New Zealand HealthIT Cluster

Connected Health will work with HISO to develop the standards required for interoperability. The Industry Forum will recommend candidate standards as the voice of industry suppliers, which will then be formally considered by HISO. The Connected Health workstream will ensure that whatever standards are developed from the HISO processes fits with the Connected Health framework. Any standards developed by Connected Health will be submitted to HISO as candidates for approval and shared with the Industry Forum.

How does the Connected Health approach fit with the prescribed Health Network Code of Practice?

The Code of Practice is current for the present status of the Health Network. The Code of Practice will be reviewed and updated accordingly with the implementation of Connected Health. This review is expected to be completed by mid 2008.

How does HPI fit into the Directory Services model?

The current view is that the Directory Service will provide the electronic addresses of network locations and vendors will have the ability to use it to provide the locations of their applications. HPI is a comprehensive source of trusted information about health practitioners for the NZ Health and Disability Sector maintained by the Ministry of Health. HPI data will be a key link to the electronic addresses stored in the Directory Services ‘engine’.

Who owns and is accountable for Connected Health?

Connected Health is a Health and Disability Sector (Sector) led project funded by the Ministry of Health. The Ministry project sponsor is Brendan Kelly, Chief Advisor, Information Directorate.

Do DHBs support Connected Health?

The DHBs are supportive of the Connected Health plan. Implementation specifics are still being determined by DHBs and the Ministry. There is a strong level of engagement between Connected Health, the DHB IT departments, as well as the broader Sector.

Will the DHBs continue to make independent purchasing decisions?

Co-ordinated procurement strategies will be developed as part of Connected Health. How these will apply to each DHB has yet to be determined.

Is it just data connectivity, or voice, video etc as well?

It is expected that there will be many different uses of connectivity to support many different health sector services and applications – including telemedicine.

Connected Health will define service categories to ensure that all members have the appropriate level of connectivity and infrastructure as required. This will help to enable consistency in the level of performance, quality and reliability associated with services provided, like data transport, voice, video etc.

How will the products and services be certified?

Certification of products will be an important aspect of Connected Health as it ensures that what the sector buys will provide the benefits expected. The certification process is currently being developed and will be reviewed with the Industry Forum. A process will be implemented to ensure that certified products and services continue to meet the certification service level agreements once they are deployed.

What is the role of the GSN, KAREN and other existing high performance networks?

GSN, KAREN and other whole-of-government networks are focused on providing specific services and are unlikely to provide connectivity services to Connected Health.

What is disaggregation?

The principle of disaggregation is fundamental to the success of Connected Health. Products certified for Connected Health must be available for the Sector to purchase independently from the application or network access link. Suppliers can still offer bundled solutions, however, a customer must be able to add and integrate any application or service they want to that bundle.

What influence can the Industry Forum have on the Connected Health framework principles?

The Connected Health framework principles are intended to provide suppliers and purchasers certainty around key product attributes needed by the health sector.

The Industry Forum members have the opportunity to comment on the principles at the (current) draft stage.

Who will define the criteria for Quality of Service?

The Industry Forum members will have the opportunity to have input on the quality of service criteria.

What is the relationship of the Connected Health Industry Forum to the Carrier Forum?

The Carrier Forum was formed to address the unbundling of Telecom. It is an independent and incorporated body with an elected board and working groups. While it works with the Commerce Commission it is independent of the commission. It aims for unanimous agreement on standards and rules for products and services at the wholesale level. Members are, by and large, telecommunications carriers.

The Connected Health Industry Forum is sponsored by the Ministry of Health, with the aim of providing input to the standards and practices that will be the basis of the Connected Health framework. Membership of the Connected Health Industry Forum includes all health ICT suppliers from connectivity to health application developers.

Is the Industry Forum a vehicle for the Ministry to get free consulting from industry bodies?

No. In fact the Ministry is providing a lot of information (e.g. technical framework, market research results) at no cost. Participation in the Industry Forum provides members the opportunity to have an early view of technical issues and considerations relating to technical standards - instead of RFPs and proposals being the first exposure to these. Members can, if they wish, propose and shape the standards relating to Health Sector technology, rather than just be reactive to individual sales opportunities.