Clinical Informatics in Australia: A temperature check

Oct 30, 2017 | Clinical informatics, Digital health

Clinical governance emerged as a key priority in our recent survey of the HISA Clinical Informatics Community of Practice. More than half of the respondents said clinical governance for implementing systems or process changes was a priority for the coming year. The survey was a temperature check on the state of clinical informatics and organised by HISA for the Community of Practice.

  • Nearly half of the 150 members of the Community of Practice responded  (48.7%)
  • Around 80% were mid to late-career, primarily working in public hospitals (50.94%) and 33% of respondents had a clinical background. Most live on the east coast of Australia (NSW, Qld, VIC)
  • Nearly half (49%) of respondents were from organisations that already had an EMR in operation, with another 37.3% progressing towards it (in either procurement planning or implementation mode)
  • Not surprisingly, digital health is spawning a new member of the C-Suite, the Chief “X” Information Officer (CXIO). Around half (51%) of organisations had someone in this role. For those with a CXIO, there was some variation in the clinical discipline of the incumbent which in turn influenced the role title. The most popular CXIO was the CMIO

The survey had a list of informatics topics for respondents to consider and prioritise for the next 12 months:

  • Clinical governance for implementing systems or process changes
  • Education of informatics to practicing clinicians
  • Access to university level programs in clinical informatics
  • Development of digital health policies and models
  • Introducing precision medicine into our facility
  • Knowledge of current and emerging technology (AI, blockchain, IoT, etc)
  • National/international eHealth standards conformance/ adoption (HL7, SNOMED etc)
  • Staying current with industry trends
  • How to do change management
  • User centred-design
  • Interoperability
  • WIFI
  • Data analytics
  • Cybersecurity
  • Patient engagement
  • Information sharing
  • Other

The top three priorities:

Priorities for next 12 months Risks if not addressed in next 12 months
Clinical governance for implementing systems or process changes (55.6%)
Education of informatics to practising clinicians (47.2%)
Interoperability (41.7%)		 Clinical governance for implementing systems or process changes (57.8%)
Development of digital health policies and models (32.4%)
Education of clinical informatics to practising clinicians (31.0%

 

Interestingly, some findings raised more questions than they answered.  For instance-

Graph

If 20% have primary responsibility and 49% have some responsibility, is there sufficient clinical oversight when the aim of investing in health IT is ultimately to improve patient care?

 

INFOGRAPHIC AVAILABLE HERE:

This survey information may be shared with credit to HISA – download the infographic and share with your health workplace.