As the saying now goes, the coronavirus has brought the digital health sector 10 years of change in 10 days, but this week also brought us a reminder that some things haven't changed all that much. We refer to a return to the old normal, in which state health departments regularly struggle to procure and implement clinical IT systems large and small, as the repeated tendering for a statewide chemotherapy prescribing system in South Australia has shown us. It did it again this week.

Significant under-investment in IT systems and holding on to legacy platforms for far too long is also a constant refrain. This week, the New Zealand Ministry of Health released a current-state assessment of NZ's health assets, including buildings, infrastructure and IT, and it's not a pretty sight. The ministry is estimating that the DHBs will need $2.3 billion over the next 10 years to fix some of their legacy problems and reap the benefits of digital health systems, although even that seems a bit unambitious.