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."

Sunday, July 14, 2019

It Seems We Have The ADHA Indulging In A Little Cash For (Positive) Comments Activity!

I noticed this last week:

Contract Notice View - CN3609259

AusTender holds Contract and Standing Offer Notices for the 07/08 financial year forward. For information related to previous years, please refer to https://data.gov.au/dataset/historical-australian-government-contract-data
Subcontractors:  For Commonwealth contracts that started on or after 1 December 2008, agencies are required to provide the names of any associated subcontractors on request.  Information on subcontractors can be sought directly from the relevant agency through the Agency Contact listed in each Contract Notice.
External engagement
Agency Details
Contact Name:
Australian Digital Health Agency
Office Postcode: 2606
CN ID: CN3609259
Agency: Australian Digital Health Agency
Publish Date: 10-Jul-2019
Category: Sales and business promotion activities
Contract Period: 27-Jun-2019 to 31-Dec-2022
Contract Value (AUD): $83,879.00
Description: External engagement
Procurement Method: Open tender
ATM ID: DH1894
Agency Reference ID: 4500133474


Supplier Details

Name:
Pharmaceutical Society of Australia Limited
Postal Address:
Town/City: Canberra
Postcode: 2600
State/Territory: ACT
Country: AUSTRALIA
ABN: 49 008 532 072
Here is the link:
On the face of it, it is very hard not to see this as the Agency paying the PSA for “Sales and business promotion activities” which – given the enthusiastic support of the myHR by the PSA can only really be seen as attempting – a mild word – to have the positive promotional activities continue.
I referred all this to a couple of 'proper' journalists who rapidly found more examples:
Here is an extract of what I got back:
“While it isn't a complete picture by any means, some docs have appeared on the tenders.gov.au site that show some high profile healthcare organisations have been paid to spruik the platform.
In the case of PSA, from 21-Sep-2017 to 30-Jun-2019 the organisation was paid $1,723,711 for "MyHR Adoption and Support Services". It currently has a new $83,879.00 contract from 27-Jun-2019 to 31-Dec-2022 to provide "External engagement – Sales and business promotion activities".
The Royal Australasian College of Physicians has signed a contract for the period 28-Jun-2019 to 30-Jun-2022, and last week this media release appeared promoting My Health Record and quoting the RACP president. This contract is for about $185K.
The Royal Flying Doctor Service also has a new $220,000 contract.”
In passing there also seemed to be millions of dollars spent on recruiting services since August 2017 ($2,846,425.79) and $1.6M + on office fit-outs etc.
I don’t know about you but I am not sure I am all that keen on the ADHA apparently buying favourable opinions from colleges and the like! Reminds me of when NEHTA funded an attack blogger to try a silence me years ago.
If this is going to happen maybe a list on the ADHA web-site of their paid “spruikers”
What do you think?
David.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think, as my Professor of Medicine repeatedly said to his medical students, "If you throw enough mud at the wall doctor sonner or later some of it will stick."

Anonymous said...

The problem is, that mud on a wall helps nobody. There is no intrinsic value in a personal health record system like My Health Record. People already know enough about what to do to improve their health, they don't need to know the gruesome details. Doctors won't want to add to their administrative overheads and won't get much out of it and nobody can trust it.

It's more like a trainwreck in slow motion than a mud splattered wall. There's probably a couple of PhDs in this - examining the stupidity of government decision making.

Anonymous said...

One does wonder what all this PR stuff is about, well after the opt-out period. It seems to be aimed at those who upload data into My Health Record. Which rather reinforces the claim that My Health Record has nothing to do with the health of an individual, but more about the surveillance society. The government is desperate for personal data and will pay anything to get it.