Background on eHealth and ICT activities

During 2007 activities were instigated to bring University of Ballarat researchers, agencies, organisations and individuals together to identify opportunities to collaborate on projects which link health and ICT.

Activities to date have included:

• Meetings with Multimedia Victoria during November 2007 and February 2008
• eHealth and ICT Forum on 29 January 2008 attended by 32 individuals
• eHealth and ICT Forum on 3 April 2008 attended by 27.

Stakeholder numbers have grown to 70 individuals representing 42 organisations.

Eight-two percent of attendees who provided feedback on their participation in the first forum indicated they were either very supportive (64 percent) or supportive (18 percent) of the concept of establishing a network or cluster which would target emerging ICT/Health opportunities.

When stakeholders were asked to prioritise eHealth and ICT focused activities on a 1-5 ranking the top four ranked responses were:

• Collaborative research and development (4.38)
• Development of concept/ plans for innovative eHealth initiatives in the region (4.30)
• Multi stakeholder forums (focused on exploring priority issues such as interoperability and shared services) (3.91)
• Capability directory for ICT and Health Cluster (3.64)