I have been a little slow in noticing the intensity of the impact of the present emergency on both the Digital Health Start-Up Community And In The Event / Conference organising groups.
The penny should have really have dropped when the huge annual conference in the US (HIMSS) was cancelled.
Here is the announcement:
Coronavirus forces cancellation of HIMSS20
After monitoring the situation for weeks, CEO Hal Wolf says the 2020 HIMSS Global Health Conference & Exhibition will not proceed as hoped, given the health risks posed to attendees.
March 05, 2020 01:17 PM
For the first time in 58 years, the HIMSS Global Health Conference & Exhibition – which was scheduled to take place March 9-13 in Orlando, Florida – has been canceled.
HIMSS has been keeping a close eye on the fast-changing worldwide coronavirus situation for weeks, and said the decision to cancel comes in light of recent reports from the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
It was decided that the potential to spread the virus – especially given HIMSS' audience of healthcare professionals – was too great.
"We recognize all the hard work that so many have put into preparing for their presentations and panels that accompany every HIMSS conference," said Hal Wolf, president and CEO of HIMSS, in a statement.
"Based on evaluation of evolving circumstances and coordination with an external advisory panel of medical professionals to support evidence-based decision making, it is clear that it would be an unacceptable risk to bring so many thousands of people together in Orlando next week."
Here is the link:
In Australia we have seen significant deferrals in the last week or so.
The Australasian Institute of Digital Health is deferring its conference programme until later in the year as a response to COVID-19
Australia’s largest digital health and health informatics scientific conference HIC 2020 will be the pinnacle of a combined digital health series in Brisbane from 17 to 21 October 2020.
The Nursing Informatics international congress (NI2020), which was to be held in conjunction with HIC in July, will be postponed and held alongside the international medical informatics congress MedInfo 2021, to be held in Sydney 21-25 August 2021.
The Australian Telehealth Conference (ATC2020), due to be held in Melbourne from 29-30 April, will also move to the combined digital health event series in Brisbane in October. Speakers, delegates and sponsors are being contacted to advise them of the new arrangements.
The series will also feature Health Data Analytics 2020, 17-18 October, rounding out the events with a technical health data program.
Institute CEO Dr Louise Schaper said: “Digital health has never been more needed, and digital health workforce skills more in demand, than right now during the COVID-19 health crisis. Everyone in the health sector is intensively focused on managing in this challenging environment and getting on with the job.
“Our members, with their extensive digital health knowledge, are among those at the forefront of telehealth policy, governance and delivery and they are needed in the community right now,” Dr Schaper said.
“We are receiving many enquiries about Fellowship of the Institute, and we are seeing strong growth in the national certification program CHIA which is one of our key programs for building digital health workforce capacity,” she said. “We are ramping up our efforts to release other workforce-based programs that can be delivered virtually in order to assist the health sector build digital health capability”.
“We will continue to monitor and follow government advice, including the need for social distancing. Given the pressures on the health sector at present, we have made the decision not to hold in-person events for the time being. Our smaller professional development events hosted by our state committees will be delivered virtually where possible.”
For more details, please refer to the relevant conference sites:
Australian Telehealth Conference (ATC 2020)
Health Informatics Conference (HIC 2020)
Nursing Informatics International Congress 2020
Australian Telehealth Conference (ATC 2020)
Health Informatics Conference (HIC 2020)
Nursing Informatics International Congress 2020
Here is the link:
Additionally we have seen a process of the Digital Health entities going virtual.
ANDHEALTH NEWS
A Note From Our CEO
The past few weeks have seen the world turned on its head, and organisations and people challenged in innumerable ways. As a flexible working organisation with existing video and remote working technology in place, ANDHealth has been extremely fortunate in being able to adapt to our “new normal” with relative practical ease, but we are conscious that current measures to stop the spread of COVID-19 will have vast and unprecedented implications.
In the coming weeks we will continue to redesign our upcoming programs for virtual delivery, widening their reach to all who are seeking to deliver innovative digital health and digital medicine technologies to global markets. The first of these will be our scheduled BRIGHT Ideate workshop, now being run over two half-day sessions, with the support of our program partners LaunchVic and Planet Innovation, and our original host partner University of Melbourne. This program is currently open to registrations to applicants Victoria-wide.
We will also be looking to extend new offerings to Australian innovators seeking support as they find ways to survive and thrive in this challenging market. We recognise that the current situation offers both enormous opportunities and enormous risks for our stakeholders, and the ANDHealth team is working hard to find ways to support the broader industry across both policy and program activities.
We would also like to acknowledge the efforts of the Australian government, various state governments, and companies seeking to deliver necessary technologies to our frontline healthcare workforce to address the current scenario. For example, Planet Innovation is working with the Victorian Government to determine the potential of an acute respiratory infection triage tool (see below for the story). In subsequent newsletters, we will be highlighting other instances where Australian digital health companies are showing initiative, and providing vital information about opportunities where your company can play a role in tackling the COVID-9 crisis, and beyond.
The profound impact at both a personal and professional level, for everyone, of the current pandemic and subsequent response measures, requires everyone to be resilient, innovative and, above all, kind. The far-reaching employment implications of the current shutdown will impact millions of Australians, many of them severely, with their hopes and dreams put on hold at the very least. For those that retain their jobs, remote working can be isolating and motivation can be elusive. For those that are struggling, please use your network, including us, for support.
As always, I would like to personally thank our members and partners for their ongoing support at this time.
Be safe everyone, and #stayathome where you can.
Bronwyn Le Grice
Founder | CEO | Managing Director
ANDHealth
In the coming weeks we will continue to redesign our upcoming programs for virtual delivery, widening their reach to all who are seeking to deliver innovative digital health and digital medicine technologies to global markets. The first of these will be our scheduled BRIGHT Ideate workshop, now being run over two half-day sessions, with the support of our program partners LaunchVic and Planet Innovation, and our original host partner University of Melbourne. This program is currently open to registrations to applicants Victoria-wide.
We will also be looking to extend new offerings to Australian innovators seeking support as they find ways to survive and thrive in this challenging market. We recognise that the current situation offers both enormous opportunities and enormous risks for our stakeholders, and the ANDHealth team is working hard to find ways to support the broader industry across both policy and program activities.
We would also like to acknowledge the efforts of the Australian government, various state governments, and companies seeking to deliver necessary technologies to our frontline healthcare workforce to address the current scenario. For example, Planet Innovation is working with the Victorian Government to determine the potential of an acute respiratory infection triage tool (see below for the story). In subsequent newsletters, we will be highlighting other instances where Australian digital health companies are showing initiative, and providing vital information about opportunities where your company can play a role in tackling the COVID-9 crisis, and beyond.
The profound impact at both a personal and professional level, for everyone, of the current pandemic and subsequent response measures, requires everyone to be resilient, innovative and, above all, kind. The far-reaching employment implications of the current shutdown will impact millions of Australians, many of them severely, with their hopes and dreams put on hold at the very least. For those that retain their jobs, remote working can be isolating and motivation can be elusive. For those that are struggling, please use your network, including us, for support.
As always, I would like to personally thank our members and partners for their ongoing support at this time.
Be safe everyone, and #stayathome where you can.
Bronwyn Le Grice
Founder | CEO | Managing Director
ANDHealth
Here is the link:
You can also read about similar activities from the Digital Health CRC from this link:
The following gives a general view on how tough things are becoming:
Start-ups fight to survive COVID-19
Founders and investors have told The Australian Financial Review that many companies in the previously booming sector have been forced to press pause on rapid expansion plans in favour of a battle to survive.
Ento co-founder Aulay Macaulay said the workforce management software company had been due to sign on the dotted line for a $4 million capital raise on March 13, but the private equity firm that was set to back them pulled out at the last minute.
"It was a bit of a double whammy for me. I went from the whole executive team working on the due diligence for three months to repurposing the company announcement to one on how we were going to manage the COVID-19 situation," he said.
I was googling how to re-cork the champagne.""It was a bit of a double whammy for me. I went from the whole executive team working on the due diligence for three months to repurposing the company announcement to one on how we were going to manage the COVID-19 situation," he said.
More here:
All in all it seems to me there is going to be a lot of pain in the next few months. One has to wonder just how many of these entities will sustain their cash-flow and employees in coming weeks.
Some think it may not be to bad: See here:
https://www.afr.com/technology/start-ups-have-the-agility-to-survive-then-thrive-in-virus-chaos-20200322-p54cqc
Some think it may not be to bad: See here:
https://www.afr.com/technology/start-ups-have-the-agility-to-survive-then-thrive-in-virus-chaos-20200322-p54cqc
Let us all know what you are seeing by way of impact in these area.
David.
2 comments:
This month’s update of myhr stats from ADHA
https://www.myhealthrecord.gov.au/statistics
The statistics for up to the end of February report that 22.71 Million Australians are
registered for a myhr, an increase since the end of January of 20,000, plus or minus 10,000. This gives the proportion of Australians registered for a myhr as between 88.06% and 88.02%
Last month the proportion was between 88.10% and 88.06%
Still no update from the Department of Health since last May.
https://www1.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/PHN-Digital_Health
We will certainly need to visit the over the top cost of medical equipment including digital capabilities.
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