To investigate methods for preventing patient harm through national digital health safety governance

Recommendations: I draw on the opportunities presented through the overall findings and principles, which dovetail with the principles as originally defined by Coiera and colleagues (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22509862/) and draw on the premise of the ‘Health Information Technology (HIT) Safety Center’ model developed in the USA. This is the only fully elaborated model supported by an extensive evidence base, the structure of which is informed by learnings beyond the USA borders. //While the Centre has not been implemented as originally envisioned, many of its proposed members are active in the ‘Partnership for Health IT Safety’, a multi-stakeholder collaborative of more than fifty organisations that analyse safety events and hazards, identify, and share solutions and safe practices, and inform policymakers and the broader healthcare community about priorities for health IT safety. //Australia should assemble a taskforce of health sector experts including clinicians, consumers, government, researchers, policy makers and industry to develop the vision, mission, outcomes and roadmap for better coordinated digital health patient safety in Australia. //The taskforce’s expressed purpose would be to ensure digital health is safer for patients and would build upon the significant progress already made in Australia and internationally. //The work of the taskforce should not replace existing patient safety activities, such as those that exist within the States and Territories, or within hospitals and health services; rather, it should focus on how digital health safety governance could be better coordinated across the nation. //The taskforce should examine the depth and breadth of policy, funding and regulatory levers that apply to all hospitals, primary care and health services, to identify gaps and determine solutions. This would include an environmental scan on what currently exists to better inform the solutions. //The taskforce should examine the requirements for national reporting of digital health-related patient safety events, to include an agreed set of metrics, along with the supporting infrastructure required to build it. //The taskforce should be ‘housed’ within an existing national organisation, such as the Australian Commission on Safety & Quality in Health Care or the Australian Digital Health Agency, to expedite the establishment of its operations. Importantly, it should function independently of the host organisation, and at arm’s length of government or industry to avoid conflicting interests. The taskforce could integrate with the Australian Alliance for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare (AAAiH), led by Professor Coiera, given that one of the key components of the AAAiH is the establishment of the ‘Safety, Quality and Ethics Program’, which will contemplate the development of appropriate frameworks for safety and ethical governance and regulation of healthcare AI. //Keywords: Digital health, standards and guidelines, accountability, patient safety, clinical risk management, Electronic Health Record.