Note: I have excluded (or marked out) any commentary taking significant funding from the Agency or the Department of Health on all this to avoid what amounts to paid propaganda. (e.g. CHF, RACGP, AMA, National Rural Health Alliance etc. where they were simply putting the ADHA line – viz. that the myHR is a wonderfully useful clinical development that will save huge numbers of lives at no risk to anyone – which is plainly untrue) (This signifies probable ADHA Propaganda)
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Note: I have also broadened this section to try to cover all the privacy and security compromising and impacting announcements in the week – along with the myHR. It never seems to stop! Sadly social media platforms also get a large run most weeks. There are a lot of actors out there trying all sorts of things on!
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Facing up to FaceApp: think before you toss your identity into the digital abyss
By Jonas Lipsius
July 21, 2019 — 12.00am
In case you hadn’t heard, the latest craze on the Internet this week (along with the sort-of but sort-of-not joke about storming Area 51) has been FaceApp – a whimsical iOS and Android application that uses artificial intelligence to modify an uploaded photo of your face to show you what you would look like with a beard, with make-up, or – as has been all the rage – what you may well look like in 20 years.
In fact, the "old age challenge" has been so popular that the app has been downloaded more than 100 million times from the Google Play Store and is currently the most popular app on the iOS App Store. The whole thing has gone so viral that even celebrities including Drake, the Jonas Brothers and Gordon Ramsay have posted images to their social media accounts.
Although the app itself has been around since 2017, it’s recent surge in popularity and our more nuanced views around privacy and use of personal information after recent scandals have led to more intense scrutiny around how the app operates.
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Harnessing the power of informatics to improve aged care
Introduction by Croakey: The Cairns hearing of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety wraps up today, having heard from a roundtable of chefs, earlier in the week, that the quality of food served to aged care residents varies markedly from facility to facility and is sometimes very poor.
Celebrity chef, Maggie Beer, observed that a modestly increased investment, staff training, and care with menus would lift standards, and that appetising food was surely something residents deserved.
Uneven and often substandard care has been a recurring theme in the hearings so far, and it is disturbing that poor practice has flourished undetected.
The author of the post below, who gave evidence at the Royal Commission’s Darwin hearing last week, says appropriate use and linkage of routinely collected data could shed much needed light on common, systemic problems, such as prescribing errors, medication misuse, and neglected medical issues.
Professor Johanna Westbrook is the director of the Centre for Health Systems and Safety Research at the Australian Institute of Health Innovation.
Below she explains how “harnessing the enormous power of informatics” to create systems that use the data often already at hand, could make a difference in the individual lives of older Australians and their carers.
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My Health Record can help Australians better manage their diabetes
17 July, 2019 - 9:00 ADHA Propaganda
National Diabetes Week is an opportunity to highlight how My Health Record is helping Australians living with diabetes by managing their important healthcare information in one secure place and supporting healthcare providers to deliver informed care for their patients.
People with diabetes often visit many different healthcare providers as part of their ongoing care. My Health Record improves communication between these providers by ensuring they can all see the same information, including medicines, shared health summaries, specialist reports, allergies and test results.
Diabetes Australia CEO Professor Greg Johnson said My Health Record is particularly important for the management of complex health conditions, such as diabetes.
“It’s easier to manage diabetes if you have all of your health information available and My Health Record helps you do that,” he said.
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Cyberwar's strategic value 'unclear': Hugh White
Cybers are a cheap and effective deterrent, says one of Australia's leading strategic analysts. But wars will still be fought in the "boring old real world", so let's reconsider nukes.
"I'm sceptical of the strategic value of cyber offensives," says Hugh White, emeritus professor of strategic studies at Australian National University (ANU).
"Right at the heart of the idea that cyber will play a significant part in future conflicts is the thought that by attacking other countries' cyber assets or infrastructure you can cause them so much pain that you'll really change their conduct in fundamental ways."
But as White told the Lowy Institute in Sydney on Tuesday, that's the way people talked about air power in the decades between the First and Second World Wars.
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YouTube shonks prey on vulnerable cancer victims
By David Swan and Aoife Gallagher
- 12:00AM July 20, 2019
More than 40 per cent of videos about cancer uploaded to YouTube contain bogus cure claims, according to new research highlighting the dangers of trusting social media for health advice.
Social media intelligence agency Storyful analysed videos uploaded to YouTube between last Friday and Tuesday, and found almost half contained misleading health information.
These bogus claims include allegations that cancer can be cured by treatments including zyropathy, which uses a combination of food supplements, or by homoeopathy, which suggests diseases can be cured by treating it with the same substance that caused it. There is no scientific evidence that either of these treatments can cure cancer.
Storyful also found a documentary about a doctor whose bogus treatments have been highly discredited.
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How quantum computing is going to rock your world
Stuart Kennedy
Jul 19, 2019 — 6.06pm
Quantum computers are unlikely to blast through computations beyond the ken of today’s semiconductor-based supercomputers anytime soon, but data-driven Australian businesses would be wise to get themselves a quantum computing “disruption check”.
If quantum computing feels like it's been a long time coming, that's because it's a very big deal indeed. Quantum computers, which use sub-atomic particles to represent information, promise processing power orders of magnitude higher than the fastest of today’s semiconductor-based supercomputers.
While breakthroughs are happening, researchers are cautious of overblowing the capabilities of the rudimentary devices in development today.
They say the big, disruptive applications where a quantum computer shreds through giant databases to give pinpoint predictions on customer behaviour or stock price fluctuations are a long way off.
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Digital Health Literacy Pilot
From July to December 2019, Good Things Foundation is running a Digital Health Literacy Pilot that supports community organisations to deliver digital health skills programs to their communities.
About the pilot
We know that 4 million people in Australia have limited digital skills1, but 90% of all Australians now have an online summary of their health information on My Health Record2. Australians need to be digitally able to take advantage of the abundance of online health programs and support available to them, including tools such as My Health Record. In a recent survey, 70% of Be Connected Network Partners said they were interested in providing digital health literacy support to meet this need.
From July to December 2019, Good Things Foundation is running a Digital Health Literacy Pilot that supports community organisations to deliver digital health skills programs to their communities. By participating in the pilot, your organisation will help us to design and deliver programs that support people to improve their digital health literacy, such as learning how to find quality, reliable information, as well as understanding how to use and manage their My Health Record.
We believe that supporting people to learn essential digital health literacy skills is critical to ensure every Australian has the ability to make informed, confident choices when it comes to supporting their health and wellbeing online.
The Digital Health Literacy Pilot is a program developed by Good Things Foundation, funded by the Australian Digital Health Agency.
Express your interest
We're looking for a small number of community organisations in the Ballarat region and Sydney metro area to participate in this pilot.
We're also looking for two specialist partners to test specific approaches and resources with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people or people with disabilities.
Please note: these guidelines are subject to change.
1 Digital Inclusion: Report of Online Behaviours in Australia 2016 (Australia Post / BehaviourWorks)
2 My Health Record Statistics as at 26 May 2019, Australian Digital Health Agency
2 My Health Record Statistics as at 26 May 2019, Australian Digital Health Agency
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High-tech cameras to nab motorists catches eye of Privacy Commissioner
By Matt O'Sullivan
July 18, 2019 — 6.34pm
A trial of "world-first technology" that snapped photos of every driver who passed cameras on two Sydney roads, irrespective of whether they were in the wrong, has raised concerns from the state's Privacy Commissioner, internal government documents show.
The state's transport agency hired technology firm Acusensus for a three-month pilot early this year, which was aimed at photographing drivers who were illegally using mobile phones near the M4 motorway at Prospect, and Anzac Parade at Moore Park.
Nine News has obtained secret correspondence, revealing concerns about how many drivers are being snapped by the cameras, and how the photos are checked, stored, used and protected.
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Thursday, 18 July 2019 11:28
Microsoft unveils software to guard against election fraud
Microsoft ElectionGuard demos on 17 July at the Aspen Security Forum in Aspen, Colorado. Courtesy Microsoft
Microsoft has unveiled a software solution known as ElectionGuard at a security forum in Aspen, Colorado, even as it said it had informed 10,000 of its customers of being targeted or compromised by nation-state attackers in the last 12 months.
Tom Burt, corporate vice-president, Customer Security and Trust, said in a blog post on Wednesday that 84% of these customers were businesses and the remainder were individuals whose email was targeted.
He said most of these attacks originated from three countries: Russia, Iran and North Korea. He did not mention China which is generally the default choice when US officials ladle out the blame for cyber attacks.
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AI and Speech Impairment
Collaborating non-profit organisations, Google has been recording the voices of people with ALS to optimise AI based algorithms so that mobile phones and computers can transcribe speech of people with impairments.
Video.
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New Zealand Ministry of Health: leveraging digital health to improve care
Economist Intelligence Unit
New Zealand ranks as one of the highest-performing countries in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Better Life Index, scoring 7.3 on general life satisfaction on a scale from 0 to 10, higher than the OECD average of 6.5.1 A big reason for such a high quality of life is a high-quality healthcare system in which 88% of people in New Zealand report good health — one of the top scores across the OECD and far better than the average of 69%.
What sets the country apart? Overall, New Zealand produces good health outcomes for the level of investment in the system, notes Ann-Marie Cavanagh, acting deputy director general, data and digital at New Zealand’s Ministry of Health. In particular, the nation has strong policies and frameworks in place, including the 2016 New Zealand Health Strategy, a ten-year plan that views strong investment in healthcare as a necessary means to improving the overall wellbeing of New Zealanders.
The health ministry’s “Triple Aim Framework”2 is one way in which the government hopes to accomplish this goal by 2026. The framework acts as a three-pronged approach to delivering high-performance and value in healthcare. It seeks to provide:
- Improved quality, safety and experience of care for the individual;
- improved health and equity for all populations; and
- the best value for public health system resources.
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17 July 2019
Media Release
Privacy, confidentiality and My Health Record
My Health Record is currently being introduced across Australia and records have been created for all Australians, unless they chose to opt out.
Large numbers of pharmacies, medical practices, hospitals and other health providers are now connected to the My Health Record.
For community pharmacies, My Health Record provides a revolutionary amount of health information for pharmacists to refer to when providing healthcare to a customer.
It enables pharmacists to make better-informed decisions about the health and medicine needs of customers of the pharmacy.
Pharmacists and pharmacy staff need to be aware of the additional privacy considerations relating to use of the My Health Record system.
Guild Learning and Development has partnered with the Australian Digital Health Agency to develop an online module titled ‘Privacy, confidentiality and My Health Record’.
This is the second of two modules to be launched on this topic which have been written especially for pharmacy assistants and dispensary assistants. The first module titled Introducing My Health Record was launched last month.
This module provides a refresher on privacy and confidentiality essentials for pharmacy assistants and dispensary assistants, and looks at best practice approaches that pharmacy assistants can adopt to maintain customer expectations of confidentiality.
To enrol in this course please visit https://guilded.guild.org.au
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Dozens more government agencies accessing 'metadata'
Home Affairs admits agencies bypassing data retention restrictions
More than 100 federal, state and local government agencies are known to be accessing so-called telecommunications ‘metadata’ despite not being among the list of enforcement agencies included in the data retention legislation.
The Department of Home Affairs has admitted that federal, state and territory government agencies are lawfully accessing telecommunications information covered by Australia’s data retention regime, even when they are not among the agencies authorised to access metadata under the 2015 legislation.
The Data Retention Act 2015 restricted access to telecommunications data under the provisions of the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 (TIA Act) to just 21 agencies.
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Tuesday, 16 July 2019 12:00
Artificial intelligence projects to double: survey
Organisations that are early adopters of artificial intelligence (AI) have multiple projects in production and plan to double the number of AI projects in the coming few years, according to a new research report.
The online survey on AI from Gartner reveals that organisations that are working with artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning (ML) have, on average, four AI/ML projects in place – with 59% of respondents saying they have AI deployed today.
“We see a substantial acceleration in AI adoption this year,” said Jim Hare, research vice president at Gartner.
“The rising number of AI projects means that organisations may need to reorganise internally to make sure that AI projects are properly staffed and funded. It is a best practice to establish an AI Centre of Excellence to distribute skills, obtain funding, set priorities and share best practices in the best possible way.”
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Tuesday, 16 July 2019 14:12
EFA calls for ban on Chinese-style facial recognition in Australia
Digital rights organisation Electronic Frontiers Australia has warned that facial recognition, of the sort used by China to violate the rights of its Uighur Muslim minority, is already being used in Australia.
Reacting to the screening of an investigative program by the ABC on Monday night about the way Uighurs were treated by Beijing, EFA chair Lyndsey Jackson said in a statement that the program had shown that Australian universities, researchers and technology firms were collaborating with oppressive regimes to use facial recognition against vulnerable groups.
She said people may not be aware that similar systems were being installed in Australia. As an example, Queensland Police had used facial recognition during the last Commonwealth Games held on the Gold Coast, saying it was used to protect against terrorism.
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An electronic chip that makes ‘memories’ is a step towards creating bionic brains
July 17, 2019 4.44am AEST
Authors
- Sumeet Walia Senior Lecturer and Vice Chancellor's Fellow, RMIT University
- Taimur Ahmed Research Fellow, RMIT University
What better way to build smarter computer chips than to mimic nature’s most perfect computer – the human brain?
Being able to store, delete and process information is crucial for computing, and the brain does this extremely efficiently.
Our new electronic chip uses light to create and modify memories, moving us closer towards artificial intelligence (AI) that can replicate the human brain’s sophistication.
To develop this, we drew inspiration from a new technique called optogenetics, to develop a device that replicates the way the brain stores (and loses) information. Optogenetics involves using light to control cells in living tissue, typically nerve cells (neurons).
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Health technology
Technology plays a vital role in the health of all Australians. From managing health information digitally to advances in gene technology, find out what we’re doing to improve health services, treatments and products. ADHA Propaganda
Health technology in Australia
Using digital information and modern communication technologies effectively is vital to the future of our health system. Technology plays a role in nearly every area of health, including health records.
Australia has a secure online health record system called My Health Record. Having a My Health Record means your important health information including allergies, medical conditions and treatments, medicine details and scan reports can be accessed through one system.
Technology also helps doctors and patients in regional, rural and remote areas. Broadband technology makes it possible for doctors to have video appointments with patients who can’t travel to hospitals for appointment with specialists.
Advances in medical science also help to improve health care in Australia. Gene technology and genomics can give us new testing, diagnosis and treatments for diseases such as cancer and help produce new vaccines and drugs.
N.B. – Health is building a new website – hence very little news.
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July 9, 2019
RANZCR’s Clinical Radiology Response to the National Health Interoperability Roadmap Paper
RANZCR’s response to the National Health Interoperability Roadmap Paper provides an overview of our top five priorities in digital health for clinical radiology. RANZCR has felt that there are not shared priorities around how radiology can align with the broader digital health sector, and how the Agency’s work program can align with other Federal health programs and priorities. This has resulted in circular deliberations about aspects of implementation of the My Health Record, resulting in very slow uptake and patchy connectivity for radiology practices and hospitals.
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Why doctors want banks to share wealth data
16th July 2019
If there’s two types of information people want to protect, it’s probably their health data and their bank details.
So why have neuroscientists teamed up with investment bankers to encourage patients to hand over both datasets?
Because, they write in Lancet Digital Health, current research on a person’s financial situation and their health is mostly limited to the broad strokes of low, middle or high socioeconomic status.
There are some exceptions. They point to a 2018 study that found depression predicted compulsive spending among patients with bipolar disorder.
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The peril and potential of the GDPR
9 Jul 2019
Just over a year ago, on May 25, 2018, the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect. The first-of-its-kind policy showed great promise during development; it was intended to harmonize privacy and data protection laws across Europe while helping EU citizens to better understand how their personal information was being used, and encouraging them to file a complaint if their rights were violated. As a new regulatory framework, the GDPR was an acknowledgement that the digital economy — fuelled by (personal) information — should operate with the informed consent of users and clear rules for companies who seek to do business in the European Union.
Implementing the policy, however, is illustrating just how much more work must be done before the GDPR is fully functional. European citizens, corporations and data governance frameworks still face a number of issues that the GDPR was intended to mitigate, as well as a handful of new problems. Stronger fines, greater collaboration and an acknowledgment of some of the policy’s blind spots are sorely needed for the GDPR to be more effective in the months and years to come.
Publication Details
Copyright: Centre for International Governance Innovation 2019
Language: English
License Type: CC BY-NC-ND
Published year only: 2019
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Move over doctors, Alexa is now giving medical advice
Voice technology takes a leap into the medical future
15th July 2019
(Video)
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eSafety launches 'Safety by Design' principles
Initiative “shifts responsibility for safety back onto technology organisations themselves” says eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant
The Office of the eSafety Commissioner – the federal government agency tasked with promoting online safety – has published a set of principles to help online and digital service providers embed user safety into their products.
The Safety by Design Principles document provides “practical, realistic and achievable guidance” for providers of all sizes and maturity, the office says, around “incorporating, enhancing and assessing user safety considerations throughout the design, development and deployment phases”.
“We know only too well how the online road is fraught with dark, hairpin turns and how navigating its pitfalls can be perilous — from cyberbullying and image-based abuse to illegal content, trolling, unwanted contact by strangers and social engineering scams,” said eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant.
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Kalgoorlie GP spruiks My Health Record
Phoebe Pin Kalgoorlie Miner Monday, 15 July 2019 2:07PM
A Kalgoorlie-Boulder GP is encouraging both health professionals and patients to engage the My Health Record system, despite claims that four in 10 people have no way of accessing their eHealth information.
News Corp reported last week that even though 23 million Australians have a My Health Record, only 15 million people have a MyGov account, which patients must have to access their record online.
An Australian Digital Health Agency spokesperson said other ways people could manage their eHealth record included appointing a nominated or authorised representative, or calling the My Health Record Help line for assistance, with Plaza Medical Centre’s Dr Kylie Sterry saying her clinic was also happy to help patients learn about the system.
“I can see a massive amount of potential with the eHealth record to improve communication, to reduce the doubling up of investigations and to allow the patients to really be engaged with their health information, so I’m really encouraging patients to have a look at it,” she said.
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Academies call on health minsters to resolve health data issues
July 15, 2019
Regulatory barriers that limit timely access to population and health data must be resolved to achieve better health outcomes for Australians, according to leading scientists and medical health researchers.
The Australian Academy of Science and the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences are calling for the COAG Health Council to address health data availability and linkage as a priority at its next meeting later this year.
The call follows a roundtable convened by the two Academies that brought together some of Australia’s leading health and medical researchers, clinicians and other experts to identify areas for improvement.
President of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, Professor Ian Frazer, said that there is a real opportunity to harness the power of data to drive improvements in health outcomes – by creating an environment in which the safe and secure use of patient data is balanced with the rights and interests of individuals.
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15 July 2019
Patient data to give practices the PIP
General practices that wish to receive incentive payments for quality improvements from August 1 need to choose areas to focus on and be ready to supply de-identified data to their Primary Health Networks every quarter.
The Health Department says the Practice Incentives Program – Quality Improvement, which is worth up to $12,500 quarterly per practice, is “a move away from process-based funding towards outcome-focused funding”. It is also a large data collection exercise for the purpose of service planning and the tracking of trends.
To be eligible for the PIP QI, a practice may choose to focus on 10 measures suggested by the federal Health Department that represent “key health priority areas”, including chronic conditions that make up a large part of the burden of disease in Australia, and their associated risk factors.
These measures have been adapted from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander National Key Performance Indicators, which are already used to measure population health improvement under the Indigenous Australians Health Program.
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'We'd like them to catch up': Digital giants yet to commit to safety guidelines
By Jennifer Duke
July 15, 2019 — 12.00am
The technology giants have refused to say whether they will follow the government's new and still voluntary guidelines to ensure the safety of Australians and their data when launching new services.
Communications Minister Paul Fletcher, whose expanded portfolio includes cyber safety, revealed the "safety by design" principles last week for technology companies to follow when creating new features and products for their services.
Calls for overhaul of defamation laws following a landmark court ruling that sees media companies to be held to account over defamatory content.
The broad framework includes putting the onus onto the service providers to ensure user empowerment and autonomy, transparency and accountability. This could involve changing the default settings when someone signs up, and it makes the companies responsible for thinking about how to prevent harm when introducing new features to their platforms.
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Worthwhile to have a browse of what is being offered as help.
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Saturday, 13 July 2019 14:58
AI-based poker player beats human competitors
Playing top poker professionals, an AI-based bot Pluribus defeated them in six-player, no-limit Texas Hold-em over 10,000 hands.
Lasting 12 days and playing against 12 top poker players, Pluribus not only beat all these top players, but also earned winnings at a much greater rate than most professionals would expect.
According to a Facebook post, "Pluribus defeated pro players in both a 'five AIs + one human player' format and a 'one AI + five human players' format. If each chip was worth a dollar, Pluribus would have won an average of about $5 per hand and would have made about $1,000/hour playing against five human players. These results are considered a decisive margin of victory by poker professionals."
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Comments more than welcome!
David.
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