AU health gets bio smart

The South Australian Department of Health will lock down its patient information systems with smartcards and biometric technology as part of a 10-year, $375 million computing and communications overhaul, reports Australian IT.

The department is likely to award contracts for the first major component of the initiative as early as August, as it works towards building an integrated IT platform for the state's public hospitals and community clinics.

Department of Health CIO David Johnston said the core objective of the 10-year strategy was to streamline access to crucial patient and medical information by making systems available online. "The broader strategy is to Web-enable as many applications as possible using an 'open-standards, open-systems' philosophy."

A mobile phone SIM card is believed to have led to the arrest of a Gold Coast Hospital doctor in connection with the London and Glasgow bomb plots, the Gold Coast Bulletin reports. Mohamed Haneef of Southport, was being questioned by Australian Federal Police earlier this week.

Police raided Dr Haneef's unit in Pohlman Street, Southport, early yesterday and confiscated computers and documents, which are being translated from Arabic to English for investigators. There are also reports that a search of Dr Haneef's car yielded two computers and maps of London.

Britain's Muslim News reported a mobile phone SIM card might have led to the arrest of Dr Haneef over a failed attempt to blow up two car bombs in central London and one at Glasgow Airport at the weekend. British police traced the card to the possession of a doctor living in Liverpool. During questioning, the doctor revealed the SIM card had been given to him by another practitioner who had gone to Australia last year - now thought to be Dr Haneef.

A smart card with a social security number could be introduced in a few years to help people jointly manage their pensions, healthcare and other social security programmes, the Asahi Shimbun reports.

This, it is hoped, will prevent a recurrence of the recent pension scandal, in which the Social Insurance Agency lost or failed to identify records of pension premium payments.

By linking pension and health insurance data with the Juki Net, the nationwide computer network of resident registration information, the government could ensure it was not lost or mislaid, officials say. But critics say the plan, which would allow the central government to easily access information about a person's pension records, health and medical history, would remove vital privacy protections inherent in separate schemes.