Te Whatu Ora progressively simplifying IT landscape

NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

Te Whatu Ora will look to support “no more than two tactical solutions in each domain” as part of its drive to simplify to unify, says chief data and digital Leigh Donoghue.

Speaking at the Digital Health Association’s 21st Birthday Parliamentary event on August 22 in Wellington, he said these solutions will be validated by relevant clinicians and business leads.

“This is to rein in unnecessary unaffordable variation by progressively simplifying the landscape. Fewer solutions mean easier integration and lower long term support costs,” he explained.

Donoghue said data and digital is also accelerating the move towards a national helpdesk model, hybrid multi cloud and network modernisation.

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The aim is to significantly reduce the spend on traditional care models, so that energy and investment can be redirected to the new.

The ‘new’ refers to modern digital platforms that are easily configurable for personalised experiences, standards based, cloud enabled, and with built in security.

“This is about modernising and digitally enabling new models of care at speed and scale,” Donoghue said.

He said the old structure of 20 DHBs compounded inequities and inefficiencies in the system.

“Some districts saw the value of digital health and invested: others did not. Different regions went in different directions influenced by vendors, contractors, and their own solution architects, without necessarily considering or taking a national approach,” Donoghue said.

“The result was fragmentation and suboptimal investment, a patchwork of excess complexity that impeded joined up care and drove up support costs.”

This situation is not the fault of vendors, he said, but “a function of our fragmented approach to strategy planning and purchasing.”

He said the new national structure of Te Whatu Ora is a ‘game changer’ and data and digital
is looking to address these issues to optimise its investment and make the case for wider investment.

Donoghue acknowledged that New Zealand is coming from a position of long-term structural underinvestment in digital compared to other modern industries and comparable countries.

“Let me be clear, more digital funding is needed,” he told the audience.

Te Whatu Ora will need strong capable industry partners to deliver its vision and the organisation is committed to providing greater clarity in terms of where it is heading, simpler procurement practices, and enabling the environment for investment and innovation.

“The digital revolution that we have talked about for a decade is upon us… and we in digital health, whether we are public or private sector, must rise to meet this challenge,” said Donoghue.

Picture: Te Whatu Ora chief data and digital Leigh Donoghue speaking at the DHA Parliamentary event

Hear Leigh speak at Digital Health Week 2023 this November in Hamilton, register today.

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