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
Lots happening under the surface this week. The inability of the Government to face the reality that profound change is needed in the myHR program is the big worry however. Any ideas on how to change their minds?
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Guild defends real time monitoring
Pain groups have questioned the upcoming implementation of the national real time prescription monitoring system, saying it puts the “cart before the horse”
But the Pharmacy Guild’s Anthony Tassone has defended the decision, saying it will be an essential tool to prevent overdose deaths.
Last week, the Department of Health announced that it had appointed the Fred IT Group, which has already developed the Victorian real time monitoring system, to develop the national version.
But the pain stakeholders, pointing out that Fred IT is owned by the Pharmacy Guild and Telstra Health, say it may be premature to implement the system before providing additional pain management and treatment options.
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Vic Health IT scores $80m budget bump thanks to agile wins
CIO Steve Hodgkinson turns trust from the business into funding.
Victoria’s Department of Health and Human Services has its “digital mojo back” and as a result has been rewarded with an $80m increase in its discretionary IT budget.
CIO Steve Hodgkinson yesterday told the Gartner IT Symposium that the Department’s “Platform+Agile” strategy has helped it change from an organisation weighed down by technical debt to one that now has over 100 projects in flight and more than 35 successful system launches behind it over the last four years.
Hodgkinson said the strategy “is founded on the simple and common sense idea that we should use a standardised and well proven platform to build a new application. The platform is reusable from one application to another. It enables us to become more efficient and productive. It makes us faster and reduces the number of variables and unknowns ... and hence reduces risk and cost.”
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GPs will have to wait until March to access national script-tracking system
The national data exchange is about to go live - but some states still haven't signed up
30th October 2018
GP access to the national real-time prescription tracking system will depend on the state and territory governments, but the first to connect won’t be until at least March next year.
Updates on the long-promised system to prevent prescription drug overdoses have been scarce since Minister for Health Greg Hunt announced its funding in July 2017.
But this month the government announced it had awarded a $23 million contract to Fred IT Group, which designed Victoria’s custom script-tracking software, to oversee the key to the federal system — a national data exchange.
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Secret report raises questions about Queensland's medical records system
7:00pm Oct 30, 2018
When the infamous WannaCry ransomware cyber attack hit on May 13 last year, bringing down health systems around the world, Queensland hospitals scrambled to protect themselves.
Software security patches were installed which fended off the attack and protected the information of Queenslanders.
However, the state's digital hospital system still crashed.
Princess Alexandra Hospital, Gold Coast University Hospital, Lady Cilento Children's Hospital and Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital were impacted, as well as Mackay, Townsville and Cairns hospitals.
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Phishing a key source of Australian data breaches, report confirms
OAIC releases quarterly Notifiable Data Breaches report
User credentials compromised through phishing attacks was a key source of data breaches in the three months to September 30, according to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.
The OAIC today released its latest Notifiable Data Breaches (NDB) update, which revealed that “malicious or criminal attack” was the source of around 57 percent of the 245 breaches reported to it during the quarter. “Human error” was the cause of 37 per cent of breaches, and “system fault” accounted for 6 per cent
Of the 139 breaches attributed to attacks, 96 were linked to “cyber incidents”, with the remainder involving social engineering, insider threats, or theft of paperwork or storage devices.
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Preventing patient identity errors
By Catherine Koetz*
Tuesday, 23 October, 2018
Tuesday, 23 October, 2018
To provide greater patient safety and deliver better outcomes, today’s healthcare providers need to ‘capture’ the identification of their patients and clinicians at points of care.
Positive patient identification is especially important in busy clinical areas where misidentification could lead to adverse events.
Concerned about increased errors, ACT Health and The Canberra Hospital took action to address this issue. They used GS1 standards to help identify their patients, lab and pathology samples and care providers, ensuring accuracy in patient-care processes throughout each patient’s journey within their hospital.
Unlocking the power of digitisation
While many manual processes are robust, ACT Health found that the risk of error increased with the number of patients needing their services, experiencing possible preventable incidents despite having implemented policies to help avoid them.
To achieve better outcomes for patients, and increase patient safety within their health services, ACT Health invested significantly in creating a digital healthcare infrastructure and digitisation.
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In Conversation... with telepalliative nurse Brett Hayes
By Laini Bennett
Friday, 26 October, 2018
Friday, 26 October, 2018
In Conversation provides a glimpse into the life of an ‘outlier’ — an exceptional person going above and beyond to improve outcomes in their field. We speak with Brett Hayes, Regional Manager for Specialist Palliative Care in the West Australian Country Health Service, who founded the TelePalliative Care Service. In recognition of his work, Hayes was awarded winner of Western Australia’s 2018 Nurse/Midwife of the Year at WA Nursing and Midwifery Excellence Awards, and won the Excellence in Rural and Remote Health category for the teleconferencing service.
Your teleconferencing program has significantly improved the lives of the Wheatbelt’s palliative patients and families. How did the program come about?
The telehealth infrastructure already existed in the hospitals. We’d been doing teleconsults for a long time, getting patients to come into a hospital for consultations with other services. The next logical step was taking it out to the community where there was clearly a need.
Initially there was resistance to the idea from management, a lot of people saying ‘no, we can’t do it’. But I knew that we weren’t going to get more funding or staff, and that we were going to get more patients; we needed to do something different and this was the best option we had.
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Dentistry students will practice giving anaesthetics to patients in virtual reality
- 3:28PM October 30, 2018
It can be the most painful part of a visit — that anaesthetic prick after you sit down in the dentist’s chair.
However virtual reality (VR) is about to be used to hopefully make dentists even more highly skilled at numbing your gums, and reducing even further the pain of an anaesthetic.
The University of Newcastle has developed a virtual reality application where students put on a VR headset and practice giving anaesthetics in VR before they enter a patient clinic.
The University hopes the application will reduce the need for oral health therapy students to practice giving each other dental injections.
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Do chatbots have a role to play in suicide prevention?
With the youth suicide rate on the rise, there is a need for innovative and youth-friendly approaches to prevention
31st October 2018
Australia’s first suicide prevention chatbot for the family and friends of those in crisis was launched last week by Lifeline, a nonprofit organisation dedicated to crisis support and suicide prevention.
The chatbot, developed in partnership with Twitter, is called #BeALifeline Direct Message (DM) Chatbot. It seeks to help the family and friends of those at risk to quickly and easily start a conversation about suicide.
Users must have a Twitter account to converse with the chatbot, which directs people to Lifeline resources, including contact details for telephone or online support, advice and information.
This is a big shift in the way Lifeline provides support to young people in need. It raises the question of what role, if any, chatbots and other conversational agents should play in suicide prevention.
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31 October 2018
Our world-leading tool for vaccine safety
One GP’s response to an outbreak of seizures in young children vaccinated against influenza in 2010 is nearing its goal of achieving full surveillance of adverse reactions in line with the National Immunisation Program.
After the 2010 crisis, Dr Alan Leeb started developing the SmartVax tool at his practice in Western Australia, using a simple system of automated SMS messages to speed up checks on patients after vaccinations.
“We were just shattered. We didn’t have a clue that this was going on,” Dr Leeb said, referring to the time lag before the 2010 flu vax program was suspended. In the 10 days following the first reports of adverse reactions, more than 100 children around the country had suffered seizures. It took several more weeks before a single brand – CSL Fluvax – was implicated.
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Human Services finally finds its new CIO
ANZ executive signs onto welfare agency.
The federal Department of Human Services (DHS) has finally found a permanent chief information officer, appointing ANZ architecture executive Michael McNamara to the role.
McNamara is set to begin the new role in January 2019.
Charles McHardie will continue to act as interim CIO at DHS pending McNamara's start in the new year.
The massive department, which is in the midst of $1 billion root-and-branch technology overhaul known as WPIT (welfare payments infrastructure transformation),lost its previous CIO Gary Sterrenberg back in January of this year.
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G Medical Innovations acquires Telerhythmics, expands US footprint
12:06 02 Nov 2018
The acquisition will position G Medical as an emerging leader in the US cardiac diagnostic and remote vital signs monitoring healthcare services sector.
Telerhythmics is a 24-hour cardiac diagnostic monitoring service used by hospitals and physicians
G Medical Innovations Holdings Ltd (ASX:GMV) has executed an agreement to acquire all of the outstanding membership interest of Telerhythmics LLC, a US-based cardiac diagnostic monitoring services provider.
The agreement was made by G Medical’s wholly-owned Delaware-incorporated subsidiary G Medical Innovations USA Inc which will acquire the Telerhythmics membership interest from NASDAQ-listed imaging technology company Digirad Corp (NASDAQ:DRAD) for an upfront payment of US$1.95 million.
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National EHR delayed as business case yet to go back to Cabinet
Tuesday, 30 October 2018
eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth
The National Electronic Health Record has been renamed the Health Information Platform, but the indicative business case has not gone back to Cabinet for approval.
An indicative business case for a National EHR was developed and presented to the Cabinet Committee on State Sector Reform and Expenditure Control in July 2017.
“It makes the case for change and looks at the options, requirements and deliverables of an EHR,” the Ministry of Health website says.
The committee requested further information on the costs and benefits of an EHR and these were expected to go back to Cabinet for approval in December 2017.
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Innovation remains at the centre of eHealth NSW and HealthShare NSW's strategy
Hafizah Osman | 01 Nov 2018
Digital health is a team sport and innovative technology and its truly transformative power holds the key to future proofing our public system, according to eHealth NSW Chief Executive and Chief Information Officer Dr Zoran Bolevich.
Bolevich was speaking at the recent HealthShare NSW and eHealth NSW Expo 2018 in Sydney.
“One of the main aims of eHealth NSW is to lead and coordinate the digital transformation of Australia’s largest public health system. We aim to not only digitally enable NSW Health, as we know it today, but also make our health system future ready,” Bolevich said.
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Keenan: Government must 'keep its nerve' when rolling out controversial technology
Quit catastrophising says minister assisting the prime minister for digital transformation
Minister assisting the prime minister for digital transformation Michael Keenan used a keynote speech at the Gartner Symposium on the Gold Coast this morning to have a dig at those who put forward "catastrophic scenarios" about government technology roll-outs.
Keenan, also human services minister, was touting the success of ePassport SmartGates, now standard in airports across Australia. Although the initiative is now considered a success, at the time the proposal attractive criticism from privacy and civil society groups.
"There was enormous resistance amongst the public," Keenan said before correcting himself, adding "and, sorry, not amongst all the public, but there was enormous resistance amongst a section of the public."
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Federal Parliament to get new five-year digital strategy before Xmas
And it looks like infrastructure is heading to the cloud.
There's only one government IT shop in Australia that can command the undivided attention of every elected representative in Canberra and it's about to put its the most political user base in the nation to the test.
The Department of Parliamentary Services has revealed it will finalise its digital strategy in late 2018, before spending the following year deciding how the new plan can best be implemented ahead of a further one to three years to transform itself.
“My challenge over the next couple of months is to finalise an Australian Parliament digital strategy that will look at what this place is going to look like in three to five years time,” CIO Antony Stinziani told the Gartner Symposium on the Gold Coast today.
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Keenan says myGovID pilot is coming, now with sensitivity
By Simon Sharwood on Oct 29, 2018 12:33PM
As ATO’s Alex chatbot tries to answer the phone.
Minister for Human Services and Digital Transformation Michael Keenan has acknowledged that Australians will need to trust the nascent myGovID service before it becomes widely-used, as the government treads softly on the key reform following the My Health Record controversy.
Addressing the Gartner Symposium on the Gold Coast, Keenan said the ramp-up of myGovID will be accompanied by a new roadmap outlining how the government will address security and privacy challenges, signalling efforts to keep potential critics in the loop.
The issue of community and stakeholder engagement has been a thorny one for privacy sensitive reforms, with the now minority Morrison government essentially at the mercy of the cross bench.
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Govt begins myGovID digital identity trial
By Justin Hendry on Oct 31, 2018 3:41PM
iPhone only initially.
The federal government has finally kicked off the first pilot of its myGovID digital identity credential ahead of a full public launch next year.
From today, a test group of Australians will be able to use the new opt-in credential to apply for a tax file number online in just a few minutes.
Until now this has only been possible by visiting an Australia Post or Centrelink shopfront or by posting documents to the ATO - a process that takes around 40 days.
Seven other pilots, targeting high volume government transactions, are expected to follow over the coming nine months such as for registering a business or accessing welfare services through Centrelink.
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UMAT to be replaced with revamped computer-based test
From next year, would-be medical students will sit the UCAT, or University Clinical Aptitude Test
31st October 2018
The aptitude test used to select thousands of undergraduate medical students is being replaced with a new exam that includes a “situational judgement” component to measure candidates' ability to think under pressure.
More than 200,000 wannabe doctors have sat the Undergraduate Medicine and Health Sciences Admissions Test (UMAT) since it was introduced in 1991.
Purportedly impossible to study for, the exam has been controversial because it assesses candidates' problem-solving and people skills but nothing about their knowledge of science or medicine.
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https://www.doctorportal.com.au/mjainsight/2018/42/using-telehealth-to-support-rural-kids-and-teens/
Using telehealth to support rural kids and teens
Authored by Alexandra Martiniuk
“It’s four and a half hours to see the paediatrician, and what we’re looking at is four and a half hours to see the speechie. Four and a half hours, you get the vibe, the frustration.” [Parent/carer of child with developmental, behavioural and/or mental health needs from a rural area.]
TELEHEALTH is an important way to deliver some health services to support the developmental and mental health needs of children living in rural and remote communities.
Governments, health professionals, researchers and funders are well aware of the imperative to provide children with a healthy start to life. A recent Lancet commission on early childhood stated that a poor start in life limits children’s abilities to benefit from education, and that the economic case for countries to invest in health in childhood is clear. Yet, there is a very large group of children for whom health needs are not able to be consistently met: children in rural locations. This is a big deal in a country like Australia, where approximately 30% of the population lives outside of the major metropolitan areas. Health needs in rural areas are faced with the lack of sufficient and consistent health workforce, making access to effective, efficient and equitable services a real challenge.
The first Australian Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) telehealth items were introduced 7 years ago, in 2011. By now, some of you may be getting that 7-year itch! While there has been much bad press about telehealth, eHealth and of course electronic health records, there is also a good news story about how telehealth is being used to meet the needs of rural and remote kids with developmental and mental health needs.
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Government’s encryption bill ‘fatally flawed,’ UN privacy watchdog says
United Nations special rapporteur on the right to privacy criticises government’s ‘poorly conceived’ encryption bill
The United Nations special rapporteur on the right to privacy has written to the government expressing concern over a bill intended to provide law enforcement agencies with new powers to access online communications services.
The Telecommunication and Other Legislation Amendment (Assistance and Access) Bill 2018 is an “example of a poorly conceived national security measure,” wrote Joseph Cannataci in his letter, which was sent to former foreign minister Julie Bishop and also submitted to an inquiry into the proposed legislation being conducted by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security.
The bill “is equally likely to endanger security as not,” Cannataci wrote — a criticism that has also been made by representatives of the technology and telecommunications sectors. Local human rights groups have also attacked the government's proposals.
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IBM to move Watson Health to a hybrid cloud
IBM is moving Watson Cognitive Health to the hybrid cloud to offer greater access to a larger pool of payer and health record information for analytics
After announcing plans to acquire open source software provider Red Hat this week, IBM now plans to move its Watson Health cognitive services to a hybrid cloud model.
Watson, the IBM supercomputer that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse natural language and perform data analytics, has been used to identify medical data sources, generate hypotheses, recommend patient treatments to physicians or match patients to clinical trials.
The Veterans Administration has also used Watson for genomics as part of its precision oncology program, which primarily looks for possible new treatments for stage four cancer patients who have exhausted other options.
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Lost in translation: doctors cautioned against Google Translate
Online interpreting is a risky business, defence unions say
1st November 2018
Overcoming language barriers can be tricky, especially in a time-pressured consultation, and doctors have been known to turn to the nearest available translation service: the computer on their desks.
But the potential for error when using online services, such as Google Translate, has made medical defence organisations in the UK nervous, with them advising against the practice.
“We wouldn’t recommend that doctors rely on Google Translate, or any other translation app or online tool, as a robust means to aid diagnosis and communication with a patient,” Rob Hendry, medical director at the Medical Protection Society says in an article on the BMJ website.
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Even fertility industry donations get hit by digital disruption
Online donors more "agreeable", gaining popularity.
The fertility and sperm donation industry could be ripe for an Uber-style upset, with hopeful parents seeking donors increasingly going online to find a progenitor and are finding the options more "agreeable".
An academic study from Queensland University of Technology behavioural economist Dr Stephen Whyte, recently published in the international Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology, has found recipients are often able to find a more diverse and socioeconomically desirable range of potential donors online than in the databases of sperm banks.
Fertility clinics often have lengthy waitlists for recipients due to an imbalance of supply and demand, and already having a potential donor in mind can vastly expedite the process of falling pregnant.
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Ban on Chinese mobile giants for 5G 'needed to protect critical infrastructure'
By David Wroe, Nick McKenzie & Angus Grigg
29 October 2018 — 7:30pm
Australia’s spy chief has revealed that critical infrastructure, including the electricity grid and water supplies, could not have been adequately protected if China's Huawei or ZTE had been allowed to build the country's new 5G mobile networks.
In the strongest comments by a government official since the ban was handed down on Chinese companies in August, Mike Burgess, the director-general of the Australian Signals Directorate, said the stakes in 5G "could not be higher".
"Getting security right for our critical infrastructure is paramount," he said.
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NBN Co will have to face any 5G substitution threat itself
Regulator wants to stay out of it.
NBN Co won’t be protected from 5G network competition, even if the forthcoming cellular services and fixed line broadband become substitutable for the first time.
Referring to the development 5G, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) chairman Rod Sims said today that “what we must never do… is seek to restrain others in order to protect the NBN business model”.
Sims said that the advent of 5G meant that “mobile broadband services may become more of a viable substitute for fixed broadband.”
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NBN Co continues to rack up losses with broadband rollout
- 31 October 2018
- Written by Peter Dinham
Losses continue to mount in the rollout of Australia’s national broadband network, with an after tax loss of $4780 million for the 2018 financial year, still two years out from scheduled completion in 2020.
NBN Co, the company building the network, reported 2018 annual results on Wednesday, generating total assets of $28,203 million — an increase of 17% year-on-year — primarily driven by various capital expenditure outlays, including property and plant and equipment.
This latest loss comes after Federal Government equity injections of $2,035 million for the year, bringing the government’s total committed equity funding to $29.5 billion.
With two years still to run for the rollout, by the end of the 2018 financial year, seven million premises had been declared ready to connect, which NBN Co says allows about 60% of Australian premises able to order a service over the NBN.
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Enjoy!
David.
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