Medical Council shift online sees Jade dumped

Doctors' body implements MedSys

The Medical Council has phased out Jade to move to a more modern database and provide its services online.

CEO Philip Pigou says the council wanted to use more common software that would be more sustainable in the long run, with less maintenance required. It went to closed request for proposal to develop and implement MedSys, a comprehensive medical practitioner registration and certification system.

MedSys plays a critical role in enabling the council to fulfil its mandate of ensuring that doctors working in New Zealand are competent and fit to practice in order to ensure public health and safety.

“As we continue to develop MedSys and implement further enhancements we expect to see significant improvements in our efficiency and productivity by streamlining and automating many day-to-day business processes,” Pigou says. “It will also give us confidence that all our processes are compliant and auditable under the Health Practitioners Competency Assurance Act, which governs our business.”

Optimation won the multi-year contract. Pigou won’t say exactly how much it is worth but says it is in the millions of dollars.

“The new system is more about workflow. It is complex and has taken us longer to get that right.

“We’re now focusing on building online applications and developing new processes and workflow to support how we do business.”

He describes the benefits of the new system as “organisational aspirin”.

“We’d had the old system since 1999. It really needed replacing. We can now provide a much better level of services. Doctors can now apply electronically rather than on paper for things like their annual practising certificate. We’re also able to get things like workforce data and professional development data.”

Pigou says another major benefit is registering overseas doctors who apply to work in New Zealand. “We register 1200 a year. We can now capture information about their qualifications. Within a year, we should have most key things online.” The Medical Council has an internal IT team of seven servicing its 60 employees. It has an annual budget of around $10 million funded by levy.

As a result of the MedSys project, Optimation is pitching its online registration and business rules automation capability to other organisations that need to manage membership of an industry or of trade professionals.