Quote Of The Year

Timeless Quotes - Sadly The Late Paul Shetler - "Its not Your Health Record it's a Government Record Of Your Health Information"

or

H. L. Mencken - "For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong."

Friday, February 26, 2016

Looks Like There Is A Lot Happening In EHealth Around The Country At Present - Some Good - Some Not So.

First we have this:

EPAS Project Manager

Contract/Casual
SA, Adelaide
Posted on 17.02.2016
WHO WE ARE
Peoplebank is a preferred supplier to SA Government for professional ICT contract staffing. With ongoing opportunities available in leading SA Government organisations, you will have the unique opportunity to be part of some significant projects at a state wide level.
WHAT WE NEED
We are currently seeking highly experienced Project Manager for a prestigious State Govt. ICT project. To be considered for this cutting edge opportunity, it is imperative that you display the following expertise:
  • Plan schedule and monitor activities related to the project
  • Determine, monitor, and review all project economics, including project costs, staffing requirements, project resources, project risks, ensuring there are appropriate and effective governance arrangements, supported by comprehensive reporting.
  • Comprehensive end to end Project Management skills including planning and budgeting
  • Excellent stakeholder management and vendor management skills
More here:
This looks like a bit of a worry given the length of time this project has been running. I wonder why they are needing a new PM>
Second we have:

WA Health facing inquiry over bungled Fujitsu IT contract

Staff sacked, case referred to corruption watchdog.

Feb 19 2016 11:45AM
The WA Department of Health is facing a potential corruption investigation after the state's auditor-general referred the department's mammoth centralised computing contract with Fujitsu to the WA anti-corruption body.
In a damning report released earlier this week, acting auditor-general Glen Clarke found the four-year contract - signed in 2010 for four years and for $45 million - had blown out by $81.4 million thanks to numerous weaknesses in oversight and controls.
The audit office had been alerted to the problem in late 2014 by the then-head of the Health department Bryant Stokes following his concerns about the contract.
The Fujitsu deal was signed to provide primary and secondary data centres as well as ongoing management and support of the infrastructure in the facilities.
As a result of its investigation, the audit office found the contract had been varied 79 times so far, and if its two two-year options to extend were taken up, the value of the contract would likely blow out to $175 million.
The department had acquired extra equipment - like mounting frames and network switches - that it is not currently using and may not even use before the guarantee period expires, the report stated.
It currently has 167 racks and is only using 65, the auditor found.
"The value of these purchases alone is $3.3 million as well as an ongoing rental payment, for floor space, of $90,000 per month," Clarke said in a statement.
"In some cases, the variations were inconsistent with the scope of the original contract and should have led to a new competitive procurement process rather than sole negotiation with the contractor."
Around half of the $81.4 million in contract extensions were made by staff that weren't authorised to make such decisions, and those employees had since been sacked, WA health minister Kim Hames revealed.
More here:
Seems the bureaucrats strike again. Oh dear, oh dear.
With rather better news we have:

How Qld Uni removed the IT headache for genome scientists

Inside the Genomics Virtual Laboratory.

By Allie Coyne
Feb 17 2016 12:25PM
Modern genome research is incredibly data-intensive, using big pools of experimental data against catalogues of already available information in many different stages of work to perform genetic mapping.
It's a highly important area of research - scientists analyse genomes (the entire DNA content with a cell) to help them understand disease.
So it goes without saying that to undertake genomics research, these scientists need significant computational and storage resources.
However, such tools and platforms can be complicated to set up and often require customisation, not to mention a high level of ongoing maintenance.
The University of Queensland sought to remove this technology headache for researchers through its Genomics Virtual Laboratory - a pre-packaged compute cluster that scientists can pick up for free.
Lots more here:
and last we have this:

NSW Health on track to deliver as-a-service hybrid infrastrucutre

NSW Health has entered the third stage of its transformation project, and said it will continue to work towards shutting down all its datacentres in favour of GovDC.
By Aimee Chanthadavong | February 18, 2016 -- 05:27 GMT (16:27 AEDT) | Topic: Cloud
NSW Health has just entered into the third phase of its transformation project that will involve migrating its existing services and systems into a hybrid as-as-service IT model.
Speaking at Criterion's Implementing an As-a-Service Model conference in Sydney on Wednesday, NSW Health director of infrastructure Andrew Pedrazzini explained the department is just at the start of migrating existing operations onto an as-a-service infrastructure by utilising the capabilities the department has since established.
The move comes after NSW Health started to overhaul its IT infrastructure back in 2009, when it recognised that all of its entities were operating separately.
NSW Health compromises of The Ministry of Health, 15 local health districts, Ambulance Service, Justice Health, Cancer Institute, Clinical Excellence Commission, Agency for Clinical Innovation, Health Education and Training Institute, Bureau of Health Information, eHealth NSW, Health Infrastructure, and Health Share, as well as external providers such as St Vincent's Hospital and Royal Rehab.
"The challenge that we have is that all of these are all independent entities with their own boards, executives, ICT organisation, structures, funds, and own priorities," Pedrazzini said.
Lots more here:
On this basis it is looking like NSW and Qld are managing to do better than SA and WA right now. At least no-one (as far as we know) has paid to get their systems back as seems to have happened in California. See here:

US hospital pays $24k ransom after cyber attack locks medical records

Date February 19, 2016 - 9:40AM

Justin Wm. Moyer

Not too long ago, taking the United States' wild, messy, unreliable system of medical records online seemed like a worthy goal.
"To improve the quality of our health care while lowering its cost, we will make the immediate investments necessary to ensure that, within five years, all of America's medical records are computerised," President Obama said. "This will cut waste, eliminate red tape and reduce the need to repeat expensive medical tests."
While the shift Obama and many others pushed may have improved care, electronic medical records led to quite the unique hostage situation in Los Angeles this week. There, a hospital fell prey to a cyberattack — and has escaped its plight by paying hackers a $US17,000 ($23,740) ransom.
Lots more here:
Oh dear - what a mess!
David.

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