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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Seems to have been a really nothing week I have to say with very little Digital Health news of any impact. Sorry about that…
Enjoy the morsels I did find.
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'Trashed their fax machines': Health Department scraps paper contact tracing
By Dana McCauley
August 26, 2020 — 7.57pm
The Victorian Health Department has quietly scrapped its paper COVID-19 notification system in a major boost for the state's trouble-plagued contact tracing unit.
The new electronic notification system, which went live on Wednesday afternoon, allows doctors who test people for COVID-19 to quickly enter results into an online database that instantly alerts health authorities of positive tests.
Medical professionals said they hoped the change would speed up contact tracing in the state, where long delays have hampered efforts to get on top of community transmission of the virus.
Australian Medical Association Victorian president Julian Rait welcomed the new electronic system, which he had first called for in May.
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GP push to remove ban on private billing for telehealth
August 24, 2020 — 11.55pm
GPs are urging the federal government to make Medicare rebates for telehealth services permanent and allow GPs to privately bill patients beyond the September 30 cut-off, as practices buckle under the financial pressure of COVID-19.
The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners has also intensified its calls for Medicare to cover longer mental health consultations, amid growing concerns the pandemic has triggered an impending wave of psychological distress.
College spokesman Dr Bruce Willett said preventing GPs from charging co-payments for telehealth consultations was inequitable.
In a submission ahead of the budget on October 6, the college called for the removal of mandated bulk-billing for telehealth services provided by GPs.
Preventing GPs from charging co-payments for a large proportion of telehealth consultations meant general practices - many already impacted by the recent and devastating bushfires - were under immense financial strain during the pandemic, the college warned in the letter sent to Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, Health Minister Greg Hunt and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann on Monday.
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https://www.afr.com/politics/push-to-add-marketing-features-to-check-in-sites-20200824-p55otn
Check-in websites a privacy 'ticking time bomb'
Finbar O'Mallon Reporter
Aug 25, 2020 – 5.43pm
Developers are under pressure to add marketing features to coronavirus check-in websites, prompting privacy concerns.
The sites, which patrons use to fill in contact tracing data at venues, are a privacy "ticking time bomb" due to lax regulations, the operator of one check-in site says.
GuestCheck Australia chief executive Adrian Kinderis wants the government to issue licences for the digital products.
The privacy watchdog has left it to small and medium-sized businesses to ensure the digital contact-tracing products they used met guidelines.
"It's unfair to put the responsibility of all the privacy and everything else, without any guidance, back on the venue operator," Mr Kinderis said.
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https://www.ausdoc.com.au/practice/app-review-ten-pandemic-support-doctors-mental-health
App Review: TEN - pandemic support for doctors' mental health
The Black Dog Institute's The Essential Network for healthcare professionals who are concerned about their own mental health during COVID-19
27th August 2020
The essential network (TEN) app from the Black Dog Institute was specifically made for healthcare professionals concerned about their mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Funded by the Federal Government, the app brings together a variety of tools, such as mood trackers, relaxation cues, links to local mental health resource and some short videos of other health professionals answering questions like: “How do I avoid taking stress home with me?”
The app also directs users to educational courses on topics like managing stress and insomnia.
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CSIRO and Microsoft heads want the Australian public and private sectors to build their digital literacy
Wednesday August 26, 2020
The coronavirus pandemic has prompted Australian governments to quickly improve their digital literacy, but there is a still a long way to go, according to CSIRO chief executive Dr Larry Marshall.
Speaking on Work with Purpose for Science Week, Marshall noted that CSIRO created its Data61 agency in 2015 because it was concerned about the lack of digital literacy in Australian governments and industry. After seeing what has occurred during the pandemic, he believes Australia is capable of boosting its digital literacy even more.
“I spent my whole career in Silicon Valley, so I have a pretty high bar for digital literacy in organisations, and I don’t see that same capability here in Australia, not yet. But in the last five years it’s come a long way,” he said.
“I think COVID has probably accelerated us five years in terms of our digital literacy. We need to keep that up, so when we go back, we keep a lot of the digital learnings that we’ve had, like video conferencing, like the power of data.”
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/optus-medibank-and-la-trobe-uni-fund-digital-health-projects-552456
Optus, Medibank and La Trobe Uni fund digital health projects
By Matt Johnston on Aug 27, 2020 6:31AM
Probing consequences and workarounds of isolation.
La Trobe University has partnered with Optus and Medibank to fund ‘rapid turnaround’ projects to investigate the impacts of working from home, telehealth physiotherapy and virtual care technologies.
Three projects set to be completed by February next year are expected to deliver tangible improvements to health outcomes as the health crisis continues to unfold, La Trobe deputy vice-chancellor Professor Susan Dodds said.
One project sharing $250,000 in grant funding examines the challenges hospitals face after adapting to social distancing measures enacted to curb the spread of COVID-19.
Led by professors James Boyd and Ani Desai, the project will develop a framework to evaluate virtual care models, such as remotely monitoring the health of patients discharged from hospitals who might be at high risk of readmission, or long-term monitoring of patient health in residential aged care settings.
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'Stroke of genius': mobile scans to transform regional care
Jill Margo Health editor
Aug 27, 2020 – 12.01am
Australian researchers are planning a conceptual leap that could radically reduce the risk of disability following a stroke.
It sounds fantastical, but they are planning to put brain scanners in the air and fly them to people who have had a stroke.
The first thing everyone needs after a stroke is a CT scan to determine what kind of stroke occurred. Was it a clot or a bleed? This is important because the treatments are completely different.
Treatment is needed as fast as possible because every minute of delay means more brain cells die.
In the new plan, a lightweight portable brain scanner will arrive with a stroke team and all the necessary medication and equipment to provide treatment as the patient is flown to a hospital with a specialist stroke care unit.
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https://www.australianageingagenda.com.au/technology/emma-pate-joins-health-metrics/
by Australian Ageing Agenda August 26, 2020
Emma Pate joins Health Metrics
Aged care software vendor Health Metrics has appointed industry management professional Emma Pate to its executive team.
Ms Pate is now Head of Sales and Strategy at Health Metrics, the company behind health and social care sector software solution eCase.
She was most recently was running her consultancy Akuna Health since March this year.
Prior to that, Ms Pate held senior management roles at several software companies including AlayaCare Australia, Telstra Health and its forerunner iCareHealth and Silver Chain’s EOS Technologies Australia.
Health Metrics CEO Steven Strange said he and the board were excited to have Ms Pate join the team.
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Stroke prediction startup See-Mode secures $9 million investment
By Cara Waters
August 20, 2020 — 12.00am
Melbourne stroke prediction startup See-Mode has secured $USD7 million ($9 million) in fresh capital from investors including Australia's largest venture capital firm Blackbird Ventures.
The company, which also has operations in Singapore, plans to use the funding to take its artificial intelligence technology designed to improve analysis of medical images into new markets in Europe and the United States.
Co-founder Dr Milad Mohammadzadeh said there was a significant clinical gap in the long term management of stroke patients that See-Mode looked to address. "20 per cent of stroke patients go on to have another stroke within five years," he said. "Clearly there is a need for better technology to understand the long term risk for these patients and for doctors to pre-emptively treat them."
Mr Mohammadzadeh started See-Mode in 2017 with fellow bio-medical engineering PhD Dr Sadaf Monajemi and the startup uses artificial intelligence based medical software to improve the analysis of medical images such as ultrasounds, CT or MRI scans to predict critical stroke risk factors.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/victoria-health-creates-ciso-role-552514
Victoria Health creates CISO role
By Justin Hendry on Aug 28, 2020 7:00AM
Second IT security chief to sit within the department.
Victoria’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has created a chief information security officer role to increase accountability over internal IT security.
The department put out the call for the senior technical specialist this month to lead its information security unit, which currently reports to DHHS' strategy and design assistant director.
iTnews understands the position is a new role, separate to the Victorian Public Healthcare Sector CISO held by Grant Lockwood and which also sits within the department.
“Appointment of the new CISO role will elevate leadership of this team to report directly to the chief information officer,” the job ad states.
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Amazon's creepy new health wearable analyses your voice and body
By Geoffrey A. Fowler
August 28, 2020 — 10.23am
I couldn't pick just one crazy thing to say about the Halo, Amazon's new wearable health gadget. So here are three:
- Mirror, mirror on the wall, Amazon thinks you're fat.
- The artificial intelligence would like you to stop sounding overwhelmed now.
- That nagging voice inside your head is now on your wrist.
The Halo is a wrist-worn device that, among other functions, listens to your conversations so you can understand how you sound to others. And it comes with a companion app that 3D-scans your body to track your weight gain during quarantine.
Amazon is upfront about these invasive functions, which users of the Halo have to opt into using. What's revealing is that one of tech's biggest companies thinks consumers in 2020 might want them.
It makes sense that Amazon wants to push into health. This year in particular, tech companies are trying to transition their body-worn devices from fitness trackers into health and wellness assistants. Earlier this week, Fitbit launched a new smartwatch called the Sense that includes a temperature sensor, an electrocardiogram app and an electrodermal activity sensor to detect the body's response to stress. In September, Apple is expected to unveil a new version of its Watch with more health bells and whistles.
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https://www.ausdoc.com.au/news/resource-tracks-covid19-activity-australia
This resource tracks COVID-19 activity in Australia
The tools offer a deeper understanding of the growth rate and the impact of prevention strategies
22nd July 2020
As COVID-19 takes hold across Australia and the world it has become increasingly important to be able to track the virus's spread and impact.
These dashboards use data collated by world-renowned data scientists including researchers from Sydney’s University of Technology, Johns Hopkins University, US, and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, to help you do just that.
If you're viewing on a desktop computer, click the buttons on the bottom right to expand and explore the dashboards.
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G Medical Innovations (ASX:GMV) adds new revenue stream for IDTF platform
Ashleigh Melanko Markets Reporter
ashleigh.melanko@themarketherald.com.au 27
August 2020 12:30
- Mobile health company G Medical Innovations (GMV) has added a new revenue stream to its Independent Diagnostic Testing Facilities (IDTF) platform
- This platform is a patient monitoring service which allows hospital staff to keep track of a patient's vital signs remotely
- G Medical has today announced that it will offer remote patient monitoring services to patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) treatment
- Hospitals can now monitor pre and post TAVR patients through G Medical's AECG Patch technology and mobile cardiac telemetry (MCT) device
- G Medical is steady on the market and shares are currently trading for 4.2 cents each
Mobile health company G Medical Innovations (GMV) has added a new revenue stream to its Independent Diagnostic Testing Facilities (IDTF) platform.
This platform is a patient monitoring service which allows hospital staff to keep track of a patient's vital signs remotely.
G Medical has today announced that it will offer remote patient monitoring services to patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) treatment.
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Alcidion - FY2020 Full Year Results and Annual Report
Alcidion grows recurring revenue base, while investing to accelerate growth
Melbourne, Australia – Alcidion (ASX: ALC) has today
released its audited full year results and Annual Report to Shareholders for
the Financial Year ended 30 June 2020 (FY2020).
Highlights:
· $18.6M revenue reported for FY2020, 10% increase vs FY2019;
· Recurring revenue significantly increasing to $10.5M, 35% up on the prior year;
· Net loss of $3.1M, reflecting planned investments to accelerate growth;
· Cash reserves of $15.9M, well capitalised to support further growth in FY2021;
· Significant product contracts signed in the UK and Australia
· Entering FY2021 poised for further growth, with strong pipeline of potential business and $12.8M already contracted revenue to be recognised in FY21.
Alcidion has continued to grow revenue, delivering full year
revenue of $18.6M, up 10% on the prior year. Notably, the recurring revenue
base has increased by 35% year on prior year to $10.5M.
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https://itwire.com/security/nz-stock-exchange-suffers-outages-due-to-ddos-attacks.html
Wednesday, 26 August 2020 11:13
NZ stock exchange suffers outages due to DDoS attacks
New Zealand's stock exchange has been hit by a distributed denial of service attack on Wednesday morning which forced the exchange to go offline for about an hour.
The New Zealand Herald reported that the exchange had gone down at 11.24am local time (9.24am AEDT) on Wednesday and resumed operations at 12.20pm.
On Tuesday evening, the exchange could not operate during its last hour, due to a similar reason.
This outage happened as the exchange was approaching a record closing.
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New Zealand Stock Exchange suffers day four disruption following DDoS attacks
The NZX was hoping to open on Friday but says it's experiencing connectivity issues resembling attacks from earlier in the week.
By Asha Barbaschow | August 28, 2020 -- 00:07 GMT (10:07 AEST) | Topic: Security
The New Zealand Stock Exchange (NZX) is still suffering from the aftermath of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks that hit the exchange earlier this week.
On Friday morning, the NZX said its markets would open as normal, following ongoing work to put in place additional measures to maintain system connectivity and address the severe DDoS attacks.
Two hours later, however, the NZX said it was experiencing connectivity issues which appeared to be similar to those caused by the DDoS attacks from earlier this week.
"Given the current issue, we have extended the pre-open for the NZX main board and Fonterra shareholders market. The NZX debt market was placed into a halt at 9:58am [NZST]," the exchange said. "The NZX derivatives market remains open."
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https://www.hinz.org.nz/news/523049/Digital-health-solutions-win-Hi-Tech-awards.htm
Digital health solutions win Hi Tech awards
Monday, 24 August 2020
eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth
Digital health was a big winner at the 2020 Hi-Tech Awards with Emergency Q and Precision Driven Health scooping three awards between them.
DHB ICT staff have also been recognised as finalists in this years CIO Awards.
Emergency Q, a Kaupapa Maori software company that built a digital platform to reduce overcrowding in hospital Emergency Departments, won The Callaghan Innovation Maori Company of the Year Award and the Kiwibank Most Innovative Hi-Tech Service Award.
Precision Driven Health won the Visa Hi-Tech Solution for the Public Good award
for the partnership’s freely accessible surgical risk calculator, nzRISK.
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Norton offers dark web monitoring to consumers
Norton will let you trace whether your personal information is being stored or up for sale on the dark web.
It says its product LifeLock will search for more than 120 personal identifiable pieces of information. This includes email addresses, physical address, a phone number, driver‘s licence number, credit card, bank account numbers and gamer tags.
“With 42 per cent of Australian respondents now online gaming regularly, monitoring crucial information such as gamer tags is more important than ever,” says Norton.
But how will Norton know your personal information to start with, and how does it safeguard it?
Norton says any personal data you provide is encrypted, and only a few selected employees who undergo training on how to handle personal data can access it. “These employees must provide their own credentials every time they access personal data and are subject to monitoring by our Information Security and Compliance team,” Norton told The Australian.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/data3-confirms-network-related-security-incident-552472
Data#3 confirms network-related security 'incident'
By Ry Crozier on Aug 27, 2020 10:09AM
After detecting 'suspicious activity' earlier this month.
IT services firm Data#3 has disclosed a “cyber incident” that appeared to target a third-party networking service the company used, resulting in 28 of its customers being impacted.
The incident appears to have occurred back on August 4, when Data#3 notified on its website the detection of “suspicious activity on [its] network.”
The Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) was called in to investigate at that point, but there had been no updates since.
However, in a financial filing on Thursday morning [pdf], Data#3 disclosed the extent of the incident in terms of the number of its customers that were impacted.
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Thursday, 27 August 2020 09:55
Australia's average 5G speed third among 12 measured by OpenSignal
By Sam Varghese
Australia's average 5G download speed is third among the leading 12 5G markets studied by analytics firm OpenSignal, with Saudi Arabia, unexpectedly, top and South Korea second.
OpenSignal looked at 5G speeds in isolation and also in combination with 4G use; the company also looked at the amount of time users spend connected to 4G and 5G in the 12 countries/regions studied.
Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Australia, the US, the UK, Kuwait, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Canada were included in the study as were the two regions of Hong Kong and Taiwan.
As far as the overall download speed was concerned, users in Saudi Arabia experienced 144.5Mbps, much ahead of Canada. This measure covered both 4G and 5G as it was looking at total use. Australia was seventh with 48.7Mbps.
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Enjoy!
David.
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