Health Minister Annette King said today a government initiative to allow faster telecommunications connections across the country has the potential to provide a big impact on future Information Technology developments in the health sector.

Ms King says the health sector's involvement with Project PROBE (PROvincial Broadband Extension) is being stepped up to explore ways it can help realise E-Health goals, particularly in providing a communications platform for future systems for clinicians in the regions.

Project PROBE is a combined initiative by the Education Minister Trevor Mallard, and Economic Development Minister Jim Anderton, to bring broadband to schools and promote the Knowledge Economy in the regions.

Ms King said because of potential benefits for E-Health, she has asked for a health representative to be appointed to the steering committee overseeing the regional tender evaluation process.

"This will mean the specific needs of the health sector can be incorporated into the roll-out, including the security and privacy of health data.”

Ms King said once PROBE was up and running, clinicians in the regions especially will be able to easily take advantage of having access to broadband. A Ministry of Health analysis has shown that schools and medical centres are more often than not very close to each other.

"This will mean a far easier time for health professionals, doctors, nurses, dentists and others, around the country to get access to broadband infrastructure. A fast and permanent network connection for users is critical to implementing E-Health initiatives, because of the size of data that can be transferred."

Ms King said examples would include file images of x-rays, CT and MRI scans, which could be at least several megabytes. A regular modem could take up to an hour to download an image, but with a broadband connection the file could be far more easily and quickly sent to a patient's GP to be put in their records, or to a specialist for diagnosis.

"And of course broadband needs to be widely available to health practitioners before you can roll out such technologies. Without using the PROBE project,
it would likely take much longer to provide rural GPs with access through the alternative of waiting for commercial companies to 'wire up' the regions."
Ms King said telemedicine, where consultations between local and hospital clinicians and/or patients take place remotely, was another exciting health development that needed high-speed connections.

"In these situations a video link can be established between specialists and patients who may not be able to get to the city where the specialist works – so, for example, a patient could have a skin condition diagnosed by a dermatologist via a video-link, without having to travel to the city where that specialist works."

Ms King said such innovations are still in their infancy in New Zealand for a large part due to the difficulties in accessing broadband. “As technology improves, telemedicine will mean greater access to the health system for people living in regional areas, for both existing and new health services.

"The potential impact on the way health services can be delivered through broadband is tremendous. I’m looking forward to seeing the potential for using PROBE in delivering health services realised over the coming months and years, particularly as the recommendations from the WAVE (Working to Add Value) report are implemented.”

For more information: John Harvey (04) 471 9305 or Zoe Priestley (04) 470 6851.

Questions and Answers:

What is Broadband?

Broadband is the name given to high speed, high capacity, always connected form of telecommunications. It allows countries with low population densities, such as New Zealand, to address quality and timely healthcare access and equity issues across the spectrum of Health Information, Health Commerce and Telemedicine applications.

To illustrate the capabilities of Broadband, the following table presents the time it takes to transfer a typical X-ray image from the Internet to a personal computer using different telecommunication types.

Speed Time
Dial-Up Internet 58 minutes
ISDN Connection 24 minutes
Residential Broadband <3 minutes
Business Broadband<40 seconds

What is Project PROBE?

Project PROBE has been developed jointly by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Economic Development to roll out high-speed internet access, or broadband, to all schools and provincial communities.

The project's key objective is to roll out broadband to all schools and communities that do not have access to broadband communications. It is also expected to encourage competition in broadband telecommunications outside metropolitan centres.

PROBE is an enabler, not a solution in itself. It will be up to potential users to learn from others and make the most of the opportunities that high-speed Internet access can provide. It will make a substantial contribution to delivering the Government's goal of high-speed Internet access being available to all New Zealand schools and communities.

What does it mean for the average Health consumer?

As new E-health initiatives are introduced (particularly WAVE recommendations), the availability of broadband means clinicians will be able to take advantage of these initiatives, and in turn provide better services to health consumers. Broadband will provide a critical part of the infrastructure currently being developed in the health sector, so clinicians will have appropriate, faster and easier access to information.

For example:

·It will allow the expansion of telemedicine services to regions that currently don't have a high speed connection
·It will mean that lab tests don't have to be repeated because information from the first tests will be more easily available to your doctor.
·New functions will become possible like GPs booking in patient appointments to specialists in real-time, not sending a letter and waiting days for a reply.
·Decisions support systems linked to pharmaceutical ordering will help avoid prescribing incompatible drugs to patients.

What about the security of health data?

Security and Privacy are vital to the Health sector, and as such this is will form a part of the evaluation process when replies to the RFP are received. This is why a Health representative is being appointed to the Steering Committee, to ensure the needs of transmitting secure health data can be met.

When will the health representative be appointed to the Steering Committee, and what will be their role?
Decisions on who will be appointed, and their role on the committee and on the Tender Evaluation Subcommittee are expected in the coming weeks.
The steering committee will provide advice and guidance to the Secretary of Education, who is accountable for PROBE.

Where can I find out more information on PROBE, including what is happening at the moment?

The Ministry of Education's website has more information on PROBE. Go to:
http://www.minedu.govt.nz/index.cfm?layout=index&indexID=7877&indexparen...
(or go to http://www.minedu.govt.nz/ and type "PROBE" in the search field).

Where can I find more information about the WAVE report?
A copy of the WAVE report can be found on the Ministry of Health's website, http://www.moh.govt.nz/wave. Progress on WAVE implementations is regularly
provided via the Ministry's Health E-news electronic newsletter, which is also posted on the Ministry's website.