The Evolving Health Workplace

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Imagine your healthcare workplace operating with the efficiency of today’s banking, travel or e-commerce systems. Test results, event histories and complete medical information about your patient would be at your fingertips; letters and referrals would arrive efficiently to your desktop, tablet or phone; consultations and appointments would be made electronically; sharing important information would happen securely and in real time.

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The winners are you and your patients, along with your colleagues and the healthcare professionals you work with every day across the system.
This is a picture of the digital health workplace of the future and the reason the Health Informatics Society Australia (HISA) is one of the most rapidly growing peak bodies for Australian healthcare professionals. As the peak organisation for digital health, HISA provides information, networking, education, certification and career development for everyone – whether they are just learning about eHealth, telehealth or digital health or already well into a health informatics career.
And as HISA prepares for its annual conference HIC 2015, in Brisbane 3-5 August, the theme Driving reform: Digital Health is Everyone’s Business sets expectations for every attendee who can identify with the changing Australian healthcare industry and the evolution of the health workplace.

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“For HISA, a key focus is workforce development - working with organisations, public and private, to equip them and to fully prepare for this new era of digital healthcare.”

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HISA CEO Dr Louise Schaper said the HIC theme reflected the sense of urgency around the arrival of digital health, eHealth and telehealth to Australian health workplaces.
“More and more nurses, doctors, health IT workers, policy makers and others are joining HISA because they can see the need to get across technological change. This digital disruption has already happened in so many industries and it is now coming to Health.”
“Australia’s first fully integrated digital hospital, St Stephen’s at Hervey Bay - drew a great deal of interest when it opened recently.”
“The health workforce requires the knowledge and skills to use eHealth systems as part of their daily work,” Dr Schaper. “It has happened at Hervey Bay, it is happening elsewhere and it will ultimately be business as usual across the health system.”
“If you want to increase the productivity of your health workforce, you need to give people well-designed and well-implemented eHealth tools and up-skill them in health informatics and make sure they are the ones leading the transition from paper to digital,” she said.
“For HISA, a key focus is workforce development - working with organisations, public and private, to equip them and to fully prepare for this new era of digital healthcare.”
She said HISA had launched a successful certification program. In the past year, more than 90 healthcare professionals had passed through the Certified Health Informatician Australasia program (CHIA) which demonstrated the growing demand for professional acknowledgement of skills and experience in health informatics. CHIA provides independent recognition of your eHealth knowledge. “ CHIAs work at the intersection of healthcare and information technology and if that sounds like you, then I would encourage you to apply to take the CHIA exam.”
Everyone is invited to learn more at HIC
Dr Schaper said there was an open invitation for healthcare professionals whether primary care, hospital-based or allied health, rural and remote and others to learn more about the workplace of the future by attending HIC 2015, the annual conference in Brisbane 3-5 August.
She said more than 150 speakers would be presenting on global trends, new research, new technology and success stories– all in the rapidly developing health tech field broadened to be known as eHealth and digital health.
One keynote speaker in particular has an international reputation in health workplace change.
Dr Schaper said HISA was pleased to welcome one of the United Kingdom’s leaders in health reform Dr Helen Bevan who would be a keynote speaker at HIC 2015.
Dr Bevan, Chief of Service Transformation at the National Health Service, where she has led large scale change for more than 20 years, will address more than 1,000 delegates on system reform.
“Dr Bevan is known globally for her ability to achieve healthcare transformation and she provides advice, guidance and training to leaders of health and care systems across the world,” Dr Schaper said. “This is a rare opportunity for Australian executives, managers and everyone involved in healthcare professions to hear from a distinguished leader.”
“The momentum behind eHealth and health informatics is soaring and there is much international attention being focused on the entrepreneurial digital health community in Australia - our research, developments and implementations,” Dr Schaper said.
“Health informatics may still be a ‘young’ field, but we are making great headway into the many aspects of eHealth that are transforming the delivery of healthcare to achieve improved health outcomes for all Australians,” Dr Schaper said.
How to become a HISA member
Dr Schaper said one of the ways hospitals and healthcare professionals could learn more and prepare for the future was to join HISA and take advantage of the benefits of membership. State branches meet regularly and national events were a further opportunity for networking, career development and learning.
“We welcome healthcare and health IT professionals at all levels and from all disciplines,” she said. “Our digital health community is 10,000+ strong and growing. Our members include Australia’s leading digital health, eHealth and health innovation experts – all committed to the transformation of the health system.”
“You are invited to start your personal and professional journey with HISA - your digital health community,” she said.
Find out more by visiting www.hisa.org.au or call (03) 9326 3311. Email hisa@hisa.org.au Twitter @hisa_news
ABOUT HISA
HISA is Australia’s peak body for the diverse and multi-disciplinary digital healthcare community.
Members in State branches include healthcare professionals, from clinicians to nurses, surgeons and hospital executives along with academics, researchers, industry leaders, vendors and digital health entrepreneurs.
Together they share the national vision to improve Australian healthcare through digital health and health informatics.
HISA members have a voice in shaping the future of healthcare by becoming an influencer on topics like: the health workforce agenda, integrating care, digital disruption and new business models, virtual healthcare, data analysis, participatory health and key emerging issues. Join HISA at www.hisa.org.au
DR LOUISE SCHAPER CEO HISA
As leader of Australia’s peak professional organisation for digital health, Dr Louise Schaper is a renowned advocate for the transformation of healthcare through technology and information.
With her passion for innovation and commitment to entrepreneurship, she has achieved a global reputation in the rapidly evolving field of health informatics. Louise sits on the Advisory Board for the Stanford Medicine X conference, is a National EHealth Transition Authority Clinical Leader, previously chaired the EHealth International Advisory Group of the World Federation of Occupational Therapists and is a graduate of Stanford University’s Executive Leadership Program.
Don’t miss the first Hacking Health
While you are at HIC 2015, don’t miss the first Hacking Health event. Healthcare experts, designers, developers, engineers, patients, consumers and mentors are working together to collaborate and co-create solutions and digital health prototypes to pressing healthcare challenges.
HISA is partnering with Hacking Health an internationally recognised Canadian-based group who share our vision to foster collaborative, cross-disciplinary relationships that lead to significant innovation which improves healthcare outcomes.
Hacking Health is designed to improve healthcare by inviting technology creators and healthcare professionals to collaborate on realistic, human-centric solutions to front-line problems.
Hacking Health @ HIC is fun, intense and hands-on, with small teams tackling tough problems in a supportive community of peers and mentors.
Don’t miss this event at HIC. Find out more by visiting
www.hisa.org.au/hic2015/hackinghealth/