New Zealand Looks to Improve Access to Health Data

In April of 2021, New Zealand Health Minister Andrew Little announced plans to abolish the 20 district health boards (DHBs) and replace them instead with a single organization called Health New Zealand, which will be responsible for hospitals across the country. 

The unexpected announcement was a major indicator of changes to come in New Zealand's health system. As the system reforms its organizational and decision-making structure, they are also looking for a solution to a fragmented data system in health IT. 

New Zealand has struggled with a fragmented process for transmitting patient data for many years. Current processes don't allow for the seamless, secure transmission of patient data between facilities.

Colin McKenzie helps run the Epsom health diagnostics-handling firm Sysmex, which coordinates the transmission of lab test results to the appropriate clinician. McKenzie described the struggle of data fragmentation: "If I'm from Hamilton and I get transferred to Auckland for specialist care, they can't see any of my information. They'll ring up the other hospital or the region and ask, 'fax through Colin's records if you have them, or attach them to an email.' That's really secure, isn't it?"

Health Ministry Deputy Director Shayne Hunter commented that people are often surprised when they learn that their data is not shared across organizations. "People fully expect that their information is digital, that they can go anywhere in the health system, that people can access it. What surprised people [was] when we told them, that we can't."

Malcolm Pollock has been a leader in health IT innovation for three decades and is the former Director of the National Institute for Health Innovation at the University of Auckland. Earlier this year, Pollock released a new report for the Health IT industry group at Parliament. Pollock lamented the lack of a centralized data system: 

"Why haven't we got a system which automatically [travels with you], as a matter of course, in the same way as your financial record from a bank travels around with you, why isn't that information travelling around with them?" Pollock asked. "If you could get more health services digitally—say, through your phone including mental health counselling, or monitoring blood pressure, say—then people would be less reliant on going to the doctor's or hospital, cutting down demand that has seen wards bursting at the seams."

He advocates for platform technology, calling it absolutely essential. "It's the foundation stone upon which we can do all of the sort of innovation ... all of the ideas that address issues of inequity, issues of a workforce that is getting increasingly stressed, issues of cost and sustainability, demand and supply. We can't do that unless we have the core infrastructure."

As of this year, New Zealand is working on creating a new EHR system that will make it easier to share patients' data among facilities. This new system will allow clinicians from different facilities to gain a more thorough understanding of their patients' medical histories, improving their recommendations. 

In May, the New Zealand government committed $400 million over four years to improving health IT systems. Much of that funding will go toward a new health information system called "Hira," which will attempt to centralize patient data. Though Hira will not be designed to create “a closed, all-in-one, centralised technology solution," according to Hunter, the focus will instead be on trying to ensure interoperability of existing systems and purchasing new technologies like cloud-based services where possible.

Hunter cautioned that it could take "years" to streamline the health information technology systems. However, the new system is a positive step toward the future of New Zealand's new health infrastructure. In addition to the new system and fresh leadership to run Health NZ, there's also been talk of a programme to attract top graduates in technology. Though no formal plans exist yet, Potentia Director Abinesh Krishan, who is in the process of recruiting for Health NZ, believes that it's vital to create a landscape where health IT is a destination of choice. “There is nothing that is more purposeful and meaningful, if you are a technology person, than health IT,” he said. 

A group of leading experts and clinicians in Victoria, Australia set out to streamline communication between their care teams. Check out How Mobile Communications Are Transforming Australian Healthcare to learn how they did it.