Update from the ACIITC

Continuing its regular column in Technology Review in the year ahead, the Aged Care Industry IT Company writes it will focus on influencing, informing and ensuring technology is at the forefront of consideration.

Continuing its regular column in Technology Review in the year ahead, the Aged Care Industry IT Company will focus on influencing, informing and ensuring technology is at the forefront of consideration, write Graeme Prior, Anne Livingstone and Gavin Tomlins.

As we have reported in earlier articles, the structure of the ACIitC was redefined at the start of 2015. Further refining is being considered by the board including the appointment of new board members and the establishment of additional committees for residential care and sector-wide innovation.

Two existing committees – the National Home Care Group and the CIO Forum – currently have over 80 members who have been actively contributing. Involvement has included face-to-face meetings, teleconferences, forums and thorough participation in online discussions. We have witnessed an estimated 35 per cent increase in interest in being involved in the work of the ACIitC and we are hoping to significantly improve engagement levels further in 2016.

The current work of the ACIitC committees is undertaken in a voluntary capacity and it is hoped that some resourcing will be sought for actively pursuing research agendas and supporting ongoing operations.

The committees of the ACIitC had a clear mandate last year to improve the business processes and technology enhancements put in place with the introduction of the July 2015 reforms; in particular our focus was on the My Aged Care Gateway. Extensive engagement has occurred with the Department of Social Services including:

  • Co-chairing regular ACIitC DSS meetings in Canberra
  • Facilitating a My Aged Care gateway user testing group
  • Providing regular feedback to the department on progress and industry requirements

The creation of the My Aged Care gateway user testing group was an important development last year. This saw 23 organisations selected to represent the aged care industry across a variety of parameters. This included providing direct feedback on week-by-week progress and developments required in the new systems. ACIitC is in negotiations with DSS regarding ongoing consultation mechanisms for the various new stages of implementations of reform and changes.

ACIitC discussions with the department have particularly focused around Auskey consultations, the gateway user testing findings, presentation of industry survey findings, the introduction of new quality indicators and requirements for a business-to-government (B2G) working group.

B2G workshop

The first stage of developing a pathway and consultative mechanism for the B2G considerations was workshopped at a pre-conference forum on 23 November 2015.

Around 40 providers gave feedback to this forum which explored the future directions needed to maximise innovation of aged care technology over the next five-to-10 years and which would support the next iteration of My Aged Care and the transition to an integrated B2G solution for the industry.

As part of the process, the 2014 ACIITC Vision Paper and the My Aged Care Solution Overview were reviewed. In the forum it was recognised that maximising industry efficiency and quality performance over coming years will be substantially dependent on how, we as an industry, evolve and develop innovative industry-wide technology capability.

Jeremy McAuliffe
Jeremy McAuliffe, general manager comounity services at Benetas, at the ITAC pre-conference workshop

The workshop was a critical step in developing government-industry joint thinking on these matters and leading to a plan for the future.

The items discussed included:

  • What should the innovation and technology vision for the whole industry look like for 2025?
  • What steps need to be undertaken to build the capacity of aged care providers across the service continuum to achieve the above objectives?
  • What steps are needed to drive current industry uptake and engagement in building an innovative aged care IT capability?
  • What do service providers need to do to achieve maximum systems efficiencies by 2020?
  • How does the industry work more effectively with the department to prioritise enhancements to the core My Aged Care system and assure user acceptance?
  • What are the next iterative steps for maximizing the value of My Aged Care?
  • How does the industry and government move to a fully-integrated B2G environment for the aged care industry?
  • What primary drivers would best support the move to achieve this objective?

Committee chairs of ACIitC have strategically concentrated efforts on creating linkages with other relevant groups and these have included CAST (Centre for Age Services Technology), the National Disability Insurance Scheme ICT Group, and various Gov 2.0 working groups.Further work will be undertaken by the ACIitC to review the vision for ICT in aged care and this will be a process of intense activity in early 2016.

2016 agenda

Operationally we are reviewing the structure and membership of our various committees to ensure all elements of the industry are represented as well as geographical locations. In particular we are actively seeking involvement from Northern Territory and Tasmanian services. If you are interested, visit the ACIitC website to register your interest.

The various committees of ACIitC – ITAC, National Home Care and CIO Forum – have outlined a number of strategic intents for 2016. These are being refined and will form our operational plan for this year. These include:

  • Enhancing the one central conduit for all aged care industry ICT related works;
  • Delivering ICT leadership and governance in partnership with industry and the Department of Human Services to meet the requirements of our aged care clients with a focus on including residential care and consumer directed care models more in the structural considerations;
  • Providing more opportunities to distribute advice and recommendations to service providers and vendors;
  • Providing a conduit for the collaboration and exchange of ICT information for service providers;
  • Driving ICT innovation within the aged care ecosystem so as to underpin market sustainability and community inclusion;
  • Exploring the certification of vendors and systems;
  • Increasing global opportunities to improve technology in aged care;
  • Showcasing national developments and leadership in technology developments and deployment in the sector; and
  • Collecting evidence and promoting a research agenda.

A key consideration and focus of the ACIitC agenda will be on continuing to facilitate industry and government interaction with a particular focus on increasing:

  • co-design
  • innovation
  • efficiency
  • knowledge
  • connection

We encourage you to be involved in our activities and put your name forward if you are interested in participating.

Two current opportunities we ask you to be involved in are:

  1. The second National Survey of Community Care IT Readiness survey, which builds on the work undertaken in the 2014/2015 period and hopes to provide evidence of the positioning of the sector in respect to technology requirements.
  2. The 2016 ITAC conference.

Details of both will be available in early 2016 at aciitc.com.au, where you can also find out more about the Aged Care Industry IT Company.

Graeme Prior is independent chair of the Aged Care Industry IT Company Ltd, Anne Livingstone is chair of the National Home Care Committee and Gavin Tomlins is chair of the CIO Forum.

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Tags: aciitc, aged-care-industry-it-company, anne-livingstone, cio-forum, gavin-tomlins, graeme prior, home-care-group, my-aged-care, news-tr-2,

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