Tuesday | 7 October, 2008
CIO
Former CIO to lead Australia's e-health agenda at NEHTA
Founding CEO, Ian Reinecke, resigns
Sandra Rossi (Computerworld) 31 March, 2008 09:54:47

The founding chief executive officer (CEO) of the National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA), Dr Ian Reinecke, has resigned and will be replaced by the Chief Information Officer of the Victorian Department of Human Services, Andrew Howard.

The appointment of a CIO to act as NEHTA's interim CEO is effective almost immediately as Dr Reinecke will officially depart on Friday, April 4, 2008.

Reinecke's immediate departure was announced today by the chair of the NEHTA board, Dr Tony Sherbon, in a formal statement claiming Reinecke wants to resume his career as a consultant and corporate advisor.

Reinecke has held the position since October 2004 and Sherbon said his replacement will maintain the role while an international search is undertaken for a permanent CEO.

However, IT staff working in the health sector believe placing a CIO at the helm of Australia's e-health initiatives is a timely move as work has just begun on the implementation of Australia's electronic health records.

Howard has an extensive background in e-health and 15 years international consulting experience with Accenture.

NEHTA is under considerable pressure to deliver on many of its e-health objectives in the next 12 months with a recent review undertaken by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) identifying a range of obstacles to Australia's e-health agenda including critical staff shortages.

As a result NEHTA is looking offshore to fill the resource gap and has had to justify serious delays in delivery.

The report said NEHTA is currently operating up to 50 per cent under budget due to recruiting delays.

BCG warned the increased labour resources required is extraordinary, roughly a doubling of personnel spend every year up until 2009.

The review also called for closer consultation with stakeholders. Health industry professionals and the IT industry described NEHTA's engagement style as "dogmatic".

Following the review NEHTA announced a business plan to expedite e-health reforms late last year.

Commenting on Reinecke's leadership, Sherbon said he has taken the evolution of e-health in Australia to a new level where much of the work is now ready for implementation.

Reinecke recently secured funding to move ahead on a range of e-health projects and negotiated the contract to establish unique health identifiers for all Australians.

"I am confident that the NEHTA program will continue on its current course under Andrew Howard's leadership," Dr Sherbon said.

NEHTA's Board of Directors is composed of the heads of all nine government health departments in Australia.

Market Place
 

Smart SOA World Tour

Discover how SOA can create smarter outcomes for your business.

Attend and learn:

  • How SOA is helping leading companies to become more agile
  • Where you should be applying SOA processes in your company
  • The top SOA implementation mistakes to avoid

Click here for more information.
  • +

    CIO Live Podcast #79: Brent D Taylor, author of The Outsider's Edge: The Making of Self-Made Billionaires Part II 05 October, 2007 06:00:00

    For his new book, The Outsider's Edge: The Making of Self-Made Billionaires, social researcher Brent D Taylor spent four years of intensive research investigating the psychological make-up and backgrounds of some of the world's richest men and women, including IT luminaries Bill Gates, Larry Ellison and Steve Jobs. Taylor discovered that, despite working in different industries and coming from different upbringings, they all have one thing in common -- they are all outsiders.
  • +

    CIO Live Podcast #78: Brent D Taylor, author of The Outsider's Edge: The Making of Self-Made Billionaires 28 September, 2007 17:34:25

    For his new book, The Outsider's Edge: The Making of Self-Made Billionaires, social researcher Brent D Taylor spent four years of intensive research investigating the psychological make-up and backgrounds of some of the world's richest men and women, including IT luminaries Bill Gates, Larry Ellison and Steve Jobs. Taylor discovered that, despite working in different industries and coming from different upbringings, they all have one thing in common -- they are all outsiders.
  • +

    CIO Live Podcast #77: Panasonic Speeds Up Trans-Pacific File Transfers, Part III 21 September, 2007 07:00:00

    Part three in our three-part special report from CIO's sister publication Network World in the US, as Paul Desmond reports from the Network World IT Roadmap Conference in Santa Clara, California. With development teams in the US and Japan, Panasonic needed a more efficient way to move very large files between the two locations. Iben Rodriguez, IT consultant for Panasonic Research and Development, explains how a storage-area network and virtual server technology helped speed up WAN performance.
  • +

    CIO Live Podcast #76: Panasonic Speeds Up Trans-Pacific File Transfers, Part II 14 September, 2007 07:00:00

    Part two in our three-part special report from CIO's sister publication Network World in the US, as Paul Desmond reports from the Network World IT Roadmap Conference in Santa Clara, California. With development teams in the US and Japan, Panasonic needed a more efficient way to move very large files between the two locations. Iben Rodriguez, IT consultant for Panasonic Research and Development, explains how a storage-area network and virtual server technology helped speed up WAN performance.
  • +

    CIO Live Podcast #75: Panasonic Speeds Up Trans-Pacific File Transfers, Part I 07 September, 2007 07:00:05

    Part one in our three-part special report from CIO's sister publication Network World in the US, as Paul Desmond reports from the Network World IT Roadmap Conference in Santa Clara, California. With development teams in the US and Japan, Panasonic needed a more efficient way to move very large files between the two locations. Iben Rodriguez, IT consultant for Panasonic Research and Development, explains how a storage-area network and virtual server technology helped speed up WAN performance.
  • +

    Corporate security and the climate crisis 03 October, 2008 11:21:00

    How to adapt security and risk management policies - including IT security - to deal with climate change.
    US military strategists, CIA analysts, international agency officials and Nobel Prize winning economists concur with the consensus of the world's scientific community: the Climate Crisis is a planetary security issue, as well as a national security issue for each of the one hundred ninety two countries that belong to the United Nations. But the Climate Crisis is also, by extension, a corporate security issue, as well as, yes, a cyber security issue.
  • +

    Companies own up to virtual security blind spot 02 October, 2008 11:05:00

    VMWorld attendees reveal vast majority of companies have little or no security in place for their virtual systems.
    The vast majority of companies have little or no security in place for their virtual systems. That is a scary statistic revealed in a survey of attendees at the recent VMWorld 2008 conference in Las Vegas.
  • +

    How to minimize the impact of a data breach 01 October, 2008 08:54:00

    ID Experts' Rick Kam describes a customer-centric action plan
    Thirty-one percent of customers--nearly one-third of a company's client base and revenue source--are terminating their relationship with organizations following a data breach, according to a recent study by the Ponemon Institute.
  • +

    Five mistakes security pros would make again 30 September, 2008 10:18:00

    Whether it's getting fired for standing up for what's right or making a network configuration mistake that leads to better security, there are some mistakes worth making. Five security pros offer personal examples.
    Ten years ago, Michael Riva was network administrator for a top-five American consultancy. Employees were downloading graphic pictures and videos onto the network. Riva told his boss a proxy server with content filtering might be in order; his boss laughed and suggested they put in a bigger file server instead.
  • +

    What does the financial meltdown mean for security? 29 September, 2008 10:25:00

    Bill Brenner wonders if it's irrational or appropriate to make connections between the current financial crisis and the state of security
    At first, this was going to be a column about the PR machine's hyperbolic efforts to connect the state of IT and security with the current financial crisis. Indeed, some have shamelessly sent me story pitches that try to get some bang out of the Wall Street meltdown.
CIO Webcast Innovation #8 - What are the biggest roadblocks to IT's involvement in innovation at your company?
Watch the latest latest edition of CIO Innovation which is now available for download.
Watch the webcast
Sign up to the CIO Innovation update email


CIO Live Podcast #79: Brent D Taylor, author of The Outsider's Edge: The Making of Self-Made Billionaires Part II
Listen to the latest edition of CIO Live which is now available for download.
Listen to the podcast
Sign up to the CIO Live email
Whitepaper

Why Security SaaS Makes Sense Today

Corporate IT teams are waging a significant security battle on two fronts these days: stopping attacks via the Web and through email. Security SaaS can solves these problems and more. Read on to discover 7 reasons why security SaaS makes sense for your business.

Sponsored Links