Report: OCED reveals Australia healthcare lags behind in data and technology

A recent report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reveals the Australian healthcare system lags behind others with a similar federal system, which includes the U.S. and the UK.

Despite Australia having the sixth-highest life expectancy rate of all countries within the OECD, the Aussie healthcare system has come under scrutiny.

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Although Aussie residents have an average life span of 82.2 years, with the fourth-lowest smoking rate 12.8 per cent and a heart disease rate well below the OECD average, the sharing of healthcare responsibilities between the state and federal governments has led to a broken system that is difficult for patients to handle and increases the risk of medical error.

With a division between primary care and community health, there is often a lack of coordination as well as a duplication of services in Australia.

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Furthermore, the OECD report described the use of technology by the Aussie healthcare system as “slow and disappointing,” as the shortage of information technology has led to a lack of data reflecting the quality of care and patient outcomes.

The data deficiency is the main aspect holding back the quality and performance of the Australian healthcare system, which in turn makes it difficult to assess it properly. In fact, the majority of the data being used by the OECD in its latest report is from 2013 and details possible beneficial outcomes from initiatives that have already been completed.

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Due to the lack of real data to fully reveal the state of the sector at the individual level, the overall analysis of the report suffers along with it.

Without this, there is a very little chance anyone can predict the future prosperity or create an effective strategy to improve the healthcare industry Down Under.

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