ANCCH
Australian National Consultative Committee on Health (ANCCH)
The Australian National Consultative Committee on Health (formerly known as the Australian National Consultative Committee on e-Health) was established as a result of Global Access Partners’ 2004 Forum on ‘Better Health Care through Electronic Information’.
The ANCCH represents the major ICT industry players and other stakeholder groups. The Committee contributes to the debate around the public and private health agenda in Australia with a view to promote and realise better patient health outcomes through the application of changes to process, and the interaction of technology to improve efficiency, safety and productivity.
The group also provides a forum for public-private partnerships in order to promote improved execution and industry development.
The Committee raises issues of national importance, influences government policy and supports the interests of its members. Its four broad areas of interest are agency coordination, chronic disease management, connectivity and infrastructure, and change management.
The ANCCH initiatives in the area of health and wellbeing over the last seven years have ranged from discussions of national health policy to the problems of implementing an Australia-wide e-health infrastructure and the potential applications of genetic testing in drug therapy to the management and long term funding of chronic “lifestyle” diseases in an ageing Australian population.
In 2012, the Committee launched the National Telehealth Strategy paper. It details the Committee’s thinking as to what is important in telehealth from a systemic national perspective. Telehealth is not a local issue, but offers the health system, both public and private, the opportunity to provide new models of care efficiently. ANCCH’s National Telehealth Strategy paper is Australia’s first and has received very positive feedback from government, clinical providers and industry.