Monday, June 01, 2015

Weekly Australian Health IT Links –1st June, 2015.

Here are a few I have come across the last week or so.
Note: Each link is followed by a title and a few paragraphs. For the full article click on the link above title of the article. Note also that full access to some links may require site registration or subscription payment.

General Comment

A very quiet week on the surface but the Government has been busy as is covered on the blog elsewhere.
Again we see Telstra getting a fair bit of coverage in e-Health.
Rural health also get a lot of coverage and the place of the Internet and e-Health in the Bush.
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Telstra puts doctors on call with ReadyCare

Marie Hogg

Telstra’s latest addition to its e-health portfolio is set to marshal the resources and skills of full-time doctors to deliver ­convenience-driven healthcare through a ­mobile app and telephone service.
ReadyCare, poised for release on July 1, will provide 24/7 access to a GP consultation via a secure video service, and is built on a Swiss online model by joint-venture partner and healthcare provider Medgate.
Telstra’s head of Consumer and Tele-Health Services Wayne Liubinskas told The Australian that ReadyCare flipped the GP healthcare model on its head.
“The current consumer experience is that you have to go see a doctor at a time that really works for them as opposed to what works for you as a consumer,” Mr Liubinskas said. “ReadyCare is really about getting access to the care. We see it coming together in a concept of a consumer gateway which allows (the) consumer to access all different parts of the healthcare platform.
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Is it time to rethink the possibilities for rural health?

| May 28, 2015 9:40AM | EMAIL | PRINT
Jennifer Doggett reports from Darwin: 
‘Possibilities’ was the theme of the final day of #ruralhealthconf, and the ideas put forward by the keynote and concurrent session speakers challenged delegates to broaden their horizons and re-think narrow conceptions of rural health.
From the forces of globalisation, to the impact of domestic economic policies, to the need for reform of local funding arrangements, speakers outlined the forces that will shape our health system in the future and the possibilities these create for rural and remote health.
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What will it take to improve rural health? Internet, internet, internet…

| May 26, 2015 3:08PM | EMAIL | PRINT
Jennifer Doggett reports:
One of the most important outcomes from the National Rural Health Conference in Darwin will be a set of recommendations for action to improve health services in rural and remote areas and to overcome some of the barriers to good health.
These recommendations will be developed via a collaborative and structured process open to all delegates.  This process centres around the ‘Sharing Shed’, an online portal through which Conference delegates can propose recommendations to the full body of delegates, with every individual delegate being able to express a view on all ideas proposed by providing comments and by ranking or weighting separate recommendations.
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Chip implants beneath the skin bring a new meaning to 'pay wave'

Date May 30, 2015 - 12:00AM

Hannah Francis

Technology Reporter

Micro-chip implants for making payments and locking doors are the next frontier, but are the pitfalls worth it?
Most tech-heads like to tinker with the inner workings of iPhones or clapped out VCRs.
But Amal Graafstra is different. For the last 10 years, he's been busy hacking into his own body.
His US company Dangerous Things specialises in manufacturing rice grain-sized computer chips designed to be implanted inside the delicate webbing between the thumb and forefinger.
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Hospital tests lag time for robotic surgery 1,200 miles away from doctor

A Florida hospital has successfully tested lag time created by the Internet for a simulated robotic surgery in Ft. Worth, Texas, more than 1,200 miles away from the surgeon who was at the virtual controls.
Next, the hospital plans to test lag times for remote robotic or "telesurgery" in Denver and then Loma Linda, Calif.
The experiment wasn't performed on live patients, but rather on virtual patients using a machine called "Mimic Simulator." The training hospital was taking a first step in testing Internet lag time between when a surgeon moves a remote robotic instrument and when it reacts.
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NEHTA

Project Manager

  • Fixed term contract position to 31 December 2015
The National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA) was established by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) to develop better ways of electronically collecting and securely exchanging health information. NEHTA is the lead organisation supporting the national vision for eHealth in Australia.
NEHTA is currently seeking people with a desire to make a difference to health outcomes, who are passionate about the use of eHealth to meet these goals and have the relevant experience to deliver solutions in a highly complex stakeholder and technical environment.
As a Project Manager within NEHTA you will be responsible for the Clinical Document and Template Service projects and all products aligned with the approved Delivery Work Programme.  The role will facilitate and coordinate the implementation initiatives to ensure they are consistent with the NEHTA strategic plan and have acceptance by the Australian Health Industry. 
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2015 Healthcare IT Check-Up Shows Progress (And Some Pain)

The Accenture Doctors Survey 2015 shows that use of many healthcare IT functions is on the rise, but some capabilities are still not part of the regimen.
For more information, please download the full report.
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Telstra Corporation Ltd ready to rumble on e-health

By Mike King - May 27, 2015 | More on: TLS
Telco giant Telstra Corporation Ltd (ASX: TLS) is hardly the first company that springs to mind when you are talking about e-health.
You might consider companies like Primary Health Care Limited (ASX: PRY) and its network of medical centres, or hospital operators like Ramsay Health Care Limited (ASX: RHC) and Healthscope Limited (ASX: HSO) to be more likely candidates.
But Telstra is approaching e-health seriously and plans to utilise its vast networks and telecommunications infrastructure to deliver e-health services to customers in future.
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DHS data centre consolidation almost completed

Canberra data centre will save $24.5 million in leasing costs says Department of Human Services
A new data centre has been opened in Fyshwick, Canberra, which will be shared by federal government agencies including the Department of Human Services (DHS).
The opening of the new data centre marks the near completion of the department's data centre consolidation program. It has consolidated seven data centres down to two facilities.
According to Minister for Human Services Marise Payne the consolidation will save taxpayers $24.5 million in leasing costs over the next decade.
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Harvard medical professor: Big data and analytics help cure cancer

Summary: One of the world's top healthcare CIOs explains how data and predictive analytics can benefit patients and improve health care delivery.
By Michael Krigsman for Beyond IT Failure | May 30, 2015 -- 19:10 GMT (05:10 AEST)
In almost every industry, aggregating data on a large scale and running predictive analytics have the power to improve our lives. With healthcare, this power is magnified because conclusions drawn from analytics can directly affect patient health and well-being.
Unfortunately, discussions of so-called big data applications often are filled will vendor hype and sales hyperbole. It's a shame because there are many practical lessons and examples to illustrate the value of predictive analytics.
One of these use cases came forth during a CXOTalk discussion with the one of the foremost healthcare CIOs in the world, Dr. John Halamka. He described a personal situation demonstrating how data and analytics can overcome certain limitations of traditional health care.
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The AMT v20150531 May 2015 release is now available for download

Created on Friday, 29 May 2015
The AMT v20150531 May 2015 release is now available for download from the NEHTA website.
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Orion Health widens FY loss

Software firm Orion Health has seen its full-year loss blow out to more than $NZ60 million, but has reported an uptick in revenue and remains confident of its position in the multi-billion dollar health IT market. 
In the full year to March 31, Orion posted a net loss of $NZ60.004m ($55.923m), a significant decline on the loss of $NZ1.137m a year earlier. 
Orion said the result largely reflected the company’s strategy to increase investment in new product development as well as building service delivery capacity to meet customer demand.
Revenue in the period was $NZ164.072m, a 7.2 per cent increase on the previous year.
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This is how much data breaches are costing

Date May 28, 2015 - 11:36AM

Bill Rigby

A new study says data breaches are costing companies millions.
The cost of data breaches is rising for companies around the world as sophisticated thieves target valuable financial and medical records, according to a new study.
The total average cost of a data breach is now $US3.8 million ($4.9m), up from $US3.5 million ($4.5m) a year ago, according to the study by data security research organisation Ponemon Institute, paid for by International Business Machines (IBM).
The direct costs include hiring experts to fix the breach, investigating the cause, setting up hotlines for customers and offering credit monitoring for victims. Business lost because customers are wary after a breach can be even greater, the study said.
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Google's new finger control technology is straight out of a science fiction movie

Alexei Oreskovic, Matt Weinberger May 30, 2015, 2:30 PM
The days of swiping a finger against a glass screen might soon seem as antiquated as dialling numbers on a rotary telephone.
If Google has its way you won’t need to touch a screen at all anymore. 
The company’s lab for advanced projects showed off new technology on Friday that lets users move their fingers in the air to control objects in the virtual world.
It’s called Project Soli, and it uses radar waves to detect precise finger movements or finger “micro-motions.”
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Enjoy!
David.

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