The Future of the HISA(VIC) Electronic Network

Jon Hilton, HISA(VIC) Electronic Network Committee

E-mail: jon@hisavic.aus.net

The Electronic Network Committee of HISA (VIC) are looking at ways of extending the existing bulletin board system which was set up by Nursing Informatics Australia last year.

I think that it would be fair to say that the bulletin board in current form has been a limited success. The fact that it is there, and it works at all has shown that a health informatics organisation can set up and maintain such a system. Thanks go to the members of the NIA Electronic Network Committee who have worked very hard at getting the system off the ground. The success was limited in the sense that usage rates of the bulletin board were fairly low. The reasons for this are probably many, and without a detailed survey of the membership it would be impossible to accurately list them all. I think, however that a few basic principles hold, and at a recent meeting of the HISA(VIC) Electronic Network Committee, we discussed some ways of increasing the usefulness of the electronic network to members. The view was that there are three main reasons for the limited success of the electronic network:

1. Lack of knowledge either of the existence of the network, or of how to access it.
2. Perceived lack of information available on the network.
3. Difficulty of access for remote (country area) users.

1. The Electronic Network Committee and the Education Committee have already begun preliminary informal discussions on a co-operative solution to this problem. I think that most (if not all) members would at least be aware of the existence of the bulletin board. I believe that our first aim in education should be to concentrate on people who are interested in gaining access, but need help in "getting off the ground" with electronic communications.
2. Notwithstanding the efforts of the committee and the generosity of Joe Hovel (to whom thanks are due), it would be fair to say that the information available on the bulletin board is rather limited compared to the wealth of knowledge which exists in the area of health informatics. One reason for this is the lack of contributors. This is a chicken-and-egg situation. People cannot contribute if they are not accessing the network, and they won't access the network without a good reason to do so. I think the solution to this problem is to stop seeing the health informatics network in isolation, but see it as a gateway to existing networks which contain information in various areas, including health.
3. The main problem for remote users is the cost of communications. This problem is compounded by the difficulties of education also faced by remote users. The only solution to this is to try to enable access by these users at a site close to them. This is not as impossible as it sounds. There is a large network of bulletin boards (called FIDONet) which could conceivably be used as an access point by remote users.

A meeting involving members of the electronic network committee and representatives of ADMIN and the Commonwealth Department of Health representing the Health Communication Network was deemed a success by members of the committee, and it is expected that our bulletin board will become a part of the ADMIN network in the near future. This is seen as a starting point for the extension of a HISA network throughout Australia.