Broadband in healthcare

New technology offers opportunities for healthcare

Faster broadband offers the potential to deliver healthcare in new and innovative ways.

The National Health IT Board and the Ministry of Health are working with the health sector to identify opportunities for improvements that will benefit New Zealanders.  The aim is to achieve high-quality healthcare and improve patient safety by 2014.

The vision of the National Health IT Plan is that New Zealanders will have an electronic set of personal health information, which is accessible to them and their treatment provider any time and anywhere.

The National Health IT Board is focusing on e-medications management, regional information platforms across district health boards, national systems, and integrated care initiatives.

Health institutions are top priority broadband users.  In rural areas, in particular, better broadband access will help remove distance as a barrier to receiving quality healthcare.

Under the Ultra-fast Broadband and Rural Broadband Initiatives, all public hospitals will be connected to fibre within its first six years. 10 rural health centres will also be connected to fibre through the rural broadband initiative.

Research shows that fibre-based broadband could help with a range of health services.

• Provision of video-based services to assist in removing distance as an issue in patients gaining access to healthcare.
• Provision of video and other rich media web-based services to support clinical education and clinical peer support, especially in rural settings.
• Extension of hospital-based services to allow for the wider exchange of high-resolution images and other rich media content between health providers in near real-time.
• Enabling the provision of a model of shared care where many clinicians across all care settings can deliver against integrated care plans for patients.
• Providing high bandwidth links that allow health providers and hospitals to give patients, whänau and communities access to more valuable healthcare services from their homes, and support self-care, education and treatment for long-term conditions.