Top ten stories of 2020

eHealthNews.nz: Covid-19

Monday, 30 November 2020

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NEWS – eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

In a year dominated by Covid-19, it is somewhat surprising that only four of the top ten stories of the year are related to the pandemic response.

However, interest in and awareness of data and digital health has significantly increased and the readership and reach of eHealthNews.nz has grown with it, with 10,500 people now receiving the newsletter, up from 9,500 a year ago.

By far the most-read story of 2020 was the news that chief digital officer Stella Ward had joined the exodus of senior execs at Canterbury DHB.

She was one of seven senior executives at Canterbury DHB to resign amidst rising tension between the board and executive management team over budget cuts to reduce CDHB's $180 million deficit.

Ward has now left the DHB, along with other key supporters and enablers of its digital transformation journey such as chief executive David Meates and funding and decision support executive director Carolyn Gullery.

Savita Devi, who previously led the Cloud Business Office as part of Canterbury’s cloud transformation programme, is Acting Chief Digital Officer.

Interestingly, a story from May 2019 was the second-most read of 2020, detailing the Ministry’s decision to move away from the idea of building a single Electronic Health Record, towards developing a national Health Information Platform that will enable data about a single patient to be shared.

The return of the nHIP business case to Cabinet was delayed this year due to Covid-19, but work is now expected to begin in 2021, pending funding approval.

The third most-read article reinforces the need for a well-funded nHIP as a government report this year predicted that around $2.3 billion is needed over the next decade to address issues with DHBs’ legacy systems and invest in technologies that enable new models of care.

The Current State Assessment of DHB assets report confirmed what everyone in the sector already knew, that DHBs have “maintained their IT assets in an environment of accumulated underinvestment” and New Zealand lacks the investment levels necessary to embrace rapid changes in health IT technologies.

The first Covid-19 related story appears at number four on the list and is about the release of the Covid Tracer App and the addition of Bluetooth functionality.

The article was based on a Radio NZ interview with director general of health Ashley Bloomfield in May in which he said that Bluetooth technology would likely be released the following month.

“That’s the next functionality and we are well down the track of working that up,” he told RNZ at the time. However, that functionality only started rolling out on December 10 as an update that allows users to opt-in to the Bluetooth contact tracing.

If enabled, the technology monitors a phone user's proximity to others and receives notifications if they were close to someone who later tested positive for Covid-19. The Ministry will not know if someone receives a notification that they have been exposed.

News that the Government was pumping $20 million into increasing telehealth capacity for general practice and community providers as part of its Covid-19 response was next on the list.

A significant jump in the use of telehealth in 2020 has been one of the most visible digital responses to the pandemic as an increasing number of general practices enabled virtual consultations as a way of managing workload and preventing face-to-face contact with patients where it was not necessary.

Whether this switch will become permanent is yet to be seen and is sure to be a topic for further articles in 2021.

The impact of Covid-19 on the use of telehealth in DHBs was also the subject of the first eHealthNews member-only special report, released in October.

Also in October, Bay of Plenty DHB became the first of the region’s DHBs to implement the new interactive read-write capable version of the Midland Clinical Portal (MCP), replacing its inhouse-developed clinical workstation.

Hauora Tairāwhiti is the next DHB due to go-live in early 2021, followed by Lakes DHB and eHealthNews will continue to cover the implementations and outcomes.

Interest in what is happening at New Zealand’s DHBs continues in the seventh most-read story of the year, which is an article about Waitematā and Auckland DHBs using the Chnnl app to listen and respond to staff wellbeing.

The app allows staff to self-report their wellbeing on a daily basis and connects them with relevant information and support services. Look out for an update on use of this app early next year.

An announcement regarding Spark Health looking for projects involving artificial intelligence and machine learning to fund as part of its Digital Innovation Programme 2020 was next on the list. The five successful projects are detailed here.

Two more Covid-19 stories made it into the top ten. The first was news that the National Contact Tracing Solution would be developed and future-proofed as part of a $55 million funding package approved by Cabinet.

Built on Salesforce technology, a minimum viable product of the NCTS was built in seven days after being rapidly repurposed from the National Screening Solution.

It has also been expanded to cover the border, as detailed in the final story rounding out the top ten, with recent news that New Zealand has become a global leader in its border controls for Covid-19 by implementing a fully digital border system.

“Never waste a good crisis” has been a common refrain in 2020 and the Ministry of Health certainly embodied this, collaboratively developing and rolling out a raft of digital systems to support a paperless border system that records and links people’s arrival into the country through to their managed isolation stay, Covid-19 testing requests and results and national reporting.

The seamless system will help prevent mistakes from slipping through the net, keeping us all safe and able to enjoy a well-deserved summer break.