a recent doctors' conference when I must have known about what he called the "shambles" surrounding it.

Well, may I take this opportunity to say that in spite of this attempt by my opponents to politicalise the introduction of this key tool in our Primary Health Care Strategy, the NIR is not a shambles.

Of course, there are bound to be teething problems, but they were expected and they are being solved. I can assure the public that the Meningococcal B vaccination campaign - and the record keeping that the NIR provides - is on track.

Can I take this opportunity to thank everyone who's been working on this NIR project. Your work is vital in what we're trying to achieve.

And let's remind ourselves once again just what that is. Sometimes, amid all the politics and the media hype, it's easy to forget. We're trying to protect innocent young lives from hideous and sometimes fatal diseases such as meningitis, and we're winning. So let's recognise these achievements, take heart from them and continue to move forward.

Which is not to say we can afford to rest on our laurels.

We might be taking giant strides relative to our size, and we might be continuing to lead in primary care computing, but the challenge for us lies in enhancing the linkages across to all sectors of health and disability services.

At the 2004 HINZ Conference we highlighted that the New Zealand Health Strategy had identified a need for better access to relevant information to improve decision-making for both the health and disability sectors.

We also identified the need to enable better quality decision-making at a community level and better use of the available dollar.

I am delighted to say that this challenge has been taken up and a sector steering group led by Chai Chuah, Chief Executive of Hutt Valley Health, has produced a Health Information Strategy for New Zealand that I am launching today.

Can I also take this opportunity to talk a little about Working to Add Value through E-information - commonly referred to as the WAVE report.

As you know, I launched the WAVE report in October 2001, and the aim was to provide a momentum in developing our capability to use and share information.

WAVE identified a number of challenges and I am pleased to report good progress has been made in key areas.

Notably progress has been made:

• by HISO, the Health Information Standards Organisation, on establishing a methodology for Standards Development;
• in upgrading the National Health Index to meet today's and tomorrow's needs;
• in the development of the National Immunisation Register to support the Immunisation programmes, as I've already mentioned;
• in developing a system to manage unique identifiers for health practitioners;
• and in improving secure connectivity between health organisations to enable the safe sharing of health information between organisations.

In addition, the Ministry of Health has been working with the sector to build a consensus on the vision, goals and activities for Information Systems in the next five years with the intention of creating a single and co-ordinated strategy.

At this point I must say I have been pleased to see the willingness to collaborate across the sector. Working together with a focus on effective sharing of information and decision-making will benefit both the sector and community.

Information becomes more valuable as we share it. Information that is critical to clinical decision-making is also needed for those planning service provision, developing disease management strategies, population health strategies and those making funding allocation decisions. We have to use information to enable us to get better value from the health dollar.

Over the last 12 months a group of people representing the sector and the Ministry of Health have worked under Chai Chuah's leadership to produce the Health Information Strategy for New Zealand.

Representatives of the General Practitioner sector, government service providers and vendors joined Chai in this work. The group has engaged with a wide range of stakeholders across the sector to create a practical blue print for action going forward.

The Strategy has proposed 12 priority areas or action zones that need to be addressed or renewed. Five of these are about Information Systems that underpin the sector; seven are focussed on needs of priority areas, such as cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, chronic conditions, outpatients and primary care.

If we can achieve practical solutions in the priority areas we will be able to deliver real value to consumers and their care providers.

If I could speak about governance for moment, the Steering Group has recommended that I establish an effective governance mechanism to oversee the successful implementation of the Strategy.

The Strategy recommends establishing a Ministerial Advisory Committee. As you know, the Health Information Standards Organisation, HISO, was established in 2003 as a Ministerial Advisory Committee. Given the success of HISO, I have invited HISO to take on the task of governance of the Strategy.

The committee will now be known as the Health Information Strategy Action Committee. The work on Health Information Standards will continue according to HISO's established methods, but now working as a sub-committee of the Health Information Strategy Action Committee.

I have invited all the current members of HISO to continue as members of the Health Information Strategy Action Committee. In recognition of the change in focus they will have the power to co-opt additional members as required. I have revised the terms of reference to ensure that all the action zones in the Strategy can be addressed.

I would like to thank the members of HISAC, the Health Information Strategy Action Committee, for so willingly taking on this challenge.

In terms of funding, I have allocated to HISAC $1 million to support the governance effort to get things moving along. This is an increase of $700,000 on the Ministry's current $300,000 contribution to HISO.

I am also very pleased to be able to announce that I am allocating $1.966 million in the first year (2005/06) for the Ministry to contribute to projects to advance the Strategy's action zones.

I hope that alongside allocations and reallocations of funds from the wider sector this will enable significant progress in these action zones.

The Roadmap for implementation of the Strategy sets out the initial priorities to develop business cases for action zones that require investment, particularly those that may require collaborative funding by a number of stakeholders. I hope that the Ministry's contribution will enable a quick start on these key early projects.

In arriving at this point, I would particularly like to express my appreciation to Chai Chuah, Chief Executive of Hutt Valley Health, who has not only contributed to the work of HISO, the Health Information Standards Organisation, but has also led the Sector Steering group which has produced the Strategy.

I would also like to thank the other members of the Steering Committee who represented both the sector and the Ministry and who have produced a very practical way forward.

I would additionally like to thank Paul Cressey for his work over the last two years in leading HISO, for his energy and ongoing commitment to this critical work.

I know that many people have put an incredible amount of effort in to making progress through Health Informatics New Zealand and I would like to acknowledge the support of the District Health Boards and in particular the Chief Information Officers whose forum is an integral part of this conference.

I am deeply appreciative of all the work that Ministry of Health staff have put in over the last 12 months. It has been a demanding time for all.

Over the last 12 months we have seen progress on the Ethnicity Data Protocols, increasing Primary Health Organisations coverage, the NHI upgrade, the Health Practitioners Index and the development of business case guidelines for DHB IT investment. That's all in addition to the NIR development I've already mentioned.

I also wish to express my appreciation of the collaborative way in which developers and suppliers have worked to good effect. This relationship has led to high rates of provider acceptance and a dynamic and constructive relationship between public and private providers.

Implementation of the Strategy will be a collective responsibility of the entire sector and supported by the Ministry.

I do not under-estimate the challenge of finding resources throughout the sector to undertake the action, but I am confident that the sector will respond by aligning its expenditure proposals for the collective good.

The Strategy is intended to achieve three broad objectives; increased participation through networking and sharing of health information across the sector, supporting collaboration across providers in the care of consumers, and improving targeting through improved decision-making.

I am confident that with your support and by working smarter we can achieve these objectives and continue on our track to improved health care to all New Zealanders through effective Information Systems.

I am sure you will have a most interesting and enjoyable conference and I look forward to hearing about your deliberations as you continue to strive for excellence in Health Informatics.

--Presented at HINZ 2005 on August 4, 2005--