Still a Long Way for Technology to Make a Difference in Government

Sometimes personal experience is a powerful source of data for a government-related blog. Yesterday I was one of the millions of Italians who tried to fill their census forms online rather than on paper. I would have thought that the statistical office would plan for an easily foreseeable spike in demand or at least advise people that there may be availability issues and suggest how how to distribute requests across a more manageable period of time. Not at all, and all I and hundreds of thousands of Italians got was the “service unavailable” window, and apologies through the press.

Today I decided to file the request for disability benefits on behalf of my mother. This was supposed to be the last step of a long process:

1. Going to the GP to have a certificate indicating the type of disability
   
2. Initiating the procedure, through a not-for-profit intermediary (no way to submit the request unless electronically, so intermediaries offer that servicem since people who ask for disability benefits are unlikely to be online users)
   
3. Being called two months later for a medical exam (fixed date, fixed time, no way to reschedule in case of need)
   
4. Getting the results four months later, which is when one can actually file the request
   
   At this stage I had to fill a form, go to my mom’s bank to get an official stamp and signature (although disability benefits would be paid on the exact same bank account where she received her pension), and then – with all necessary forms and copies – I showed up at the local branch of the Italian social security agency.
   
   To my surprise I was told that they could take in my request, but would not bear any responsibility for its successful transfer to their local headquarters (10 km far), nor would they give me a receipt.
   
   My best options in order to be totally sure were to either go to their headquarters or to use (again) a not-for-profit intermediary. I queued for 90 minutes at the intermediary organization to then meet a friendly and very helpful guy who processed the request (electronically) in about 60 seconds, showing that my mother’s case was already in the system.
   
   The irony is that the social security agency is known to be one of the best users of IT in the Italian government, with a suit of online services that requires – however – userid and password that a 80 year-old woman is unlikely to even think about asking. In this process, the social security agency sent a letter informing us that the medical commission had authorized disability benefits for a person (my mom) they know everything about, as she already receives a monthly pension from them.
   
   Why does one need to place a request again? As governments strive to be more effective and efficient, they aim at exchanging information across different departments and agencies. But, here, an agency that is deemed to be top-class in using technology, seems to be unable to even talk to itself.
   
   blogs.gartner.com

Australian state forms e-Health agency

As New South Wales (NSW) Health undergoes a major overhaul, Health Minister Jillian Skinner announced the creation of eHealth NSW, a new agency to look after IT services across the state’s healthcare system.

In addition to assuming ICT responsibilities, eHealth NSW would also take e-health roles that were previously shared between the Department and Health Support Services.

“The new agency aims to drive innovation, improve implementation of vital electronic health initiatives and provide support to the districts and their facilities,” Skinner said in an official statement.

The NSW Health reform was a result of NSW Health director-general Mary Foley’s governance review which reads, “eHealth NSW would become the system leader for the NSW Health information strategy, forward planning and delivery.”

“It is critical that an early objective of eHealth NSW is a re-setting of strategy based on extensive consultation with clinicians and other users and the redesign of ICT governance to ensure clear statewide plans and an appropriate balance with local initiatives.”

According to the Health Minister, the implementation of the revamp would begin immediately and wrap up by the end of the year, freeing up over $80 million for frontline services.

futuregov.asia

RDI Launches Experimental Online Tool to Guide HIV Treatment Decisions for Patients in Romania and South Africa

A new free online service with the potential to help HIV treatment in countries with limited healthcare resources was launched by the RDI yesterday. The system accurately predicts how patients will respond to different combinations of drugs without the need for expensive tests to read the viral genetic code. Data presented at the 6th IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention (IAS 2011) demonstrated the accuracy of the system for patients in Romania and South Africa whose treatment was failing (abstract MOPE146).

The system, a new version of the ‘HIV-TRePS’ service, was specifically developed by the HIV Resistance Response Database Initiative (RDI) to help guide treatment decisions in resource-limited settings where relatively expensive genotype resistance tests are not routinely performed. It harnesses the power of computer models developed over several years using data from tens of thousands of patients to predict how an individual with HIV infection will respond to all the available HIV drug combinations.

“I am delighted to see this service launched today”, commented Dr. Julio Montaner, Past President of the International AIDS Society and Director of the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV & AIDS, based in Vancouver, Canada. “I have always been convinced that the RDI’s system could be of major value in settings where resources are constrained or experience is limited. This really has the potential to make a difference”.

The new system uses a set of computational models called random forests to make predictions from over 40 different pieces of data collected from approximately 16,000 patients in more than 20 countries. During training the models performed with an accuracy of approximately 75%. Results presented today at IAS 2011 showed the models to be 68-69% accurate with cases from Romania and South Africa, where HIV/AIDS is a major challenge and limited resources do not usually allow for genotyping.

Use of the system could help physicians avoid drug combinations that are less likely to work. Recent clinical studies suggest that they also have the potential to help preserve treatment options and resources by helping to maintain control of the virus without the need to resort to newer and more expensive drugs.

UNPAN Global