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."

Tuesday, April 21, 2020

Commentators and Journalists Weigh In On Digital Health And Related Privacy, Safety And Security Matters. Lots Of Interesting Perspectives - April 21, 2020.


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This weekly blog is to explore the news around the larger issues around Digital Health, data security, data privacy, AI / ML. technology, social media and related matters.
I will also try to highlight ADHA Propaganda when I come upon it.
Just so we keep count, the latest Notes from the ADHA Board are still dated 6 December, 2018! How pathetic is that for transparency? Secrecy unconstrained!
Note: Appearance here is not to suggest I see any credibility or value in what follows. I will leave it to the reader to decide what is worthwhile and what is not! The point is to let people know what is being said / published that I have come upon.
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Australian coronavirus contact tracing app voluntary and with 'no hidden agenda', minister says

Stuart Robert says people can be assured there will be no geolocation, surveillance or tracking
Sat 18 Apr 2020 16.01 AEST Last modified on Sat 18 Apr 2020 16.02 AEST
The Covid trace app is “entirely voluntary”, will not be a surveillance device and is designed to speed up coronavirus testing, the government services minister, Stuart Robert, has said.
“It is a big team Australia moment,” he said. “When this app is released in the next week or two we really need every Australian to download it and to run it, so that if indeed your family, you, come into contact with somebody with the virus, you can rest assured that health officials will rapidly contact you and seek to provide the best care possible to you.”
Robert said when the pandemic was over the app could be deleted and the data would not be retained.
The app has been delayed after privacy law monitors including the Human Rights Law Centre told the health minister, Greg Hunt, in a letter they were worried about the types of data to be collected by the app.
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Coronavirus: ‘Monumental’ task to hit target for tracking app

The government could struggle to meet one of its key targets for ­relaxing social-distancing restrictions and reigniting the economy, with modelling showing that countries that had rolled out similar virus-tracking apps reached take-up rates by the public of no more than 25 per cent.
The modelling also warns that a prolonged delay to easing ­restrictions in Australia could lead to a rolling $40bn hit to the economy for every month they remain in place after May.
Scott Morrison on Friday implored Australians to download the COVID-19 contact-tracing app when it became available — as early as next week — claiming it was a matter of “national service” that could save lives and would be key to lifting restrictions.
The modelling of 17 countries to have already rolled out similar apps, conducted by leading global consultant Kearney, showed the most any country — including pioneer nations such as Singapore and Israel — had managed to achieve was 20-25 per cent take-up among smartphone users.
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By Jonny Evans, Computerworld | 14 April 2020 0:29 AEST

Everything we know about the Google/Apple COVID-19 contact tracing tech

Here's how it works, what it does, why it matters and links to further information.

Creeping erosion of privacy? Desperately needed technology-based solution to a global life-or-death problem? A little of both? Here is what we think we know now about the Apple/Google contact tracing technology announced on Friday.

What has happened?

Apple and Google are working together to develop COVID-19 contact tracing technology for both Android and iOS devices.
“All of us at Apple and Google believe there has never been a more important moment to work together to solve one of the world’s most pressing problems,” the companies said in a statement announcing the move.
The two giant corporations have published draft technical documentation, including Bluetooth and cryptography specifications and framework documentation.
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Apple, Google technology a safer bet for Canberra's COVID-19 app

By Tim Biggs
April 17, 2020 — 3.15pm
Experts have urged the Australian government to deploy the tracking technology jointly developed by Apple and Google for its COVID-19 contact tracing app, instead of copying a model used in Singapore.
Contact tracing involves identifying and following up with people who may have come in contact with an infectious disease. New digital solutions aim to do this by exchanging beacons between phones when two people are close together, via Bluetooth.
The federal government has confirmed that its forthcoming app will be based on Singapore’s TraceTogether, which has been criticised over its need to be open and active on a user's phone to work. Solutions in other countries have involved storing tracing data and user phone numbers on central databases, prompting concerns from security and privacy advocates.
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Scott Morrison rules out making virus tracing app mandatory

April 18, 2020 — 11.27am
Prime Minister Scott Morrison says the coronavirus contact tracing app being developed will not be made mandatory and the government will seek to convince Australians to have their movements logged.
The government had indicated the phone app to strengthen the nation's COVID-19 testing and tracing system would be voluntary initially but left the door open to a mandatory rollout at some point.
Mr Morrison ruled out the coercive approach on Saturday, declaring: "The app we are working on to help our health workers trace people who have been in contact with coronavirus will not be mandatory."
He said the government would be "seeking the cooperation and support of Australians to download the app to help our health workers, to protect our community and help get our economy going again".
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Scott Morrison Is Now Saying Australia's Coronvirus Tracing App Won't Be Mandatory

Apr 18, 2020, 11:00am
This week the government announced its upcoming COVID-19 contact tracing app. Not a lot is publicly known about it yet, which has led to some privacy concerns.
On Friday Prime Minister Scott Morrison didn't rule the possibility of making it mandatory when asked about it during an interview. Now he has taken to Twitter to change this stance.
Update: On Saturday April 18 Scott Morrison stated on Twitter that the COVID-19 tracing app that the government is working on will not be mandatory for Australians:
"We will be seeking the cooperation and support of Australians to download the app to help our health workers, to protect our community and help get our economy going again," said Morrison is a follow up tweet.
You can read our original report from April 18 below.

The prime minister appeared on Triple M this morning and was asked whether the contact tracing app and travelling with a phone would become mandatory for Australians.
While the prime minister stressed that this is not something he would want to see happen, he didn't deny the possibility. He referred to the app as an act of national service, likening it to buying war bonds back during WWII.
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The social network for the pandemic

The videoconferencing app has kept the world connected during the pandemic, but its founder Eric Yuan never set out to create the world's social fabric.
Drake Bennett and Nico Grant
Apr 16, 2020 – 5.01pm
Like the rest of us, Eric Yuan is taking things day by day right now. The founder and chief executive officer of teleconferencing software company Zoom gets up each morning, after three or four hours’ sleep, and nervously checks the previous day’s capacity numbers to make sure the servers aren’t overwhelmed by traffic. Then he begins the long slog of videoconference calls from his home in San Francisco's Bay Area. “It’s too many Zoom meetings,” he says, via Zoom. “I hate that.”
Along with the crush of new users and the challenge of running a business during a pandemic, there’s the deluge of negative news stories, the letter from the New York state attorney general, complaints from Democratic senators, and class actions filed on behalf of consumers and shareholders –all accusing Zoom of mishandling or abusing user data while allowing hackers to run amok.
It’s not helping that, with school and college cancelled, Yuan’s three kids are at home clogging up the Wi-Fi. The other night he got an email from a mother about a troll who invaded her kid’s Zoom virtual classroom and showed inappropriate content. Afterward, he couldn’t fall asleep.
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Digital health tools for COVID 19 and beyond – improving care coordination

This webinar will examine ways in which new and existing digital health technologies can be utilised to improve continuity of care for your patients during times of social distancing and remote consultations. There will be a focus on Electronic Prescribing and the ways in which My Health Record can help support telehealth consults and remote dispensing. It will also include some of the simple things you can do to protect your business from cyber risks which new telehealth platforms might pose.
When
6:30pm - 7:30pm,
Tuesday 21st April 2020
Where
Webinar  ADHA Propaganda
CPD Points Available?
No
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Coronavirus: New Zealand considering $100m contact tracing ‘CovidCard'

Marc Daalder of Newsroom.co.nz13:41, Apr 17 2020
The Government is considering handing out a Bluetooth-enabled CovidCard to every New Zealander to aid with contact tracing efforts.
A private sector proposal to produce and distribute five million Bluetooth-enabled credit card-sized contact tracing tools at a cost of $100 million is one of "a wide variety of technological solutions to contact tracing", a spokesperson for the All of Government Covid-19 response team has confirmed.
The idea, branded CovidCard, is one of a handful that the Government is considering as it moves to settle on a digital solution for contact tracing.
Newsroom understands that the lead candidate remains a Ministry of Health-developed version of Singapore's TraceTogether app, but flaws in the rollout and operation of the smartphone app in Singapore have led to the CovidCard as a potential alternative.
An April 12 presentation obtained by Newsroom was presented to GCSB and NZSIS Minister Andrew Little and Communications Minister Kris Faafoi. It makes the case for the project, saying it solves issues of compatibility, public trust and security and privacy, all of which could be present in a TraceTogether-style solution.
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EU wants voluntary, privacy-based virus-tracking mobile apps

By Foo Yun Chee on Apr 17, 2020 11:30AM

Contract tracing takes shape.

Mobile apps used by EU countries to help contain the spread of the coronavirus should comply with the bloc's privacy rules and seek people's consent to use personal data, but exclude location data, the European Commission said on Thursday.
The EU executive's recommendations are part of a unified European approach for using technology to combat COVID-19 and come after several EU countries rolled out a variety of apps, prompting criticism from data privacy activists.
"Strong privacy safeguards are a pre-requisite for the uptake of these apps, and therefore their usefulness," European digital chief Thierry Breton said in a statement.
The Commission said the mobile apps should be approved by public health authorities, installed voluntarily and deleted once they are not needed.
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'Digital divide': lower income households struggle with internet access

April 17, 2020 — 12.01am
Disadvantaged NSW residents are likely to face greater difficulty working from home or completing schooling remotely during the pandemic, with research showing many lower income households were already struggling with phone and internet access.
This "digital divide" is highlighted in a report published by the NSW Council of Social Services (NCOSS), which surveyed 730 people living in low-to middle-income households in NSW.
The National Cabinet has agreed on some guiding principles for schools to re-open across the country.
Almost 15 per cent of those surveyed said they had to go without internet or voice calls in the past 12 months because they could not afford to pay their mobile phone bill.
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Will the public trust a COVID tracking app?

16 April, 2020
The government is developing an app that will track COVID-19 contact.
Privacy concerns have been raised about the government’s plan to develop a COVID-19 tracking app that will identify people who may have been exposed to coronavirus.
Full details of the technology are yet to be revealed but experts believe it is likely to use Bluetooth and location data.
The Prime Minister Scott Morrison says the app will be modelled on Singapore’s TraceTogether app, and will “massively help” health authorities trace if people have been in contact with someone with the virus.
Mr Morrison says although no one will be forced to sign up, around 40 per cent of the population will have to download it for it to work.
Public trust essential
Professor of communications and media at Monash University Mark Andrejevic says apps like TraceTogether can be an effective part of the tracking system and he understands the government’s interest in developing and implementing the technology. But to do so it will have to win public confidence.
The My Health Record experience has already shown public reservations about entrusting personal data to the government, he says.
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Coronavirus: Voluntary tracking app a ‘sacrifice on the path to normality’, says Scott Morrison

Scott Morrison says a voluntary COVID-19 tracking app may be a sacrifice the nation needs to stop the spread of the coronavirus and put the country on a path back to normality.
The Prime Minister said on Wednesday that Australians would not be forced to sign up for the soon-to-be-released app, but he expected significant uptake because people were eager for the economy to open up again as quickly as possible.
“You wouldn’t be mandatorily required to sign up to these apps; that’s not how Australia works,” Mr Morrison said. “(But) if people believed and understood that if we could trace people's contacts quicker, and tracked down the corona­virus faster and saved ­people's lives … we could open our economy up more.”
He said at least 40 per cent of Australians would need to download and sign up for the app, modelled on a tool developed by the Singaporean government, to successfully help authorities trace COVID-19.
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Hackers ‘capitalising on COVID’

Hackers are trying to capitalise on the COVID-19 pandemic in increasing numbers and companies need to increase their vigilance, according to Cisco Australia and New Zealand's boss Ken Boal.
Speaking to The Australian, Mr Boal said Cisco has never been so busy with security, grappling with a record level of cyber threats locally as the Australian economy shifts en masse to working from home.
"Who would have ever envisaged the level of remote work going on," he said. "Most organisations, especially with knowledge workers and office workers, have made the shift. It's creating a honey pot, a massive platform for bad actors to take advantage of."
According to Mr Boal, Cisco's threat research team is also seeing a global rise in COVID-19 themed attacks, which are not using new techniques but are instead themed specifically around the coronavirus.
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Government needs public trust to make virus tracking app a success

April 15, 2020 — 5.08pm
Cyber security and public health experts warn the federal government's coronavirus tracking app won't be effective unless it can convince a large section of the public to sign up to it.
The government wants 40 per cent of Australians to voluntarily sign up for the app in order to track COVID-19 outbreaks.
"I think it will be beneficial, but the degree of benefit is going to increase with the degree of people using it," associate professor at the University of New South Wales school of public health and community medicine, Dr James Wood said.
"There will have to be pretty clear messaging about what is being provided, and how that data will be used."
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Electronic prescribing

Electronic prescribing provides an option for prescribers and their patients to use an electronic Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) prescription. Paper prescriptions will still be available.
On this page
·         About electronic prescribing
·         Why it is important
·         Goals of the initiative
·         Meeting our goals
·         PBS regulatory framework
·         Learn more
·         Contacts

About electronic prescribing

Electronic prescribing allows prescribers and their patients to use an electronic Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) prescription. It forms part of an Australian Government budget measure to improve PBS efficiency.
Electronic prescribing will not fundamentally change existing prescribing and dispensing processes. Patients can still choose which pharmacy they attend to fill their prescription.
Electronic prescriptions form part of the broader digital health and medicines safety framework. They enable the prescribing, dispensing and claiming of medicines, without the need for a paper prescription.
Prescribers and patients can choose an electronic prescription as an alternative to a paper prescription. Paper prescriptions will still exist.
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Electronic Prescriptions

ADHA Propaganda
Changes have been made to Commonwealth legislation to recognise an electronic prescription as a legal form to allow medicine supply. This provides prescribers and patients with an alternative to paper prescriptions. Paper prescriptions will still be available.
Electronic prescribing will not fundamentally change existing prescribing and dispensing processes. It provides patients with greater choice and patients can still choose which pharmacy they attend to fill their prescription.
Under the Australian Government’s National Health Plan for COVID-19, electronic prescriptions are now being fast-tracked to support telehealth and allow patients to receive vital healthcare services while maintaining physical distancing and, where necessary, isolation.
A significant amount of work has already been done to ensure that necessary upgrades to both pharmacy and prescriber software can be done quickly and electronic prescriptions are expected to be available from the end of May.
Electronic prescriptions are an alternative to paper prescriptions which will allow people convenient access to their medicines and will lessen the risk of infection being spread in general practice waiting rooms and at community pharmacies.
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Dr Andrew Rochford spruiks benefits of ‘secure’ digital health platform in government campaign

April 15, 2020 11:13
by Zoe Wilkinson  ADHA Propaganda
The Australian Digital Health Agency is promoting its digital health platform to the public, saying Australia’s need for a connected healthcare system is “now greater than ever”.
The campaign assures consumers the platform is “accessible, progressive, and, importantly, secure”. 
The campaign, created by DDB Remedy, is fronted by media and medical personality, Dr Andrew Rochford, who has worked on telehealth projects in India and Indonesia.
The Australian Digital Health Agency’s goal is to improve health outcomes for Australians through the integration of technology into the healthcare system, it said.
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AFP admits to trialling controversial facial recognition tool Clearview AI

By Justin Hendry on Apr 15, 2020 11:26AM

After initially denying usage.

The Australian Federal Police has admitted to briefly trialling the controversial facial recognition tool Clearview AI after initially denying that it had used the software.
A “limited pilot” of the tool by the AFP-led Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE) was confirmed by the force in answers to questions on notice released on Tuesday.
It had previously denied using the platform, including after BuzzFeed News revealed it as one of 2200 law enforcement agencies globally that had used the platform.
This was despite leaked records showing that employees had run more than 100 searches using the tool, which is capable of matching images with billions of others scraped from the internet.
The AFP said it used a free trial of the tool between 2 November 2019 and 22 January 2020 to ascertain the suitability of the system for use in child exploitation investigations.
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Coronavirus contact-tracing app to help set us free

A new tracking app is likely to be available in Australia within weeks, offering faster tracing of COVID-19 contacts and a potential early release from economically crippling social restrictions.
Development of the opt-in mobile phone app, based on one used in Singapore, is being led by the nation’s Digital Transformation Agency with the backing of Scott Morrison and input from Attorney-General Christian Porter.
The Australian can also reveal the nation’s top telcos – Telstra, Optus and Vodafone – have contacted the government offering to boost contact-tracing capabilities using metadata they collect under national security legislation. It is understood the Home Affairs Department was initially involved in the app project, but the task was handed to the DTA – under Government Services Minister Stuart Robert – after the agency’s success in delivering a WhatsApp coronavirus information service with software company Atlassian.
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Friday, 10 April 2020 08:24

Google told to pay French news publishers for content: report

Search giant Google has agreed to comply with a French ruling that it must pay publishing companies and news agencies for re-using content they produce, a report says.
France's Autorite de la Concurrence (French Competition Authority) said on Thursday: “Google’s practices caused a serious and immediate harm to the press sector, while the economic situation of publishers and news agencies is otherwise fragile."
The decision was made after a complaint by unions who represent French publishers, the news agency Reuters reported. In 2019, Google had agreed that its search results would not display news clips from European publishers to French users in keeping with a new copyright regulation.
But this was not deemed sufficient by the French organisations who then made their complaint, resulting in Thursday's preliminary ruling. A more detailed ruling is expected later.
Australia has made moves to regulate digital platforms, and is now in the process of formulating a voluntary code for co-operation between digital platforms and news organisations.
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Technology delivers social distancing for healthcare in fight against COVID-19

13 April 2020  ADHA Propaganda
After the important role My Health Record has played in large scale crises such as the Queensland floods and the recent bushfires, where pharmacists and hospital staff have relied on information in the My Health Record to provide care, the development of other technology such as telehealth and electronic prescribing (EP) is poised to further help Australians during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Under the Australian Government’s National Health Plan for COVID-19, electronic prescriptions are now being fast-tracked to allow patients to receive vital healthcare services while maintaining physical distancing and, where necessary, isolation. The solution will see a unique QR barcode 'token' sent via an app, SMS or email to the patient, allowing them convenient access to their medicines while lessening the risk of infection being spread in general practices and community pharmacies. 
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Our phones will get us back to work faster

As the fourth most connected smartphone country in the world, Australia is an ideal place to institute contact tracing and be the testing ground for the fruits of the partnership between Apple and Google.
Apr 13, 2020 – 12.03pm
Technology holds the key to Australia being able to end the coronavirus lock down as quickly as possible and get the economy back up and running.
We should copy the best solutions adopted in democratic countries that have been the most effective at limiting the impact of the virus - South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan.
Countries that have not used geo-analytics in response to the crisis have suffered far more damage to their economies, according to compelling evidence compiled by consulting firm Kearney.
It measured activity in different economies before and after the virus hit to gauge the impact. It used Google data to measure economic activity in four sectors: retail and recreation, grocery and pharmacy, workplace and residential.
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Coronavirus: Huge rise cases of in online abuse and bullying

More time online at home is ­bringing out the worst in some Australians, with reports of cyber abuse up by 50 per cent since ­social-­distancing measures were introduced last month, federal Communications Minister Paul Fletcher has revealed.
New figures from the office of the eSafety Commissioner reveal the significant spike in complaints of adults abusing each other online, which sit alongside increased reports of cyber bullying of children, up 21 per cent, and image-based abuse, up 86 per cent.
Behind the numbers are some disturbing cases, including reports of online pile-ons against people being shamed and harassed for ­allegedly being caught on video breaching coronavirus social-­distancing rules, with no context to the footage.
Another significant concern is reports of children attending school at home via online platforms such as Zoom being bullied by other students about their ­living conditions, which are revealed in the background of the video stream.
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Big tech must pay media: Paul Fletcher

Communications Minister Paul Fletcher says a decision by France’s competition regulator to order Google to negotiate with publishers for their content is the right one, and says he’s confident the tech giants will pay publishers in Australia.
“The fact that the French competition regulator is going through a similar process just tends to underline the importance, from a competition perspective, that the digital platforms properly pay for content that’s been generated by media companies that costs money to produce,” Mr Fletcher said.
“As the ACCC said in their final report, the social media platforms are unavoidable commercial partners for the big media businesses, and there needs to be a way for there to be fair payment.”
News Corp executive Michael Miller and more recently ACCC chairman Rod Sims say they’re sceptical the tech giants have been acting in good faith during ongoing negotiations with publishers, and Mr Fletcher said it was the government’s expectation that the tech giants would play ball.
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Living in testing times

Politicians must keep voters in the loop about our great escape.
The next stage in managing the COVID-19 pandemic here and overseas is identifying the profile and location of risk groups in our community who could trigger the anticipated deadly second wave.
By doing that, those among us who are not at risk can get back to work, without having to worry about getting fined for chewing on a kebab, teaching the kids to drive or buying a pot plant from Bunnings.
Any government that thinks voters are going to put up with this sort of enforcement overreach in the longer term needs to get out more. Literally.
We know from our early profiling that our first wave of casualties and carriers was dominated by our inner-urban wealthy elites, regular visitors to western Europe and the ski fields of Japan and the US, along with highly mobile 20-something students living in higher-density urban areas, and backpackers.
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Comments more than welcome!
David.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just so we keep count, the latest Notes from the ADHA Board are still dated 6 December, 2018! How pathetic is that for transparency? Secrecy unconstrained!

What is it like for you, and your reader,s to keep beating your heads against a brick wall?
Painful? Masochistically pleasurable? An exercise in futility?

Are you achieving anything? Making progress? Stagnating? Stuck in concrete? Going backwards?

Anonymous said...

What is it like for you, and your reader's to keep beating your heads against a brick wall?

If nothing else David is creating a record of events and criticisms. If ADHA try a Trump tactic - Nobody Told Me - at least there's evidence we did.

show pity on a kiss up kick down personality said...

April 21, 2020 4:24 PM. What is driving your anger? If things are getting to you please reach out to a professional hotline? If this is normal behaviour, then maybe check-in and see a professional. You have a trait that is somewhat concerning.

Anonymous said...

@5:26 PM It's an excellent record, invaluable. But I can't see how it will make a difference. I mean who with 'Authority' cares? We might, but so what?

Anonymous said...

I think that is the most telling question of all, "... who with Authority cares?"
and if there is anyone do they have the power, interest and drive, to do anything about it?

I am sure there are many different opinions, not all will be valid, many will be impracticable, some will lack pragmatism and reason.

My answers are; first, basically no-one in authority cares and if someone does care they have neither the authority, power or ability to do anything about it. Second, a new leader is required but to find that person with the skills, insight, knowledge, experience, ability and toughness, is almost impossible.

Anonymous said...

Without the presentation of alternative views and realities, there is little chance the change will be considered. This blog provides that link to some degree. I appreciate it might seem that as organisations responsible for setting direction and making bold choices are filled with migratory self perpetuating employees who have little understanding and hold positions that are grandiose but they have little talent of skill to hold. Notice how everyone is a program this or a program that?

Keep this community alive; the sag change is being forged through our current circumstances. Question will need asking and answering as to why government systems and processes failed to scale or even meet the minimal expectation.

Anonymous said...

How long is it since Timmie jumped ship? Four months? No sign of a new CEO.

Does nobody want the glory of magnificent achievements in the field of Digital Health built upon that great success, My Health Record.

Anonymous said...

Strang as this might seem .... the organisation doesn't need a new CEO. That is the first problem fixed.

Nice but Dim said...

How long? Not that long and relatively short in Government terms. December and January are pretty dead months for decision making and this is hardly a EL or APS grading.

That is of coarse if his departure was unplanned but it does seem some political jostling has been going on and Bettina and Rupert have won this round.

Then again perhaps the department is having troubling attracting anyone sane. All those who fly to close to MyHR/ADHA seem to get burned and have careers damaged significantly.

Anonymous said...

One good thing that's come out of this virus is that Timmie has been quarantined in Australia. The rest of the world is protected from his naivety.

Instead of swanning around the world pontificating about the need to grab as much patient data as possible and give speeches at HIMSS conferences, he's reduced to hosting CEDA podcasts from his study.

The chances of HIMSS running a large scale face-to-face conference in the next two years is pretty remote. The attention of the world's healthcare industry and governments is now the pandemic.

National health record systems are a distraction. There is a possibility that a COVID-19 passport (i.e. that shows the person is now immune either because they have had and survived the illness or has been vaccinated) would be useful, but a single data point that can be demonstrated by a wallet size plastic card (like a drivers license) is all that is needed.

Similarly, faxing or emailing a script to a pharmacist works well enough for most people.

The real game changers are testing and vaccines which will come out of research labs not from IT developers.

Unless someone independent can demonstrate that the My Health Record has achieved significant benefits during the bushfires and pandemic, the government could save money and face by quietly putting it down.

Anonymous said...

Coronavirus app comes with privacy guarantee: Dutton.

Thought everyone could do with some laughter. Of coarse this will turn out to be sarcasm and should never have been taken seriously

Anonymous said...

The app has not been released although it was suppose to be today. Scotty from Marketing will be miffed, having talked it up the app is not available, he knows the impact moment has passed, and like me a number of punters will move on and forget about it until Apple of Google release a competing app that does not need a central data store/grab

Anonymous said...

@ 1:00 PM. I believe it is available now in App Store at least. You cannot register until later this evening.

Anonymous said...

The government is pulling the same trick it has been using with My Health Record.

They are reporting on app downloads, not installs or usage. Just like they report on registrations not beneficial usage of My Health Record.

Obfuscation and exaggeration suggests they are desperate.

Anonymous said...

Downloads and registrations (successful ones) would or should be the only two things they can report on, all other information is off limits.

Anonymous said...

Are they (the federal government) able to report more than just downloads and registrations? Anything more would seem to be a scope creep.