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Home > Ministers > The Hon Nicola Roxon MP - Minister for Health and Ageing > Media Hub > Accenture to Build Australia’s Personal e-Health System

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PDF printable version of Accenture to Build Australia’s Personal e-Health System (PDF 26 KB)

15 August 2011

Accenture, a world leader in IT, has been selected to lead the building of the IT infrastructure for Australia’s national personally controlled electronic health record (PCEHR) system in another major milestone for national health reform.

“A consortium led by Accenture has been selected as the National Infrastructure Partner for the development of the PCEHR system,” Minister for Health and Ageing Nicola Roxon said.

“Accenture will be responsible for designing and building the physical PCEHR system, which will be used by people to register for and view their e-health record.

“People will also use this system to allow their GP and other health professionals to view their record, helping to make sure their records are available whenever and wherever they are needed.

“Health professionals will use the system to view their patients’ e-health record, which over time will include information such as health summaries and discharge summaries. Health professionals will also be able to update this record with the most critical and up to date medical information to deliver safe and efficient healthcare.

“Accenture’s track record in the successful delivery of Singapore’s national electronic health record earlier this year was an important factor in their selection during the highly competitive independent tender process with applicants from around the world.”

Minister Roxon said Accenture will provide leadership to a consortium of companies, which also includes Orion Health and Oracle and will play a critical role in developing the PCEHR, including:

• developing internet portals so people can view their personally controlled e-health record, control access and enter their own medical information
• developing a portal to allow health care providers, when given access by the patient, to view and update a patient’s record
• providing for an audit trail that will show when and by whom a person’s record was accessed
• providing a reporting capability for critical information about the PCEHR system itself, including performance and usage.

“A key responsibility of the National Infrastructure Partner will be to ensure that the PCEHR system has high availability, including in a medical emergency, and that it works efficiently and securely for patients and providers alike,” Minister Roxon said.

“Personal, secure electronic health records are a critical part of the Gillard Government’s national health reform. They will drive improvements over time to the way people engage with our health and hospitals system – making it better coordinated and more efficient and effective.”

The National Infrastructure Partner, under the instruction and oversight of the Commonwealth Government, will ensure stringent protections are in place to safeguard the privacy of patient records. The infrastructure built will be the property of the Commonwealth.

For more information, contact the Minister's Office on (02) 6277 7220