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 really quiet week with very little going on, but we seem to have some previous issues being revived.
Enjoy the browse.
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Technical bungles preventing plans to create national bowel cancer register — crucial to fighting disease
Sheradyn Holderhead, Political reporter, The Advertiser
June 7, 2017 9:43pm
A NATIONAL register for bowel cancer essential to prevent deaths from the insidious disease will be delayed 12 months as technical bungles plague the plan.
The register was meant to be rolled out on March 20 this year, but was delayed following problems pulling data from an existing paper-based version.
Federal Health Department officials have confirmed the register would not be up and running until at least the first part of next year. Officials had previously warned senators about the risks to human health if they delayed approval of legislation needed to set up the register.
“I would like to highlight to the Senate committee members the current implications for the implementation of the register and risks associated with delays in establishing the National Cancer Screening Register legislation,” senior bureaucrat Bobbi Campbell cautioned last year.
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Private sector medical service providers begin to join Australia’s My Health Record
Private radiology and pathology reports from two Sonic Healthcare Group companies, the largest pathology provider in Australia, will be available in My Health Record.
06/06/2017
Today the Australian Digital Health Agency (DHA) announced that private radiology reports will be available in My Health Record (MyHR) for the first time. Queensland X Ray (QXR), a member of the Sonic Healthcare Group (Sonic), will start uploading reports, becoming the first private diagnostic imaging company to take advantage of a new offer from DHA to all providers to connect to My Health Record.
Offers were launched today for providers of diagnostic imaging and pathology services to participate with the MyHR. DHA will partner with radiology and laboratory information system software providers to enhance their products to allow viewing and uploading to the MyHR system. The companies can apply for funding under the industry partnership offers.
On May 31, it was announced that another Sonic company, Sullivan & Nicolaides, would be the first private provider to upload pathology reports to My Health Record. Sonic has been working with the Australian Digital Health Agency to connect its systems to the MyHR.
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9 June 2017
Sonic adds radiology to MyHR, but where’s Primary?
Hot on the heels of last week’s landmark announcement that the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) had convinced Sonic pathology labs to join the My Health Record program, Sonic has announced its subsidiary, Queensland X-ray, (QXR) will be the first private radiology provider to upload reports to the system.
Specialist radiologist and Sonic Imaging’s CEO, Dr Philip Dubois, said: “Providing access to each patient’s radiology reports to multiple treating clinicians in both public and private hospitals, as well as in community practices, will eliminate unnecessary duplicate studies and give clinicians relevant diagnostic information in a timely and reliable manner.”
Dr David Mitchell, representing the Australian Orthopaedic Association, said: “Surgeons welcome this announcement. It will enable us to track down where imaging has recently been performed so that we can contact the diagnostic imaging provider and ask for the images to be sent to us.
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Private radiology to be available in My Health Record for the first time
6 June, 2017
For the first time, private radiology reports will be available in My Health Record, the Australian Digital Health Agency has announced today. Clinicians and their patients have asked for shared access to x-ray results and other radiology reports because it will improve the safety and effectiveness of their care.
As part of a comprehensive programme to improve the clinical utility of My Health Record, it has been confirmed that Queensland X Ray (QXR) – a member of the Sonic Healthcare Group - will start to upload reports.
QXR will be the first private diagnostic imaging company to take advantage of a new offer to all providers to connect to My Health Record, which has been launched today. It was announced last week that another Sonic company – Sullivan & Nicolaides – would be the first private provider to upload pathology reports to My Health Record.
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How the Queensland Brain Institute deals with its data deluge
The QBI’s IT manager is trying to avoid storage headaches
07 June, 2017 06:30
Storage can be a headache for any organisation that relies heavily on IT. But Jake Carroll, the senior IT manager (research) at the Queensland Brain Institute (QBI), doesn’t just have to contend with the typical storage needs for a 500-person organisation.
The QBI IT manager needs to worry about whether his flash storage is going to burn out because of the volume of IOPS being thrown at it, or if his storage network is about to be hit by a tidal wave of data from a scientific instrument that may not have existed six months ago.
But the problems Carroll has to grapple with aren’t too much of a surprise given his employer: The QBI is a world-class neuroscience research institute, housed at the University of Queensland.
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Our software needs to better track self-prescribed substances
6 June 2017
IMPROVING PRACTICE SOFTWARE
Self-prescribed substances should be clearly displayed in one area of the program, writes Dr Oliver Frank.
The Issue
Medicines, or other substances such as supplements, are advised or prescribed for patients not only by registered health professionals but also by unqualified and/or unregistered people who offer health care advice.
In addition, many patients use substances on their own initiative.
This might include tobacco or substances which might be thought of as foods, such as wine (at least by the French!) or coffee. After all, caffeine, for example, is described as a mildly addictive substance.
Some clinical software packages continue to list use of self-prescribed substances in their Social History area despite the fact that many people use these substances while alone.
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AMA Submission to the My Aged Care Evaluation
07 Jun 2017
The AMA was invited to participate in qualitative market research to provide insights to help the Department of Health assess the ongoing implementation and effectiveness of the My Aged Care Gateway. The AMA's response highlighted the worrying fact that the Gateway is a barrier to aged care services, and that there is a lack of communication between Aged Care Assessment Teams (ACATs), doctors, staff, and service providers. The Gateway forms must be interoperable with clinical practice software to reduce to the administrative burden on practice staff.
For the My Aged Care system to work properly, it must be simple and efficient. Reports from our members indicate this is not the case, and previously simple processes have become complex and time consuming, leaving patients in need of urgent care left at home waiting.
Related document (Public):
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Practice makes perfect in virtual reality surgery
- Betsy Morris
- The Wall Street Journal
- 12:59PM June 6, 2017
Stanford University head of neurosurgery Gary Steinberg has been operating on brains for more than three decades. Only in the past year has he been able to do something that he says gives him a significant advantage: preview the surgery and practice it.
Donning a virtual reality headset, the 64-year-old works through thickets of digital blood vessels in a precise computer simulation of a patient’s grey matter before he cuts into the real thing.
“I can figure out how best to approach a tumour and practice it so that when I get into the operation, it’s as if I’ve been there before,” Dr Steinberg said. “It makes surgeries safer. Outcomes are better.”
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Online program for palliative care launched
Researchers at Flinders University have developed palliAGED — an online program which connects health professionals and family members with evidence-based support for palliative care in aged care. The program is being managed by Flinders’ CareSearch palliative care knowledge network, which has searched the world’s research literature to find the best evidence to support care.
Launched last week in Canberra by Minister of Ageing Ken Wyatt, palliAGED provides health professionals in community and residential practices with a range of information including palliative approach frameworks, advanced care planning, case conferencing and terminal care planning. The program also helps families understand how things change as an older person moves towards death and highlights different types of relevant care.
“The evidence-based data that palliAGED will assemble, the guidance it will provide and the practical resources it will offer is immense,” said Wyatt.
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Chemo dosing component of much-maligned SA health record system, EPAS, under review
Penelope Debelle, The Advertiser
June 9, 2017 11:01pm
SA HEALTH may abandon plans to include an electronic system for chemotherapy dosing in its EPAS system — the $500 million “universal” patient record system bought from the US six years ago.
Professor Dorothy Keefe, a senior oncologist who in 2015 declared EPAS would underpin Transforming Health, this week said SA Health was reviewing whether to stick with chemotherapy dosing component within the system or give up and buy something new.
“One of the problems now is that ... we’re not going to have EPAS at all of our chemotherapy sites within a known time frame,” she told the Legislative Council Select Committee on Chemotherapy Dosing Errors.
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FAQs for Strategic Interoperability Framework RFT
This page lists frequently asked questions to the Strategic Interoperability Framework RFT. It will be continually updated as questions are received.
Frequently Asked Questions
Question: If a respondent is successful, would they be excluded from any future business, such as the implementation of any of the recommendations that come out of the engagement?
Answer: Respondents will not be excluded from any future business that is an outcome of this current process. However, the Agency is bound to ensure compliance with the Commonwealth Procurement Rules, and as such, another discrete procurement process may be conducted if an additional requirement is identified.
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2 June 2017
When digital imperialism meets healthcare
Global technology companies are the new masters of our everyday universe, so it’s natural that they would want to stake a claim in the health sector. But digital disruption has been late to healthcare and, in some instances, the seemingly brilliant strategy and thinking behind the rise of the tech giants has led to spectacular failures. One of Facebook’s forays into the sector has resulted in shock, anger, and a new level of questioning at just how powerful and dangerous these global platforms can be. But where there is bad, there is clearly also some good. Here we review the progress of six global digital giants in making a meaningful and useful impact in the health sector.
The words ‘Facebook’ and ‘large-scale psychological experiment’ do not sit well together. The public backlash to Facebook’s experiment on around 700,000 non-consenting users in 2014 was so extreme that the company was forced to issue an explanation.
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Medical app links high-care patients with their carers
By Australian Hospital + Healthcare Bulletin Staff
Tuesday, 06 June, 2017
Tuesday, 06 June, 2017
Brisbane inventors Drew Steptoe and Ben Slater, of aged-care tech firm ConnectUs Life, have launched the RightMinder first-alert app — a medical device that is intended to improve the safety, independence and life quality of people with high-care needs. The app automatically detects life-threatening emergencies such as heart attacks, seizures or falls, immediately raises the alarm and guides carers to the patient.
Discreetly installed on an Android smartwatch or smartphone, RightMinder allows wearers to contact their carer if they feel unwell or require assistance. The GPS technology enables first-alert assistance carers to locate them quickly. Additionally, when battery life gets low, notifications are sent to both wearer and carers.
“Our core focus is to ensure wearers maintain meaningful independence and self-confidence with an efficient yet discreet safety and security alert system,” said Slater.
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Melbourne’s Eastern Health deploys Allocate roster system
- 07 June 2017
- Written by Peter Dinham
Healthcare workforce management software provider Allocate Software has inked a five-year contract with one of Melbourne’s largest metropolitan public health services, Eastern Health, for the implementation of a rostering and time and attendance system.
Allocate will implement its rostering and time and attendance solution across all 50 Eastern Health facilities, which it says will benefit more than 9000 staff by providing four key benefits:
- Automated rostering that removes the administrative burden of manual processes.
- Fairer and more equitable access for employees to overtime or desirable shifts.
- Improved ability to match appropriately-skilled staff to patient needs and roster requirements.
- Reduced operational costs.
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College will stick with online vote despite 'catastrophic' IT failure
Paul Smith | 5 June, 2017 |
The RACGP has set a new date for the big vote on its constitution after a “catastrophic” IT failure forced the college to abort last week’s extraordinary general meeting.
Under a controversial constitutional proposal, the college leadership want to create a new, seven-member corporate board and demote the current college council to an advisory role.
College members were meant to vote last Tuesday, but the meeting, which was conducted online for the first time, lasted five awkward minutes before RACGP council chair Dr Tim Koh pulled the plug because of recurring dropouts in the live stream.
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- Jun 7 2017 at 11:00 PM
- Updated Jun 8 2017 at 9:15 AM
Smart Homes leads Telstra's venture into tech services
Telstra executive John Chambers uses his Smart Home app to check that his teenage girls aren’t sneaking their boyfriends into the house. If his 19-year-old son opens the liquor cabinet he also gets a video notification (“He gets into it far too often”).
“This morning was bloody cold,” says Chambers, “so I turned my downstairs gas heater on from the bed. I put my outdoor lights on my smart plug the other day – I didn’t realise how much power the halogens pull, so rather than leave them on all night, I put them on for the guests but then turn them off.
“I now have a much deeper understanding of my home,” he adds.
These simple tools are just the beginning, says Chambers, who previously ran Telstra’s $11 billion mobile business. Once artificial intelligence is integrated into the platform, the app will automatically manage appliances, heating, cooling and lighting to make sure a home is running at peak efficiency.
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NBN Co says it will deliver 1Gbps over HFC
- 05 June 2017
- Written by Peter Dinham
NBN Co says it is close to delivering gigabit speeds to homes and businesses in six cities, including Sydney and Melbourne, following trials of new technology on its hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) network.
The operator of the national broadband network claims the lab trials of the technology, DOCSIS 3.1, on the HFC network — previously Telstra's pay TV cable — achieved downstream speeds of 1Gbps “on par with the top speed available for retailers on the NBN fibre-to-the-premises (FttP) network".
As well as Sydney and Melbourne, NBN Co is touting gigabit speeds will also be delivered to Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and the Gold Coast.
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Free Windows tools, ready for the taking
This round-up of tools can help you do everything in Windows from drive cloning to Wi-Fi trouble-shoooting
08 June, 2017 05:50
When it comes to the word "free," the unspoken fear is that there's always a catch. Hidden fees you didn't expect. Extra money that's required to unlock the real features you want or need.
But sometimes free really is free.
This collection of stories offers a wealth of free tools and apps that can help you better use Windows -- whether it's the latest version, Windows 10, or earlier iterations still in use. You're almost certain to find something you can use.
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Enjoy!
David.
The first article David is such a recurring theme that behaps the DOH and ADHA could put this on their coats of arms - quod technica bungles malum consilium.
ReplyDeleteI am struggling to identify how anyone could be as incompetent at the most basic technical and management requirement. I wonder if these people would mind jumping on a human efficiency train