It didn't come as much of a surprise to learn late on Friday that the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) Health Council had given the go-ahead to the new national digital health strategy. After all, it was revealed just recently that the state and territory health departments were all pretty keen on it and had recommended that everyone at COAG say aye as well.

What has come as a surprise is that the strategy is actually pretty good. We were dreading the usual high falutin' but meaningless verbiage that usually infests these documents but while the strategy is a bit too long, it is at the same time succinct, and more importantly it is written in plain English so even nincompoops like us can understand it.