blog From Intermedium this morning comes news that health departments in both South Australia and New South Wales are looking for new chief information officers, with their long-time incumbents departing and making way for new public servants in their roles. The site reports (we recommend you click here for the full article):
“Both the NSW Ministry of Health and South Australian Department of Health and Ageing will lose their Chief Information Officers in the coming weeks.”
I don’t know NSW Health CIO Greg Wells, but I believe I have spoken to SA Health CIO David Johnston in his role in SA Health, and by all accounts the executive has been kicking goals down south in terms of the implementation of electronic health records. Johnston recently conducted a wide-ranging interview with CIO Magazine on the issue. The site quotes the outgoing CIO as saying (we recommend you click here for the full article):
“This would be the largest IT-enabled project that the state has ever undertaken … It’s a significant initiative because it means that if it works here then it’s completely applicable to other states or countries, other jurisdictions.”
If there is one area which needs great IT governance skills right now, it’s health. Health departments, hospitals and even smaller medical organisations have been hemorrhaging failed IT projects, especially in the area of electronic health records, for years now. Let’s hope NSW and South Australia are able to find competent and motivated successors here.
“If there is one area which needs great IT governance skills right now, it’s health. Health departments, hospitals and even smaller medical organisations have been hemorrhaging failed IT projects, especially in the area of electronic health records, for years now”
Indeed. Are there any greater horror stories for Australian IT within the last decade? Are there any greater horror stories for government blowouts?
We want those stories to be the exception, not the rule.
I think that SA Health benefited greatly from having a good enterprise architecture set out before they began their process.
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