Ministry to fund digital enablement projects

News - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth    

The Ministry of Health will fund a wide range of projects to provide telehealth and digitally enabled health services for primary and community care.

The MoH has released a Registration of Interest as part of its Digital Enablement programme, saying it is looking to fund proofs of concept, prototypes, pilots or innovative projects, with a maximum level of funding of $150,000 each (plus GST). 

Digital enablement of primary and community care services is one of the Ministry priority focus areas and includes the use of telehealth, teleworking and digital inclusion.

The ROI document says a digitally enabled healthcare system is a key recommendation of the Health and Disability System Review / Hauora Manaaki Ki Aotearoa and during the Covid-19 ‘lock down’ digitally enabled health services were adopted rapidly and widely by primary and community healthcare providers.

“This allowed many tangata whaiora / health consumers and their whānau to access or participate in healthcare in a different way,” it says. 

“This shift was transformative, in this emergency situation, and the Ministry of Health is now looking to build on this work to expand and enhance the use of digitally enabled health services to improve access to and participation with primary and community-based healthcare,” it says.

The ROI says any organisation involved in delivering primary and primary and community care can apply and that the proposed services should, “aim to improve access and participation for people who have not traditionally accessed these services - including Māori, Pacific and people who are categorised as high needs as a result of age, geography and/or socioeconomic circumstance.” 

Respondents must show engagement opportunities in the design of their services with Māori, Pacific and any other focused groups to ensure it meets the needs of those service users.

The Ministry will evaluate the services and successful projects will become exemplars or demonstrations of digitally enabled care delivery models and will be shared with the wider primary and community care sector. 

“We also recognise that innovation has an inherent chance of failure – therefore learnings from initiatives that face challenges along the way will also be shared to support future direction, propositions and delivery,” it says.

The deadline for registrations of interest is Friday 18 December at 1pm.