Brisbane will be at the cutting edge of cyber health advances as one of the first areas in Australia to use electronic health records.

The Labor Government is taking our health system into the 21^st Century by building an electronic health record system that improves patient care as well as the safety and efficiency of the health system.

 “This is an important step forward in allowing online access to health records for each Australian that chooses to,” Minister Nicola Roxon said.

“Patients will control what goes onto their records and who can access their information.

“Brisbane residents who agree to participate will be at the forefront of this exciting new initiative.”

“This builds on the Prime Minister’s announcement yesterday that Medicare rebates will be provided for online consultants across a range of specialities for the first time,” Ms Roxon said.

Brisbane’s GPpartners was chosen as one of the first sites for the e-health initiative because they already have strong e-health capability and support within the community.

In addition to e-health records, GPpartners will also be one of the first to electronically send discharge summaries and referrals using national specifications.

E-health will help lead the way in developing and informing future planning of the system, improving technology and identifying what works well and what could work better.

If re-elected the Federal Labor Government will call for expressions of interest to identify further lead implementation sites in the near future. Significant funding will be available to support this process.

The e-health system will greatly benefit from the roll out of the National Broadband Network (NBN).

There are many long term applications of the NBN, such as allowing multiple doctors at a medical centre to download and transmit x-rays simultaneously.

The NBN is a vital piece of infrastructure for further advancement and improvement of e-health.

The President of the AMA, Dr Andrew Pesce recently said, “e-health is one major investment which isn’t a cost, it’s a cost saver if we invest it wisely.” (National Press Club 21 July 2010).

This commitment is already included in the 2010 Budget, through the E-Health Initiative.