Top ten stories - 2021

NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

The many national digital tools developed in response to Covid-19 make up the majority of our top ten most-read articles in eHealthNews in 2021.

This year has once again been dominated by the pandemic and readers were keen to get insights into the data and digital response, led by the Ministry of Health.

Our most-read story was about the go-live of the My Covid Record website in October. This initially allowed people to view their Covid-19 vaccination records and has since become the way to request a My Vaccine Pass, which are needed now that New Zealand has entered the new traffic light system.

News that these digital vaccine certificates would launch in November 2021 also provided our sixth top story of the year.

Records of people’s vaccinations are being kept in the Covid-19 Immunisation Register that went live in February, in time for first vaccinations to be given, and provided our second most popular story of the year.

“Over time, our goal is to enable members of the public to be able to digitally access their own vaccination records and the immunisation solution has been built with that in mind,” Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said in February.

Third on the list is the announcement of the government’s sweeping reforms of New Zealand’s health system, which Health Minister Andrew Little revealed on April 21.

The government decided to scrap all 20 DHBs and create a new Crown entity, Health NZ, to run the country’s hospitals and commission primary and community health services.

This single entity will, “be able to plan for things like IT systems that talk to each other”, Little said, describing use of technology in health is as “an area long overdue for attention”.

In number four spot on the top ten we are back to Covid-19 and news of the development of a national booking system for vaccinations. Book My Vaccine ultimately went live to the public in July and was introduced by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, which comes in eighth on our list.

The Ministry of Health used Skedulo for Book My Vaccine: a scheduling plug-in app for Salesforce, which is the platform of the national Covid-19 Immunisation Register and National Contact Tracing Solution.

When Delta hit our shores in August and the number of community cases of Covid-19 began to rise, it became impossible to keep all positive cases in Managed Isolation and Quarantine facilities. The government announced that 90-95 percent of positive patients would eventually be managed in the community, with the help of Remote Patient Monitoring.

An article about a national system for distributing pulse oximeters to Covid patients isolating at home was our fifth most popular for the year. These clip onto a person’s finger to measure oxygen saturation and are used in conjunction with telehealth to monitor any decline in people’s health.

In the seventh spot we are back to the health reforms and an update from the lead policy advisor for digital and data within the Transition Unit, Emily Mailes, who said the new national health service will not focus on “ripping and replacing” DHB IT systems, but will implement national systems where it makes sense to do so.

“There will be some enablers and solutions we want to deliver nationally, and we will do that as it makes sense, but there will be solutions and capabilities we want to keep at a regional and local level as it’s better for competition and speed,” Mailes explained.

Another update from Mailes made it into the top-ten, after she presented with deputy director data and digital Shayne Hunter at a HiNZ networking event on July 7 in Auckland.

Mailes told the 200 attendees that the Transition Unit is working to enable Health NZ and the Māori Health Authority to be “digital native” organisations that can provide innovation at scale and technology at speed.

Covid-19 has impacted the health sector in many different ways. Rounding off our list for 2021 is a piece about the technology skills shortage, which means New Zealand’s data and digital health sector is struggling to recruit the people and skills needed to meet demand.

NZTech chief executive Graeme Muller said problems getting tech professionals into the country are, “causing an explosion in salaries, delays in projects and offshoring of jobs” and other experts spoken to by eHealthNews agreed.

With news that the New Zealand’s borders will gradually reopen from early 2022, let’s hope this is one area where some relief is in sight.

If you would like to provide feedback on this news story, please contact the editor Rebecca McBeth.

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