This appeared last week:
- Mar 20 2018 at 1:34 PM
ANZ's Maile Carnegie says Medicare data could build new e-health industry
Maile Carnegie, head of digital at ANZ Banking Group, says health data could be used to create new companies.
by James Eyers
Medicare provides one of the best-organised and comprehensive sets of healthcare data in the world, providing Australia with a strategic advantage to create a new niche for the local technology industry while improving health outcomes for millions of people, said Maile Carnegie, the head of digital banking at ANZ.
In a session at the ASIC Annual Forum on how data can improve company decisions and grow the economy, Ms Carnegie, the former boss of Google in Australia, said if the government were to open up healthcare data to outside developers, advancements in artificial intelligence and genomics technology could "drive dramatically better health outcomes for the population and wonderful industries for the country and companies who can get onto it early".
"Australia has a completely 'home run' data set that if any other government in the world looked at, they would be salivating over – and that is our health care records," she said.
Ms Carnegie is on the board of Innovation and Science Australia, whose chairman Bill Ferris has called for a 'national mission' to make Australia the healthiest nation on earth, by using genomics and precision medicine to deliver "intelligent, efficient and cost effective health delivery".
The National Innovation and Science Agenda is working with the CSIRO's Data61 unit to open up public data sets.
Quality healthcare database
"Australia is one of the few nations in the world that actually has a quality healthcare database," Ms Carnegie said. "If you were the American government right now and you had that database, you would be literally wetting your pants.
"The government has shown it is willing and able to open up really powerful databases… We have to work out how to do it in a safe and trusted way, but if and when we can open up Australia's healthcare database, the potential for that to spawn fabulous new industries in Australia that could be world leading and create wonderful health outcomes for the population is magical."
Ensuring local start-ups and large listed healthcare players could access and innovate over the Medicare database may help fend off an increased focus on healthcare by large global technology companies.
Lots more here:
Besides all the references to varieties of incontinence I wonder just what Ms. Cernegie is seeking.
The PBS and MBS databases are demographically linked records of most prescribing and treatment that happens in Australia and so, if used sensibly by responsible entities can be a useful resource for all sorts of planning and research – especially when linking of all three data-bases is undertaken – although such use is tightly and ethically regulated by legislation.
Being fully identified this data is extremely sensitive and just how it, and the less complete and lower quality myHR data, should be used for secondary purposes is controversial.
There has been radio silence on the myHR data use consultation and the current status appears to be as follows (captured 25/03/2018).
Project Status
Thank you to all the individuals and organisations who participated in the community consultation to provide input into the Development of a Framework for the secondary Use of My Health Record Data (the ‘Framework’).
The consultation process, which included the opportunity to attend webinars, workshops and interviews, complete an internet-based survey, and/or make a written submission closed on 17th November, 2017. Much valuable input was provided by stakeholders.
HealthConsult has carefully reviewed all the material received, and is in the process of preparing a draft Framework for consideration by Government.
Current expectations are that the Framework will be publicly available in mid-2018.
Here is the link:
All in all we seem to have demands for access to identified private data and an unknown Secondary Use Framework for myHR data. Until the latter is resolved the former should not be actioned in any form in my view and much more public discussion is warranted given the debacle with other health data releases recently.
See here for a range of links on this release and the associated problems:
This is an area where we should hasten very slowly!
What do you think?
David.
2 comments:
I think under the current situation relating anything that involves openness, fairness and transparency with a Bank is probably not the best choice. Until we have something like the GDPR we should not progress forward.
You ask: What do I think?
Ms Maile knows nothing about health, is a fast talking hype-up pontificator, who will seduce naive politicians and bureaucrats into following their noses up a whole lot of drainpipes in the mis-guided belief the blue sky above holds the long awaited nirvana.
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