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, December 01, 2020

Commentators and Journalists Weigh In On Digital Health And Related Privacy, Safety And Security Matters. Lots Of Interesting Perspectives - December 01, 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 were dated 6 December, 2018 and we have seen none since!

It is worth pointing out that it was only in last little while ( beginning end July 2020 ) the ADHA took down the notification regarding the most recent minutes notification. Embarrassed I guess – as they should be! I wonder will the new CEO make a difference?

The new CEO has been in place 9+ weeks – no new minutes obvious yet, or any other major improvements!

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.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/cyber-security-promoted-to-cabinet-in-rejig/news-story/6f26f73ddf638a7d99c4fd1d818f74f0

Cyber security promoted to cabinet in rejig

Simon Benson

Geoff Chambers

6:32AM November 27, 2020

Scott Morrison will create a cyber security role in cabinet as part of a ministerial reshuffle next month, as the Prime Minister prioritises responsibilities in line with the government’s COVID-19 econo­mic and security commitments.

The Australian understands Mr Morrison will permanently reduce­ cabinet from 23 to 22 following the departure of Mathias Cormann earlier this month.

The special cyber security role would be added to the Home Affairs­ portfolio, which has oversight of cyber security legislation and the roll out of the decade-long Cyber Security Strategy, and comes as the government ramps up its defences against state-based and criminal actors.

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https://ajp.com.au/news/pharmacy-history/providing-the-right-medicine-hospital-pharmacy-in-the-21st-century/

Providing the right medicine: hospital pharmacy in the 21st century

Guest Author27/11/2020

In the second of a two-part series, Ron Batagol looks at the changes in hospital pharmacy practice since the 1970s

In the first of these articles, I provided a short summary of the changes and evolution of hospital pharmacy practice from its beginnings, through to the formation of the Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia.

In this article, I will discuss some of the major developments and profound changes that took place in hospital pharmacy practice during my hospital pharmacy career from the early 1970s to 2019.

I will also discuss some of the specific collaborative group projects which I had the privilege of being involved with during this period. Also, by illustrating some of the “endurance tests” required to complete projects in a timely fashion, before and during the infancy of the computer age, how, as we approached the 21st century, emerging computer technology systems revolutionised the process of evaluation techniques, reporting and document storage.

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https://www.croakey.org/federal-government-urged-to-take-a-public-health-approach-to-disinformation-on-digital-platforms/

Federal Government urged to take a public health approach to disinformation on digital platforms

Editor: Melissa Sweet Author: Melissa Sweet on: November 25, 2020

The Federal Government should commission and fund public health experts to make recommendations for regulating the digital platforms to address the tide of disinformation and misinformation that is threatening global health.

That is the recommendation from a Croakey Health Media submission to a digital industry organisation developing a self-regulatory code to address disinformation in Australia.

The submission, which will also be sent to Health Minister Greg Hunt and Communications Minister Paul Fletcher, is critical of the draft code released for consultation and the discussion paper that informs it.

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https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/technology/effectively-sharing-information-throughout-your-company-without-compromising-data-security/news-story/2177897bed8e59b83fb3c75e09348104

Effectively sharing information throughout your company without compromising data security

Andrew T. White

  • 3:02PM November 27, 2020

In August, the government pledged $1.6 billion towards a cybersecurity strategy that will see organisations reinforce their digital defences, and give government the power to intervene in cyberattacks on critical infrastructure providers.

Moreover, the recent Federal Budget pledged $800 million to digital transformation, with some of the funding to be put towards digital skills training in STEM and cybersecurity.

While both of these initiatives will greatly benefit Australia’s cyber defence sector, we are failing to stave off an increasing number of attacks that are happening right now – heed warning from the crippling cyber assaults on Toll and Lion this year.

COVID-19 has disrupted life as we know it. From big enterprises to small businesses, critical infrastructure providers to schools, the dispersed population has weakened the security of our cyber networks, putting valuable and private data at risk on a global scale.

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https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/uk-to-impose-tougher-rules-on-google-facebook/news-story/c099d953c54b8fe0a476a85d16eb1b66

UK to impose tougher rules on Google, Facebook

Britain will unleash a new watchdog on Google, Facebook and other tech giants in an effort to limit their power, ensure smaller companies can compete and improve transparency on their use of people’s data.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport on Friday said the new regulator, the Digital Markets Unit, would “govern the behaviour of platforms that currently dominate the market, such as Google and Facebook”.

The aim was “to ensure consumers and small businesses aren’t disadvantaged”, it said.

The unit is being created after the UK Competition and Markets Authority said in July that existing laws were not effective.

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https://www.ahmrc.org.au/programs/digital-health/

Digital Health 

ADHA Propaganda

Digital health is a broad term. It encompasses mobile health (mHealth), health information technology, wearable devices, telehealth and personalised medicine. Digital health can also include mobile medical apps and software that support the clinical decisions doctors make. These digital tools improve how healthcare professionals diagnose and treat patients and enhance the delivery of healthcare for the individual.

Digital Health for Healthcare Providers

Telehealth 

Telehealth refers to video and telephone calls to conduct health consultations, which are available for a range of health services by General Practitioners (GPs), Nurse Practitioners, Aboriginal Health Practitioners and Workers, Mental Health professionals, Allied Health professionals and some medical specialists. Telehealth is a significant strategy that ensures people can continue to access essential health services while reducing the risk of exposure to COVID-19. It can be used for the consultations, intervention, education and or supervision.

For more information read our Telehealth Factsheet for healthcare professional  or download the Agency for Clinical Innovation Telehealth in Practice Guide (2019).

My Health Record

What is My Health Record?

My Health Record is an online summary of your patient’s medical information they opt to have in the one place.  Through My Health Record, healthcare providers can gain a more holistic picture of their patient’s health by drawing from different medical information and improving their patient’s treatment and health outcomes.

Benefits of My Health Record for healthcare professionals:

  • Easily view and add patient health information.
  • Access timely information about their patients e.g. prescriptions, pathology reports etc.
  • Important medical information is stored in one location and is easily available – especially in case of an emergency.

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https://medicalrepublic.com.au/why-australian-doctor-wants-to-be-more-like-facebook/37787

27 November 2020

Why Australian Doctor wants to be more like Facebook

Comment Communication Social Media

Posted by Jeremy Knibbs

The largest GP media group in the country, Australian Doctor, is attempting an audacious metamorphosis.

It has announced, in a recent video presentation for advertisers, that it is trying to transition from being a traditional media group, where its major audience engagement is generated by journalists, to being a doctor digital platform where GPs talk securely peer to peer, consult with and refer to specialists, where members are profiled as in LinkedIn or Facebook, find each other and collaborate and share advice and information based on those profiles, and can engage directly if they wish with the pharma industry in their own time via various digital tools such as virtual rep appointments.

So rather than being say, The Age, for GPs, it would like to be something more akin to Facebook for GPs, albeit with all the good stuff from the past Australian Doctor – all that good journalism and storytelling – too.

You can’t blame Australian Doctor for trying something like this. It is owned by private equity and if it somehow pulled such a vision off, the value of a digital platform could be more than 10 times the value of a traditional media group. That, and being a traditional media group, trying to compete for the attention of a doctor amid the bombardment of attention thieves doctors are now exposed to via their mobile phones and the internet, isn’t the sexy business model it once was.

But a doctor digital platform based on the sort of engagement described above would be something quintessentially different in the end from a traditional media platform.

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https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=be126908-c800-4ca4-a247-0737bb351bfb

Cyber warfare - is attack the best form of defence?

Gilbert + Tobin

Cyber-attacks by nation states are on the rise and are becoming an increasingly common method of “warfare” and diplomatic disruption. Countries such as China and Russia are developing cyber weapons for use in any future conflicts, while the USA, the UK, France and Israel have also invested in developing cyber capabilities. Australia’s recently launched Cyber Security Strategy 2020 recognised the significant threat posed by nation states to our government and critical infrastructure providers and committed to invest $1.67 billion over 10 years in relation to cyber security (see our analysis of the strategy - Australia’s Cyber Security Strategy 2020: What you need to know). A critical question is how countries such as Australia should defend themselves, and should this defence involve offensive attack?

According to Verizon’s 2019 Data Breach Investigations Report, cyber-attacks by nation states, and affiliated parties, represented 23% of data breaches, up from 12% in 2018 and 19% in 2017. The report also highlighted that a quarter of all breaches were associated with espionage.

Australia's Cyber Security Strategy 2020

Australia’s Cyber Security Strategy 2020 identifies nation states as major threat actors who “seek to compromise networks to obtain economic, policy, legal, defence and security information for their advantage”. It recorded that in the year to 30 June 2020 government entities were the target of approximately 35% of incidents while attacks on critical infrastructure providers (delivering services such as healthcare, education, banking, water, communications, transport and energy) comprised a further 35% of incidents.

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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/apra-targets-cyber-hygiene-and-board-oversight-with-new-security-strategy-558317

APRA targets cyber hygiene and board oversight with new security strategy

By Tess Bennett on Nov 27, 2020 11:28AM

Toughens cyber stance.

APRA has unveiled a new cyber security strategy and flagged it will step up its review of current cyber compliance, holding boards accountable for shortfalls. 

The prudential regulator’s cyber security strategy for 2020 to 2024 seeks to lift cyber security standards and introduce heightened accountability where companies fail to meet their legally binding requirements. 

In a speech to the Financial Services Assurance Forum yesterday, Geoff Summerhayes, executive board member of APRA said the new strategy seeks to safeguard an increasingly connected network of financial entities, increase board oversight and improve basic cyber hygiene practices.  

Summerhayes said APRA wants to “eradicate unnecessary or careless cyber exposures” by establishing a baseline of cyber controls. It is starting with sharpening its enforcement CPS 234 compliance. 

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https://wildhealth.net.au/giving-gps-full-visibility-of-a-patients-script-journey/

Giving GPs full visibility of a patient’s script journey

November 27, 2020       Jeremy Knibbs

How a simple idea, executed sharply within our now rapidly changing digital health ecosystem, might give patients another reason to love their GP and GPs valuable insight into their patient’s script fulfilment behaviour

Tonic Health is supposed to be a health media company. It has the biggest network of GP waiting room screens and information boards in the country, monetised mostly by sponsorship and advertising, a lot of it from government. It has been backed by a group of savvy city investors and looks targeted to be a future part of one of the big outdoor companies.

But somewhere along the way, CEO Dr Matthew Cullen (who is also a practising psychiatrist), started to see larger opportunities in the periphery of an increasingly digital set up within Tonic.

Tonic as a media play has been doing fine, but as the company developed its digital capabilities over time, Dr Cullen was increasingly becoming distracted by so many broader digital platform opportunities. He was doing deals with some of them, such as Healthshare and First Available. Although largely screen-based, digital and delivered over the web, he is running what is effectively an older media business model, with relatively limited platform opportunity, when digital in healthcare is opening up so much more in the way of patient and doctor engagement platforms.

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https://www.smh.com.au/technology/apra-flags-tougher-stance-to-get-boards-to-take-security-seriously-20201126-p56i6r.html

APRA flags tougher stance to get boards to take security seriously

By Tim Biggs

November 26, 2020 — 5.01pm

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has put the boards of banks, insurers and superannuation funds on notice, warning that many of them are still failing to adequately protect their systems from hackers.

Unveiling its updated cyber security policy on Thursday, the regulator said boards will be required to engage an external audit firm to review if their cyber defences were in line with the CPS 234 standards put in place by APRA last year.

"It’s close to 18 months since CPS 234 came into effect, and we are still seeing too many basic cyber hygiene issues across the industry", outgoing executive board member Geoff Summerhayes said in a livestreamed speech to the Financial Services Assurance Forum.

"We want compliance independently verified, and we will be applying serious pressure when it’s not forthcoming." "If boards are unwilling or unable to make the required changes in a timely manner, we will consider using formal enforcement action," he said.

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https://marketplace.service.gov.au/2/digital-marketplace/opportunities/9878

Australian Digital Health Agency

Development of implementation plan for Digital Health Capability Framework for Nurses & Midwifery

Opportunity ID 9878

Deadline for asking questions Friday 4 December 2020 at 6pm (in Canberra)

Application closing date Tuesday 8 December 2020 at 6pm (in Canberra)

Published Thursday 26 November 2020

Panel category Strategy and Policy

Overview

The objectives of the program are:

1. Develop an action plan for the implementation of the National Nursing and Midwifery Digital Health Capability Framework with a recommendation on relevant resources that align with each of the framework domains,

2. Pilot and evaluate one domain of the Framework (baseline self- assessment, learning module, and post-assessment) in one targeted location (eg. Emerald Community of Excellence),

3. Work with the Agency to promote the scaling of the self-assessment tool to the national level, and 4. Ensure close alignment with the National Capability Action Plan.

Key deliverables for this program of work include:

1. Project plan,

2. Project status reports (fortnightly),

3. Establishment and management of governance (re-engage the Framework development Advisory Committee),

4. Stakeholder engagement and communication plan for all stages of the project,

5. Pilot approach and evaluation plan, and approach of scaling for self- assessment tool, and

6. An action plan (format to be agreed with the Agency) to include consultation reports, findings, recommendations and plan for the post-implementation evaluation. The rationale behind developing this implementation plan is to provide a guideline for users, to understand and lead the activities required to implement the Framework.

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https://www.theweeklysource.com.au/accredited-software-better-interoperability-and-real-time-data-required-to-implement-counsel-assisting-recommendations-health-metrics-steven-strange/

Accredited software, better interoperability and real-time data required to implement Counsel Assisting recommendations: Health Metrics’ Steven Strange

Published on November 26, 2020

The recommendations from the Counsel Assisting to the Royal Commission represent a “new true North” for the sector, according to the CEO and founder of Health Metrics, but will provide the most significant shake-up of the system in 15 years – and providers will need the right systems to survive.

In a webinar yesterday on interpreting the Counsel Assisting’s submissions, Steven (pictured above) emphasised that providers cannot plan early enough for the changes that will come from the recommendations, which he divided into five categories:

The new Aged Care Act

Avoiding the “tinkering at the edges” or previous reviews, Steven says the recommendations would deliver a new system where human rights will trump clinical models and cost into the tens of billions.

The role of boards will be pertinent to implementing the changes, with the recommendations “very prescriptive” about their role.

“It may be hard to find willing participants especially for volunteer boards,” he stated.

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https://medicalrepublic.com.au/treating-the-underlying-causes-of-cyber-symptoms/37436

25 November 2020

Treating the underlying causes of cyber symptoms

Networks Technology

Posted by Chris Fisher

Australia’s health sector is constantly the target of cyberattacks, and in the first half of 2020, a total of 22 per cent of all Australian data breaches were in the health sector.

Through our own research, we know the real threat is already in healthcare networks in the form of privileged access misuse, the growth in healthcare IoT devices, and that the majority of attacks occur due to underinvestment in security operations or a lack of security awareness by insiders.

The increased number of cyber threats the Australian health sector has encountered in recent months led the federal government to warn that cyber attackers were taking advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic, targeting hospitals, medical services and crisis-response organisations.

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s International Cyber Policy Centre recently noted that hospitals are targeted because they are essential services and more likely to pay a ransom to regain control of their network from hackers.

Many people within the healthcare industry have access to patient medical records, making it easy for some to take advantage of that privilege. Internal actors – meaning employees who access patient data with unlawful intent – are largely responsible for healthcare data loss, and healthcare is the only industry where this occurs at such an alarming rate. Indeed, our own research demonstrated that human error and misuse occurred more frequently in the healthcare industry than external threats such as hacking or ransomware.

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https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=ebb59059-5b28-41a4-9cb8-b332608d9349

Privacy Act Review: Seven key considerations for the healthcare industry

MinterEllison

The Attorney-General's Department's new Issues Paper in relation to its Review of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) has some important considerations for the healthcare industry. We discuss the key issues.

1. The scope of 'Personal Information' is under review

The Review is considering the definition of personal information contained in the Privacy Act and whether, having regard to the proliferation of digital media and significant technological change over the last 30 years, the Privacy Act remains fit for purpose. Any change to the definition of personal information will necessarily change the definition of health information and sensitive information (which, by definition, is first and foremost ‘personal information’).

The Review will consider:

  • whether the definition of personal information should be aligned with the definition contained in the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to appropriately capture technical data and online identifiers (such as pixel tags, cookies, device fingerprints and IP addresses);
  • whether the definition of personal information should be amended to extend to inferred information (being information collected from a number of data sources to identify an individual);
  • whether the definition of personal information should be amended to extend protections to deceased individuals; and
  • whether the treatment of de-identified information should be afforded additional protections under the Privacy Act.

Importantly in relation to de-identified information, the Review will consider whether there should be additional protections under the Privacy Act to protect de-identified, anonymised and pseudonymised information, and if so, what these protections should be. This is because under the current legislation, is will not always be clear whether de-identified information falls within the ambit of the Privacy Act – particularly as data analytics methods make it ever easier to re-identify such information.

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https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/holding-facebook-and-google-to-account-is-the-big-story/news-story/6b6cd909c322ed5c7450020d5c230699

Holding Facebook and Google to account is the big story

Paul Kelly

12:00AM November 25, 2020

In the dying days of the 2020 parliament and after facing intense lobbying the Morrison government is expected to stand resolute and introduce a globally significant reform to force digital giants Google and Facebook to pay for the news they exploit.

The legislation will be based on the mandatory code developed by the Australian Competition & Con­sumer Commission after the failure of negotiations between media companies and the tech giants, with Scott Morrison warning the giants in September against threatening his government.

Can the corrosive undermining of democratic process and debate by these tech giants be curbed? Is there a viable method of accountability for these companies in any sovereign democracy? Is it possible to extract payment from Big Tech, which has built trillion-dollar businesses partly by exploiting content from other media companies?

Australia is in the forefront of global efforts to impose Big Tech accountability, with other countries monitoring the awaited Australian legislation and the coming Biden administration in the US pledged to check the digital platforms and hold them accountable. With the business model for journalism in trouble one of the goals of the new law is to support and save public interest journalism.

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https://www.smh.com.au/technology/meet-gpt-3-it-has-learned-to-code-and-blog-and-argue-20201125-p56hpw.html

Meet GPT-3. It has learned to code (and blog, and argue).

By Cade Metz

November 25, 2020 — 10.00am

Earlier this year, an artificial intelligence lab in San Francisco called OpenAI unveiled a technology several months in the making. This new system, GPT-3, had spent those months learning the ins and outs of natural language by analysing thousands of digital books, the length and breadth of Wikipedia, and nearly 1 trillion words posted to blogs, social media and the rest of the internet.

Mckay Wrigley, a 23-year-old computer programmer, was one of the few invited to tinker with the system, which uses everything it has learned from that vast sea of digital text to generate new language on its own. Wrigley wondered if it could imitate public figures; write like them, perhaps even chat like them.

One of his experiments involved a pop psychologist, Scott Barry Kaufman. The system took in Kaufman's name and a topic for discussion: creativity. Then, when asked "How do we become more creative?" GPT-3 responded instantly:

"I think creative expression is a natural byproduct of growing up in a diverse world. The more diverse the world is, the more you get exposed to different people, to different opportunities, to different places and to different challenges. And the more diverse that is, the more likely you'll be to be able to put the dots together to form something new. And in many ways, I think if you want to be creative, you have to go for it. If you want to be a writer, you have to write, if you want to be a musician, you have to create music, if you want to be a comedian, you have to create comedy, and the more you create, the more likely it is that you'll stumble onto some interesting stuff."

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https://www.hospitalhealth.com.au/content/technology/article/five-reasons-why-covid-19-has-left-the-health-sector-vulnerable-to-cybercrime-1158220727

Five reasons why COVID-19 has left the health sector vulnerable to cybercrime

Tuesday, 24 November, 2020

An industry white paper published by cybersecurity firm Kroll explores the impact of COVID-19 on the healthcare industry’s cybersecurity landscape and shares best-practice guidance for healthcare providers.

The risk landscape resulting from the pandemic is characterised by five key vulnerability points:

  • Rapid shift to remote working
  • Expansion of telehealth
  • Workforce under pressure
  • Interoperability
  • PPE shortages
     

A rapid shift to remote working, the expansion of telehealth services and a workforce under increased pressure — all triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic — have led to an 86% increase in healthcare data breach notification cases globally between March and September 2020.

According to the Notifiable Data Breaches Report by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), Australia’s healthcare industry experienced more data breaches than any other industry, accounting for 22% of notifiable data breaches between January and June 2020.

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https://www.themandarin.com.au/145684-think-tanks-rate-decision-making-processes-behind-20-government-policies/

‘Good policy processes result in better outcomes’: Think tanks rate decision-making processes behind 20 government policies

By Shannon Jenkins

Tuesday November 24, 2020

New research conducted by two ideologically opposed think tanks has shown that it is possible for evidence-based policy making in government to be separate from politics, with the think tanks praising the processes behind the Queensland government’s Personalised Transport Ombudsman and the commonwealth’s My Health Record.

The independent research involved the right-leaning Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) and the left-leaning Per Capita Australia jointly selecting 20 federal and state government policies.

The think tanks then separately tested the cases against 10 attributes of good decision-making, as identified by professor of public administration Kenneth Wiltshire. Their scores were based on whether the legislated policies had been well formulated, as opposed to whether they were ‘good’ or ‘bad’ policies.

However, Wiltshire noted that “good policy processes result in better outcomes than decisions made without a strong evidence base and close consultation with stakeholders”.

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https://thebreakingnewsheadlines.com/blog/my-health-record-document-views-up-as-records-near-23-million/

My Health Record document views up as records near 23 million

24 November, 2020 Tech News Leave a comment 

The oversight frame for Australia’s My Well being Report is anticipating the modernisation of the rustic’s well being infrastructure shall be an extra “catalyst” for accelerating the usage of the net scientific report.

Talking with media on Tuesday, Australian Virtual Well being Company (ADHA) appearing nationwide well being leader knowledge officer Kerri Burden stated the collection of paperwork considered inside of My Well being Report has this yr higher.

“In 2020, the collection of paperwork considered each and every week at public hospitals has higher to greater than 100,000,” she stated. “That is appearing that after knowledge is being uploaded into the My Well being Report gadget that the ideas is then being considered.

“My Well being Report use is rising, modernisation of our nationwide infrastructure shall be an extra catalyst for accelerating this enlargement.”

Note: There is a prize for the 1st reader to explain this!

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https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/technology/information-age-will-soon-change-how-we-work/news-story/941be8ed7174031a0654dfac06df881b

Information age will soon change how we work

Adam Creighton

The pessimists are facing a rout this year, at least as far as the job market goes. Employment is bouncing back from coronavirus restrictions far quicker than many expected.

The latest official figures showed a 179,000 rise in employment last month compared to the month earlier, when most economists had expected a decline.

The unemployment rate edged up only slightly to 7 per cent (there was also a big increase in people looking for work) and now looks set to peak far below the 10 per cent originally expected. The number of part-time workers, 4.13 million, is back above the record high reached in March.

Even taking a big step back, the labour market refuses to reflect fears of mass casualisation and unemployment feared by unions and some academics. Indeed, the share of “non-standard” work – such as casual or self-employed – has increased only slightly over the 17 years to 2017, to 56 per cent, according to a new batch of research by Mark Wooden and others at the Melbourne Institute. The most contentious component of “non-standard” work, casual work, for which employees forgo sick and annual leave for a 25 per cent hourly pay premium, has barely changed at all at 20 per cent.

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https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/technology/edward-santow-launches-guide-on-how-to-wipe-out-bias-in-artificial-intelligence/news-story/65ff237706f30f9c74f3f7740f118b4b

Edward Santow launches guide on how to wipe out bias in artificial intelligence

David Swan

Bias in AI is looming as a significant issue for Australian businesses, according to Human Rights Commissioner Edward Santow, who has launched a new technical paper offering practical guidance for companies to ensure their AI systems are fair, accurate and comply with human rights.

As businesses increasingly use AI for decision-making for critical tasks such as recruitment and pricing, Mr Santow said ­organisations needed to be responsible in their approach and identify human rights and other risks to consumers.

“There are ways of harnessing the really good elements of AI and data-driven decision-making, while addressing the real risks,” Mr Santow told The Australian. “There’s been very little done along these lines anywhere in the world, and we genuinely think this is a very useful contribution to this space.”

Mr Santow said algorithmic bias could manifest in a variety of ways, from the design of the decision-making tool, or the data set used to train that tool. He said that the end result was often customers or others being treated unfairly.

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https://www.medianet.com.au/releases/194395/

24 Nov 2020 9:00 AM AEST - 30 NOVEMBER

WEBCAST ON DIGITAL MENTAL HEALTH STANDARDS               

EMBARGOED to 12:01am AEDT, Monday 30 NOVEMBER 2020

Launch of National Safety and Quality Digital Mental Health Standards 

It is more important than ever for Australians to have ready access to high-quality digital mental health services.

The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (the Commission) is hosting a live online event to release world-leading national digital mental health standards, supporting the delivery of high quality and safe care in the digital space. 

2020 has seen unprecedented demand in Australia for the digital delivery of mental health services.

The National Safety and Quality Digital Mental Health (NSQDMH) Standards will support the delivery of high quality and safe care including counselling, treatment and peer-to-peer support services via telephone, videoconferencing, websites, SMS, webchat and mobile apps. They encompass mental health, suicide prevention and alcohol and other drug services.

Join expert speakers in a panel discussion on the opportunities and challenges of delivering mental health services via digital platforms, and how the new standards will make a difference to the quality of mental health care in the digital world.

Commission Senior Clinical Advisor Dr Peggy Brown AO will launch the NSQDMH Standards, accompanied by expert speakers from the world of mental health. The webcast event will be hosted by Sophie Scott, award-winning ABC National Medical Reporter. 

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https://www.seek.com.au/job/51000972?type=standout

Director, Operational Enhancements

Australian Digital Health Agency

About the Agency

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 Director, Operational Enhancements reports directly to the General Manager, Operations Branch and will take responsibility for managing system and service enhancements for the My Health Record and supporting systems, whilst working with the wider Operations Branch to ensure operational alignment of deliverables.

In this position you will contribute to developing and delivering on the strategic objectives for service and system change while  working closely with various Directors and other Senior Executives within the Agency to ensure  the proposed changes align with the direction of the National Digital Health Strategy and offer significant value for end-users, partner Agencies, and the Agency itself.

Skills and Experience

To be successful in this role you will have a strong background in a senior level management position with a demonstrated ability to manage a service delivery team in a complex environment with significant strategy, integration and technology components.

You must possess demonstrated experience in the application of technology solutions, experience of delivering outcomes across a range of programs, strong analysis experience with demonstrated Quality Assurance skills.

You must be a pragmatic problem solver with outstanding communication, interpersonal, and organisation skills with the ability to condense complex technical information into succinct briefs and reporting format.

This role will see you collaborating with senior executives as well as managing complex stakeholder relationships, both internally and externally as well as a team.

You can view the full position description here

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https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/parler-expanding-rapidly-as-haven-for-free-speech-with-rightwing-flavour/news-story/348966480b7b3374edfa0e88b04f9cde

Parler expands rapidly as haven for free speech with right-wing flavour

Conservative social media site Parler shows that offering free speech to everyone is a lofty ideal.

Parler is a microblogging site similar to Twitter in function with a base among right-wing US conservatives, Republican politicians and supporters of US President Donald Trump, although Trump appears not to have a personal account there.

In recent weeks Parler has been rallying support among MAGA (Make America Great Again) supporters to invalidate election results in the US. It carries a large number of posts of articles claiming alleged voting irregularities that don’t seem to appear much elsewhere.

Co-founder John Matze denies that Parler seeks to be an echo chamber for conservative views, although that appears to be the end result.

Matze, a software engineer and developer with an interest in conservative economics, formed Parler in 2018 with Jared Thomson, also a software engineer and programmer.

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https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/defence/china-russia-spreading-lies-digital-discord-former-us-national-security-agency-director-mike-rogers/news-story/86b8efb90dda1001a814cff2129a2dd8

China, Russia spreading lies, digital discord: former US National Security Agency director Mike Rogers

Geoff Chambers

Chinese and Russian state-based cyber actors are orchestrating industrial-scale malicious attacks and disinformation campaignsto gain global competitive advantage and weaken democratic institutions via “manipulation” and theft of sensitive data.

Amid a surge in cyber attacks targeting Australian governments, critical infrastructure and private sector firms, former US National Security Agency director Mike Rogers has called on Western nations to work together in neutralising active threats.

Admiral Rogers, who also led the US Cyber Command and Central Security Service under presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama, said establishing cyber deterrence frameworks would help nations manage fast-evolving threats.

“My attitude always was: can you explain to me how Russia, China, North Korea and the Iranians have come to the conclusion that cyber represents low-risk — that they can engage in aggressive activities in cyber and not trigger a significant response … or at least a response that they think outweighs the benefits?” Admiral Rogers told The Australian.

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https://www.sbs.com.au/language/english/audio/new-social-norms-replace-traditional-ways-of-socialising-after-coronavirus-pandemic

New social norms replace traditional ways of socialising after coronavirus pandemic

Social etiquette is no longer the same in the highly infectious coronavirus environment we find ourselves in. Keeping a physical distance, sneezing into your elbow, and regular hand washing are just some of the new norm.

23 November, 2020

By Amy Chien-Yu Wang, MP Singh

“Alone Together” is a pilot study Dr De Souza recently launched in partnership with RMIT, Monash University, University of Melbourne, Bendigo Hospital and the Australian Digital Health Agency. The study seeks to uncover how COVID-19 is affecting seniors aged over 65 from multicultural backgrounds.

What we found in our research is that people are very very afraid of challenging strangers or even people that are neighbours about behaviours. One of the women that I spoke to in Sydney said that she was afraid of challenging anyone because she could be exposed to stranger violence.

Podgorska says perhaps the hardest social etiquette to observe is not being allowed to hug and kiss.  

We all had to learn the elbow greetings or just a wave so depending on how close they are but they try so we have to keep remind each other - no hugging and kissing and that’s a big thing cause for multicultural people, we really love hugs and kisses and dance and food. I did not realise how much we done this until it was all taken away, you know.

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https://www.childprotection.sa.gov.au/carers/how-dcp-works/my-health-record

Information about My Health Record is available for carers and young people:

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Comments more than welcome!

David.

 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Privacy Act Review: Seven key considerations for the healthcare industry

It is important people start to understand the implications and much needed additional protections and instruments review presents. Emphasised when you look at the likes of ADHA, how ill equipped they are to be operating a national database of personal information. ADHA and its collection of ideological bollox is set to reimage digital disasters.

Half of the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm. But the harm does not interest them. T.S Elliott