Information Age, Electronic Health Record and Australia Healthcare

The emergence of the Internet has impacted the health information and the healthcare industry. The information revolution has reduced the distance between the healthcare providers and consumers. It permits easy dissemination of information and fast accessibility of data. Because of easy accessibility, privacy and confidentiality has become an important issue to be considered in the implementation of electronic health record systems. As different electronic health record systems are in use in different healthcare institutions, integration of electronic health record systems becomes a major issue. Data interoperability, data standards, data quality and data integrity all need to be considered in linkage of disparate legacy systems. This paper discusses the emergence of electronic health record systems, the effects of information age on health information from the healthcare providers perspective, healthcare consumer perspective, Australian healthcare industry position and our experiences of linking electronic health record systems in collaborated projects.