The challenges that face New Zealand’s system of healthcare today are apparent, well documented and robustly debated. What’s not so apparent, however, is that these debates arise because our healthcare system isn’t just as yet, a system. 

This is not to say, at the very least, that New Zealand lags behind the world when it comes to health care for its citizens and residents. Yet, information, communication and technology all play a crucial role. If anything else, we should look forward to making our healthcare system even more affordable and relevant by looking at it as a group of independent but interrelated elements comprising a unified whole that delivers huge cost savings. 

A healthcare information system that works efficiently starts with better connections, better data and faster and more detailed analysis. It means integrating data and centering it on the patient so that all who are involved, including the patient, have access to information and a networked team to provide collaborative care. It means moving away from paper records in order to reduce medical errors and improve efficiencies. It also means applying advanced analytics to vast amounts of data to improve outcomes. 

A well-designed healthcare information system in hospitals, for example, should contain the following attributes: 

1. It is instrumented, so that it  automatically captures accurate, real-time information;
2. It is interconnected, so healthcare professionals can all share information seamlessly and efficiently; and,
3. It is intelligent, in that it applies advanced analytics to improve research, diagnosis and treatment. 

The components, processes and participants that comprise our vast healthcare system today aren’t connected. Deep wells of lifesaving information aren’t always accessible. As a result, this environment leads to rising costs, limited access, high error rates, a lack of coverage and poor response to chronic disease. The lengthy development cycle for new medicines could also be improved if a healthcare information system links diagnosis to drug discovery to healthcare providers to insurers to patients and communities. 

A smarter health information system like this holds promise beyond their particular communities, patients and diseases. Smart ideas from one can be replicated across an increasingly efficient, interconnected and intelligent system. It should result in lower costs, better quality care and healthier people and communities with the focus being where it truly belongs – on the patient.

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