There have been a few rumbles of trouble at the mill that is the Australian Digital Health Agency in the last few months but that is certainly nothing new considering its history. The organisation has managed to survived several changes of government fully intact and in the last couple of years has actually put some runs on the board in its big task to modernise Australia’s digital health infrastructure.
A good part of the credit for this goes to the technology services division at the agency, formerly headed by CIO Ronan O’Connor before he headed off to HIMSS and then continued by CTO Mal Thatcher, who was appointed to general acclaim in January 2021. Pulse+IT was certainly in favour, (although a few of us did have concerns about the non-technical leadership) and we did hope for some progress on what turned out to be a huge program of work.
Professor Thatcher had some pretty good wins, we think. The Health API Gateway replacement program was one, and the relatively unheralded move of the whole My Health Record system to the Microsoft Azure secure public cloud was another. We were also reminded by the agency that he also helped with the development its cyber security strategy and capabilities.
This comes as rumours of Professor Thatcher’s departure were confirmed this week. The public copy of ADHA’s organisational structure had four of the executive level staff listed as acting as of June 14 (although this has since reverted from July 4 with Professor Thatcher reinstated as CTO after a period of leave.) Noticeable was a minor restructure of the digital strategy division, which lost its branch manager for data, insights and design earlier this month. We notice that the head of clinical and digital standards governance Herbert Down has moved from that division over to the policy programs and engagement division, with a new connected care section added in to digital strategy.
We don’t know what all this means but we have been roundly assured it is not in any way nefarious. Our reporting has not gone down well with Professor Thatcher unfortunately, despite us rating him highly, but we do think there’ll be a few more structural changes at the agency to be revealed shortly, despite some protestations to the contrary. This has been the way of NEHTA/ADHA for close on 20 years.
The other big news this week has been the arrival of the world’s largest health informatics conference in Sydney this weekend, with the early part of the MedInfo conference starting on Saturday and the main conference kicking off on July 10. This is a huge event for our local industry and we hear it will the biggest ever staged outside of the US. The program over the five days is enormous but there are a few sessions we think will be worth getting to. There are mainly invitation only and workshop events on the weekend, along with the Nursing and Midwifery conference, which is always worth looking out for as it concerns the core of the healthcare workforce.
Workforce issues and global perspectives on health informatics dominate the Sunday program, with the official opening of the conference on Sunday afternoon. We’ll be at quite a few of the sessions, particularly on virtual care, the digital front door, eHealth NSW’s special session and a panel featuring representatives from all of the states and territories on Wednesday morning.
But there is no doubt that AI in healthcare will be one of the big draw cards. Not that it hasn’t at AIDH/HIC conferences in the past, but this year, with the consumerisation of AI, it will rate its socks off. We’ll be reporting each day from MedInfo so our regular eNewsletters will look a little different. Back to normal from July 17.
That brings us to our poll for the week, and the question of structural changes at the Australian Digital Health Agency.
Is the loss of personnel at ADHA a concern?
Vote here and leave your comments below.
Last week we asked: Should state and federal health departments pay to axe the fax? Two-thirds said yes (65:35). We also asked: If yes, does this include private specialists? If no, is there any other incentive? Here’s what you said.
Last week we revealed that ADHA CTO Mal Thatcher was leaving the agency, and asked readers whether the loss of personnel was a concern. 40 per cent said yes, but 60 per cent said no. We also asked why you voted the way you did. Here’s what you said:
– The Agency has an extraordinary depth of skilled individuals
– If such an important project was achieving its aims there should be no desire to leave because it would indicate good eHealth leadership
– Hopefully the different skills needed for delivery will be brought on board
– Any organisation with a high turnover suggests its a bad place to work at. This does not attract good people but it does enable second rate people to get jobs there. Thus, there is a slow but inexorable spiral to the bottom.
– unexpected and precipitate staff changes in an organisation nearly always mean that something or things are going wrong
– Sign of the times with the workforce merry go round in full swing!
– New people, new drive! Might actually be a positive thing
– Because the ADHA is irrelevant.
– Due to the significant funds pouring into digital health everywhere, no chance!
– Some of the newbies don’t have an appreciation for the hard learnt lessons if the past
– Work will go on regardless. Most of the work is at an agency level and what is required is policy work at a standards’ level to ensure everyone is working to the same agenda.
– Impact on momentum
– A few philosophers reasons
– No continuity, we are consistently dealing with different new people and they don’t stay. As an external stakeholder we are wasting a lot of time bringing people up to speed then they go. Recent example we spent 2 hours thoroughly briefing up a person who was moved into a new role. At the end of the two hours she informed us she was leaving on Friday- our briefing was Wednesday!!!!! Very frustrating nothing progresses appropriately as a result.