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
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It is hard to not believe that the beginning of the ‘Silly Season’ is upon us with the amount of news we are seeing at present in the Digital Health Space.
Time to shut up shop for a few weeks I reckon soon!
I can’t do that however till we see just what the ADHA has done to properly secure end-point access to the #myHealthRecord! I wonder are they on top if the issue. A recent poll suggests not!
We can all sit back and enjoy Christmas knowing that the chance of the #myHealthRecord being further expanded must be increasingly remote with its key staff all apparently walking the plank. (see previous blog) Does that mean these silly press releases will ease off?
We can all sit back and enjoy Christmas knowing that the chance of the #myHealthRecord being further expanded must be increasingly remote with its key staff all apparently walking the plank. (see previous blog) Does that mean these silly press releases will ease off?
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Life-saving smart device monitors stress of fireys at front lines
As a smoky haze blankets the eastern states, stinging eyes and lungs, spare a thought for the firefighters on the front lines.
They’ll be exposed to large amounts of carbon dioxide, as well as a complex mixture of gases, volatile organic compounds such as benzene and aldehydes, and respirable particles like carbon, graphite and wood dust.
Brad Aisbett, an exercise scientist from the Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition at Deakin University, has worked with firefighting and emergency teams for a decade to ensure they are able to operate at peak performance in such challenging conditions.
“Doing physical work in smoke is like doing intense work in heat,” he says. “It increases the heart rate and affects perception. And in a bushfire situation you have the combination of both smoke and heat.
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Medicare data matching laws waved through
Despite privacy concerns.
The Department of Health will introduce a new Medicare data matching scheme to better detect fraudulent or incorrect claims after the underpinning legislation passed through parliament.
The Health Legislation Amendment (Data-Matching and Other Matters) Bill 2019 passed into law on the last sitting day of the year on Thursday, having cleared the senate without amendments.
The bill passed the lower house with Labor’s backing last week after ‘careful and close’ inspection, according to shadow health minister Chris Bowen.
“We examined [the bill] to ensure that it is as presented, and we are satisfied that it is worthy of support and passage through the parliament,” he said at the time.
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New study to investigate how digital tools – including avatars – can help tackle obesity
2 December, 2019
A major new research project will investigate how digital tools can be used safely and effectively to help people manage their weight, and so tackle the obesity crisis both in Australia and globally.
The research will be carried out over the next two years in a partnership between the University of Notre Dame Australia, Archetype Health, Werribee Hospital Foundation, Mercy Hospitals Victoria and the Digital Health Cooperative Research Centre (Digital Health CRC).
The study will use an app which allows participants to put their own face on an avatar, and then adjust exercise levels and food intake to see how their avatar’s appearance and body shape will change according to adjustments in diet and physical activity.
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The research will be carried out over the next two years in a partnership between the University of Notre Dame Australia, Archetype Health, Werribee Hospital Foundation, Mercy Hospitals Victoria and the Digital Health Cooperative Research Centre (Digital Health CRC).
The study will use an app which allows participants to put their own face on an avatar, and then adjust exercise levels and food intake to see how their avatar’s appearance and body shape will change according to adjustments in diet and physical activity.
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Federal IT funding shake-up floated by Services Australia minister
Current model "inhibiting" agile.
Government Services Minister Stuart Robert has floated a fundamental shake-up of the federal government’s IT funding model, warning the current paradigm is “inhibiting” agile ways of working.
The minister charged with overseeing the government’s grand Services Australia experiment used an address in Canberra on Friday to call out decades of deep-rooted problems with federal budget approval processes and their undesirable effects.
“The current funding models for technology projects have failed to keep up with the growth of cloud and other service and subscription-based models of sourcing technology,” he told vendor lobby group the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA).
“The current funding processes are also inhibiting the take up of more agile ways of delivery at a time when the era of billion-dollar monolithic technology projects that take a decade or more to deliver is clearly past us.”
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Patient awarded $8000 after fax goes to wrong GP
But it was less than the $40,000 she wanted
5th December 2019
A hospital has been ordered to pay $8300 in compensation to a patient for “psychological damage”, after one of its specialists faxed a clinical report to the wrong GP.
The patient had originally seen the psychiatrist in January 2018.
But a “combination of human and computer error” resulted in the doctor sending his report on the consult not to her treating GP, but to a VMO who had treated the woman for an ankle injury some five days earlier.
The hospital apologised to the patient, who said she underwent 18 sessions with a psychologist as part of her recovery, in writing and then over the phone.
But she took her case to the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal demanding $40,000 in compensation for psychological damage and “the cost of treatment to rehabilitate her”.
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Morrison to pump funding into IT in public service shake-up
By Rob Harris
December 6, 2019 — 11.00pm
Prime Minister Scott Morrison will pump millions of dollars into upgrading technology systems and streamlining bureaucratic processes as he launches the biggest overhaul of Australia's public service in three decades.
Mr Morrison will next week announce increased funding for the Commonwealth public service as the federal government finalises its response to David Thodey's review of the nation's bureaucratic processes, which is expected to include a further cull of government agencies and boards.
Senior government sources have told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald the main focus of the funding injection will be on "people and technology" to "build capability" within the public service as part of Mr Morrison's promise to improve service delivery for Australians.
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Infosys wins massive Centrelink payments engine deal
Beats IBM, Accenture for crucial WPIT project.
Infosys has fought off IBM and Accenture to secure a lucrative contract with Service Australia to transform the complex payments calculation engine used to work out the eligibility of Centrelink recipients.
Minister for Government Services Stuart Robert revealed the deal with the Indian technology services and outsourcing behemoth during an address to the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) today in Canberra.
The trio had been competing for the complex and high-risk project since early this year, after they were shortlisted to take part in a competitive dialogue process with the then Department of Human Services.
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Friday, 29 November 2019 17:02
Infosys wins mega-deal to rebuild welfare payments engine
Indian outsourcing firm Infosys has beaten out Accenture and IBM to win a contract with the Australian Government's Services Australia department - formerly the Department of Human Services - to rebuild the engine that calculates the welfare amount to be paid to recipients.
The contract was announced in Canberra on Friday by Government Services Minister Stuart Robert during an address to the Australian Information Industry Association.
The announcement comes in the wake of a court decision that said the method being used to calculate money owed by citizens to Centrelink — known as robodebt — was flawed and had to be scrapped.
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Wednesday, 04 December 2019 11:15
Ransomware attacks on business, government pick up pace
Ransomware attacks on businesses and governments will continue at a more rapid pace, thanks to newly found security vulnerabilities, according to one global security firm which forecasts further increases in ransomware attacks and VPN “scandals” in 2020 and beyond.
According to security vendor Malwarebytes there will also be an expansion of web skimmers’ impact and an escalation of hybrid attacks, among other cybersecurity threats expected to evolve in 2020 and later years.
“We have seen more vulnerabilities in 2017 and 2018 than any year before and 2019 is close to matching 2017, and we still have a month to go,” says Adam Kujawa, Security Evangelist and Director of Malwarebytes Labs.
"This year alone, we’re also seeing more malware developed to focus on business targets as opposed to the consumer. Overall, we are probably going to see some of the 43,000+ vulnerabilities discovered over the last two years show up in future Exploit Kit offerings.
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Australian scientists from CSIRO, QUT, Queensland Health track the spread of Dengue fever & other diseases from air travel
Australian scientists have created a breakthrough computational tool that maps the spread of human infectious diseases due to air travel around the world.
Researchers at Australia’s national science agency CSIRO, Queensland University of Technology and Queensland Health have used the tool to map the spread of dengue fever around the world, but other diseases are in their sights. They are looking at flights from nearly all countries.
Passengers travelling from Puerto Rico to Florida, Guadeloupe in the Caribbean to Paris, and flights from Indonesia to north Queensland run the greatest risk of importing dengue fever from countries where the disease is endemic to destinations where it is not but where mosquitoes can carry it.
Jess Liebig, postdoctoral fellow at CSIRO’s data science arm Data61, says international travel significantly contributes to the rapid spread of dengue fever to non-endemic countries.
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New legislation to better detect PBS fraud, recover incorrect payments
A bill is being considered to give the government more powers to investigate PBS and MBS fraud, including claims for medicines that have not been supplied
Health Minister Greg Hunt has introduced a bill into Parliament that gives the government stronger abilities to detect fraud through data-matching between the MBS, PBS, private health insurance, AHPRA, the TGA and even the Department of Home Affairs.
The bill has now been read a second time in the Senate, after passing through the House of Representatives last month.
“The overwhelming majority of healthcare providers claim MBS, PBS and Child Dental Benefits appropriately,” said Minister Hunt when introducing the bill.
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My Health Record - use in private hospitals
This webinar will focus on My Health Record provider obligations for private hospitals and their staff, with a particular focus on:
- Connection and use
- Legislation
- Privacy and consent
- Account management
- Policies
- Training register
- Breach notifications
Wed 11 Dec
When 6:00pm - 7:00pm, Wednesday 11th December 2019
Where Webinar
Organiser Australian Digital Health Agency
CPD Points Available? No
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Eight in 10 Aussies at higher risk of a heart attack, new test shows
A new medical check has found a staggering number of Australians are at a higher risk of a heart attack than previously thought.
Sue Dunlevy
News Corp Australia Network December 7, 20198:00pm
One million Australians have taken an online heart age test and an alarming eight in 10 were found to be at higher risk of a heart attack.
The frightening figures underscore the need for the new Medicare funded Heart Health Check won by the News Corp and Heart Foundation’s award-winning #ShowSomeTicker campaign.
Yet Medicare data shows only 43,585 Australians have followed up on their online heart age check by going to their GP for a heart health check.
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ResApp and Coviu to Deploy ResAppDx-EU on Coviu’sTelehealth Platform
Brisbane, Australia, 28 November 2019 — ResApp Health Limited (ASX:RAP), a leading digital health company developing smartphone applications for the diagnosis and management of respiratory disease, and Coviu, Australia’s leading telehealth software platform, have entered into a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MOU) to integrate ResApp’s acute respiratory diagnostic test, ResAppDx-EU into Coviu’s browser-based telehealth platform.
The integration will see ResAppDx-EU become available to the 5,500+ clinicians who currently use the Coviu platform. Clinicians will then have the ability to accurately diagnose respiratory disease in a telehealth setting.
Most people will develop an acute respiratory tract infection every year, and up to a half of all telehealth consultations are respiratory-related. Standard diagnostic aids such as stethoscopes are unavailable during a video-based telehealth consultation.
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Monday, 02 December 2019 15:22
Sigma Healthcare transforms e-commerce platform with SAP solutions
Pharmaceutical wholesaler Sigma Healthcare transformed its e-commerce platform, using SAP Commerce Cloud and Qualtrics Customer Experience to create a new portal to improve how customers order and manage stock for their stores.
SAP Australia, the local arm of global software giant SAP, says Sigma Health has undertake the transformation by combining SAP Commerce Cloud and SAP Qualtrics Customer Experience (CX) to deliver a “best-in-class digital experience for its customers”.
Sigma Health provides a broad range of pharmaceutical products and healthcare services to more than 1,200 branded and independent pharmacies, and processes more than $3 billion in transactions each year.
The SAP implementation is part of the Sigma’s growth plans and mission to create an intuitive and seamless ordering experience for its customers, helping pharmacists optimise their day-to-day operations and better serve their patients.
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Monday, 02 December 2019 12:20
Nvidia federates healthcare ML training
GPU manufacturer Nvidia is offering an approach to training healthcare machine learning models using data from multiple sources while maintaining patient privacy.
Nvidia Clara Federated Learning allows participating hospitals to train a global model on their own data.
The results – in the form of partial model weights – are fed back to the federated learning server via a secure link.
This approach means deep learning training can be carried out across multiple hospitals without having to share the clinical data.
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Three's a charm: Affinity gears up for MedicalDirector sale
Dec 2, 2019 — 1.34pm
It hasn't been a great year for private equity firms closing out juicy exits from their investments.
However, Affinity Equity Partners is doing all it can to land a hot streak.
In the past few months, the Brett Sutton-led buyout firm sold Ticketek-owner TEG to US private equity giant Silver Lake and offloaded its 35 per cent stake in Velocity Frequent Flyer to Virgin for $700 million.
Up next is MedicalDirector.
Street Talk understands Affinity and sell-side adviser Jefferies Australia are preparing to provide more detailed diligence materials to parties which have expressed interest in the medical practice software company.
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https://www.miragenews.com/health-workers-use-new-app-to-reduce-falls-in-older-australians-by-up-to-30-per-cent/
December 3, 2019 9:10 am AEDT
Health workers use new app to reduce falls in older Australians by up to 30 per cent
In an Australian first, healthcare workers in New South Wales and Victoria are using a new clinically-tested home exercise app to improve balance and reduce fall risk among older Australians.
StandingTall, developed by Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA), is now being used by three local area health precincts in NSW and Victoria, with more than 500 patients anticipated to use the app as part of clinical testing over the next six months.
Initial results have found that older Australians who use StandingTall for a recommended two hours each week for 12 months dramatically improve their balance and reduce their risk of falling by up to 30 per cent.
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'Disease risk' algorithms: Health fund nib in $20m venture that will use data to try and keep members out of hospital
By Patrick Hatch
Updated December 6, 2019 — 11.44amfirst published at 10.58am
Health fund nib Group is launching a $20 million joint venture with American insurance giant Cigna which will mine members' health data to identify their future health risks and keep them out of hopsital.
nib chief executive Mark Fitzgibbon said the venture aimed to gather a "much data as we can" about members - from claims and medical history to biological data and eventually genetic data - and run that through algorithms that can identify that members' greatest health risks.
With that information, nib or other health funds can design a health management strategy to prevent those conditions developing or resulting in hospitalisation.
"If Mark has characteristics, biologically, psychologically, genetically 'A,B,C,D and E', he's at risk of diseases 1,2,3,4,5, and these are the best ways to manage, prevent and more precisely treat that disease," Mr Fitzgibbon said.
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Friday, 06 December 2019 10:35
nib, Cigna launch joint venture healthcare company
Australian-listed health fund nib Group has launched a new specialist healthcare data science and services company in a joint venture with global health services provider Cigna Corporation.
The deal will see each company contribute $10 million in start-up funding, with the new entity operating independently of nib and be led by Rhod McKensey who has been group executive of nib's Australian Residents Health Insurance business since 2013.
nib (ASX: NHF) says the joint venture’s purpose is to:
· Analyse and interpret underlying individual disease risk;
· Provide guidance on how this risk can be best prevented, mitigated, managed or treated;
· and deliver healthcare programs, services and interventions relevant to the disease risk profile.
nib says the new company will draw on and localise existing data science technologies including intellectual property and “deep expertise” from Cigna as well as develop new capabilities.
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Nib builds $20m specialist health data science play
'Antithesis' to current one-size-fits-all care.
Newcastle-based health insurer nib has partnered with global healthcare services provider Cigna to spin out a specialist data sciences and services company to drive better outcomes for its members.
Although the joint venture will operate independently of the insurer, it will initially provide data services to companies within the nib group before expanding to other healthcare providers and insurers.
Nib managing director, Mark Fitzgibbon, said in a notice to the ASX that the first priority of the joint venture will be to deploy and build the necessary technology and capability, leveraging Cigna's IP and industry expertise.
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Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre completes IBM Watson trial for lung cancer patients
The Melbourne-based centre used artificial intelligence to match lung cancer patients to relevant clinical trials.
Melbourne-based Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre has trialled the use of IBM Watson and found it helped reduce the time it takes for clinicians to match lung cancer patients to relevant clinical trials.
According to IBM, using past records of 102 lung cancer patients, IBM Watson for Clinical Trial Matching was able to match each patient to 10 potential trials, achieving a 92% accuracy when compared to manual clinician matching that would typically take "hours".
Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre oncologist and co-chief medical information officer Dr Dishan Herath said the six-month trial showed the potential of using artificial intelligence to eliminate "increasingly complex" trial criteria.
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G Medical secures $30M in funding from Luxembourg investor
ASX:GMV MCAP $41.30M
Jessica De Freitas Markets Reporter
jessica.defreitas@themarketherald.com.au
04 December 2019 14:10
- G Medical Innovations (GMV) has secured a $30 million funding facility over a three year period from GEM Global Yield
- GEM Global is a Luxembourg-based investment group focused on emerging markets
- The company will use the funds to expand its current U.S. sales team 4-fold
- In addition, G Medical will seek global opportunities to further its health monitoring product suite
- G Medical is up a healthy 17.5 per cent today with shares trading for 11.8 cents each
G Medical Innovations (GMV) has secured capital commitments of up to A$30 million over a three year period from GEM Global Yield.
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The inconvenient truth about AI in health
Sunday, 1 December 2019
eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth
Health is probably not ready to use artificial intelligence because the technology cannot re-engineer the incentives, systems and structures that drive behaviours in the health system, says the head of digital health at Healthcare Holdings.
Lloyd McCann gave a keynote presentation on AI in Health at the HiNZ 2019 Conference last month, where he told attendees there are a number of questions yet to be answered in this space.
He said the real inconvenient truth about AI and health is that “we’re probably not ready to actually use this type of technology, because we’re still designing and deploying these solutions into a current system, utilising our current paradigms in our current mindsets around this.
“Despite the potential and the awesome opportunities AI offers, AI cannot re-engineer the incentives or the systems and the structures that exists today that drive our behaviours within our health systems.”
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Transition to NOS “fraught with difficulties”
6 December, 2019
eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth
Implementing the National Oracle Solution was “challenging” and has resulted in both benefits and tensions for district health boards, Canterbury DHB’s chief digital officer told the HiNZ Conference 2019.
Stella Ward presented on the NOS project on behalf of Canterbury DHB finance and procurement systems manager Lynne O’Donoghue.
The National Oracle Solution was implemented in four DHBs – Bay of Plenty, Canterbury, Waikato and West Coast – in July 2018.
This covered all types of DHB, from almost the biggest to the smallest, rural and metro, and using both inhouse and outsourced supply chain.
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Australia's radiation safety agency reinforces that 5G is safe
Double blind trials have debunked any health concerns about 5G and radiation, ARPANSA has said.
The Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) has reiterated that there is no evidence that indicates 5G is harmful to people's health.
"Our assessment of 5G is that it is safe," Nathan Wahl, ARPANSA government international relations assistant director, told the Standing Committee on Communications and the Arts on Friday.
As part of the inquiry into the deployment, adoption, and application of 5G in Australia, ARPANSA lead scientist Ken Karipidis explained how through double blind trials, the organisation was able to disprove individuals who claimed exposure to electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS) was causing them to feel side effects, such as a burning sensation.
"We believe them … however when double blind testing was conducted with such individuals, we don't see a connection to electromagnetic field … there's been a range of double blind placebo control trials that have tested such individuals," he said.
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Friday, 06 December 2019 11:37
ACMA bringing in new rules to prevent mobile number porting fraud
Australia’s telecommunications regulator ACMA is stepping up its crackdown on scams perpetrated over mobile phone networks with plans to introduce new rules to prevent mobile number porting fraud.
Under the new industry standards to be set by the ACMA with the proposed rules telecoms service providers will be required to carry out extra identity checks before accepting the port of a mobile number.
The new get-tough regime from the Australian Communications and Consumer Authority includes last month’s announcement by the Federal Government and ACMA of the first of three pilot trials to be conducted across the telecommunications industry to combat common phone scams and techniques which plague and telecommunications industry.
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Optus names Kelly Bayer Rosmarin CEO to replace Allen Lew
Former Commonwealth Bank senior executive Kelly Bayer Rosmarin is taking over the top job at Optus, with current CEO Allen Lew signing out after a five-year tenure at Australia’s second biggest telco.
Ms Bayer Rosamarin, who joined Optus in March, will take the reins in April 2020 as the telco looks to close the gap on Telstra in the 5G race.
Speaking to The Australian on Thursday, Mr Lew said his successor will be in charge of not only a provider of broadband services but also a digital, multimedia company.
“The two things I am particularly proud of are that we brought Optus’s mobile network to a level where Australians can choose between two premium options, [and] the impact we have made with digital content, we were the first to put live sport on an over the top (OTT) service and now have 700,000 customers who engage with us every weekend [on Optus Sport],”
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TPG joins NBN critics over NBN’s business services
TPG boss David Teoh has voiced concerns about NBN Co’s pursuit of business customers, joining the chief executives of Telstra and Vocus in labelling it a waste of taxpayer funds.
Speaking to shareholders on Wednesday, Mr Teoh said NBN Co’s push to roll out fibre to areas already well-served by telcos needed to be questioned.
“We do have concerns about NBN’s increasing involvement in the business market in areas where there is already substantial existing fibre, from numerous competitive carriers,” Mr Teoh said.
While TPG’s reputation was built on providing broadband services to consumers, its business offerings were gaining traction in the market, providing a hedge against the pressure on its margins because of the NBN, he said.
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NBN Co shows its top user now hits 26TB a month
Manages to find another 2.5 - 3TB.
NBN Co’s biggest user is based in Queensland and is consuming 26TB of data a month.
The network builder Monday provided its first update on a set of consumption numbers it has only previously disclosed once before.
In June 2018, NBN Co first revealed the top user on its network managed 23.6TB of data usage.
Citing June 2019 numbers, NBN Co now says “the hungriest consumer lives in Queensland and consumed 26,807 GB in [that month] alone.”
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Monday, 02 December 2019 08:39
Australians using 25% more NBN data
NBN Co says the amount of data consumed by the average customer has grown by 24.6% over the 12 months to June 2019.
The growth in streaming video use plus the growing number of connected devices is said to be the reason.
Video streaming is now the biggest single component of data consumption, slightly ahead of web browsing.
Total data consumption exceeded 1.36 exabytes – 1.36 billion gigabytes – in June. That, according to NBN Co, is "the equivalent of watching the David Attenborough's Planet Earth – in high definition – over 30.6 million times."
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Enjoy!
David.
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