-----
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! Its pretty sad!
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.
-----
https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/social-media-corroding-standards-says-pm-as-he-admonishes-backbencher-20210326-p57e8r
Social media corroding standards, says PM as he
admonishes backbencher
Phillip Coorey Political
editor
Mar 26, 2021
– 5.56pm
The
Prime Minister Scott Morrison says that social media is corroding societal
values as Labor demanded he sack backbencher Andrew Laming after the Queensland
MP was exposed for harassing two female constituents, including on social
media.
Mr
Laming apologised in Parliament late on Thursday afternoon after learning the
Nine Network was about to air the story, but Labor leader Anthony Albanese said
that was not enough.
“I
saw distraught people on TV last night who have suffered from trolling from a
federal MP against his own constituents,” he said.
“Andrew
Laming isn’t fit to continue as a Member of Parliament.
“And
if the Liberal Party want to continue to associate themselves with him as what
a federal public representative would be, then I’ll look forward to campaigning
with the Labor candidate in that seat and sending a message, not just to Andrew
Laming, but to the entire country that that sort of behaviour is completely
unacceptable by removing Andrew Laming from the Parliament.”
https://www.healthcareit.com.au/article/majority-respondents-anticipate-receiving-vaccine-survey-careside
Majority of respondents anticipate receiving vaccine in
a survey by The CareSide
Roy Chiang |
24 Mar 2021
A
study conducted in December 2020 by TheCareSide, a home healthcare provider in
Australia, found
that a majority of the respondents anticipated receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.
The survey saw 1122 Australians being interviewed to find out more about
acceptance levels of the COVID-19 vaccine among the general public in
Australia, with 69% of them interested in getting vaccinated.
“Our
research suggests the country is in a strong position as the vaccines roll out.
The overwhelming majority of Australians plan to get vaccinated and believe the
national government has done a good job of managing the pandemic so far. This
is good news for the whole country, but especially for the elderly and other
vulnerable groups. The government's ongoing communication strategy will be
critical to ensure that there's trust in the safety and efficacy of the
vaccines,” said Gareth Mahon, CEO of CareSide.
WHY IT
MATTERS
The
elderly expressed the most interest in getting inoculated, with more than three
out of four of them planning to do so. Young adults aged between 18 and 39 also
demonstrated similar levels of interest, with 71% of them planning to receive
the vaccine. For respondents aged 40-64 years old, the results indicated that
only 57% of them wanted to receive the vaccine.
In
addition to the Pfizer and Astra Zeneca vaccines which have been officially
approved for use in Australia in February 2021, ten other vaccines have also
been approved globally. Australia has also fared relatively well in comparison
to the majority of other developed countries, with only 29,000 diagnosed cases
and 900 deaths in total so far.
-----
https://www.zdnet.com/article/protecting-women-in-the-cloud-esafety-hopes-the-online-safety-act-will-do-just-that/
Protecting women in the cloud: eSafety hopes the Online
Safety Act will do just that
The
commissioner said a lot of online abuse is rooted in misogyny and intended to
silence women's voices. She hopes the new Online Safety Act will go some way to
prevent such abuse.
By Asha Barbaschow |
March 23, 2021 -- 23:03 GMT (10:03 AEDT) | Topic: Security
Australian
eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant is hopeful the country's new Online Safety Act will go some way to protecting women and
girls in the online world as people grapple with how to do exactly that in the offline world.
"You
wouldn't be surprised that 70% of the reports of all forms of abuse that come
into our office are from women and girls," Inman Grant told senators on
Tuesday night. "That even applies to child sexual abuse where 90% of the
perpetrators are men and 84% of the victims are girls.
"That
applies to image-based abuse, that applies to youth-based cyberbullying, and
certainly to adult cyber abuse."
There
are a handful of programs Inman Grant said that "cover the continuum of
women and the spectrum of harms". One receiving a lot of attention from
her office is a program aiming to help women experiencing domestic and family
violence.
-----
https://gcphn.org.au/my-health-record-national-provider-portal-updates-to-support-covid-19-vaccination-program/
My Health Record National Provider Portal updates to
support COVID-19 vaccination program
This latest update has introduced a new consolidated
view of immunisation information that supports the Australian Government’s
COVID-19 vaccination program.
The view includes:
·
onscreen alert for the second COVID-19 vaccination due date (if
the first vaccination has been given)
·
Immunisation history from the Australian Immunisation Register and
the individual’s record (currently available within shared health summaries and
event summaries) that can be filtered by source.
This information will no longer be available in the Medicare
Overview, but will instead be more easily located in the dedicated view within
the National Provider Portal. If you are accessing My Health Record through a
clinical information system, the immunisation information will still be
available in the Medicare Overview. The consolidated immunisation view will be
available through clinical information systems in the coming months. Further
information and screenshots can be viewed in this presentation.
-----
https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=25ed3236-4769-4b69-b22e-ae806ffebd88
Apple vs COVIDSafe app: a cautionary tale about health
data
Gilbert + Tobin
- Peter Waters
Australia March 25 2021
Digital
transformation of healthcare is supposed to be the big positive outcome from
the COVID-19 pandemic. While telehealth was clearly a valuable response, use of
a video or telephone call between doctor and patient is at the lower end of the
scale of digital technology.
Yet,
over in the commercial space, thanks to our smart phones, tablets and (even)
watches, the quality, reliability and accessibility of our own personal digital
health data has never been so outstanding.
Why
do governments face systemic problems with digital health data compared to the
global tech providers?
What
is digital health data?
Historically,
‘health data’ was limited in nature to the information manually collected
during private interactions with medical professionals. Its use was confined to
the institution’s four walls, meaning that access to data by another individual
or institution was complicated.
-----
https://insideageing.com.au/technology-as-an-enabler-for-better-care-digital-transformation-set-to-grow/
Technology as an enabler for better care: Digital
transformation set to grow
By Rosanne Barrett
25 March 2021
The
COVID-19-inspired digital transformation of Australia’s aged care industry is
set to accelerate following the release of recommendations from the Royal
Commission into Quality and Safety.
The
high-profile national inquiry’s final report last month highlighted the
significant uptake in information technology processes required, calling
for universal adoption of digital technology for personal or
clinical care by mid-2022 with increased funding for home-based assistive
technologies and real-time monitoring to follow.
The
aged care sector is known to have significant opportunities to incorporate
technology across care, with a recent report citing just one in three aged care
organisations used holistic consumer records.
Rohling
International’s CEO and Managing Partner Darren Gossling said technology could
be harnessed to improve operations, efficiency, security and ultimately, care
for residents and clients.
-----
https://www.health.gov.au/news/flood-information-and-support
Flood information and support
The floods
affecting New South Wales and Queensland can also impact our health in many
ways. Learn more on how you can access medical help you need, and what the
Australian Government is doing to support your health during this time.
Date
published: 25 March 2021
Type:
News
Intended
audience: General public
Telehealth
and e-health support
The
Australian Government has provided easier access to MBS telehealth items.
If
you have been impacted by the floods, you don’t need to be a previous patient
of your general practice to access telehealth support. Telehealth can help
those who can’t access their health professional face-to-face including for
electronic prescriptions.
Access
to My Health Record is also available. There is essential health information to
assist pharmacies during this emergency if people don’t have a prescription.
Disaster
assistance
The
Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment and Disaster Recovery Allowance
supports those who have already suffered significant loss.
It
provides a one-off financial assistance to eligible Australians affected by
storms and floods. You can find more information on the Disaster
Assist website.
-----
https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/yes-or-no-congress-fumes-over-big-tech-s-answers-on-misinformation-20210326-p57e92.html
‘Yes or no?’: Congress fumes over Big Tech’s answers on
misinformation
By
Diane Bartz and Elizabeth Culliford
March
26, 2021 — 8.54am
Washington: In their first appearance before Congress since Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol, the chief executives of Facebook, Google and Twitter were asked
by US lawmakers whether their platforms bore some responsibility for the riot:
“yes or no?”
Social media has been widely blamed for amplifying calls to
violence and spreading misinformation that contributed to the January 6 attempt
to violently overturn the election results.
Only Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey replied “yes” to the question, but
said the “broader ecosystem” had to be taken into account. Sundar Pichai, chief
executive of Google parent Alphabet said the company always feels a sense of
responsibility but it was a complex question.
Facebook Inc’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg said his company was
responsible for building “effective systems”. He also said that the rioters and
former president Donald Trump should be held accountable.
-----
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214782921000191
Evaluating the quality and
safety of health-related apps and e-tools: Adapting the Mobile App Rating Scale
and developing a quality assurance protocol
Anna
E.Roberts Tracey
A.Davenport TobyWongHyei-Won
MoonIan
B.Hickie Haley
M.LaMonica
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.invent.2021.100379Get rights and content
Highlights
•
The adapted Mobile Application Rating
Scale (A-MARS) is a reliable scale to evaluate the quality of health-related
apps and e-tools.
•
Important considerations include evidence
of effectiveness as well as goal setting strategies and interoperability.
•
The A-MARS is appropriate for use by
health professionals; however, they may require support from a digital
navigator.
-----
https://www.itwire.com/business-it-news/data/80-of-anz-cyber-attack-victims-lost-data-survey.html
Thursday, 25 March 2021 10:56
80% of ANZ cyber attack victims lost data: survey
By Stephen Withers
Research
carried out by Tech Research Asia for data management specialist Commvault
found that 60% of companies surveyed had experienced at least one cyber attack
in the last 12 months, and of those, 80% lost data as a result.
Commvault
area vice president for ANZ David Rajkovic told iTWire "As
Australia and New Zealand organisations continue to evolve into hybrid
workplace operations, massive amounts of data is being generated across every
business function.
"This
data sprawl, is a business-critical problem, especially in the light of the
current challenging cybersecurity landscape – robust data management and strict
controls on the data environment can help avoid breaches.
"Unfortunately,
60 per cent of the companies we spoke to have experienced some form of a
cyberattack over the last 12 months. 80% of those attacked lost data as a
result. Firms need to think beyond backup, be proactive and shift to a
recovery-ready state so that when an attack occurs, compromised data is 100%
recoverable."
-----
https://wildhealth.net.au/aidh-chair-bettina-mcmahon-on-the-future-of-digital-health/
25 March 2021
AIDH chair Bettina McMahon on the future of digital
health
ADHA AIDH Interoperability
Posted by Lynnette
Hoffman
In
November, Bettina McMahon took over as chair of the Australian Institute of
Digital Health, the peak body for digital health which has about 2,000 members,
including individual health tech leaders, corporations and healthcare
organisations.
Ms
McMahon, the former chief operating officer and interim CEO of the Australian
Digital Health Agency, shares her views on where the industry is heading.
Building
an evidence-based business case
Along
with advocacy work, a key priority for the Institute is providing
evidence-based advice. For example, corporates need to be able to attribute
specific benefit to a digital initiative to make their business case, but that often
proves difficult.
“The
big gap is benefits realisation,” Ms McMahon says. “Really pinning down that
ROI and putting a dollar value on it has been called out by many of our members
as problematic.”
-----
https://www.seek.com.au/job/51849689?type=standout
Senior Solution Architect
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
Reporting
to the Director, Enterprise Architecture in the Architecture, Informatics and
Product Ownership Branch, this position is required to provide technical
leadership and guidance, translate business requirements from different
stakeholders into technical solution and maintain the integrity of business
critical systems and proactively drive/guide the agreed deliverables of the end
to end solution.
As
part of the Enterprise Architecture Section at the Australian Digital Health
Agency (the Agency), the role of the Senior Solution Architect is to support
the Agency’s roadmap and strategy for all the Agency’s products and services,
as well as adhering to architectural standards, presenting solutions and
providing review and assurance of solutions.
Key
accountabilities include;
- Supporting the Director, Enterprise
Architecture and Principal Architects in the development of the end-to-end
solution architecture and design for IT projects or initiatives based on
business and/or functional requirements in accordance with standards and
guidelines.
- Review and ensure solution designs
conform to end-to-end interoperability in accordance with Agency
standards, framework, roadmap and principles.
- Architectural governance role during
the delivery, providing technical leadership for solution designers and
development teams.
- Leading in the analysis of current
state system analysis for large and complex solutions producing the
appropriate documentation and artefacts in meaningful representations to
benefit target state roadmaps and solution design.
- Leading in the analysis and
development of transition state (gap analysis) solution options.
- Leading the process of capturing and
translating business requirements into system specifications.
- Produce cross functional workflows
and sequence diagrams of key system components.
- Contributing to the process of
business process design, case design, and information design and
modelling.
- Contribute to the content of
internal and external communications.
- Contribute to the identification,
coordination and management of test cases.
- Supporting the analysis of business
operations
- Follow all Agency policies,
procedures and instructions and take reasonable care for your own health,
safety and wellbeing in the workplace.
-----
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-24/australian-minister-in-phishing-attack-as-report-reveals-hk-link
Technology
Australian
Minister’s Phone Hacked as Report Reveals Hong Kong Link
By Jason Scott
and Jamie
Tarabay
25 March
2021, 10:14 am AEDT
A second
senior Australian government minister has revealed his mobile phone was hacked
through the Telegram messaging app, with a media report saying the phishing
scam was aimed at revealing contact details of pro-democracy activists in Hong
Kong.
Health
Minister Greg Hunt’s office said in an emailed statement on Thursday that “a
cyber security attempt to impersonate the minister has been referred to the
Australian Federal Police and investigations are underway.” That follows
Monday’s statement by Finance Minister Simon Birmingham that he had been
targeted.
The
Australian newspaper reported late Wednesday that the details of pro-democracy
Hong Kongers were provided to someone impersonating Birmingham, with one of the
recipients being asked: “Do you have any contacts in Hong Kong?”
The person
handed over details of Hong Kongers without realizing they were speaking to a
cyber-hacker, the paper said, citing the person who it didn’t identify.
Birmingham
told a parliamentary hearing on Tuesday that the hacker had gained access to
contacts in his government phone who had the Telegram app. He said there was
also another request from the person pretending to be the minister asking for
money to be transferred to a bank account outside Australia.
-----
https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/former-trump-vaccination-boss-fired-from-gsk-job-20210325-p57dtp
US attorneys says anti-vaccination groups have 59m
followers on social platforms
Reuters
Attorneys general for 12 US states on Wednesday accused Facebook
and Twitter of doing too little to stop people from using their platforms to
spread false information that coronavirus vaccines are unsafe.
In a letter to Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Jack
Dorsey, the Democratic attorneys general said “anti-vaxxers” lacking medical
expertise and often motivated by financial gain have used the platforms to
downplay the danger of COVID-19 and exaggerate the risks of vaccination.
They called on both companies to enforce their own community
guidelines by removing or flagging vaccine misinformation.
The letter said anti-vaxxers control 65 per cent of public
anti-vaccine content on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and have more than 59
million followers on those platforms and Google’s YouTube.
-----
https://medicalrepublic.com.au/how-ai-could-warn-of-mental-health-relapse/42526
24 March 2021
How AI could warn of mental health relapse
Clinical
Mental Health Psychiatry Technology
Posted by Lydia
Hales
A new AI tool
finds red flags in general practice patient data for those at risk of a severe
mental health episode – before it’s too late.
This big data
approach could help GPs intervene before patients silently drop out of care,
and then relapse.
Developed by
Adelaide-based researchers, the AI2 software sifted MBS and PBS data to flag
patients prescribed antipsychotics who were at increased risk of non-adherence
or disengagement with health services, leading to interventions for roughly 10%
of the cohort.
“The
technology may assist clinicians and services to detect non-adherence behaviour
early, thereby triggering interventions that have the potential to reduce rates
of mental health deterioration and acute illness relapse,” they wrote in Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry.
-----
https://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/clinical/advance-care-plans-on-my-health-record-a-step-in-t
Advance care plans on My Health Record ‘a step in the
right direction’
What are the
benefits of linking advance care planning documents with My Health Record?
Morgan Liotta ADHA Propaganda
24 Mar 2021
One of the
challenges of advance care planning is ensuring that an up-to-date copy of
relevant documents, such as advance care directives, are accessible to the
treating doctors.
This is according to Associate Professor Joel Rhee, Chair of RACGP Specific
Interests Cancer and Palliative Care. But better linkage with My Health Record
could be a solution.
‘Advance care planning documents placed in the My Health Record will improve
[patients’] accessibility to acute care clinicians and other health
professionals at the time of need when important clinical decisions need to be
made,’ he told newsGP.
‘Enabling patients to personally upload these documents into My Health Record
has been a step in the right direction.’
To mark National
Advance Care Planning Week (22–26 March), the Australian Digital Health
Agency (ADHA) has released a new set of national
guidelines to assist healthcare providers in supporting patients wishing to
add advance care planning documents to their My Health Record.
-----
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/the-rock-star-health-programs-making-a-big-impact/news-story/685fc0ff0e75e647820aad69f1b15ef0
The rock star health programs making a big impact
·
By RHIANNON DOWN
·
12:48PM March 24, 2021
Healthcare
innovations designed to assist the ten million Australians managing chronic
physical conditions are often only available to small sectors of the population
and would save the health system billions if brought to the wider public, a new
report has found.
A
report by the Productivity Commission detailing the dozens of pioneering health
projects making a positive impact shows that these programs have the potential
to change the lives of millions, as the number of people living with chronic
conditions edges closer to 40 per cent.
A
program that sends friendly texts to participants to remind them to take their
medication, a service running group and one-on-one sessions with people living
with chronic pain and a clinic that travels to remote areas to support hepatitis
B sufferers, were among the programs examined in the report.
Productivity
commissioner Richard Spencer said chronic health conditions – that costs the
health system about $38 billion annually – affected a growing sector of the
population, with Australia ranking eighth in the world for life expectancy but
third for time spent in poor health.
-----
https://www.gilmorehealth.com/how-australia-implemented-e-prescribing-to-service-its-remote-areas/
How Australia Implemented E-Prescribing to Service Its
Remote Areas
By Dr. Sony Sherpa | Published
on March 23, 2021
Reviewed By Gilmore Health | On: March 23, 2021
The
world of science and technology is constantly changing and evolving, always for
the better. The purpose of this change is to improve the quality of care and
make the entire process more efficient.
E-prescribing
(electronic prescribing) is an example of such evolution. It focuses on
digitalizing the prescription process to increase patient safety and improve
the workflow. E-prescription basically refers to the immediate filling of a
prescription in the pharmacy after the doctor writes the prescription onto a
digital device and puts it in the system.
The
service was initiated in 2003, and it was recently adopted by the Australian
government as a part of the Australian Government Budget Measure. This
alteration will still allow the patients to choose the pharmacy they would like
to pick up their prescriptions from. It just reduces the need for paper
prescriptions although they are still available if the prescriber or the
patient chooses to opt for them.
-----
https://medicalrepublic.com.au/why-telstra-buying-medicaldirector-might-be-good-for-general-practice/42426
23 March 2021
Why Telstra buying MedicalDirector might be good for
general practice
Posted by Jeremy
Knibbs
One
of the big tech trends brought upon us by COVID-19 is the willingness of
government, private health and corporates to embrace cloud-based technology to
achieve interoperability in healthcare at scale.
As
an example, HealthDirect employed technology from cloud-based patient
management software (PMS) vendor MediRecords early in COVID to achieve a
nationwide scalable clinical notes and tele operator prioritisation solution
for its contract workforce of COVID help line workers, within one week.
MediRecords was also used to solve a state wide solution to payments for
specialists working in all public hospitals in Queensland.
MediRecords
and other specialist cloud-based operators are attracting a lot of interest
from players who are large, want scale quickly, want seamless interoperability
in a contained solution, and are happy to bypass most of the hassle of trying
to connect to the older server-based world. They are also rapidly acquiring
contracts with innovative new start ups offering disruptive new ways to deliver
care, again, around the core primary care market.
Technology
wise, GPs live in an old server-based world, mainly via Best Practice and
MedicalDirector desktop implementations. Each of these major PMS vendors are
still primarily architected on old server-based technology.
------
https://www.miragenews.com/advance-personal-planning-is-your-voice-532038/
March 22, 2021 4:55 pm AEDT
Advance Personal Planning is your voice
It
is National Advance Care Planning Week (22 – 26 March) and Territory Palliative
Care is encouraging Territorians to learn more about advance personal planning.
Advance
personal planning gives people the opportunity to plan for what you do, or
don’t, want if you become unable to make or communicate your own preferences.
Territory
Palliative Care Occupational Therapist Julie Rankin from the Top End Health
Service said advance personal planning was an on-going process of shared
planning for current and future health care.
“Advance
personal planning helps to ensure that a person’s preferences, beliefs and
values about health care are known and respected if they are too unwell to
speak for themselves. It also benefits those who are close to them,” said Ms
Rankin.
“Research
has shown that families of people who have done advance personal planning have
less anxiety and stress when asked to make important healthcare decisions for
other people”.
-----
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/technology/singularityu-australia-summit-to-showcase-good-tech/news-story/42881c0e5402c9cf6eed9096f264f3c3
SingularityU Australia summit showcases ‘good tech’
Chris Griffith
·
8:00AM March 23, 2021
A gym for stroke patients and maps for the visually impaired are
among technologies to be showcased at this year’s SingularityU Australia
summit.
The organisation is holding its second annual summit on Tuesday
and Wednesday, a return after the cancellation of last year’s event due to the
pandemic.
Co-CEO Christina Gerakiteys says the summit showcases the good
applications of technology, and the entrepreneurs behind it. “We hear a lot
about tech being used for not so wonderful purposes,” she says.
“My response to that is it‘s not the technology that causes the
harm, it’s the humans behind the technology. If we can create a more humane
society, we’re going to have less people that will use tech for not so good
purposes.”
Some of this tech is on display.
-----
https://www.itnews.com.au/news/facebook-takes-down-13-billion-fake-accounts-562467
Facebook takes down 1.3 billion fake accounts
By Staff Writer on
Mar 23, 2021 6:44AM
In three months.
Facebook
took down 1.3 billion fake accounts between October and December and had over
35,000 people working on tackling misinformation on its platform.
The
company also removed more than 12 million pieces of content about Covid-19 and
vaccines that global health experts flagged as misinformation, it said in a blog post.
False
claims and conspiracies about the coronavirus vaccines have proliferated on
social media platforms including Facebook and Twitter during the pandemic.
-----
https://www.itwire.com/open-sauce/after-all-the-headlines,-whatever-happened-to-them-vaccines.html
Authors
Opinion
Monday, 22 March 2021 12:26
After all the headlines, whatever happened to them
vaccines?
By Sam Varghese
Despite
the blaring headlines that six million
more Australians are eligible to get the COVID-19 vaccine from today (Monday),
this does not mean they can get themselves vaccinated.
The
common theme among clinics which are certified to provide the vaccination is
that there is no stock available.
One
can only join a waiting list when one tries to get an appointment. Then the
institution in question pledges to inform the person concerned when vaccine
stock lands, and at that stage a booking can be made.
When
that will happen is anybody's guess. And in case you think I am pulling your
leg, dear reader, this is from my personal experience.
-----
https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/trump-planning-to-launch-his-own-social-media-platform-adviser-tells-fox-news-20210322-p57cr7.html
Trump planning to launch his own social media platform,
adviser tells Fox News
By Andrea
Shalal
March 22, 2021 — 5.23am
Former
US President Donald Trump, suspended
from Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites after the
January 6 attack on the Capitol, plans to launch his own platform in two to
three months, one of his senior advisers told Fox News on Sunday.
Jason
Miller, a spokesman for Trump’s 2020 campaign, told the network that Trump
would re-enter the social media space with a new platform of his own that would
“completely redefine the game.”
“This
is something that I think will be the hottest ticket in social media,” he said
on Fox News’ Media
Buzz program.
“Everybody
is going to be waiting and watching to see what exactly President Trump does,
but it will be his own platform,” he added.
-----
https://www.miragenews.com/good-things-happening-to-support-digital-health-531756/
March 22, 2021 8:16 am AEDT
Good things happening to support digital health
literacy
Australian
Digital Health Agency ADHA Propaganda
A
digital health literacy initiative funded by the Australian Digital Health
Agency last year is reaping significant rewards and helping bridge the digital
divide that precludes many Australians accessing improved health services.
Last
year, 71 community organisations across Australia were selected by the Good
Things Foundation to teach digital health literacy skills through the Health My
Way program and improve digital inclusion.
Good
Things Foundation is a social change charity that supports people to improve
their lives through the use of technology and builds understanding and skills
to allow Australians to realise the benefits of the evolving digital health
system.
The
Foundation trained and resourced 232 digital health mentors from the funded
community organisations to deliver the project. Eighty per cent of participants
in the pilot said their digital health literacy skills and confidence had
increased.
-----
https://apo.org.au/node/311494
Securing a positive health care technology legacy from
COVID-19
16 Mar 2021
Tim Horton, Tom Hardie, Shakira Mahadeva, Will Warburton
Publisher
Health Foundation
Health services planning Digital transformation Health services accessibility National Health Service (NHS) Medical technology Primary health care United Kingdom
Resources
Securing
a positive health care technology legacy from COVID-19
Description
Over
the past year, the NHS has been through an extraordinary period of challenge
and change. At the forefront of this has been the incredible effort and
commitment shown by those in the health service in dealing with the impact of
COVID-19. Also significant is the way services have had to rapidly adapt to the
new reality of delivering health care in a pandemic.
Key
points:
- During the pandemic, there has been
increased NHS use of both established and newer technologies to reduce
face-to-face contact and manage demand.
- While technologies were rolled out
with impressive speed, some aspects of implementation – such as
evaluation, co-design and customisation – will necessarily have been
shortcut, and will need revisiting after the emergency phase of the
pandemic is over.
- Among members of the public and NHS
staff who reported increased use of technology, the overwhelming majority
said they had positive experiences – impressive given the severe pressure
on the NHS.
- Through a refresh of the NHS Long Term Plan and other
national strategies, policymakers will need to support front-line teams to
revisit aspects of implementation and 'reorient' technology-based
interventions to serve longer term quality and productivity objectives.
Central to this will be evaluating their impact on care quality and
developing a vision of ‘what good looks like’.
-----
https://insightplus.mja.com.au/2021/9/covid-19-vax-rollout-immunisation-register-update-vital/
COVID-19 vax rollout: immunisation register update
vital
Authored
by Sarah Colyer
Issue 9 / 22 March 2021
URGENT
updates to the Australian Immunisation Register (AIR) are needed to optimise
Australia’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout and ensure vulnerable patient groups are
accessing recommended vaccines, experts say.
Under
new legislation, all COVID-19 vaccines and seasonal influenza
vaccines administered must be reported to the AIR. In addition, all other
vaccines given under the National Immunisation Program (NIP) must be reported
to the AIR from 1 July 2021.
However,
experts say data in the register fall far short of what is required to evaluate
the success of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout and other immunisation programs in
specific medically at-risk populations.
In a Perspective in the MJA, Dr Jane Tuckerman of the Murdoch
Children’s Research Institute in Melbourne, together with leading clinicians,
says there is an “urgent need to have the ability to identify individuals with
risk factors such as pregnancy or medically at-risk status”.
-----
https://insightplus.mja.com.au/2021/9/medication-errors-weve-all-made-them/
Medication errors: we’ve all made them
Authored
by Aditi Halder
Issue 9 / 22 March 2021
“My
mother has been rather confused and drowsy the last few days, is something
wrong?” The junior doctor opened the chart. Not only was the hydromorphone
charted as regular instead of pro re nata, but the decimal point was clearly
misplaced, at a position reserved for the dose of the more commonly prescribed
drug, morphine.
THE
above situation would be infrequent, but not unheard of in almost any
Australian hospital. Despite widespread introduction of electronic prescribing
systems, the presence of pharmacists, and the careful checking by nurses,
medication errors are still a feature of morbidity and mortality meetings in
health care facilities.
Despite
all our training, the “five
rights” of medication administration – the right patient, the right
drug, the right route, the right dose, and the right time – are not always
fulfilled.
Patient
safety became a national
headline recently, with a case of a doctor inadvertently administering
four times the recommended dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to two elderly
patients in a nursing home. At the time, Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly
pointed out that in the early clinical trials of the Pfizer and BioNTech
vaccine, experiments were conducted with different doses, including four times
higher than what was eventually prescribed.
-----
https://www.hospitalhealth.com.au/content/technology/article/can-intelligent-automation-reduce-errors-in-the-healthcare-sector--1104188912
Can intelligent automation reduce errors in the
healthcare sector?
By Greg Eyre
Vice President, ANZ Blue Prism
Thursday, 18 March, 2021
By
automating processes and streamlining clinical pathways, intelligent automation
can empower the healthcare industry to provide better patient care.
Over
the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare systems worldwide have been
tested and placed under enormous strain. While in Australia, we’ve been
extremely fortunate to avoid the devastating scenes of inundated hospitals in
Europe, the pandemic has heightened the risk of overwhelming our health system
in a much less visible way.
A
combination of factors, such as the sudden flux in testing volume, the
additional burden placed on healthcare workers, the introduction of new
protocols and more, means medical errors pose a greater risk than ever before.
Aside from the dangerous health-based implications of these errors, we must
also consider the emotional impact on patients involved, as well as the legal
liabilities that may also ensue.
The
gravity of this kind of error has already been realised, with England making
headlines after a technical glitch caused almost 16,000 COVID-19 cases to go
unreported. Had a similar thing happened over the past week in Victoria with
the Holiday Inn cluster, would the state have faced a third wave?
-----
https://www.itnews.com.au/news/prime-ministers-department-among-agencies-to-fail-cyber-security-audit-562404
Prime Minister's department among agencies to fail
cyber security audit
By Justin Hendry on
Mar 22, 2021 7:04AM
"Vulnerable" to attack without missing Top
Four control.
Some
of the federal government’s most powerful departments are among those still
failing to fully implement mandatory cyber security controls, leaving them
“vulnerable” to attack, the national auditor has revealed.
A
handful of agencies are also continuing to assess themselves incorrectly
against the government’s protective security policy framework (PSPF), raising
further concerns about the usefulness of self-assessments.
In
its latest cyber resilience review released on Friday [pdf], the Australian National
Audit Office (ANAO) found none of the seven agencies it inspected had “fully
implemented all the mandatory Top Four mitigation strategies”.
The
audit looked at the Attorney-General’s Department (AGD); Department of Prime
Minister and Cabinet (PM&C); Department of Health; Department of Education,
Skills and Employment (DESE); Future Fund Management Agency; IP Australia; and
Austrade.
-----
https://ahra.org.au/our-work/data-driven-healthcare-improvement/
The
Australian Health Research Alliance (AHRA)
Data-Driven Healthcare Improvement
Modern
health services collect and generate enormous amounts of data, much of which
has the potential to contribute to the improvement of patient care and their
health outcomes.
But
data alone does not result in change. An integrated approach is vital to enable
the use of data to improve healthcare delivery.
Work
under this Initiative is split into three areas:
Learning Health Systems
The
Australian Health Research Alliance has prioritised the development of virtual
or actual data hubs which bring together academic, clinical and industry
stakeholders to create a Learning Health System (LHS).
In
December 2020, AHRA received
$1.9 million from the Medical Research Future Fund to test whether
new technology can improve access to the electronic medical records (eMRs) of
patients, and use the information to improve health outcomes and health service
responsiveness and delivery during a crisis such as COVID-19.
Led
by Monash Partners, the project brings together several members of the AHRA,
along with Alfred Health, Monash University, the National Centre of Health
Ageing (Peninsula Health), Outcome Health, King’s College London, the
Australian Digital Health Agency, Digital Health CRC and Safer Care Victoria.
-----
Comments more
than welcome!
David.
