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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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New AI rules will put Australia ahead
Peter Lewis
The Human Rights Commission’s call for a pause on the development of Facial Recognition Technology and the placing of guardrails around the development of other AI products could be the kickstart the Australian tech sector desperately needs.
While Australia plays perpetual catch-up with the tech superpowers of the US and China, scrounging for government support and celebrating the odd local-grown dotcom billionaire, the Commission has been posing a more fundamental question: is all AI the same?
The answer, according to Commissioner Ed Santow and his ‘Human Rights and Technology Report released this week, is a resounding ‘no’.
Instead, his report sets out to create an indigenous, locally produced form of automated decisions and artificial intelligence anchored in Australian laws and expressing Australian values.
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https://www.innovationaus.com/hrc-calls-for-an-ai-safety-commissioner/
HRC calls for an AI Safety Commissioner
Denham
Sadler
Senior Reporter
27 May 2021
The federal government should establish an AI Safety Commissioner and halt the use of facial recognition and algorithms in important decision-making until adequate protections are in place, the Australian Human Rights Commission has concluded after a three-year investigation.
The Australian Human Rights Commission’s (AHRC) report on Human Rights and Technology was tabled in Parliament on Thursday afternoon, with 38 recommendations to the government on ensuring human rights are upheld in the laws, policies, funding and education on artificial intelligence.
Human Rights Commissioner Ed Santow has urged local, state, territory and federal governments to put on hold the use of facial recognition and AI in decision-making that has a significant impact on individuals.
This moratorium should be until adequate legislation is in place that regulates the use of these technologies and ensures human rights are protected.
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https://digitalhealth.org.au/blog/hla-and-big-data/
Health Language Analytics and big data
HealthData21 sponsor content
The Problem Statement
The large majority of clinical data is stored as text. This problem of up to 80% of hospital and patient medical data being scattered across a number of document types and locations and inaccessible to Big Data technology has been recognised for years, with no viable solution.
One of the biggest challenges in healthcare is enabling automated classification, coding and indexing of those clinical documents, so allowing access to a wealth of knowledge.
What does Health Language Analytics (HLA) do?
HLA enables health organisations to turn unstructured textual data from clinical documents into structured data using its award-winning Clinical Natural Language Processing (CNLP) platform – Horizon.
Horizon analyses free-text clinical documents to process, categorise, and code clinical records to SNOMED-CT, ICD-O3, or other taxonomies, for scalable and more efficient search, extraction, and supply for big data analysis. Horizon works at a speed and accuracy that exceeds manual coding and does this 24×7.
HLA’s US subsidiary (HLA-Global) is already providing subject matter expertise to the Centers for Disease Control (Atlanta), and AI categorisation tools to major Californian cancer registries via Horizon.
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eSafety prepares for Online Safety Act with AU$3m software pilot and 20 new staff
The eSafety Commissioner has only been able to action 72 of the 3,600 adult cyber abuse complaints it has received, and it's hopeful the new Online Safety Act will allow it to do more.
By Asha Barbaschow | May 28, 2021 -- 00:44 GMT (10:44 AEST) | Topic: Security
The Australian eSafety Commissioner was handed AU$21 million in the 2021-22 Budget earlier this month, with the funding to be spread across software, more staff, and continuing its work on technology-facilitated abuse involving children.
With Prime Minister Scott Morrison parading the recent Budget as "supporting Australian women", eSafety's funding falls under this umbrella.
A "women's online package" includes AU$15 million over two years for eSafety to increase its investigations capability -- the hiring of 20 more staff in line with anticipated passage of the Online Safety Act -- and AU$3 million for a software pilot.
During Senate Estimates on Thursday, eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant was grilled over the funding amount and was asked to provide specifics on a piece of tech that was not yet scoped, given the Budget announcement was only made a few weeks prior.
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Twitter, Google, and Facebook publish inaugural Australian transparency reports
Some of the world's largest technology giants have taken the first steps to outline how they plan to help protect Australians from misinformation online.
By Aimee Chanthadavong | May 24, 2021 -- 04:36 GMT (14:36 AEST) | Topic: Tech Industry
Technology giants -- Twitter, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, TikTok, Apple, Redbubble, and Adobe -- have all published their inaugural transparency report that outline their commitments and efforts on how they plan to protect Australians against harm from online disinformation and misinformation on their respective platforms.
The first set of annual transparency reports comes three months after they all committed to the Australian Code of Practice on Disinformation and Misinformation. As part of agreeing to the code, all the participating signatories said they would release an annual transparency report about their efforts under the code. The code [PDF] was prepared by the Digital Industry Group Inc (DiGi).
In December 2019, the Australian government asked the digital industry to develop the code in response to policy as set out in Regulating in the Digital Age: Government Response and Implementation Roadmap for the Digital Platforms Inquiry. DiGi volunteered to develop the draft for the industry.
Google has outlined in its transparency report [PDF] that it will combat misinformation and disinformation based on four key efforts: Raising quality content and authoritative sources, removing content and behaviours that infringe on its rules, reducing the spread of potentially harmful information, and rewarding publishers and content creators who would like to monetise and advertise their content.
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Microsoft discovers new cyber attack by Russians on 150 government, NGO sites
By Kanishka Singh
May 28, 2021 — 2.41pm
The group behind the SolarWinds cyber attack identified late last year is now targeting some 150 government agencies, think tanks, consultants, and non-governmental organisations, Microsoft Corp said.
“This week we observed cyber attacks by the threat actor Nobelium targeting government agencies, think tanks, consultants, and non-governmental organisations”, Microsoft said in a blog post published late Thursday night Los Angeles time (Friday AEST).
The attackers, dubbed Nobelium by Microsoft after the radioactive element, originated from Russia, the company said, and is the same actor behind the attacks on SolarWinds customers in 2020
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‘Ban high-risk facial recognition technology’, new report from the Human Rights Commission says
Australia should temporarily ban high-risk uses of facial recognition technology until safeguards are introduced according to a landmark report from the Australian Human Rights Commission, which is also recommending the creation of a powerful new AI Safety Commissioner.
The report, tabled in parliament on Thursday, makes 38 recommendations in a bid to ensure human rights are upheld as the use of AI ramps up across the nation, including stronger community protections against harmful users of AI particularly in areas such as policing, social security and banking, and a ban against the use of so-called ‘black box’ or opaque AI in decision making by corporations and by government.
“New technology should give us what we want and need, not what we fear,” Australia‘s Human Rights Commissioner Edward Santow said.
“Our country has always embraced innovation, but over the course of our Human Rights and Technology project, Australians have consistently told us that new technology needs to be fair and accountable. That’s why we are recommending a moratorium on some high-risk uses of facial recognition technology, and on the use of ‘black box’ or opaque AI in decision making by corporations and by government.
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https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=451f644c-ca87-4742-ac4b-8d2088247859
Here’s a great toolkit for Artificial Intelligence (AI) governance within your organisation
Gilbert + Tobin Ethan Huang and Peter Waters
Australia, United Kingdom May 25 2021
As the deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) technology continues to grow, regulators around the globe continue to grasp with how best to encourage the responsible development and adoption of this technology. Many governments and regulatory bodies have released high level principles on AI ethics and governance, which while earnest leave you asking, “where do I start”?
However, the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has recently released a ‘toolkit’ which takes a more practical “how to do it” approach. It’s still in draft form and the ICO is seeking views to help shape and improve it. The toolkit builds upon the ICO’s existing guidance on AI: The Guidance on AI and Data Protection and guidance on Explaining Decisions Made With AI (co-written with The Alan Turing Institute).
The toolkit is focused on assisting risk practitioners assess their AI systems against UK data protection law requirements, rather than AI ethics as a whole (although aspects such as discrimination, transparency, security, and accuracy are included). It is intended to help developers (and deployers) think about the risks of non-compliance with data protection law and offer practical support to organisations auditing compliance of their use of AI. While the toolkit is EU-centric, it’s still a good guide for Australian organisations grappling with how to embed AI in their businesses.
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https://www.medicaldirector.com/help/videos/Clinical_Training_Videos.htm
Clinical Training Videos
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Appointment of Chief Financial Officer
Melbourne,
Australia – Alcidion Group Limited (ASX:
ALC) is pleased to announce it has further strengthened the management team
with the appointment of experienced senior finance professional Matthew Gepp as
its Chief Financial Officer (CFO), effective 7 June 2021.
Colin MacKinnon, who currently holds the dual role of Chief Operating Officer
(COO) and CFO, will continue as COO overseeing the group’s operations.
This appointment supports Alcidion’s planned growth objectives, allowing Colin
to focus full time on his role as COO, particularly as operations in Australia
and the UK continue to accelerate.
Mr Gepp joins Alcidion with 17 years’ experience holding senior finance and
leadership positions, including as the CFO of ASX listed technology and
software companies, MNF Group Limited and Engin Limited, and 10 years of
international experience in financial and operational roles in London and
Europe.
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Human Rights Commission calls for temporary ban on 'high-risk' govt facial recognition
By Justin Hendry on May 28, 2021 6:30AM
And an independent AI safety commissioner.
The Australian Human Rights Commission has used a landmark report to call for a temporary ban on the use of facial recognition and other biometric technology in “high-risk” government decision making until new laws are developed.
It has also urged the federal government to employ an independent “artificial intelligence safety commissioner” that would lead a multi-disciplinary taskforce on AI-informed decision making.
The long-awaited human rights and technology report [pdf], released on Thursday, makes 38 recommendations to embed human rights in the design and regulation of technologies like facial recognition and AI.
It is the result of three years of work to understand and address the implications on privacy, freedom of expression and equality and devise reforms to legislation and policies that apply to both the public and private sectors.
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https://ahpa.com.au/news-events/new-session-added-webinar-series-with-digital-health-agency/
New Session Added: Webinar Series with Digital Health Agency
Date 02 June 2021 Time 12:00pm -1:00 pm Cost Free Venue Online
Published 26 May 2021 ADHA Propaganda
Please join us and the Australian Digital Health Agency for a set of interactive sessions and panel discussions focusing on how digital health tools, such as My Health Record, can support enhanced models of person-centred care.
Recordings and registrations available below:
Webinar 1: Benefits of My Health Record
in Aged Care
This webinar explores the potential benefits of My Health Record for the ageing
population to help understand the context for the Royal
Commission’s recommendations for its use within the aged care sector.
Webinar 2: My Health Record: Get Connected!
This webinar explores the potential benefits of My Health Record, focusing on how digital health tools, such as My Health Record, can support enhanced models of person-centred care.
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https://wildhealth.net.au/government-circles-biggest-change-to-digital-health-since-mhr/
27 May 2021
Government circles biggest change to digital health since MHR
ADHA Cloud COVID-19 Interoperability MHR
After years of talking about the idea, it looks like the federal government is giving serious consideration to establishing a proper strategic (standards based) framework to help align digital health stakeholders in moving more effectively and faster to an interoperable future.
Possibly the most controversial element of Australia’s digital health journey of the last decade or so, outside of the enormous centre of gravity to the whole system created by the My Health Record (MHR) project, has been the abandonment by government, and the subsequent breakdown of, a cohesive standards regime in which digital health tech vendors and providers could evolve their offerings and innovate.
Most people in digital health understand that without a workable standards framework, sharing data effectively in the massively and increasingly complex eco system that is healthcare interoperability is next to impossible.
Yet our local national digital health standards regime broke down seriously in 2011. Apart from the efforts of a few largely unpaid individuals, it has not been the focus of any serious efforts to fix until early last year, when then interim CEO of the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) commissioned JP Consulting and long-time standards expert David Rowlands to report on how a new standards regime might be reintroduced into the country.
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https://www.brinknews.com/finding-the-balance-between-infrastructure-and-cybersecurity/
Finding the Balance Between Infrastructure and Cybersecurity
27 May, 2021
Cameron Boardman
Director of The Oceania Cyber Security Center
It seems a day does not pass when a government anywhere in the world does not discuss the threat posed by increasingly malicious cyber activity. Whether such activities are a consequence of state-sponsored action, the increasing prevalence of intentional criminal networks, or the opportunistic acts of “hacktivist” organizations, governments have had to reset and reprioritize their national security policies to offset such threats. In Australia, this has resulted in the government’s release of the Australian Cyber Security Strategy 2020, promoting a vision of “a more secure online world for Australians.”
Grey-Zone Tactics
Governments are now openly speaking about “grey-zone” tactics. These tactics include organized and large-scale cyberattacks, deliberate disinformation and misinformation campaigns and other focused digital acts designed to cause economic or social harm — and they are increasing in sophistication.
Military advisers talk about the likelihood of “kinetic war,” which encompasses a combination of traditional warfare on land, in the air and on the sea and the new domains of digital and space. These environments require significant readjustments in domestic and global policy settings in order to respond to such multidimensional challenges.
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Facebook to take action against users repeatedly sharing misinformation
By Staff Writers on May 27, 2021 6:28AM
To curb amplification of those messages.
Facebook will take "stronger" action against people who repeatedly share misinformation on the platform.
Facebook will reduce the distribution of all posts in its news feed from a user account if it frequently shares content that has been flagged as false by one of the company's fact-checking partners, the social media giant said in a blog post.
It added that it was also launching ways to inform people if they are interacting with content that has been rated by a fact-checker.
False claims and conspiracies have proliferated on social media platforms, including Facebook and Twitter, during the Covid-19 pandemic.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/dta-refuses-to-release-covidsafe-cloud-hosting-bill-565104
DTA refuses to release COVIDSafe cloud hosting bill
By Justin Hendry on May 26, 2021 4:48PM
Along with architecture diagrams.
The Digital Transformation Agency has refused to release copies of cloud hosting bills or architecture diagrams for the government’s COVIDSafe contact tracing app, citing "third-party" opposition, which is believed to be from Amazon Web Services.
iTnews requested the bill under freedom of information (FOI) laws after the DTA revealed the app's cloud infrastructure costs came in at $100,000 a month in a “business-as-usual state”.
Earlier this week, the DTA revised down the hosting bill estimate to approximately $75,000 a month after some performance “tuning”, and expects this will fall to $60,000 a month by July.
Brugeaud told senate estimates on Monday that the tuning efforts centred on the “COVIDSafe national data store and how the data is stored as the app is in operation”.
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ALIA HLA Workshop: My Health Record - What is it, and why do I need to know about it?
Presenter: Nikki Graham - Manager adoption and clinical education, Australian Digital Health Agency ADHA Propaganda
Workshop outline:
- Overview of My Health Record and the national digital health strategy
- How does My Health Record work?
- How do healthcare providers use My Health Record?
- How do consumers use My Health Record?
- What information is in My Health Record?
My Health Record is an important piece of national digital health architecture, which allows individuals to view their health information securely online. This workshop will give health librarians a much greater understanding of what My Health Record is, how it is used by both health care providers and health care consumers, and how this information can be incorporated into libraries own programs and training around health data and health literacy.
This workshop will be run online via the Zoom Platform. A link will be sent the day prior to the event.
When:
Tuesday 29 June, 1:00pm - 2:30pm AEST (via Zoom)
Cost:
FREE. Not only is it FREE, but each participating organisation will also receive complimentary resources in the form of My Health Record brochures AND a health literacy oriented textbook for your library collection.
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Home Affairs slows 'pace' on passenger declarations, visas platform
By Justin Hendry on May 26, 2021 1:12PM
Takes greater care to bake in health data capabilities.
The federal government has slowed plans to introduce a permissions capability platform to handle passenger declarations and simple visa processing in light of the delayed reopening of the border.
Home Affairs boss Mike Pezzullo cast doubt on the platform being ready by the end of the year as planned at senate estimates last night, with a final service provider still yet to be selected.
When it went to market for the platform in October 2020, Home Affairs expected to begin co-design with the successful provider by April and have the base platform in place before July.
Initial use cases, including digitisation of the paper-based incoming passenger card for international travellers – previously attempted in 2017 – and a simple visa product, were then anticipated by October.
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https://www.miragenews.com/technology-brings-better-health-care-to-one-of-565557/
May 25, 2021 9:54 am AEST
Technology brings better health care to one of most remote communities in world
Australian Digital Health Agency ADHA Propaganda
In one of the most remote communities in the world, the Aboriginal community of Tjuntjuntjara in Western Australia, telehealth and the use of My Health Record have transformed health care delivery.
Tjuntjuntjara is 650km north east of Kalgoorlie in the Great Victoria Desert in Western Australia. There are about 160 people living at Tjuntjuntjara – they speak a southern variety of the Pitjantjatjara language and identify as belonging to a group of people known as Pilanguṟu, meaning ‘from the spinifex plains’.
For the last 10 years, the Aboriginal community-controlled Spinifex Health Service in Tjuntjuntjara has had a fly-in/fly-out (FIFO) GP and other health professionals through the Adelaide-based Kakarrara Wilurrara Health Alliance (KWHA).
With the advent of COVID-19 and the closure of the Western Australian border to the KWHA planes and health professionals from South Australia, there were no doctors or allied health outreach professionals able to go to Tjuntjuntjara for more than ten months from March 2020 to January 2021.
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Closing the digital skills gap in health care
InterSystems Corporation
(Australia)
By Saurav Gupta*
Thursday, 20 May, 2021
The healthtech sector is one of the rising stars of the tech industry and in recent years we have seen the healthtech start-up scene move to the forefront of new developments and innovations. Start-up companies have played a crucial role in the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, helping to provide new digital tools to connect patients with clinical staff.
As the health technology ecosystem matures, established technology firms and start-ups face different challenges. Many healthtech companies face a growing skills gap as developers are drawn away to the excitement and pace of working with innovative start-ups.
Start-ups, on the other hand, have the energy and vision to attract young professionals but not the same experience in healthcare culture, data and standards. If they are to succeed in helping healthcare organisations adopt the digital strategies they need, both established healthtech enterprises and start-ups need to learn from one another.
Digital transformation reliant on healthtech firms
Health care has lagged behind other sectors in adopting digital strategies. With software, data and interoperability all driving innovation, health care needs more digital skills.
Providers are going through a massive digital transformation from a health-system-centred model to a patient-centric one. They are relying on healthtech companies to provide innovative new solutions to improve patient outcomes and clinicians’ workflows while containing costs.
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News
Transition to NASH SHA-2 Certificates - Notifications
Services Australia advice: PKI SHA-1 OCA Renewal Deployment Successful - Services Australia is pleased to confirm that the deployment of renewed PKI Certificate Chain of Trust (otherwise referred to as the new SHA-1 OCA) was successfully implemented on 15 May 2021.
Thursday, 20 May 2021
My Health Record SVT System - Notifications
My Health Record Release 12.1 Go-Live - SVT Environment - The My Health Record System Operator advises there will be a planned upgrade to the My Health Record system Software Vendor Test (SVT) environment after 5:00 PM (AEST) on Monday 24 May 2021.
Thursday, 20 May 2021
NASH SHA-1 & SHA-2 upgrade – Installing the SHA-2 Chain of Trust
Services Australia will go-live with SHA-2 NASH PKI Certificates in September 2021, which means that some of your customers may start using NASH SHA-2 PKI Certificates from September 2021.
If your customers have not installed the SHA-2 Chain of Trust prior to that date, they may encounter errors when:
Tuesday, 20 April 2021
Healthcare Identifiers (HI) Service Vendor environment - Notifications
No
current notifications - Refer also to:
Transition
to NASH SHA-2 Certificates - Notifications
Monday, 19 April 2021
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Comments more than welcome!
David.
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