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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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https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?id=883108248390603&story_fbid=3404398049594931
Health Consumers NSW
June 27, 2020
Consumer rep needed for SNPHN MHR Test Bed Project Advisory Committee
Who:
Sydney North Primary Health Network (SNPHN)
Deadline: Monday, 6 July 2020
Be a consumer representative on the SNPHN My Health Record Test Bed Project Advisory Committee
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http://medicalrepublic.com.au/fear-and-loathing-in-the-emerging-tele-verse/30809
27 June 2020
Fear and loathing in the emerging tele-verse
Funding Practice Management Telehealth
Telehealth, though nominally a temporary fix of the pandemic, is revealing deep rifts in the general practice community over where the profession goes from here and how
When senior lobbyists in the GP community managed to convince the federal government to unleash telehealth in the name of saving both patients and general practice from impending COVID-19 mayhem, there seemed to be a universal sigh of relief from the GP community. Sure, telehealth was introduced without any preparation for patients or GPs, and that was always going to lead to some short term issues, some of which were even telegraphed. But in general, the GP community seemed almost wholly onside.
But just a few months in, and with time for certain well capitalised (and organised) groups to re-adjust their businesses around the new regime to harvest low hanging consults, often redirecting them away from where they would have normally gone, the stress seems to be starting to seriously divide the GP community on the future of telehealth.
Surprisingly, given the initial positioning by the major lobbying groups, some GPs appear to taking the position that telehealth should be returned almost entirely to the pre-pandemic regime.
Towards a standard analysis of computable guidelines, clinical workflow, decision support and … the curly braces problem
Why don’t we have widespread clinical decision support (CDS), computable guidelines, clinical workflow (plans), and why don’t the pieces we do have talk to the health record? The first time I heard such challenges framed was around 2000, and even at that moment there were experts who had been working on modern versions of the problem for at least a decade, not to mention earlier generations of ‘classical’ AI systems such as MYCIN. So it’s not for lack of time.
After 20 years of staying out of this particular kitchen, I took the plunge in 2015, with a number of projects including Activity-Based Design at Intermountain Healthcare, a major openEHR development project called Task Planning (partly funded by Better.care in central Europe and DIPS in Norway), as well as some minor involvement in recent OMG BPM+ activities. We already had within the openEHR community the Guideline Definition Language (GDL), a fully operational decision support capability originally developed by Rong Chen at Cambio in Sweden (resources site). This provided us with a lot of useful prior experience for building a next generation combined plan/guideline facility.
Here I will talk about what I think has been conceptually missing for so long.
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https://www.hinz.org.nz/news/514093/Industry-contracts-should-ensure-data-sharing---report.htm
Industry contracts should ensure data sharing - report
Tuesday, 23 June 2020
eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth
Implementation of national standards is key to the creation of a modern health system and contracts with health information system providers should include clear data obligations, the Health and Disability System Review says.
The new government report says secure exchange of health information must “become a consistent characteristic of New Zealand’s health system” and key to this is the creation and implementation of standards.
“National standardised datasets and interoperability standards should be agreed and implemented so that data flows across the system and supports better clinical outcomes, empowered consumers, and data-driven decision-making,” it says.
Contracts with providers should include the clear expectation that data will be “more routinely and consistently shared with consumers, other providers, policy makers and those responsible for ensuring the system performs well and meets population health needs”.
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https://digitalhealth.org.au/blog/national-effort-on-post-covid-response/
Survey - National effort on post-COVID response
As
the health system settles into a new rhythm and moves beyond the pandemic
curve, many of us are asking how can we be better prepared for the future?
How can we learn from the past six months and be ready for the inevitable
challenges ahead?
Members have made it clear they want to see telehealth and virtual care the business “norm”.
No one wants to lose momentum at this critical point. It was heartening to read the Government has announced funding for Australian researchers to develop digital health infrastructure.
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Media release - Get a healthy start to the new financial year
25 June, 2020: ADHA Propaganda
Logged into MyGov to do your tax? Click onto My Health Record, update your information and get a healthy start to the new financial year.
The 22.77 million Australians with a My Health Record are encouraged to use tax time as a reminder to make sure their health information is up to date.
“Tax time is the perfect time to update your My Health Record details and make sure your vital health information is always available to you and your authorised healthcare providers,” according to Agency Interim CEO Bettina McMahon.
“It makes perfect sense to store key information including a shared health summary, information about allergies, medicines list, immunisations, pathology reports and more in your My Health Record.
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Google news payments won’t cover search
Despite reaching agreements with multiple publishers Google Australia has confirmed it will not pay for news that appears in its searches, with the company’s boss Melanie Silva declaring that news publications derive enough value from the clicks they receive from Google.
Google on Thursday night announced it had landed agreements with a number of publishers to license news content, including in Australia, in an about-face that shows the tech giant is ready to begin paying for news. The company has reached agreements with Adelaide-based local newspaper publisher Solstice Media, Schwartz Media and The Conversation, as well as Germany’s Spiegel Group, publisher of Der Spiegel; and Brazilian media company Diarios Associados.
In a briefing with The Australian on Friday, Ms Silva said however that the agreements would be limited to a new app that Google will launch later next year and won‘t cover news snippets that appear in Google’s web searches.
“This is a completely new product, where we’re paying for a much richer storytelling experience,” she told The Australian. “We’re paying for access to content that makes it behind a paywall, but it’s a completely different product to search.
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Friday, 26 June 2020 05:41
Google announces deal to pay for news in Australia, Brazil and Germany
Search behemoth Google has announced a licensing program to pay publishers in Germany, Brazil and Australia for what it describes as a "new news experience launching later this year".
Brad Bender, the company's vice-president of Product Management in the news division, said in a blog post on Thursday, that the company had signed agreements with local and national publications in the three countries mentioned.
He said where available, Google would also offer to pay for free access so users could use paywalled content.
Nine Entertainment's The Age said Australian Community Media, which owns more than 100 regional titles, was in talks with Google about the deal while Schwartz Media, publisher of The Saturday Paper, Private Media, the publisher of Crikey and Solstice Media's InDaily and InQueensland had already signed deals.
News Corporation, one of the companies at the forefront of pushing digital platforms to pay for the use of Australian content, was not convinced by Google's initiative.
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Code to rein in fake data spread
The tech giants will be subject to a misinformation and news quality code of practice by the end of the year, following new plans outlined by the Australian watchdog.
The government has tasked the Australian Communications and Media Authority with developing a new voluntary code in a bid to reduce the impact of fake news and misinformation on platforms including Twitter and Facebook.
The code would make social media giants responsible for misinformation and fake news, in the same way that Australian media organisations are bound by regulatory requirements for journalistic ethics and accuracy in news and reporting.
It comes as fake news about the COVID-19 pandemic continues to run rampant online. Forty-eight per cent of Australians rely on online news or social media as their main source of news. But 64 per cent of Australians are concerned about what is real or fake on the internet.
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Google to wipe data on new accounts after 18 months
By Daisuke Wakabayashi
June 25, 2020 — 5.47am
After years of criticism about how it keeps a record of what people do online, Google said it would start automatically deleting location history and records of web and app activity as well as voice recordings on new accounts after 18 months.
The limited change, announced on Wednesday (US time), comes after Google introduced an option last year to allow users to automatically delete data related to their web searches, requests made with the company's virtual assistant and their location history. At the time, it offered users the ability to erase the data after three months or 18 months.
The policy sets Google accounts to delete that data by default on new accounts, instead of requiring users to go into the product's settings to change to an option to delete. The settings on existing accounts will remain unchanged.
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How technology damages your mental health
By James Adonis
June 26, 2020 — 12.00am
The greatest cause of absenteeism isn't the flu, a physical ailment or a sneaky sickie. And the greatest cause of underperformance isn’t a lack of motivation or inadequate training. In each case the leading culprit is poor mental health.
While there are many factors contributing to this worsening trend, one factor has particularly caught the eye of researchers: the use of technology.
In a comprehensive analysis to be published soon in the Australian Journal of Management, a research team led by the University of Sydney began with the premise that work can be good for health, as per earlier empirical evidence I’ve shared in this column. But in reviewing every credible study on this topic, they’ve discovered technology can also be the source of considerable harm.
It’s difficult to understate the ubiquity of technology, especially when taking into account the prevalence of automation, robotics, digitisation, artificial intelligence, machine learning and myriad other advancements rendering many jobs redundant.
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Published: 25 Jun 2020
https://www.seek.com.au/job/50140969?type=standout
Senior Program Officer
Australian Digital Health Agency
About the business
The Australian Digital Health Agency is responsible for national digital health services and systems, with a focus on engagement, innovation and clinical quality and safety. Our focus is on putting data and technology safely to work for patients, consumers and the healthcare professionals who look after them.
About the role
The Senior Program Officer will be responsible for developing accurate and useful knowledge management articles to support Contact Centre staff in their daily activities. The role will see you provide operational policy and procedural advice to the Contact Centre and other teams, as well as analyse data, operator error trends and user experience to support continuous improvement processes.
You will use your experience to assist, train and support staff within the sector and to work collaboratively and productively with both internal and external stakeholders.
Skills and experience
The ideal candidate will have experience working within a complex business service delivery environment and will have well-developed analytical, research skills and problem solving ability. You will have excellent organisational skills, including the ability to manage multiple tasks, and will have strong written and oral communication skills.
Please email careers@digitalhealth.gov.au to request a copy of the Position Description.
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Republicans follow in Australia's encryption law footsteps
Three politicians from the US Republican Party have introduced a bill in the Senate that would make it mandatory for technology companies to help break encryption if it would aid law enforcement in enforcing a warrant.
Named the Lawful Access to Encrypted Data Act, the bill was introduced by Lindsey Graham, chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, Tom Cotton and Marsha Blackburn.
In effect, the bill seeks the same outcome as the encryption law passed by Australia in 2018. There are three ways listed in this law by which the authorities can get industry to aid in gaining access to encrypted material. A technical assistance request (TAR) allows for voluntary help by a company; in this case, its staff would be given civil immunity from prosecution.
An interception agency can issue a technical assistance notice (TAN) to make a communications provider offer assistance.
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‘Why I refuse to monitor my employees at home’
Joel McInnes
Over the last 12 weeks, the world as we know it has stopped existing. Seemingly overnight, we have been forced to live in ways we never anticipated -- let alone expected. And as we slowly come out of lockdown, in many ways the world awaiting us is irrevocably different to the one we left behind in March.
The way we work now is arguably one of -- if not the -- biggest change we’ve had to adapt to during and post-COVID-19. As working from home has gone from a nice-to-have to a must, companies and managers have been forced to contend with a new reality that demands a new skill set, adjusted expectations and a much more flexible and compassionate approach to managing employees.
Unfortunately, instead of adjusting their expectations in the face of such adversity, some organisations are planning to, or have already installed, software that tracks their employees‘ work hours and movements; which websites they are visiting, when and for how long; and in some cases, even tracking the location of employees by installing complementary apps on their phones.
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https://www.ausdoc.com.au/opinion/humble-qr-code-gets-virus-tracking-role
The humble QR code gets a virus tracking role
15th June 2020
Yes, we’re still talking contact-tracing apps.
Not Australia’s COVIDSafe app, but its new cousin over the ditch, called NZ COVID Tracer, which is taking a different approach to monitoring our unknown acquaintances.
Australia’s app, like the Singaporean app TraceTogether on which it was based, records Bluetooth ‘handshakes’ between phones running the same app that come within 1.5m or so of one another.
The owner of the phone, should they be diagnosed with the virus, can agree to release the record of these contacts to public health authorities.
But what the New Zealand version will do is give businesses a QR code (the square digital code you get on SMS tickets and boarding passes) to stick outside their premises.
Kiwis will use their phone to scan the code and create a record of places they’ve visited.
If they are diagnosed with COVID-19, the country’s National Close Contact Service will ask them to read out the list of locations — so the information never leaves the phone digitally.
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https://itwire.com/security/what-price-privacy.html
Wednesday, 24 June 2020 17:44
What price privacy?
Consumers put a premium on privacy, but don't realise how little they have, a new report suggests.
A new report from identity management specialist Okta looked at the state of digital identity in Australia, France, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
"Our survey suggests that consumers around the world have only a vague understanding of how much of their data is being tracked, where, when, and by which organisations," the report concludes.
For example, 39% of Australians do not think online retailers collect data about their purchase history, and 45% do not think their social media posts are being tracked by social media companies.
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-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: Notice of Planned EOI Release
Date: Wed, 24 Jun 2020 06:08:06 +0000
From: HSNSW-HealthTechnologyContracts <HSNSW-HealthTechnologyContracts@health.nsw.gov.au>
HealthShare, on behalf of eHealth NSW, plans to release an open Expression of Interest (EOI) for the State-wide Single Digital Patient Record (SDPR) Initiative in Q3 2020.
The SDPR initiative is envisaged to be the vehicle to drive the modernisation and transformation of the NSW Health Electronic Medical Record (EMR), Patient Administration System (PAS) and Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS) environments across the NSW Public Health System.
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ACRRM Webinar - An Introduction to ePrescribing - Thu 25 June 2020
Date: Thursday 25 June 2020 at 7:00pm AEST
ACRRM has been working closely with the Australian Digital Health Agency (Agency) and the Department of Health to support the implementation of electronic prescriptions. This webinar will help rural doctors to understand and plan for the new ePrescribing system. Commonwealth PBS regulations had been changed to recognise an electronic prescription as a legal alternative to a paper prescription. Most states and territories have also made changes to their poisons and therapeutic goods (or equivalent) legislation to recognise the form of an electronic prescription; the two remaining states (South Australia and Queensland) are likely to have progressed their changes by early July.
Dr Andrew Jamieson will host the event. College Medical Educators: Dr Carmon Guy, Dr Naomi Houston, Dr Trevor Burchall, Dr Elise Ly will be joined by Brian Spooner (Adoption and Clinical Use Lead) and Andrew Matthews (Director, Medicines Safety Program) from the Australian Digital Health Agency and take questions from the webinar participants.
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Media release - Healthcare providers use of technology surges in the face of COVID-19
23 June, 2020: ADHA Propaganda
New data released today by the Australian Digital Health Agency shows another big lift in the use of the My Health Record system across pharmacies, GP’s and now public hospitals as Australian healthcare providers accelerate their use of technology during COVID-19.
As pharmacies took advantage of changes made in March to allow medicines to be dispensed based on an electronic prescription, pharmacies registered for the My Health Record also increased from 91% to 97% in May and the viewing and their uploading also increased from 69% to 78%. GPs similarly had a big increase in viewing and uploading from 73% to 82%. The result is that more than 8 million medicine documents have been uploaded by healthcare providers like pharmacists and GPs, increasing the total medicine documents to more than 136 million.
And the May data also shows that more than 90% of Public Hospitals are now using the system with 5.2 million more clinical documents uploaded by hospitals, pathologists or radiologists increasing the total clinical documents to more than 70 million.
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https://www.innovationaus.com/apply-ai-to-the-tech-capability-audit/
Apply AI to the tech capability audit
Marie
Johnson
Contributor
24 June 2020
Albert Einstein famously said, “we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” And if ever there was a need for new thinking to attack intractable problems, the government’s “urgent” ICT capability audit is a candidate hiding in plain sight.
Over the past two decades, the issue of ICT capability has been a long-admired problem across all levels of government. And at the Commonwealth level – the search for findings involves traversing many agencies, core governance structures of government and even the Parliament itself.
The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) has extensive holdings of many damning cyber, audit and performance reports, and in my opinion the ANAO does excellent work.
In addition to this and over a number of years, the Australian Public Service Commission has undertaken Agency Capability Reviews” “…because the public service had experienced significant failures in delivery resulting from problems in risk management at multiple points across organisational systems.”
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https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=d41583a8-2efb-4f2a-9aa3-62e69a6e7928
Your Digital Identity: GovPass expands to include private sector companies and biometric capabilities as project moves forward
Private companies are a step closer to being able to seek accreditation to join the Australian Government’s digital identity scheme, ‘GovPass’ under the latest version of the project’s governing documents, the Trusted Digital Identity Framework (TDIF) released on 4 May 2020.
Version 4 of the TDIF, which will now remain current until July 2022, was released as the Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) prepares to test the biometric component of the program and signals the potential for the Commonwealth to monetise the use of the scheme by state and territory service providers as well as private companies.
What is GovPass?
GovPass refers to the Australian Government’s digital identity initiative, a multi-departmental program of work including policy and system design as well as technology development. The project is aimed at providing ‘whole of government’ digital identity credentials to Australians for use in accessing government services.
GovPass allows individuals to choose to merge separate digital identities maintained across a patchwork of service specific identity verification systems utilised by government departments and agencies. The result is a single digital identity recognised by all accredited services and protected by the minimum security and privacy standards that participating organisations are required to meet and maintain in order to participate.
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Hackers push the world to the brink of Cold War 2.0
By James Cook
June 24, 2020 — 10.02am
It was 9am on Friday when Scott Morrison made an unexpected and startling admission. In televised remarks to the nation's 25 million people, the Prime Minister said Australia was under attack from a foreign power.
It was not an attack involving fighter jets, missiles or warships but through a relentless swarm of cyber hacks, unleashed on different arms of the government.
"Australia's organisations are currently being targeted by a sophisticated, state-based cyber actor," Morrison said.
Healthcare trusts, political groups, educational organisations and the country's national infrastructure had been under digital attack from hackers looking to use security weaknesses to peer inside their networks, the government said.
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https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/my-health-record-tickets-110568146302
Jul 24
My Health Record
by Casey Cardinia Libraries ADHA Propaganda
Free
On Sale 26/06/2020 at 12:00 am