Accenture wins PCEHR infrastructure contract

The global company will head up a consortium to include Orion Health and Oracle

Global technology services firm Accenture has been chosen by the Federal Government as the national infrastructure partner for its $467 million personally controlled electronic health record (PCEHR) project.

Minister for Health and Ageing, Nicola Roxon, said Accenture would head up a consortium of companies including Orion Health and Oracle for the construction of the project’s infrastructure.

“Accenture will be responsible for designing and building the physical PCEHR system, which will be used by people to register for and view their eHealth record,” Roxon said in a statement.

According to Roxon, Accenture’s track record in the delivery of Singapore’s national electronic health record earlier this year was a key factor in the highly competitive independent tender process which involved with applicants from around the world.

The consortium will work to develop internet portals for people to access their record, develop a portal for healthcare providers to view and update patient records; provide an audit trail to display when and by who people’s records were accessed, and to provide a reporting capability for information about the PCEHR 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," Roxon said.

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.

Earlier this year, IBM Australia won a $23.6 million contract to provide a secure messaging platform to be used in the initiative.

The National Authentication Service for Health (NASH) is to provide verified security credentials to 600,000 healthcare professionals in Australia as a precursor to sharing and upload information to patients who opt in to use the record.

Follow Chloe Herrick on Twitter: @chloe_CW

Follow Computerworld Australia on Twitter: @ComputerworldAU

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Tags OracleaccentureNicola RoxonehealthPCEHRPersonally Controlled Electronic Health Record (PCEHR)Health Minister Nicola RoxonOrion Health

More about Accenture AustraliaCommonwealth GovernmentFederal GovernmentIBM AustraliaIBM AustraliaOracleOrion

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