This blog is totally independent, unpaid and has only three major objectives.
The first is to inform readers of news and happenings in the e-Health domain, both here in Australia and world-wide.
The second is to provide commentary on e-Health in Australia and to foster improvement where I can.
The third is to encourage discussion of the matters raised in the blog so hopefully readers can get a balanced view of what is really happening and what successes are being achieved.
Tuesday, August 10, 2021
Commentators and Journalists Weigh In On Digital Health And Related Privacy, Safety, Social Media And Security Matters. Lots Of Interesting Perspectives - August 10, 2021.
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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.
Regulators
have opened an investigation into Optus for potential breaches of the Privacy
Act, following an incident in which the telco accidentally sent off thousands
of customers’ contact details to be published in the White Pages directory
against their wishes.
In
October 2019 Optus contacted
almost 50,000 customers to inform them of the privacy breach, saying
it mistakenly released details including names, addresses and mobile phone
numbers to Sensis, the company that produces the White Pages.
At
the time Optus apologised and had Sensis scrub the customers’ information from
its online directory, but many details were also printed in the physical
editions.
This
week, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner said
it was investigating the issue and its potential privacy
ramifications after previously making inquiries.
“The
public disclosure of personal information against the wishes of individuals may
have the potential to cause harm,” wrote the OAIC in announcing the
investigation.
Find out more
about the Federal Government’s new My Health Record. ADHA Propaganda
Learn how to access your new My Health Record, and why
it’s important to keep it up to date. You will learn how to manage your My
Health Record to share the information you want with your healthcare providers.
Like
the villain in a bad horror movie, COVIDSafe refuses to die.
It
has been a staggering fall from grace for the contact tracing app, heralded as
the “ticket” out of lockdown by the Prime Minister in April last year, when he
also compared it to putting on sunscreen.
COVIDSafe
has since become a running joke at state government press conferences and
typifies the federal government’s approach to shortcomings in its response to
Covid-19: Shift blame, block information and avoid apologising.
There
have been many issues that could have led to the end of the app, including
numerous technical issues and bugs discovered by diligent local developers. The
steadfast refusal by government to adopt the Google and Apple protocol for
digital contact tracing which has been widely used around the world might have
provided a good reason to abandon it.
And
the fact that it has only identified 17 new close contacts in the near-18 months
since it was launched perhaps should have spelled doom for COVIDSafe.
The
federal government’s reliance on contractors and consultants
for key COVID-19 response work is “out of control” and is not building
capability for the next major crisis, the public sector union says.
The
Department of Health has entered into contracts with private companies covering
significant elements of its response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,
including for the vaccine rollout, aged care services, work around the
country’s medical stockpiles and the supply and delivery of personal protective
equipment.
A
number of multinational consultancy firms saw the value of their contracts with
the federal Department of Health nearly triple, with the use of labour hire
also increasing, and a particular focus on tech-related work.
This
reliance on outsourcing will mean that important capability to respond to the
next health crisis is not being built within the department, according to
Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) assistant secretary Michael Tull.
When
ADHA released the Digital Health Mobile Channel tender this month, the first
thing I looked for, and hoped dearly not to see, was the mandate that any
solution must already be used somewhere else.
Sadly,
it was. This was yet another government tender that my company, and those like
us, were not welcome to apply for.
This
isn’t a new occurrence. The Alfred Health’s recent Electronic Patient Journey
Board tender, released last month, has only two mandatory requirements, the
first being someone else must already use the system. So, we couldn’t apply for
that either.
With
this precondition, it doesn’t matter that a new solution may be better, cheaper
or safer. It’s new – therefore rendering it unwelcome in many governmental
digital health tenders.
The
rapidly increasing momentum of global platforms Google, Amazon and Apple in
cloud and interoperability health infrastructure threatens to strand some in
our local medical software industry.
If
the jungle drums of change weren’t being heard before, then surely Google
Cloud’s announcement last week that it
has developed healthcare interoperability platform Healthcare
Data Engine to match Amazon’s Health
Lake will have them resonating loud in the ears of many of our local
software vendors today.
When
Amazon and Google start a race to build data platforms to suit a particular
industry sector, eventually something is going to give.
Until
now the complexity of healthcare data, its distribution in thousands of
isolated legacy IT solutions, government regulation and the natural resistance
to change that large incumbent commercial players create (e.g., information
blocking), had been enough to foil the major global platform behemoths.
Google’s
initial fervour for the healthcare sector was tempered with some spectacular
early failures. The demise of its online personal health record (PHR) project
under Google Health even had some analysts suggesting that the sector might be
too complex for the sort of platform plays that the digital giant is known for.
The newly
minted ability to store your digital Covid vaccination certificate in your
phone throws up the question of just how will it be used?
Having a
certificate loaded into your iPhone Apple Wallet or Android phone Google Pay
app suggests that soon, someone, somewhere will ask you to produce it. That’s
only a matter of time.
It makes
sense if you are visiting an aged care facility, disability care centre or
general hospital to show it when asked. I will gladly do that if it puts people
at ease.
There are caveats:
while Pfizer and AstraZeneca are about 99 per cent certain to save your life,
neither provides a guarantee that you won’t transmit COVID-19, although there
seems agreement among epidemiologists that you are likely to transmit less of
the virus if you do.
The other
caveat is that we don’t know how long this protection lasts, but we are likely
to need more jabs over time, and updates to our Covid certificate status will
need to reflect their currency.
FemTech
is surging around the world with new start-ups and technology entering the
marketplace every day, but what’s going on Down Under?
Need
for FemTech
As
of June 2019, just over half of Australia’s population faced complicated
genetic, physiological and hormonal factors making them prone to and more
severely affected by certain conditions in comparison to the other half of the
population.
Conditions
such as heart diseases, osteoarthritis, cancers, strokes and autoimmune
diseases present in women differently and pose considerable health risks.
While
FemTech is rapidly growing in Australia, increased health technology options
are still needed to support Australian women. This has become even more
apparent during the pandemic where existing inequalities in healthcare for
women have been laid bare.
Research
is currently well placed in Australia with the Australian Government announcing
they will be investing $354 million over the next four years to support the
health and wellbeing of Australia’s women, including funding for cervical and
breast cancer, endometriosis and reproductive health.
Gurriny Yealamucka connects Yarrabah community with
technology for better healthcare
Australian
Digital Health Agency
In
the 1980s, when community members at Yarrabah in far north Queensland were
fighting for self-determination, they saw the need for Aboriginal health to be
in the hands of their own people and the concept of a community-controlled
health organisation was born.
Today,
Gurriny Yealamucka Health Service delivers primary healthcare across the
Yarrabah Aboriginal Shire and has been doing so for decades.
To
mark the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples on 9 August, the
Australian Digital Health Agency has used a series of videos to recognise
Gurriny Yealamucka and the Yarrabah community for embracing innovation and the
use of technology to deliver better healthcare.
Gurriny
Yealamucka means ‘good healing water’ in the language of the Gunggandji Peoples
of Yarrabah.
A
group of technology and privacy experts have backed the ongoing utility of a
Bluetooth-based contact tracing app in Australia, but say more needs to be done
to make COVIDSafe fit for that purpose.
In
the wake of last week's government report into COVIDSafe, software
developers Richard Nelson, Jim Mussared and Geoffrey Huntley and
cryptographer Vanessa Teague have released their own
assessment of the app’s operation and effectiveness.
The
report offers an in-depth look at the chequered history of the app since its
launch in April 2020, and calls out a number of security, privacy and
functionality issues that were overlooked.
“The
[government] report lacks a deep discussion of changes made throughout the
app’s development which heavily impacted efficacy, and fails to disclose key
information such as the number of active users,” the group said.
South
Africa was the world’s first jurisdiction to issue a patent listing an
artificial intelligence (AI) entity as an inventor. The owner of the AI
entity is considered to be the owner of the patent. An Australia court
ruled that same week that Australian patent laws do not prohibit an AI entity
from being an inventor.
Ryan
Abbott, a University of Surrey professor, and his team are fighting an uphill
battle with patent offices around the world to patent the creations of DABUS
(device for the autonomous bootstrapping of unified sentience), an artificial
neural system developed by Dr. Stephen Thaler, CEO of Imagination Engines.
Reportedly,
DABUS has conceived of two inventions: (1) an emergency warning light and (2) a
food container based on fractal geometry that improves grip and heat
transfer. According to Thaler, while DABUS was designed and built by
humans, the AI entity is described as “sentient and develops ideas.” In
an interview with The Recorder, Abbott provide three reasons why DABUS is
considered the sole inventor: “One is it functionally did the job of an
inventor. Two is to inform the public that this was an AI-generated invention
and not a traditional human invention. And three, to prevent someone from
taking credit for work that they didn’t do.”
Digital
health tools are changing how healthcare is delivered in Australia. Access to
My Health Record and telehealth consultations is transforming health service
delivery, not only in remote Aboriginal communities but across the country.
Please
join the Australian Digital Health Agency, WA Primary Health Alliance,
Aboriginal Health Council of Western Australia, and special guest panel members
from Aboriginal Medical Services across WA, to hear how digital health has been
a game changer for them.
Healthcare
professionals from across all sectors are encouraged to attend, hear these
success stories and be inspired to start using digital health. There will also
be the opportunity for participants to ask questions.
A
growing number of Coalition MPs are speaking out against the use of vaccine
certificates for domestic travel and attendance at venues and events, with at
least two threatening to cross the floor if the government brings on
legislation.
The
Sydney Morning Herald and The Age on Wednesday
revealed the government’s expenditure review committee of cabinet last week backed
a proposal for QR code vaccination certificates for international
travel, linking people’s vaccination status on their MyGov accounts with new
digital certificates.
Prime
Minister Scott Morrison confirmed this week national cabinet was also
discussing extending the measure to domestic travel but stressed any move to
allow businesses to ask patrons for proof of vaccinations would have to be made
by the states.
Tasmanian
Liberal senator Eric Abetz said while he encouraged everyone to consider
getting vaccinated as soon as possible, “vaccine passports should not be a
blunt instrument to force people to be vaccinated by locking them out of
society”.
Australia
now has a plan for how to live (rather than die) with COVID-19. A central plank
of the national cabinet plan announced by the Prime Minister is o relax
restrictions as the national vaccination rate rises.
The
first relaxations would kick in when 70 per cent of Australians are vaccinated.
At 80 per cent, lockdowns would become rare and targeted, and vaccinated
Australians could be exempt from all restrictions on movement – including
international travel.
Two
things underpin this plan. First, when a large proportion of the population is
vaccinated the numbers of infections and deaths are reduced because it is
harder for the virus to spread or seriously damage the health of those
inoculated.
Second,
there is an incentive component to vaccine passports. The idea, of course, is
that by making it more attractive – by conferring greater freedoms on the
vaccinated – people will be more likely to get the jab. Makes sense.
We
take a look at some of the exciting developments happening in the medical
device space.
Robotic surgical assistant
The
ROSA Knee System is a robotic surgical assistant that enables surgeons to carry
out knee replacement procedures with greater precision and a higher standard of
care. The system produces data to help optimise patient outcomes.
“We
are excited to win the Orthopaedic Product Innovation of the Year award and
extremely proud of all the good work that our ROSA team has done to bring the
ROSA Knee, a unique and holistic robotic solution, to Zimmer Biomet’s suite of
integrated digital and robotic technologies,” Zimmer Biomet Asia Pacific Group
President Sang Yi said. “We see this award as further validation of ROSA Knee
integrating robotics technology with our industry-leading knee implants to help
surgeons personalise surgical procedures for their patients.”
Artificial heart technology
Monash University
and BiVACOR are
leading a consortium of universities, hospitals and industry to develop and
commercialise the world’s first durable total artificial heart.
With
$1 million in federal government funding via the Medical Research Future Fund
(MRFF), the Artificial Heart Frontiers Program
will develop and commercialise new devices through the use of novel, innovative
technology. The BiVACOR Total Artificial Heart is an implantable total
artificial heart based on rotary blood pump technology. Similar in size to an
adult fist, it is small enough to be implanted in many women and some children,
and is capable of providing enough cardiac output to an adult male undergoing
exercise.
Find out more about the Federal Government's
new My Health Record.
About this event
Learn
how to access your new My Health Record, and why it's important to keep it up
to date. You will learn how to manage your My Health Record to share the
information you want with your healthcare providers.
Slab for a Jab: Hawke’s Brewing Co Is Giving Cases of
Beer to Sydneysiders Who’ve Received Their First Vaccination
If easing
restrictions and getting out of lockdown wasn’t incentive enough to get jabbed,
here’s another: cracking open a free ice-cold lager.
Published on
03 August 2021
by Che-Marie Trigg
On
Sunday, NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian said Sydney can begin to escape from
lockdown on August 28 if 50 per cent of NSW residents are vaccinated. That
number is currently at 19 per cent. If getting out of lockdown and heading to
the pub isn’t incentive enough, Hawke’s
Brewing Co has added another reason to get the jab: it’s giving away
250 cartons of lager to Sydneysiders who can prove they’ve received their first
vaccination.
The
Sydney brewery, co-founded with the late beer-loving former PM Bob Hawke, says
the move is its way of highlighting how important it is for punters to get
jabbed.
“The
longer this [lockdown] drags on, the more damage is suffered by small businesses
like ours, and in particular our hospitality mates,” said Hawke’s co-founder
David Gibson in a statement. “Now, it seems the onus is on us to get ourselves
out of this mess. And let’s be honest, there’s nothing like free beer to get
Aussies going. We may not move the needle much with 250 slabs, but we can do
our bit by helping to strengthen the message – roll your sleeve up for
yourself, your loved ones, your community and your country.”
To
score your free case, book in to get your first jab. Once you’ve had that first
vaccine, post a photo of your band-aided arm on Instagram and tag
@hawkesbrewingco and #jabandslab. If you’re one of the first 250 to post,
Hawke’s will get in touch to see proof of vaccination – available from your
Medicare online account, Medicare app, the Australian Immunisation Register and
My Health Record – and arrange delivery. The deal is available only to
residents of Greater Sydney who get their vaccination from August 4.
Sydneysiders
trying to follow health authorities’ calls to get vaccinated say they are
spending hours on the online booking system, which one vaccine communication
expert described as “death by websites”.
People
seeking to book a COVID-19 vaccine online are directed to use the federal
vaccine eligibility checker to prove they qualify before being shown a list of
individual providers, ranging from NSW Health’s mass hubs to local GPs, to
contact separately.
The
process has been complicated by availability, particularly for those eligible
for Pfizer shots. On Monday afternoon, Pfizer first dose appointments were not
available until mid-August at St Vincent’s Hospital, October at the Sydney
Olympic Park hub and November at Westmead Hospital.
Software
developer Fraser Hemphill, 28, created his own website which aggregated Pfizer
appointments after a friend who worked as a nurse spent hours attempting to
book.
Covidqueue.com,
which Mr Hemphill made in one weekend for $20, compiles real-time availability
for appointments at St Vincent’s, Royal Prince Alfred and Westmead hospital
hubs as well as the Olympic Park centre.
My Health Record not showing first
COVID vaccine dose
Aussie89
on 02/08/2021 - 11:34
Last edited 02/08/2021 - 13:10
I've
completed both of my covid Pfizer vaccines at the Homebush Hub (Sydney), yet
only the 2nd dose is showing on My Health Record and the Medicare Immunisation
Certificate.
First dose was done in early July (not showing on record), and 2nd one was done
yesterday (showing on record)
It shows, "This individual has not received all required COVID19
vaccines."
I
called the COVID Vaccination helpline this morning. The lady I spoke to said
they had received multiple calls from other people who also had their vaccine
done at the Homebush Hub with similar record issues. They claimed the
Vaccination Hub doesn't appear to be updating their records correctly, and
unfortunately, there is no one there handling the phones that she or I can call
to check.
She said this issue was brought to their attention on 22 July, and there is no
update on a solution at this stage and suggested I call back in a week.
It
is very concerning. I'm fortunate that I don't have any need at this stage to
prove my vaccination status, but I'm sure this would be a major issue for
people who need to prove their status to return to work.
Has
anyone else who's had a vaccine at one of the Vaccination Hubs had a similar
issue?
The year 2020
changed business forever: hordes of unlocked data drove new growth, the ‘‘new
collar’’ worker emerged and cybercrime became a threat that must be fought with
Zero Trust.
This year,
Big Blue itself is changing, splitting off its $19bn managed services business
while core IBM sets its sights on being the leader in hybrid cloud. Quite an
ambition when you think of competitors like Microsoft and AWS.
Katrina
Troughton has run IBM Australia for two years and right through the pandemic. She
says in just a few weeks Covid-19 exposed the role that IBM could play. “It was
so obvious that clients who had invested in digital technology and cloud and
automation in particular could find new ways to operate a remote workforce,
extend services to clients and importantly just keep going. It started to
expose leaders to the digital plumbing in the organisation. We were really
brittle with some of our supply chains.”
Today, says
Troughton, recovery and growth comes through unlocking and managing data to use
it differently. “Take the work we have done in government on how we ensure
you’ve got capability across the Australian Immunisation Register and that the
platform can scale as we do roll out vaccines.
“Pre-Covid,
being a fast follower was good. Today change and fast change is better,” she
says.
In business
IBM worked with Telstra in its pre-emptive response to determine where service
might be needed in the pandemic.
Australia's
privacy and related laws and regulations
In
Australia, the use of “personal information” (personal information) is
principally regulated by the federal Privacy
Act 1988 (Privacy Act). The Privacy Act applies to the
handling of personal information by Australian federal government agencies and
Australian Capital Territory (ACT) government agencies. The Privacy Act
also governs the private sector, including corporations and other businesses,
but in general only applies to group businesses with aggregate group (global)
revenue greater than AU$3 million.
The
Privacy Act regulates collection and use in a “record” or generally available
publication, and disclosure, of two main types of information:
personal information, being
information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual
who is reasonably identifiable, whether the information is true or not and
whether it is in a recorded form or not. Information will also be personal
information where the identification or re-identification is practicable
from the information itself or in combination with reference to other
information. Common examples of personal information are names, addresses
and telephone numbers; and
sensitive information, being such
information or an opinion about certain characteristics of an individual,
including racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, membership of a
professional or trade association, criminal record, health and health
status, and biometrics used for the purpose of biometric verification and
identification.
Sensitive
information is subject to higher levels of regulatory protection. For example,
an organisation must not collect sensitive information about an individual
unless the individual consents (expressly or impliedly) to the collection of
the information and the information is reasonably necessary for one of the
organisation’s functions or activities.
The
two principal regulators of privacy laws in Australia are the Australian
Privacy Commissioner and the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).
Just an observation but why is the my health record being spouted as a game changer and - Find out more about the Federal Government’s new My Health Record.
Not sure ‘new’ is accurate, it is closer to being heritage listed.
Lots of interesting articles this week David. Agree with Sarah Conner - the ADHA seem very full-of-it across all articles they are in. The Tender article in Wild Health would benefit from a purchasers perspective, why are they insistent on only solutions other have taken a risk on?
Just an observation but why is the my health record being spouted as a game changer and - Find out more about the Federal Government’s new My Health Record.
ReplyDeleteNot sure ‘new’ is accurate, it is closer to being heritage listed.
Lots of interesting articles this week David. Agree with Sarah Conner - the ADHA seem very full-of-it across all articles they are in. The Tender article in Wild Health would benefit from a purchasers perspective, why are they insistent on only solutions other have taken a risk on?
ReplyDelete