With apologies to Albert Einstein who is said to have first expressed a similar sentiment!
This release appeared a few days ago.
Media release - Dr Steve Hambleton appointed as independent clinical advisor
31 July, 2020: Australian Digital Health Agency (the Agency) Interim CEO Bettina McMahon today announced the appointment of Dr Steve Hambleton MBBS FAMA FRACGP(hon) FAICD as the new, independent clinical advisor to the executive team at the Agency.
“Dr Hambleton’s contribution to the Agency in the past has been invaluable in providing clinical expertise and a link to the medical profession. In becoming an advisor to the Agency executive team more formally, we are ensuring a strong clinical voice to the executive following the departure of Chief Medical Advisor Professor Meredith Makeham.
“Steve is a frontline GP and has worked with governments, the AMA and health professional organisations including medical, allied health, nursing and pharmacy,” she said.
He will join the executive leadership team as a clinical advisor and will provide clinical input to Agency governance committees. The appointment will commence on Monday 3 August and run through to January 2021.
Dr Hambleton is an adjunct Professor with the University of Queensland and a General Practitioner in Brisbane. He is a former State and Federal President of the Australian Medical Association.
He was a member of the Review of the Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record (PCEHR) known as the Royle review that supported the continuing development and implementation of a consistent and effective electronic health record for all Australians. In June 2014 Dr Hambleton was appointed as Chairman of the National eHealth Transition Authority and oversaw its transition to the Australian Digital Health Agency in July 2016.
Dr Hambleton has served the Agency as Co-Chair of Clinical Programs including Radiology and Pathology and the Clinical Governance Committee. He was the Deputy Chair of the My Health Record Expansion program that has resulted in more than 90 per cent of the Australian Population having access to a shared electronic health record.
Dr Hambleton also serves on the Boards of Avant Mutual Group Limited and the newly formed Digital Health Cooperative Research Centre. He is an independent Director of the Queensland Aboriginal and Islander Health Council.
Dr Hambleton said he was passionate about continuing reform to Australia’s high quality health care system, through progressive integration of digital technologies.
“I am determined to continue the health reform journey to deliver quality outcomes and an improved experience of care for consumers and the professions,” he said.
Here is the link to the release.
Reasons for the headline above are:
1. After 3 years it is clear that the ADHA, that Dr Hambleton recommended as part of the Royle Review into NEHTA in 2013, has pretty much failed.
2. Equally the PCEHR / #myHealthRecord, which he has ardently spruiked for years, has basically made no positive impact on the Health Budget or Clinical Outcomes, that anyone has noticed.
3. In the mean-time he has held all sorts of paid roles with both NEHTA and the ADHA.
I believe Dr Hambleton is hopelessly conflicted in offering independent clinical advice to the ADHA and should recuse himself from the position.
Sorry Steve. You are not what the ADHA and the Digital Health Community needs as a clinical advisor to the ADHA I believe. Your clear long-term bias on the unproven value of the #myHealthRecord disqualifies you from being an independent advisor.
Great chance that will happen anyway I guess!
What do you think?
David.
From the release:
ReplyDeleteHe will join the executive leadership team as a clinical advisor and will provide clinical input to Agency governance committees.
Is that it? input into governance committees? There's either more to this than we are being told or it's jobs for the boys.
Steve is being enticed, set-up, or setting himself up, to take over from Bettina as she seguays to another public sector position.
ReplyDeleteHe will claim his long standing exposure to NEHTA, Royle review, ADHA, and his various other res over the years including AMA politics and General Practice, makes him the ideal person to reposition the ADHA and the My Health Record to deliver everything that has been promised.
So there you have it and if perchance he is offered the job it will be a simple matter of moving from Acting CEO to CEO after a good nights sleep. Take a deep breath and stay calm.
Marvellous the way Prof. Meredith Makeham slipped out sideways and quietly dissappeared. ADHA needed another medico replacement; thank you Dr Hambleton for stepping up and making such a huge sacrifice. We are indebted to you for helping keep the ship afloat and on an even keel. They way is now clear for Bettina to slide out of the line of fire and leave it to Superman to save the day. Take care and don't touch the Kryptonite.
DeleteWas he also not the genius behind healthcare homes?
ReplyDeleteI am guessing this is a rush fill as they realised the CMO is the only mandatory position and must be filled. Strange how one of the many talented senior females at ADHA either were overlooked or distanced themselves.
Dilbert https://dilbert.com/strip/2020-08-05
ReplyDeleteSounds all very cosy. All we need is Richard Royal back as CEO and the band can get back on the road.
ReplyDeletePushed from the nest rather than slipped away. Once Tim left it was emery able his favoured people would be exited. Equal opportunity employer so long as you don’t threaten the pecking order.
ReplyDeleteLooks as though Tim can't do without his boy wonder, Ronan O'Conno.
ReplyDeleteSoon there will be no more rats left to jump before it sinks.
Looks as though Tim can't do without his boy wonder, Ronan O'Conno.
ReplyDeleteSorry have I missed something? Roman seemed like the only sane one left.
According to Pulse+IT
ReplyDeleteThe Australian Digital Health Agency's national health CIO Ronan O'Connor has resigned to take up a position with global health IT not-for-profit the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS).
Mr O'Connor headed up the delivery of the My Health Record expansion program when it flipped to opt-out in 2018, and has also been overseeing a program to re-platform the system when the contract with national infrastructure operator Accenture ends in 2021.
He was was recruited by former ADHA CEO Tim Kelsey, with whom he worked at the UK National Health Service, to take functional charge of the My Health Record system in 2017.
Mr O'Connor will leave the agency in mid-October with plans to return to the UK in 2021.
An ADHA spokesperson said a replacement would be recruited following the announcement of a new CEO for the agency.
Inaugural CEO Mr Kelsey resigned last year to join HIMSS and his position has since been filled by long-term ADHA chief operating officer Bettina McMahon. Ms McMahon will also leave the agency when the permanent CEO is announced.
Chief medical adviser Meredith Makeham also recently left ADHA for an academic post.
This is the most interesting snippet - Ronan O'Connor has been "... overseeing a program to re-platform the (My Health Record) system ..."
ReplyDelete@11:18 Yes, and what about Accenture's contract. Time for Accenture to quickly renegotiate another 5 years with Bettina before she leaves so Accenture can deliver the great work Ronan has done with replatforming before a new CEO can interfere.
ReplyDeleteA very interesting snippet.
ReplyDeleteThe ADHA has a bit of a problem on its hands.
AFAIK, there is no open tender, so they haven't yet even gone to market.
To issue a tender, get responses and make a decision, especially of the complexity of replatforming myhr I would expect six months, what with Christmas in the middle.
When the ADHA briefed industry a couple of years ago, they made it clear that there were multiple shortcomings with myhr and that replatforming was not just better technology. They wanted industry to come up with some good ideas to improve what myhr did and how it did it, from the user perspective, of which there are many.
They now have two options:
1. Update/change the technology (e.g. move to cloud) but nothing else.
2. Improve the functionality and update/change the technology
If ADHA thinks either is possible in the time before the existing contract expires they are probably fooling themselves.
It is quite possible that some skunkwork has been going on and that a new architecture/design has been developed. If it has, then it has been done without any public consultation and almost certainly by people outside ADHA.
Fitting that into the normal procurement process and selling it to the public/government/software industry would be a challenge, especially with all the talk about standards and the outstanding issue of interoperability. Not to mention the lack of a proper NASH that worked at the individual, not organisation level, as promised in the original design .
Given all that, Ronan going is not much of surprise. What would be is for ADHA to announce a procurement process that does not require another extension of the existing contract.
I do hope Dr Murphy is asking the hard questions. Maybe he has and Ronan's going is the result.
Dr Murphy is a clinician and a very nice fellow. He has received some input about the muddled Digital Health mess he has now inherited but whether or not he takes the opportunity to engage and explore alternatives remains to be seen. He is no toe-cutter, he doesn't need to be. What he needs is someone whom he can trust as a reliable adviser and mentor in digital health, cautious and free of bullshit and fast talking shallow rhetoric, with lengthy wide experience across the complex domains of health, IT and business.
ReplyDelete@12:54 PM
ReplyDeleteWhere is Dr Murphy going to find someone like that?
Jut about everyone who promotes Digital Health has a vested interest in the subject, from consultants, to vendors to health professionals who have drunk the kool aid and written books about the subject (e.g. Dr Eric Topol).
However if you research healthcare looking for what the medical profession think are the biggest problems, digital health gets not a mention. For example one of hottest topics is Evidence Based Medicine, which has faced criticism for years for bias and out and out fraud.
Have a listen to a recent ABC program:
Is evidence-based medicine everything it should be?
https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/lifematters/is-evidence-based-medicine-everything-we-think-it-is/12510554
The guest is Jon Jureidini, co-author of 'The Illusion of Evidence-Based Medicine', and Professor of psychiatry and paediatrics, Critical and Ethical Mental Health Research Group, Robinson Research Institute, University of Adelaide
This book is not the first and will not be the last on the topic.
Another recent book dumps on scientific research in general:
Science Fictions
How Fraud, Bias, Negligence, and Hype Undermine the Search for Truth
by Stuart Ritchie (a faculty member at the Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre at King’s College London)
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250222695
The problems of flawed evidence and knowledge that underpins healthcare is far more important and critical than improving the patient experience through technology - as proposed by the likes of the HIMSS.
Do a search on www.digitalhealth.gov.au or www.himss.org for evidence based medicine. Not a thing.
IMHO, Digital Health is a solution to the wrong problem. Who is likely to tell that to Dr Murphy. Just because lots of people give him the same advice does not mean they are right. It's much more likely they have the same bias.
@2:02PM "Where is Dr Murphy going to find someone like that?" Surely, with all your experience, you can think of a few people here in Australia who could fit those criteria.
ReplyDelete@2:02 PM "Who is likely to tell that to Dr Murphy?" you ask.
ReplyDeleteWell, you've often made your views well known, but Dr Murphy probably hasn't heard them. So, why don't you take the opportunity to let him know what you think? There's nothing to lose, others are probably doing the sane. While good men remain silent ......
Sounds like a good idea. Brebdan will listen if he doesn't get snared by his bureaucrats. It might be worth trying to approach him by making contact via Linked In
ReplyDelete