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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! 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.
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‘It’s a long bow’: Social media ID push dubbed ineffective, a privacy risk
By Alex Druce
Updated April 2, 2021 — 7.13pmfirst published at 6.56pm
A proposal to force Australians to present 100 points of identification in order to get a social media account faces opposition as academics say it won’t halt online abuse as intended and could even strengthen the hand of Facebook and Twitter.
The measure is one of 88 recommendations made in a federal parliamentary committee report tabled this week that proposes a range of strategies to reduce family, domestic and sexual violence.
The cross-party report – chaired by Queensland LNP MP Andrew Wallace – called for users to be required to present 100 points of identification – which could include a driver’s licence, birth certificate, Medicare card, or passport – in order to open or maintain an existing social media account with companies such as Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.
The suggestion is that the measure would prevent people from using anonymous accounts to abuse and harass others. However, experts are not so sure.
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AU$723.1 million repaid to Centrelink customers for incorrect robo-debts
Having paid 416,000 customers, and attempting to find another 10,000, Services Australia is also prepared to handle a possible influx of traffic over the next month when JobKeeper ends.
By Asha Barbaschow | March 31, 2021 -- 05:53 GMT (16:53 AEDT) | Topic: Innovation
Services Australia has repaid a total of AU$723.1 million to Centrelink customers caught up in its compliance program, the automation of which was colloquially known as robo-debt.
To date, the agency has paid 416,000 customers, representing 96% of debts -- 507,000 debts -- that it considers to be "in scope".
The Centrelink Online Compliance Intervention (OCI) program from 2016 automatically compared the income declared to the ATO against income declared to Centrelink, which resulted in debt notices, along with a 10% recovery fee, being issued whenever a disparity in government data was detected.
One large error in the system was that it incorrectly calculated a recipient's income, basing fortnightly pay on their annual salary rather than taking a cumulative 26-week snapshot of what an individual was paid.
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The fire drill: Why everyone in a firm needs cyber security awareness
By Supratim Adhikari and Tim Biggs
April 3, 2021
The first sign of trouble came via an early-morning IT update last Sunday. Access to systems and services across the Nine Network was down and the issue was being investigated.
Updates of this sort are fairly routine in a large organisation and more often than not they amount to little more than a minor inconvenience. This one, however, was the first of many subsequent messages that offered little relief.
As it turns out, the system disruption picked up on Sunday - the gravity of which was relayed to Nine’s new boss, Mike Sneesby, as early as 3.30am - was just the first ripple from a ransomware attack that had compromised Nine’s corporate network. The assault not only temporarily knocked out Nine’s ability to broadcast programs in Sydney, it also threw the print production of its newspapers - The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and the Australian Financial Review - into disarray.
Between 9.30am and 10.00am the full force of the hack, the largest cyber attack on a media company in Australia’s history, started to filter through to the business. The corporate network had to be unplugged in a bid to limit the spread of the contagion and staff were told to work from home. Every part of the business was affected, including payroll, and staff were told not to open suspicious emails or messages on social media platforms such as LinkedIn.
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Elon Musk’s Starlink poised to shake up Australia’s broadband
April 2, 2021 — 5.00am
He’s disrupted the car and battery business, the space business, and has helped make cryptocurrency mainstream.
Now businessman Elon Musk stands on the cusp of upsetting Australia’s broadband business by providing internet from space through thousands of satellites passing in low Earth orbit.
Starlink, a division of SpaceX, is rolling out a constellation of thousands of satellites to provide space-based broadband on Earth. Nearly every time a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches, it carries more Starlink satellites with it.
Sorry, your browser doesn't support embedded videos.
The Starlink satellite train makes its way around the globe.
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Embracing the Royal Commission’s opportunities for digital transformation
1 April 2021
In this guest post, Tammy Sherwood CEO of Person Centred Software Australia highlights the importance of change and the urgency of putting digital technology at the forefront.
The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety has laid out an extensive plan to overhaul Australia’s aged care system, with increased transparency and technology adoption a key focus for the Commissioners. In fact, amongst its 148 recommendations, the report calls for all aged care providers to adopt digital care management systems by July 2022 and states that these should include electronic medication management whilst being interoperable with My Health Record.
Although digital technology within the aged care sector has grown significantly in recent years, there is still considerable progress to be made. Too many providers are operating on paper-based systems or out-of-date software, which prevent staff from being able to deliver the highest quality of care to their residents. It seems we are all aware of the negatives of using paper to plan and monitor care. However, not all care providers are aware of or have embraced technology that can drive efficiencies, minimise errors and, ultimately, transform care delivery.
Whether mindsets have been closed to adopting technology for financial reasons or because new IT is considered daunting to rollout, it is the responsibility of technology providers to ensure that aged care homes feel able to make this important transition – especially following the Commissioners recommendations. This is our opportunity to truly collaborate, encourage and enable homes to move away from the more traditional methods that they have favoured previously.
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https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=63a5aeff-73cf-4a00-ac89-c472920cee71
Gadens - Kelly Griffiths and Dudley Kneller
Australia March 31 2021
Digital therapeutics are defined as evidence-based therapeutic interventions that are driven by software programs to prevent, manage or treat a medical disorder or disease. As medical technological innovation continues at pace, more software applications and devices are under development to inform, drive or replace clinical decisions or directly provide therapy to a patient.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) regulates software-based medical devices, which includes digital therapeutics, or software that functions as a medical device in its own right. The TGA plays an important role to ensure that therapeutic products supplied to Australians are safe and effective. This is an independent evaluation that considers all scientific and clinical evidence available, giving consumers the confidence to know that a product approved by the regulator has undergone a thorough assessment of both its benefits and risks.
Throughout 2019 and 2020, the TGA undertook a series of consultations with stakeholders, including other global medical device regulators, leading to amendments to the Therapeutic Goods (Medical Devices) Regulations 2002 (Cth) to clarify the regulation of software-based medical devices.
These changes apply from 25 February 2021 and include:
- clarifying what are regulated software products;
- introducing new classification rules; and
- providing updates to the essential principles to more clearly express the requirements for software-based medical devices.
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Wednesday, 31 March 2021 18:11
When planning an investment in AI technology, begin with a ‘readiness checklist’
GUEST OPINION by Quan Pham, Founder and CEO at PI.EXCHANGE: The rapid development and increasing capabilities of a range of artificial intelligence (AI) tools is delivering some significant benefits to businesses around the world.
Capable of deriving insights from large volumes of data, AI is being utilised to sport trends and opportunities far faster than human teams could achieve.
AI tools are also able to automate growing numbers of business processes. This allows staff to focus on more value-adding activities while allowing the AI tools to undertake the repetitive, mundane tasks.
The tools are also able to assist in the area of research and development. By analysing large data sets and results, the tools allow the pace of research projects to be increased without having a detrimental impact on the final results. This can lead to getting new innovations and products to market faster than has previously been possible.
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https://stayhappening.com/e/my-health-record-information-session-seniors-festival-E2ISTJ1J7CR
My Health Record Information Session - Seniors Festival
Mon Apr 19 2021 at 11:00 am UTC+11:00 ADHA Propaganda
Liverpool City Library | Liverpool
Publisher/HostLiverpool City Library
Join us for
an information session about My Health Record. Learn about how My Health Record
is used by health care professionals, and how an individual can access their
own information online.
Bookings Essential.
Visit our website for more information and to book:
https://mylibrary.liverpool.nsw.gov.au/events/whats-on/my-health-record-information-session-seniors-festival
Liverpool City Library, 170 George Street, Liverpool, Australia
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https://www.ausdoc.com.au/news/stop-and-think-mdo-says-doctors-need-be-careful-social-media
'Stop and think': MDO says doctors need to be careful on social media
MIGA's chief lawyer Timothy Bowen says three doctors have been suspended for their online comments in just over 12 months.
31st March 2021
A medical defence organisation has urged members to “stop and think” before posting on social media, after three doctors were suspended over inappropriate online comments in the space of a year.
In each of the cases, the doctors were sanctioned over comments that were found to have undermined the medical profession.
All three remain suspended under emergency powers held by the Medical Board of Australia or following orders from a tribunal.
MIGA’s advocacy and legal manager Tim Bowen stressed each case involved comments seen as “really virulent” by regulators.
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Taiwan emerges as a wedge in the global chip war
Taiwan has suddenly become a major force in the strategic struggle between the US and China over artificial intelligence and chip technology.
And that’s adding to the tension between the two big super powers. China has always regarded Taiwan as part of its territory, but Taiwan has a defence pact with the US.
President Xi Jinping is becoming increasingly aggressive in the region and many military analysts see that aggression as a prelude to an invasion of Taiwan. But, while it might be right, that’s conventional military thinking being pursued simultaneously with the artificial intelligence war.
The artificial intelligence and chip tussle between China and the US came into prominence via the Huawei dispute.
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National ICU dashboard critical during Vic second wave
Tuesday, 30 March, 2021
The Critical Health Resources Information System (CHRIS) — a national tool for monitoring and sharing intensive care unit (ICU) capacity — has been described as a vital component of Victoria’s COVID-19 response, with potential to augment existing healthcare monitoring systems, according to its developers.
Dr David Pilcher — an intensivist at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, and Chair of the Centre for Outcome and Resource Evaluation with the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society (ANZICS) — and colleagues detailed the development and success of CHRIS in the Medical Journal of Australia.
“In late March 2020, rising numbers of COVID-19-related admissions to ICUs were observed throughout Australia,” Dr Pilcher and colleagues wrote.
“ANZICS and the Australian Government Department of Health [DoH] recognised that ICU demand was unlikely to be uniform, that capacity might be exceeded in one region but not in another, and that matching ICU resources to areas of greatest need might be required.
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Enhancing the virtual patient experience: 10 etiquette tips
By Alex
Thornhill, EfficientIP*
Tuesday, 30 March, 2021
Virtual medical consultations are the new gold standard in distanced medical care. Because of the pandemic, telehealth is becoming increasingly commonplace, as it allows patients to receive care and monitoring without the risk of in-clinic interactions.
Virtual consultations have also become the norm for thousands of patients who need follow-up consultations and regular condition monitoring, while still maintaining social distancing. These consultations are easy for patients to access at any place and time, making them risk-free and convenient for both themselves and their healthcare providers.
Although virtual consults offer myriad benefits, they can pose some challenges because of the distance involved. Doctors and healthcare providers must compensate for the impersonal nature of telehealth with proper virtual consultation etiquette. This ensures that their patients receive the level of care they expect.
Here are 10 tips for enhancing the virtual patient experience and practising good etiquette during online appointments.
1. Reduce or minimise patient waiting times
Most doctors and healthcare professionals will schedule virtual consultations for specific times. It is important to ensure that proper scheduling guidelines are in place within a practice. This will help avoid overbooking and give each patient enough time to address their concerns adequately. If appointments are running behind schedule, patients should be called or sent a message to let them know so they can prepare for the delay.
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Calls to regulate online hate talk
Minister for Women Marise Payne has called for strong new regulation to ensure hateful conversations on social media platforms do not erode the fabric of public discussion.
Senator Payne lashed out at social media for being harmful, calling for it to be handled like other social problems such as drink-driving or drug-taking.
During Scott Morrison’s cabinet reshuffle announcement, the minister claimed social media had strayed away from serving a “social good” and instead had become toxic.
“Where we have seen in the past things in our societies which are dangerous, which are harmful to society, we have overwhelmingly taken steps to put provisions in place to protect people from that harm,” Senator Payne said.
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Nine cyber attack has all the hallmarks of ransomware, without the ransom
By Tim Biggs, Lisa Visentin and Sumeyya Ilanbey
Updated March 29, 2021 — 6.42pmfirst published at 12.37pm
Security experts say the cyber attack launched against Nine Entertainment carries hallmarks of a ransomware extortion attempt, but the lack of any demands suggests hackers were after sensitive company data or trying to disrupt its media services.
The attack that hit Nine on Sunday targeted its broadcast TV business and not its publishing arm. However, measures put in place to stop it from spreading continued to affect the company, including the print production of its newspapers including The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.
A number of internal services continue to be disrupted, including page layouts, loading of pictures and graphics. Production and access to news websites has not been affected.
In a message to staff on Monday night, Nine chief executive Mike Sneesby said the cyber attack was “significant in scale with high potential to disrupt our business”.
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https://www.afr.com/chanticleer/key-questions-follow-nine-s-cyber-attack-20210329-p57ex9
Key questions follow Nine’s cyber attack
The cyber disruption at Nine comes in the midst of a wave of criminal and nation-state attacks that take advantage of employee ignorance of phishing emails.
Mar 30, 2021 – 12.00am
It is understandable that Nine Entertainment’s chief information and technology officer, Damian Cronan, was too busy to talk to the company’s journalists on Monday.
He was in the midst of handling a devastating cyber attack that stopped Nine’s live broadcasts on Sunday morning and severely interrupted production of The Australian Financial Review, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
The attack could impact the company’s operations for several weeks as systems are repaired, and Cronan and his team conduct forensic analysis of what happened.
So far, he has followed the textbook approach to a cyber attack by shutting down the company’s networks to contain and remediate the breach. Also, he has requested assistance from the Australian Signals Directorate.
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https://www.afr.com/policy/foreign-affairs/australia-s-a-soft-cyber-target-20210328-p57esa
Australia’s a soft cyber target
As the demand curve of digital risks grows exponentially, it is exposing the yawning gap between the flat, minimally growing supply line of cybersecurity skills and solutions.
Lesley Seebeck Contributor
Mar 29, 2021 – 4.43pm
Australia is proving to be a softer cyber target than we had expected.
It’s not simply that a major news organisation, Nine (publisher of The Australian Financial Review), has been breached, its systems rendered unavailable, with journalists relying on alternative arrangements while hard-pressed IT staff work to restore normal operations.
Or that someone has tried to break into the Australian Parliament’s systems.
During the pandemic, cyber attacks by states and criminal elements ratcheted up, exploiting the distraction of COVID-19 and loosened security as organisations transitioned to working from home.
These recent attacks are reminders that the cyber world never stops. And they suggest that government efforts in response may be losing traction.
Certainly, the recent report by the Australian National Audit Office on the cyber security settings of government agencies shows that government is struggling, and generally failing, to meet its own minimum standards.
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https://medicalrepublic.com.au/is-age-a-barrier-to-video-consults/42731
29 March 2021
Is age a barrier to video consults?
Clinical General Practice MBS Telehealth
Posted by Lydia Hales
Roughly half of all GP services in Australia were delivered via telehealth during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic regardless of GP and patient demographics – but age appears to be a barrier to video consults.
GP training and financial incentives might help increase the proportions of video consultations, which accounted for just over 5% of telehealth services in May 2020, according to economic and social researchers from The University of Melbourne.
The results follow speculation that video consults could attract a higher rebate than those carried out by phone, as discussions around permanency of the telehealth items continues.
Earlier in March, Prime Minister Scott Morrison confirmed that telehealth services will continue to be funded as temporary items on the MBS until 30 June.
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https://opengovasia.com/australian-government-working-push-digital-health-literacy/
Australian government working push digital health literacy
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 from 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.
The 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.
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Artificial intelligence to help pinpoint COVID diseases
Australian data scientists will use artificial intelligence to identify which COVID patients will likely experience longer-term conditions such as kidney damage.
University of Queensland data scientist and lecturer Sally Shrapnel said ongoing kidney damage was an understated outcome of hospitalised patients with COVIC-19.
“Roughly about a third of patients that are hospitalised with COVID-19 will have what we call acute kidney injury,” Dr Shrapnel said.
“A small percentage of those people will go on to need dialysis and potentially lifelong kidney therapy. It’s one of the things that we don‘t hear a lot about with COVID.”
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https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=8f59dbb7-1da0-4f46-a44c-1ae0baa45f9c
Do you need to notify a data breach impacting ‘employee records’?
Clyde & Co LLP Alec Christie Australia March 16 2021
Since the introduction of the Notifiable Data Breaches Scheme (NDBS) provisions into the Privacy Act in 2018 the belief has been that the NDBS provisions (i.e. the requirement to notify an "eligible data breach" to the OAIC and all affected individuals) do not apply to "employee records". That is, a data breach involving records which have been collected and are held by an organisation (otherwise subject to the APPs) that is the employer of the individual where that collection and holding of those employee records is directly related to a current or former employment relationship between that organisation and the individual will not be mandatorily notifiable (even where serious harm was likely). However the position at least in practice, is not quite settled.
An "employee record", as defined in s6 of the Privacy Act, is a record of personal information of an employee relating to the employment of that employee. Various examples are given in section 6 of the Privacy Act of what may constitute an employee record. Note, tax file numbers (TFNs) are specifically subject to the NDBS provisions, are generally governed under sections 17 and 18 of the Privacy Act and are not considered as an "employee record" for the purposes of the exemption.
In the past 12–18 months the OAIC has been suggesting that employee records which are subject to a data breach via the unauthorised access of a third party are not exempt from the NDBS provisions given that the unauthorised access by a third party is not "an act or practice engaged in by the employer organisation" and so does not benefit from the employee records exemption. This part of the exemption, “the act done or practice engaged” in by the employer organisation which obtains the exempt status, is what is relied on by the OAIC. That is, a third party obtaining unauthorised access to the employee records in question is not an act (i) of the employer; and (ii) in relation to the employment relationship.
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ICU monitoring tool saved COVID-19 patients, shows huge potential
Authored by Cate Swannell
A MONITORING tool designed to help Victorian and other intensive care units (ICUs) nationwide save lives during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 may prove useful to other medical specialties, including emergency departments and mental health services.
The Critical Health Resources Information System (CHRIS), which went live on 1 May 2020, was developed by a collaboration between Telstra Purple, Ambulance Victoria, the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society (ANZICS) and the Australian Government Department of Health.
Speaking with InSight+ in an exclusive podcast, Dr David Pilcher, an intensivist at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne and Chair of ANZICS’ Centre for Outcome and Resource Evaluation, said the collaboration on and development of CHRIS came out of “a mixture of absolute desire to try and do something, a little bit of panic, and a bit of not knowing what was going to happen”.
“By this time last year, we realised that [the COVID-19 pandemic] was actually going to affect us,” said Dr Pilcher, who is the lead author of a Perspective on CHRIS, published in the MJA
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My Health Record Information Session - Seniors Festival
Monday, 19 April 2021 | 10am - 11am | Liverpool | Seniors ADHA Propaganda
Join
us for an information session about My Health Record. Learn about how My Health
Record is used by health care professionals, and how an individual can access
their own information online.
Monday
19 April
10am - 11am
Liverpool City Library
Bookings essential and open 22
March.
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Comments more than welcome!
David.
Probably will not be as reverting as the seniors MyHR intro at the Liverpool library but just as pointless.
ReplyDeleteDear Industry Partner,
REMINDER
The Australian Digital Health Agency will be holding an Industry Briefing for the second tranche of the Specialist Software Industry Offer.
The briefing is aimed at software developers whose clinical information systems are used by private specialists in Australia.
The briefing will cover the offer to developers wishing to enhance their specialist software to seamlessly and securely integrate with My Health Record.
Briefing - Thursday, 8 April at 2.30pm AEST.
Register at:
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/9067506781845585680
The offer document is listed on the AusTender portal at:
https://www.tenders.gov.au/Atm/Show/21ce76da-3377-49c0-b1bc-3d5e4db66e34 with applications closing 20 April 2021.
If you have any questions, please email:
specialistsoftwareindustryoffer@digitalhealth.gov.au