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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Really another quiet week with the main news being that the Audit Office is going to have another look at the security around the #myHealthRecord. Seems they have some concerns about just how good it really is – as do others.
Otherwise say hello to the Australasian Institute of Digital Health. It started this morning officially!
I hope they have a smooth launch and an excellent future in aiding our Digital Health journey.
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Message to the digital health community
Friday 21 February 2020
The Australasian College of Health Informatics (ACHI) has merged with the Health Informatics Society of Australia (HISA) to form the Australasian Institute of Digital Health. – launching on Monday 24 February 2020 at www.digitalhealth.org.au
The Australasian College of Health Informatics (ACHI) has merged with the Health Informatics Society of Australia (HISA) to form the Australasian Institute of Digital Health. – launching on Monday 24 February 2020 at www.digitalhealth.org.au
Visit us at the Institute!
Membership and Fellowship applications are sought for foundational membership of the Institute.
This site will no longer be updated and will be preserved for archive.
This site will no longer be updated and will be preserved for archive.
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Australian cyber policymakers to face Audit Office probe
The Attorney-General's Department, Australian Signals Directorate, and Department of Home Affairs are three of nine entities under the microscope this time.
The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) has a handful of non-corporate Commonwealth entities in its sights for the next round of cybersecurity probes, with the three entities responsible for cyber policy within the government to face examination.
The Attorney-General's Department (AGD); Australian Signals Directorate (ASD); Australian Trade and Investment Commission; Department of Education, Skills, and Employment; Future Fund Management Agency; Department of Health; Department of Home Affairs (DHA); IP Australia; and Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet will all be under the microscope.
The objective of the audit, ANAO said, will be to assess the effectiveness of cybersecurity risk mitigation strategies implemented by the selected entities, to see if they meet mandatory requirements under the Protective Security Policy Framework (PSPF), and if the support provided by the responsible cyber policy entities are sufficient.
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Online pathology results confuse patients
Two studies highlight the risk of poor understanding and worry when patients access online results written for doctors
19th February 2020
Many patients have a hard time deciphering online test results, leading to unnecessary anxiety, doctors warn on the back of two new studies.
The findings raise questions over the benefits versus risks of giving patients access to their digital pathology reports and highlight the need for test results to be written with patients in mind, they say in JAMA Dermatology.
The warnings come at a time when Australia is encouraging pathology labs to upload their results to patients' My Health Records.
The first study surveyed 225 patients to see how well they understood the diagnosis after reading a pathology report online.
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Doctors condemn 'fake news' about coronavirus's origins
Aussies, including Professor Kanta Subbarao, are among 27 global experts that have voiced their concerns in a Lancet letter
21st February 2020
Doctors and researchers from around the world, including Australia, have banded together to condemn conspiracy theories and rumours about the origins of COVID-19.
A number of theories have emerged claiming a Wuhan infectious disease laboratory engineered the virus, which then either deliberately or accidentally leaked out and started the epidemic.
The group of 27, including three Australian experts on infectious diseases, have published a statement in the Lancet to condemn the spread of misinformation.
"The rapid, open and transparent sharing of data on this outbreak is now being threatened by rumours and misinformation around its origins," the authors say.
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Toll faces customer fallout after cyber attack
Feb 17, 2020 — 12.00am
Freight delivery giant Toll Group is battling to fully restore its services after a crippling cyber attack, which security experts say is the most significant in Australian corporate history, as it faces growing discontent from clients including Telstra, Officeworks and Footlocker.
The devastating ransomware attack, known as "Mailto" or "Kazakavkovkiz", occurred two weeks ago, forcing Toll to take down many of its delivery and tracking systems and leaving it unable to tell customers where their parcels were.
Toll Group says it has adopted a deliberately cautious approach to restoring its systems after the cyber attack, despite the negative impact on its customers.
Companies including Unilever, Adidas, Nike, Telstra, Optus, Footlocker and Officeworks, have been left to fend off disgruntled customers due to indefinite delays for deliveries, and Toll is understood to have been hit by numerous penalty payments due to its failure to fulfil contractual commitments.
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Friday, 14 February 2020 12:50
Attackers expand coronavirus-themed email attacks
Security attacks taking advantage of concerns over the coronavirus outbreak have seen attackers leverage conspiracy theory-based fears around purported unreleased cures for the virus and campaigns that abuse perceived legitimate sources of health information to manipulate users, according to a global security firm.
According to security company Proofpoint, threat actors have launched a campaign using an email lure that “stokes conspiracy theory fears” that there is cure for Coronavirus that isn’t being shared.
Proofpoint says the email claims there is a cure being hidden by government entities because the virus is being used as a bioweapon, and it then urges the recipient to receive further information on the “cure” by clicking on the link provided in the email.
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Consults by text: alarm over latest online script service
But new start-up offering repeat scripts for the contraception pill says it will help women
18th February 2020
Doctors are conducting consults with women entirely by text before writing repeat scripts for the contraceptive pill, under a new health start-up that has been described as offering a “fast-food” approach for reproductive care.
Part of a new start-up called Kin Fertility, the online service will give women access to 35 brands of the pill, including cyproterone pills such as Diane-35, which carry a higher VTE risk.
Patients pay a yearly subscription of $55 to join, plus the cost of any medication prescribed by a team of five GPs working from home.
The electronic scripts are then sent to a 'partner' pharmacy who fills the prescription and posts it to the patient.
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AI may choose best depression therapy
Tuesday, 18 February, 2020
A US research team has developed a computer that can accurately predict whether an antidepressant will work, based on patients’ brain activity.
The multi-site trial initiated by UT Southwestern in 2011 to better understand mood disorders — involving Stanford, Harvard and other institutions — demonstrates that artificial intelligence (AI) may soon help doctors objectively diagnose and prescribe depression treatments.
The researchers predict that tools such as AI, brain imaging and blood tests will revolutionise the field of psychiatry in the coming years.
“These studies have been a bigger success than anyone on our team could have imagined,” UT Southwestern psychiatrist Dr Madhukar Trivedi said.
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Do melanoma-spotting apps have a place in clinical care?
Antony is a medical reporter with a special interest in technology and pharmacy.
19th February 2020
Melanoma-spotting smartphone apps have been burned regularly by researchers, who claim their poor specificity can leave patients falsely reassured about dangerous lesions.
Researchers' latest look at whether the technology has a genuine place in clinical care is a systemic review of the evidence.
Nine studies were included, evaluating a total of six apps.
Published in the BMJ, the general conclusion of the review was blunt: the performance of the technology was “poor and variable”.
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National Clinical Terminology Service webinar series February 2020
17 February, 2020: The National Clinical Terminology Service (NCTS) of the Australian Digital Health Agency, in collaboration with the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) and the Independent Hospital Pricing Authority (IHPA) are co-presenting a webinar in February 2020. The presentation will provide an overview of some of the code sets used in healthcare, specifically clinical terminologies (SNOMED CT-AU) and health classifications (ICD-10-AM), and how they support clinical data entry, communication, reporting and analytics.
Please note that this webinar will be held using Microsoft Teams.
Terminologies and classifications: SNOMED CT-AU and ICD-10-AM use in Australia
This is a 1-hour webinar held on Tuesday 25 February 2020, from 2 pm to 3 pm AEDT.
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nHIP heads back to Cabinet
Tuesday, 18 February 2020
eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth
The national Health Information Platform programme business case is due to be considered by Cabinet at the end of March.
The Ministry of Health is seeking a multi-year funding model with separate business cases developed to support four tranches of the programme.
The new platform is being developed to enable sharing of patient data and will “assemble a virtual electronic record on an ‘as required’ basis from multiple trusted sources, and provide access to data and services”, eHealthNews.nz previously reported.
"Each tranche will deliver access to health information iteratively starting with core data such as demographics, medications and immunisations,” Ministry group manager digital strategy and investment Darren Douglass says.
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Counties clinicians Qlik for data
Wednesday, 19 February 2020
eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth
Clinicians at Counties Manukau Health can access and interrogate their data using new apps built on Qlik Sense.
The district health board has licensed Qlik analytics software under a new national pricing model negotiated by the Ministry of Health, National DHBs Chief Information Officer Forum, Acumen BI and Qlik.
Stuart Bloomfield, CIO at CM Health and Waitematā DHBs, says CM Health was already using a small installation of Qlik View and, since moving to Qlik Sense, has rapidly developed three new clinically focused apps for renal, emergency department and mental health.
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AFP searches for digital health record system
Will replace disparate databases, paper-based records.
The Australian Federal Police is set to introduce an agency-wide electronic health records system to better manage the health information of its 6000-plus staff.
The national policing agency revealed plans for the “organisation health solution” in a request for tender on Friday in a bid to better identify officers at risk of injury or illness.
The solution, which will consist of a “central repository” for personnel health information, will replace “multiple disconnected databases, based on Microsoft Access, and paper documents”.
The AFP has blamed these “siloes of information” for “making it difficult for organisation health practitioners to obtain a consolidated single view of an AFP or family member’s health information”.
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Citadel snaps up UK healthcare tech company
Feb 18, 2020 — 9.14am
Listed IT services manager Citadel Group is poised to acquire UK healthcare technology provider Wellbeing Software for £103 million ($200.2 million).
Street Talk understands the $291 million Citadel will pay for the acquisition with a mixture of debt and equity and had RBC Capital Markets in its corner as sole M&A advisor.
Citadel was fronting funds on Tuesday morning to raise fresh capital for the equity component of the deal. It was in the market for $127 million and the raising was fully underwritten by RBC.
Meanwhile, Citadel also has a $100 million facility that it has drawn on for the debt component, which was underwritten by RBC and ANZ Banking Group.
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Tuesday, 18 February 2020 08:25
Tableau boosts efficiency at regional hospital
The Tableau analytics and visualisation software is being widely used by Bairnsdale Regional Health Service in regional Victoria to improve operations and reporting.
Bairnsdale Regional Health Service (BRHS) business analyst Nick Fordham's job includes data warehousing, BI, and reporting. Around four years ago, he was given a stack of Excel workbooks that had been managed by a couple of executives, with a request to "make it workable."
Fordham picked Tableau for the task after taking advantage of the trial version. It was relatively intuitive to use, had a clear pricing structure, and (importantly where sensitive health data is concerned) could run on premises, he told iTWire.
The first part of the project was to improve the reporting of government-mandated KPIs. The goal was to provide daily rather than quarterly reports so the relevant decision makers could take prompt corrective action when necessary.
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The AI extending life at home for the elderly
Feb 17, 2020 — 4.00pm
Healthcare technology start-up InteliCare has its sights set on an ASX listing in the first half of 2020, after locking in its first clients for its smart home sensors late last year.
The business, which creates sensors equipped with artificial intelligence that can be placed around an elderly or disabled person's home to send alerts to a family member or carer if their normal domestic activity is out of the ordinary, was founded by Greg Leach and Mike Tappenden in 2017.
But in August last year the co-founders hired former head of ASX-listed aerial imagery and data analytics firm Spookfish, Jason Waller, to lead the company through its next chapter.
Mr Waller said he saw the same potential in InteliCare as he had in Spookfish, which was acquired in December for $US89.7 million ($133 million).
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CUA grows digital sales 100 percent with revamped health insurance site
Benchmark Awards 2020 finalist.
Credit Union Australia’s health insurance arm has overhauled its online application processes in the face of looming government health reforms, suboptimal workflows and mounting consumer dissatisfaction with the broader health insurance sector.
CUA Health partnered with Squiz to redesign the user experience and functionality of their health insurance quote, application process and ‘product picker’ to deliver a smoother experience for customers enabled by a better back end at the insurer.
The project set out to improve on the previous “clunky, disjointed” application process that relied on a combination of online, phone and paper workflows that were cumbersome and slow for CUA Health to process with “significant” manual operational requirements.
Built on Squiz Matrix, the new application process is wholly online and streamlines the end-to-end front and back end journey for both the applicant and CUA employee, creating instant memberships that are ready for customer use immediately.
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Sunday, 16 February 2020 14:50
Streaming the key to more imaging in health, says Hyland
Australia’s My Health Record is a major step forward in electronic health records (EHR), but it is almost entirely text-based. High resolution digital medical images are typically very large, and difficult to share between systems constrained by bandwidth.
That no longer needs to be the case, says content management vendor Hyland a cynical Orlando Matlala mobile and yourself, a market leader in the management of medical imaging. “When medical images and unstructured clinical content are streamed, rather than downloaded, most of the performance constraints disappear,” says Susan deCathelineau, Hyland’s SVP of Global Healthcare Sales and Services.
“It’s simply not possible to maintain a central repository of clinical content and medical imaging records across an entire health system. This content exists in many different places. The best way to share them is through streaming.”
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Wednesday, 19 February 2020 08:30
Tax to help fund regional broadband services gets green light
The Federal Government's proposed regional broadband scheme, which will impose an industry levy to fund the costs of paying for proving NBN connections in regional areas, is set to go ahead after a Senate inquiry recommended only that a few additional safeguards be adopted.
The Senate's Environment and Communications Legislation Committee recommended in its report on Friday that "additional transparency measures, which provide details of NBN Co's off-set arrangements and the effective management of these arrangements" be implemented.
The panel added that "after due consideration to the [previous] recommendation, the committee recommends that the bills be passed".
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Broadband tax bill gets senate committee green light
Only minor transparency improvements needed.
The federal government’s proposed broadband tax on non-NBN operated fixed line services looks set to begin on 1 July 2020 after the senate committee examining the bill recommended it pass through parliament.
Handing down its report [pdf] on Friday, the committee said the Telecommunications (Regional Broadband Scheme) Charge Bill 2019 should pass granted “additional transparency measures” were introduced.
But the recommendation, which concerns the reporting of “NBN Co’s off-set arrangements and the effective management of these arrangements”, is only “subject to consideration” and therefore unlikely to hinder the passage of the bill.
The bill, which was examined alongside a complementary bill to establish NBN Co as the new default fixed-line operator in Australia, will see residential and business users of “NBN-equivalent” fixed line services hit with a monthly fee of $7.10.
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Committee leaves door open for expanding broadband tax to mobiles in future
If NBN uptake is lower than expected, a statutory review could look at expanding the broadband tax to mobile services.
Just over two months after they were referred to a Senate committee, the Australian government's Telecommunications (Regional Broadband Scheme) Charge Bill 2019 and Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Competition and Consumer) Bill 2019 have received the approval of the Senate Environment and Communications Legislation Committee.
The Regional Broadband Scheme, also known as the broadband tax, was recommended to be passed by the committee back in September 2017 and would establish a AU$7.10 monthly charge to all fixed-line broadband customers to subsidise those connecting to NBN's loss-making fixed wireless and satellite technologies.
This time around, the only change recommended by the committee was to increase the transparency surrounding NBN's use of the monthly charge.
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Thursday, 20 February 2020 11:23
More people take up lower speed NBN connections: ACCC
More people are shifting from faster to slower NBN connections, with those on 12Mbps plans increasing to 17.6% of all NBN wholesale services at the end of the December quarter, the competition watchdog reports. The figure at the end of the previous quarter was 16.2%.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's latest quarterly Wholesale Market Indicators Report, released on Thursday, said the share of 25Mbps services fell from 18.1% to 15.5%.
In a statement, the ACCC said it was aware "that access seekers shifted a large number of wholesale services from the 25Mbps tier to the 12Mbps tier during the quarter, following changes to NBN wholesale pricing".
"Under NBN Co’s previous wholesale pricing offers, some service providers were using 25Mbps bundled wholesale services to supply 12Mbps plans to some of their retail customers."
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NBN Co sees 250Mbps take-up rise after price cut
While low end rebalances following 12Mbps changes.
NBN Co saw a 28 percent increase in the take-up of 250Mbps services after reducing the price - and uplink speed - of the tier, with Aussie Broadband leading the gains.
Through its wholesale pricing review late last year, NBN Co introduced a new 250/25Mbps tier at a lower wholesale price, targeting fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) and hybrid fibre-coaxial (HFC) users.
Aussie Broadband adopted the new tier on December 11, which reduced the retail price of a 250Mbps service from $250 to $169 a month.
It appears likely the price reduction had an effect: Aussie Broadband’s 250Mbps user base went from 461 at the end of September to 623 at the end of December, a 35 percent quarter-on-quarter rise, according to Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) numbers released today.
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NBN Co won't reveal individual profit and loss for wireless, satellite
Could undermine the case for a broadband tax.
NBN Co has backed away from revealing just how much its fixed wireless and satellite networks lose each year, information that could bolster - or undermine - the case for the broadband tax.
Chief development officer for regional and remote, Gavin Williams, told a senate committee last month that NBN Co did make an effort internally to break out the performance of fixed wireless and satellite separately.
“We seek to understand, as you'd expect, what the economics, what the P&L, looks like for fixed wireless and satellite separately,” Williams said.
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Australian Space Agency opens to spearhead $12bn industry
The government will look to grow Australia’s space industry by 20,000 jobs into a $12 billion sector by 2030, as a new national space headquarters is opened in Adelaide.
Scott Morrison has said the Australian Space Agency’s new facility is a central component to his vision for Australia to be a part of “the growing space economy”, which he believes exceed $1 trillion globally by 2040.
“Space captures the imagination and inspires us all. It develops new technologies that improve life on Earth and it offers huge economic and job opportunities,” the Prime Minister said on Wednesday.
“That’s why we’re investing almost $700 million into the space sector, including $150 million into Australian businesses so they can pick up more work and support more jobs by partnering with NASA’s Moon to Mars initiative.”
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Enjoy!
David.
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