Will This Change Make A Difference? Time Will Tell!

 Will anything change? Here is the announcement.

Australian Digital Health Agency Names New Board Chair

Australian Digital Health Agency – Sep 29, 2023

The Australian Digital Health Agency (the Agency) welcomes the appointment of Lyn McGrath as the Agency's new Board Chair.

Ms McGrath has served as a non-executive member of the Agency's Board for over 7 years and Chair of the Agency's Audit and Risk Committee.

Ms McGrath brings over 30 years of expertise in complex and regulated sectors, including health and financial services. Her wealth of experience positions her well to lead the Agency Board into a new era of digital health.

Agency CEO, Ms Amanda Cattermole PSM, extended her appreciation to outgoing Chair, Dr Elizabeth Deveny.

She remarked, "As a Board member since the Agency's inception, including almost 5 of those as Chair, Dr Deveny led the Agency through a transformative journey which included providing better access for all Australians to their health information through My Health Record, making electronic prescriptions available across the country, significant innovation during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the new my health app. Dr Deveny's leadership and contribution will leave an ongoing legacy for Australia's digital health agenda."

Ms McGrath also acknowledged the remarkable work of Dr Deveny and stated, "It's with great enthusiasm that I take up the role of Chair of the Agency Board. I look forward to continuing to advance the national digital health agenda and building on the momentum that has already been achieved under Dr Deveny's leadership".

Dr Deveny said that it had been a privilege to guide the Agency during a critical period for digital health. She remarked, "It has been an honour to serve the Agency as Board Chair at such a pivotal time for our communities. The leadership and vision of Ms McGrath will ensure the Agency can deliver the seamlessly connected and person-centred system that health consumers are expecting."

Ms Lyn McGrath's three-year appointment as the Chair of the Australian Digital Health Agency Board will take effect on 29 September 2023.

Here is the link:

https://www.miragenews.com/australian-digital-health-agency-names-new-1093627/

Also here:

Roundup: ADHA names new board chair and more briefs

Also, Orion Health has integrated Pieces AI for automatic patient summaries generation.

By Adam Ang

September 29, 2023 04:16 AM

ADHA appoints new board chair

The Australian Digital Health Agency has assigned Lyn McGrath to their board's chair. 

McGrath has been a non-executive member of the ADHA Board for over seven years. She has also served as chair of the agency's Audit and Risk Committee.

She will be replacing Dr Elizabeth Deveny, who has been with the organisation since its inception. 

"It's with great enthusiasm that I take up the role of Chair of the [ADHA] Board. I look forward to continuing to advance the national digital health agenda and building on the momentum that has already been achieved under Dr Deveny's leadership," McGrath said about her three-year appointment, which begins on 29 September. 

Here is the link:

https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/anz/roundup-adha-names-new-board-chair-and-more-briefs

I wonder what changes we will see, if any?

In other news we also have:

Have your say on proposed changes to My Health Record

Published 28 September 2023

The Department of Health and Aged Care is consulting on changes to how reports are uploaded to My Health Record.

The AMA is seeking feedback from its members on the government’s changes to inform an official response to the proposal.

One of the government’s key proposals is ceasing the 7-day rule that currently creates a week-long delay between when a healthcare provider uploads a diagnostic imaging or pathology result to My Health Record and when a consumer can see it. There are limited exceptions to this rule, including the reporting of COVID-19 pathology results.

Under the proposed changes, consumers would, by default, be able to see their new diagnostic imaging and pathology reports as soon as they are shared to My Health Record.

However, the department is considering whether certain reports shared to My Health Record should remain “locked” for a particular time in some circumstances, either according to set protocols or on individual circumstances.

Take the AMA’s survey to share your thoughts on the proposal

Here is the link:

https://www.ama.com.au/ama-rounds/29-september-2023/articles/have-your-say-proposed-changes-my-health-record

Lots to fill in!

David.

 

It Is Hard To Be Sure That On-Line Prescription Providers Are A Good Thing For The Health System.

In the last few months this sort of practice seems to be growing and Eucalyptus seems to be a flag-bearer at present.:

A typical recent article talking about the trend goes like this, maybe suggesting a peak!

The weight loss cycle: out with Jenny Craig, in with Ozempic

Depending who you ask, Ozempic is “phenomenal” for patients or a “dangerous” way of losing weight. Either way, its arrival heralds a new model of medicine.

Nick Bonyhady Technology writer

Jul 21, 2023 – 1.59pm

In 1983, a Melbourne couple with a burgeoning business took out a full-page ad in The Age to spruik the opening of their nine weight loss centres across the city. “This is the last weight loss program you will ever need to go on,” wrote the business founded by Jenny Craig and her husband, Sidney. “No injections, drugs and pills.”

Over the decades, millions of overweight people trusted Craig’s promises as they paid to weigh in, pick up meals and slim down at what became more than 700 stores in four countries. But last month, after a string of owners, Jenny Craig Weight Loss Centres Australia hit the end of the road. The demise of its US parent company had pushed it into administration, and no buyer was willing to acquire the whole business.

Eucalyptus, a four-year-old start-up that sells the buzzy weight loss drug Ozempic, bought Jenny Craig’s mailing list and web address but not its name. It has not said what it plans to do with the storied business, but the most obvious course would be to use it to start selling the prescription medication. Craig’s promise of “no injections” could, along with the physical centres, be lost.

Ozempic is the drug of the moment, though it is not officially recommended for weight loss. The weekly injection, which is designed to be a treatment for diabetes, works by mimicking hormones that tell the body it is full. One trial found patients lost an average of 15 per cent of their body weight over 68 weeks. For the last year, its active compound called Semaglutide has been in high demand as a weight loss treatment, spruiked by celebrities including billionaire Tesla and Twitter boss Elon Musk.

With shortages of the drug easing and mainstream businesses like Eucalyptus moving to cash in, the Ozempic fad heralds the arrival of a more American model of care. Patients are being driven to the drug – which can have serious side effects – through marketing and media, rather than letting their doctor discern the right treatment for their symptoms.

In doctors’ waiting rooms, hairdressers and gyms around Australia, Ozempic is the word.

Former independent MP and general practitioner Professor Kerryn Phelps, who works in Sydney’s inner east, said her colleagues had patients who wanted Ozempic for weight loss.

“Word got around on social media last year that this could fast-track weight loss, and this led to an unanticipated demand,” Phelps says. Shortages have resulted.

More here:

https://www.afr.com/life-and-luxury/health-and-wellness/the-weight-loss-cycle-out-with-jenny-craig-in-with-ozempic-20230719-p5dpkg

My interest is in the Eucalyptus corporate and its associated tele-health brands.

There are four key brands under the Eucalyptus banner covering mostly sexual and weight issues, with services mostly delivered via audio based tele-health.

I have had a close look at many of the offerings and I am left with the feeling most consults are really a sales channel for in-demand / embarrassing services.

The latest push on weight loss is driven by the new agent Ozempic which seems to be the weekly injection everyone wants!

The issue is just how such drugs are made available and is the availability of a few drugs that are in ‘social’ demand a reason to move from traditional consultation to the on-line less contact model?

I think not and in normal (not pandemic!) situations actually seeing the patient before prescribing is a pretty good plan!

I really see the hand of financial greed overwhelming patient safety with these services…

What do others think remembering these services are by no means free or bulk-billed!

David.

AusHealthIT Poll Number 716 – Results – 01 October, 2023.

 Here are the results of the poll.

Should Employees Who Click Phishing Links Be Disciplined And / Or Fired?

Yes                                                                           24 (55%)

No                                                                             18 (41%)

I Have No Idea                                                          2 (4%)

Total No. Of Votes: 44

A rather mixed outcome! A bare majority think there should be pain for stupidity!

Any insights on the poll are welcome, as a comment, as usual!

A good number of votes. And also a reasonable outcome. 

2 of 44 who answered the poll admitted to not being sure about the answer to the question!

Again, many, many thanks to all those who voted! 

David.

 

How Can Something Called Splunk Be Worth $US28 Billion?

This popped up last week.

Cisco is buying Splunk for $44b. Here’s what Splunk does

Katrina Manson

Sep 22, 2023 – 7.56am

Washington | If the deluge of data in the modern world is increasingly overwhelming, cybersecurity company Splunk claims to have been ready for it for 20 years.

The company’s name reflects the act of burrowing deep down into the Earth to explore caves – the adventure of data spelunking.

Splunk was started by three friends in 2003, as co-founder and ex-chief executive Michael Baum drew on his past building search engines at Yahoo. The conundrum was to figure out how to make sense of mass collection of real-time data. Splunk aimed to search it instantly, surpassing cumbersome old ways of filing through logs. The idea was to have machines label and index data themselves.

On Thursday, more than 1100 patents later, Splunk’s early fascination with the unknown depths of data paid off. It was acquired by Cisco Systems for $US28 billion ($44 billion), after an earlier courtship was rekindled. Bloomberg Intelligence senior analyst Woo Jin Ho described it as “the Moby Dick” of deals.

It marks a victory for Splunk chief executive Gary Steele, who joined last year from cybersecurity firm Proofpoint, which he founded and served as CEO. The union would combine the power of data and AI to “transform the industry”, he said in a statement. Splunk’s share price surged on the news, up 21 per cent just after noon in New York. He will report to Cisco chief executive Chuck Robbins.

Splunk excels in two areas that Cisco believes will fit with products it already offers. Cisco’s existing security products detect and respond, monitoring how devices connected to a network are behaving, deciding whether something fishy is going on and then alerting a company’s IT department. Splunk does incident and event management, meaning it is logging and tracking every action on a network. It looks at where requests originated and what service or software initiated them, compiling huge amounts of data in the process.

That means customers will be able to go from detecting and responding to what is occurring inside a computer network to predicting and preventing, according to Cisco chief financial officer Scott Herren.

What it offers besides data collection

Splunk’s other offering is so-called observability, meaning it uses technology to help customers see and understand whether their applications are secure and performing as they should be. For instance, someone searching a retail site will be connected to a web server that provides them with the product page. Another computer in the background might check on internal inventory and another might calculate the shipping time. Once the consumer commits to a purchase, it’s quite likely that a third-party payment service will get involved.

Any of these steps might be a problem. Splunk adds to Cisco’s existing application diagnostic offerings by being able to look deeper into computer networks and check on each step in the complex chain to make sure everything is working in concert.

Splunk went public in 2012, doubling its market valuation to more than $US3 billion on its first day of trading amid a new-found frenzy for big data investing. It now has about 8000 employees and 230,000 users around the world. More than 90 of the Fortune 100 companies use Splunk, according to its website.

More here:

https://www.afr.com/technology/cisco-is-buying-splunk-for-44b-here-s-what-splunk-does-20230922-p5e6pz

Now you know!

David.

Do You Agree With What Is Said Here? I Reckon It Is Rubbish!

This popped up a few days ago:

Sacking staff who click on malicious links does more harm than good, says security boss

By Joseph Lam

12:01AM September 20, 2023

Harsh penalties including sacking staff who have clicked on a malicious link will do more harm than good for cyber security, says a former ADF intelligence officer who now handles security for a major multinational IT company.

Accenture security lead for Australia and New Zealand Jacqui Kernot said she was “vehemently opposed” to the idea, which has been a talking point across the nation for the past two days.

Cyber security awareness teams should wanted staff to fall for internal campaigns so they could be taught what a successful phishing email looked like and be educated on how to avoid them, she said.

“On people being sacked for cyber awareness campaigns and clicking on too many links, I’m vehemently opposed to that,” she told The Australian.

The comments came after it was revealed this week that the Australian Securities and Investments Commission would target directors and executives who failed to secure their companies and prepare for cyber attacks.

On the back of ASIC’s warning to business leaders, many have come forward with their own ideas on how to improve security and prevent breaches, including sacking staff or limiting their internet access.

Ms Kernot, who has held security roles at IBM, Telstra and EY, said that such penalties would only discourage staff from clicking links altogether and could have some impact on business. 

“Where there are big penalties for failure around cyber awareness campaigns or clicking on links, what happens is you don’t get people to engage with it because they’re scared of getting the wrong answer,” she said. “And you don’t want to start disabling the business.”

Tying metric-based goals to internal cyber security campaigns might also limit the effectiveness of those campaigns, Ms Kernot said. “If the metrics for the cyber awareness team are to get fewer people to click on links, they’re going to design campaigns that make phishing tests obvious,” she said.

Some of the more innovative cyber security teams had turned to the gamification of internal campaigns and testing.

More here:

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/technology/sacking-staff-who-click-on-malicious-links-does-more-harm-than-good-says-security-boss/news-story/e12cb1dde45368f747dafc780a5b561d

I have to say I reckon this is rubbish! My view is that you are allowed one ‘learning experience’ and after that clicking dangerous links should have serious consequences!

What do others think?

David.