Here are a few I have come across the last week or so. Note: Each link is followed by a title and a few paragraphs. For the full article click on the link above title of the article. Note also that full access to some links may require site registration or subscription payment.
General Comment
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Quite a lot going on this week – good to see Qld moving forward on RTPM!
I think we need to keep a close eye on what the PHNs are up to as they may stray from their core mission from time to time I fear
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https://www.ausdoc.com.au/news/realtime-script-monitoring-becomes-mandatory-queensland-gps
Real-time script monitoring becomes mandatory for Queensland GPs
Non-compliance before writing scripts could result in fines
26th October 2021
By Kemal Atlay
GPs who fail to check Queensland’s new real-time script monitoring system before prescribing drugs of dependency will face fines of up to $2800.
From Thursday, it will be mandatory for doctors and pharmacists to use QScript to stop doctor-shoppers accessing opioids and monitored medications.
The system, launched by the State Government, will also record when the drugs are prescribed in hospital settings.
QScript uses a traffic-light system integrated with GP software, issuing red, amber or green alerts at the point of care.
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https://medicalrepublic.com.au/what-gps-think-about-their-phns/56586
22 October 2021
What GPs think about their PHNs
Comment PHNs Political TheHill
Unbeknown to most primary health networks, the Department of Health recently awarded a contract to consulting firm PwC to do a review of the sector.
Precisely what the DoH wants reviewed isn’t entirely clear, however.
PwC has asked PHNs to submit complaints that they have received from providers as a part of the review, but they aren’t taking direct input from providers (one smart provider tried) – which seems like a strange way to go about reviewing the sector. If you ask only the PHNs, surely you will end up skewing any findings towards what PHNs want you to see?
Earlier this year, PwC surveyed PHNs themselves to understand their challenges better. The insights aren’t particularly enlightening. Most of the issues facing PHNs mirror the problems facing practices: funding pressure, workforce issues, covid-19 and managing a new telehealth regime.
The PwC report summarises by saying PHNs increasingly see a role for themselves in capability- and capacity-building activities such as supporting the uptake of telehealth.
There is no mention of the rapidly growing role of PHNs in aggregating the data of their practices, analysing it and feeding it back to the practices in order to help their practices understand better the population health needs of their region.
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https://www.seek.com.au/job/54616409?type=standard
Digital Health Lead
SNPHN Ltd
Sydney North Shore & Northern Beaches
Healthcare & Medical Management
Full time
Sydney North Health Network (SNHN), is one of 31 Primary Health Networks (PHNs) established by the Australian Government to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of medical services for the community. Our focus is on patients who are at risk of poor health outcomes and we work to improve the coordination of their care so they receive the right care, in the right place at the right time. Better health outcomes for patients is achieved by working together with a network of health professionals including general practitioners, practice nurses, allied health providers, the Northern Sydney Local Health District and other health services. This partnership approach and community focus is reflected in our vision: Achieving together – better health, better care.
Position purpose: The Digital Health Lead works closely with stakeholders with relevant stakeholders, driving adoption of digital health connectivity, deemed beneficial for improvement of community health outcomes. They are responsible for implementation of the SNHN Digital Health Strategy and are responsible for overseeing the co-design, delivery and evaluation of programs that support primary health care services.
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https://wildhealth.net.au/home-quarantine-app-falls-foul-of-digital-privacy-group/
21 October 2021
Home quarantine app falls foul of digital privacy group
Digital rights groups are pushing for more robust digital privacy regulations as Australia moves into the next phase of the pandemic, warning that regulations around personal data collection are not up to scratch.
The blowback is directed at South Australia’s home quarantine app, which works by contacting people in quarantine at random and requesting proof of their identity and location within 15 minutes.
The app uses facial recognition and smartphone geo-location as verification tools.
Failing a check-in – which happens when the person misses their 15-minute window, is located outside their home or is unable to be recognised by the app AI – prompts a visit from SA police.
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https://www.ausdoc.com.au/news/racgp-winds-oxygen-commercial-venture
RACGP winds up Oxygen commercial venture
All business for profit will now be conducted from within the college, the RACGP says
25th October 2021
The RACGP has finally wound up its for-profit subsidiary, Oxygen, with all the college's commercial ventures now being run in-house.
Launched in 2011, Oxygen was meant to “refresh the way general practice does business” by partnering with industry to develop and promote health technology.
Since then, the company’s work has mostly remained a mystery — even to college members — with its board operating independently and its finances not appearing in the RACGP’s annual reports.
But wholly owned by the college, Oxygen came under fire in 2018 when it announced a three-year deal with a Canadian firm called Myca Health to endorse a prescribing software package called Hello Health.
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From the heart: Pandemic no barrier for medtech’s ASX listing
By Emma Koehn
October 26, 2021 — 12.15am
The founders of heart disease fighter Artrya got their tech up and running less than one year before the coronavirus pandemic hit, but co-founder John Barrington says that’s no barrier to the Aussie medtech taking on the world.
“The pandemic has accelerated the use of tech and telemedicine...we have benefited from that trend and been able to raise significant capital,” he says.
Barrington and co-founder John Konstantopoulos started work on their artificial intelligence-driven tool for detecting coronary artery disease just three-and-a-half years ago.
Now they are following in the footsteps of multi-billion dollar imaging medtech Pro Medicus in looking to list on the ASX. The company dropped a prospectus last week to raise $40 million from shares at $1.35 to list on the local market.
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Latest digital health project to enhance decision making across Australian hospitals
It will utilise Alcidion's Miya Precision platform to identify priority areas where decision support tools will add value.
By Adam Ang
October 28, 2021 02:34 AM
The government-backed Digital Health Cooperative Research Centre has set up a A$1.5 million ($2.1 million) research project that will evaluate and improve clinical decision support tools across regional and metropolitan hospitals settings in Australia.
The project is a three-year collaboration between Sydney Local Health District (LHD), eHealth NSW, Murrumbidgee LHD, NSW Health, University of Sydney, Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and Alcidion.
WHY IT MATTERS
Clinical staff are facing challenges in decision making when treating patients, especially during this pandemic.
In a media release, Melissa Baysari, associate professor at the University of Sydney, noted that while hospitals have implemented decision support systems, these are either "poorly taken up or worked around".
"We need to improve the ‘fit’ between decision support technologies and the people who use them," she stressed.
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https://www.hinz.org.nz/news/584967/Health-apps-vulnerable-to-hacking-through-APIs.htm
Health apps vulnerable to hacking through APIs
Wednesday, 27 October 2021
NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth
New research showing third-party
apps integrating with electronic health record (EHR) systems are vulnerable to
hacking comes as no surprise to a New Zealand cybersecurity specialist who says
the local situation is likely “even worse”.
Cybersecurity company Approov had an analyst and
‘recovering hacker’ test the vulnerability of three production application
program interfaces (APIs), that allow a mobile app to pull data from EHRs in
the US.
With a single patient login account, the analyst was able to access more than 4
million patient and clinician records and more than half of the mobile apps
tested had hardcoded API keys and tokens that would enable hackers to attack the
APIs
The APIs tested use the Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR)
standard for healthcare data.
Chief executive of local managed security provider Medical IT Advisors, Faustin
Roman, says the FHIR standard is great, but like any other standard or policy,
the key is how it is being implemented and maintained.
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Brisbane's ACT Logistics scores $25 million eHealth Queensland IT services contract
By Nico Arboleda on Oct 28, 2021 1:00PM
Brisbane-based IT product lifecycle services specialist ACT Logistics has secured a multi-year contract with eHealth Queensland for IT services.
The seven-year contract, which ACT estimates would be worth some $25 million, is for the provision and support of product lifecycle management services, working with IT hardware supplier Dell Australia. ACT said the two companies were chosen from a field of eight candidates.
ACT is tasked to provide onsite hardware installation, hardware decommissioning, image creation and management and customised hardware support services.
eHealth Queensland, operating under the state's Department of Health, supports the IT needs of Queensland's health services and its 16 hospitals.
“Although ACT Logistics is not a hardware supplier, we have come to be known as the leaders in ICT hardware asset and logistics management by challenging and disrupting the traditional way the market has approached this space,” ACT Logistics managing director Alex Farenden said.
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http://www.healthintersections.com.au/?p=3072
Under the hood: Australian International Covid Certificate
Posted on October 28, 2021 by Grahame Grieve
I’ve just spent a day looking under the hood at the Australian international covid certificates, and I thought I’d post a few observations here.
You can get these covid Vaccination Certificates in various ways, but I got mine from the medicare express app. In order to get it, you have to enter your passport details, and they have to match government records or your Australian passport or visa. I have at least one friend who can’t get one because he doesn’t have either of those (some people legally here don’t).
What you get is a PDF that contains a QR code. The QR code represents the following JSON (not encoded or encrypted – this is what any bar code scanner will give you):
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Eastern Health teams up with My Emergency Doctor to deliver virtual care
Tuesday, 26 October, 2021
Melbourne’s Box Hill Hospital has bolstered its Emergency Department workforce through an arrangement that provides them scalable access to virtual senior emergency specialists My Emergency Doctor.
The partnership will provide additional specialist emergency physician support to the hospital to see low-acuity presentations at peak times using telehealth. It will allow them to treat non-urgent patients more quickly and extend their overall emergency department capacity to cater for an even higher volume of patients.
Eastern Health Director of Medical Services Dr Peter Jordan said the model was designed to service patients who were relatively stable but needed assessment.
“At times of high demand we can access highly skilled and qualified senior medical staff to help us see the large number of patients who come to us. It is a better experience for patients,” Dr Jordan said.
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Alcidion
Q1 FY22 Quarterly Activities Report and Appendix 4C
Melbourne, Australia –
Alcidion Group Limited (‘Alcidion’ or the ‘Company’) today releases its
Appendix 4C for the quarter ended 30 September 2021 (Q1 FY22) and a business
update detailing its operational highlights.
Highlights:
- New contracted revenue sold in Q1 of $2.7M - with $2.4M of that to be recognised in FY22
- Total contracted revenue to be recognised in FY22 stands at $17.2m at the end of Q1 - up 17% on prior year Q1. With a further $2.2M of scheduled renewal revenue expected to be converted to contracted revenue over the course of the year
- Cash receipts of $6.6M, an increase of 2.3% on the prior corresponding period (pcp)
- Strong cash balance of $21.5M as at 30 September 2021
- Since the end of the quarter a further $3.1M of revenue has been sold, this includes significant contracts with Queen’s Hospital Burton (ExtraMed) and Sydney Local Health District (Miya Precision, virtual care) and a 3-year extension for support and maintenance with Royal Derby Hospital (ExtraMed)
Alcidion’s Managing Director Kate Quirke said, “Alcidion has continued to build on the momentum of FY21, adding $2.7M of new contracted revenue, including renewals, during what is historically the slowest quarter of the year, resulting in contracted revenue at the end of Q1 of $17.2M”.
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ANDHealth CEO Appointed as a Member of the Council of the National Health and Medical Research Council
ANDHealth is delighted
to announce that CEO and Managing Director, Bronwyn Le Grice, has been
appointed by the Hon Greg Hunt, the Australian Minister for Health and Aged
Care, as a Member of the Council of the National Health and Medical Research
Council (NHMRC) for the 2021-2024 triennium.
The NMHRC funds high quality health and medical research to build research
capability, support researchers, encourage the translation of research into
better health outcomes and promote the highest ethical standards for health and
medical research.
“It is deeply humbling to receive this appointment,” Le Grice commented. “The
NHMRC represents the highest level of leadership in the funding of health and
medical research and training, in providing advice on improving health
outcomes, through prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease and the
provision of health care, and it is deeply flattering to be asked to play a
small role in this very big purpose.”
Gavin Fox-Smith, Chair of ANDHealth, applauded the appointment. “As a
dedicated digital health and commercialisation professional, Bronwyn’s
appointment recognises the increasingly important role of technology and
digital health in the future of Australia’s healthcare system and the need for
our health and medical research to result in translation into improvements in
the health and wellbeing of all Australians.”
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Tuesday, 26 October 2021 12:47
Guardant Health deploys Rafay Systems’ Kubernetes Operations Platform
By Rafay Systems
COMPANY NEWS: Precision oncology company Guardant Health has deployed Rafay Systems’ Kubernetes Operations Platform to manage and maintain the medical research team’s high-compute analytics applications.
Guardant’s high-performance computing (HPC) solution analyses biological samples from clinics and laboratories for oncology research. It combines healthcare research and clinical data with developers’ algorithms, and requires the most stringent internal service level availability.
Given the critical nature of the team’s research, it is imperative that the HPC never go down. If it fails, the company delays critical oncology data that have the potential to save lives.
Given Guardant Health’s prior experience with managing the complexity of Kubernetes, the DevOps/SRE team knew exactly what it needed to streamline Kubernetes operations and ensure critical availability of its HPC solution.
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Tuesday, 19 October 2021 14:39
InterSystems shares vision for innovations in data at Virtual Summit 2021
By InterSystems
EVENT INVITATION: InterSystems, a creative data technology provider dedicated to helping customers solve the most critical scalability, interoperability and speed challenges, today announced that it will share its vision for Innovations in Data with the healthcare industry at the InterSystems Virtual Summit 2021.
Every year, the InterSystems Summit event provides technology information and peer interaction. This year it takes the form of a virtual event for the second time, with sessions running from 26 October to 29 October. Sessions can be viewed live or on demand so organisations around the world can easily attend, and participation is free.
InterSystems thought leaders will present on new developments in healthcare analytics, interoperability and FHIR, cloud computing, and patient engagement and virtual care. Healthcare providers, and healthtech and medtech suppliers, can also hear from other organisations about turning data into actionable knowledge, insights and value.
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October 27 2021 - 10:00AM
Griffith can help set future direction of national health strategy
· Margaret King
Time is running out to participate in the National Digital Health Strategy survey which closes in November.
All Australians are invited to provide feedback which take approximately 15 minutes to complete.
During the survey you will be asked about how technology can make a difference and your experience with the healthcare system.
Australians are more digitally connected now than we have ever been before with nine out of 10 of us owning a smartphone and are accessing all sorts of online services and information.
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Telstra links with Canberra to buy Digicel in $2.5bn deal
October 25, 2021
Telstra has finalised a deal in partnership with the Australian government to buy the Pacific operations of telecommunications firm Digicel for $US1.6bn ($2.14bn), plus an additional $US250m subject to business performance over the next three years.
Telstra is contributing $US270 in equity, with the federal government providing the remaining $US1.33bn.
Digicel, founded by Irish billionaire Denis O’Brien, is the largest mobile phone carrier in the Pacific and operates 3G and 4G networks across Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Samoa, Vanuatu and Tahiti with about 2.5 million subscribers.
Its acquisition by Telstra has been widely viewed as a political move to block the rising regional influence of China. The Australian previously reported there were fears that Chinese ownership of Digicel Pacific would give it an enhanced ability to intercept communications across the Pacific nations.
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Taxpayers bankroll Telstra’s $2.1b Digicel buy
Updated Oct 25, 2021 – 9.47am, first published at 9.05am
Telstra has agreed to buy strategically important South Pacific-based telco Digicel Pacific for $US1.6 billion ($2.1 billion) in a joint venture deal funded mostly by taxpayers.
The price tag could even get a $US250 million boost if Digicel meets certain business targets over the next three years, according to Telstra’s ASX statement.
“Digicel Pacific has already invested significant capital in PNG, which is its largest market, to achieve extensive network coverage including 4G to 55 per cent of the population,” Telstra boss Andy Penn said.
The Morrison government has stalked Digicel with Telstra in tow in recent months due to national security concerns if the asset were to fall into Beijing’s hands through a buyout by a Chinese state-owned company.
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NBN price inquiry 'encouraged' to give 'in-depth consideration' to keeping CVC
By Ry Crozier on Oct 27, 2021 12:37PM
Revamped pricing model proposed.
A regulatory inquiry examining the feasibility of flat-rate NBN pricing has been asked to give “in-depth consideration” to a heavily tweaked version of NBN Co’s current model pricing model that would retain bandwidth charges but introduce volume discounts.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) revealed last week [pdf] that a pair of papers were presented to the working group that appear to push some elements of NBN Co’s agenda.
The first paper proposed maintaining the connectivity virtual circuit (CVC) instead of scrapping it as the five retail service providers (RSPs) representing over 96 percent of fixed-line connections want.
A second “confidential” paper tackles the “long-run cost of adding network capacity” to the NBN.
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Australia Post, NBN pay out $300 million in bonuses during COVID
October 26, 2021 — 5.00am
Taxpayer-owned businesses Australia Post and NBN have collectively shelled out almost $300 million in personal bonuses to employees over the past two years as the COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on businesses and families.
Both companies reined in their total spending on bonus payments in the 2021 financial year, with NBN splashing $46.5 million on staff, down from $78 million in the 2020 financial year, while Australia Post rewarded employees to the tune of $79 million compared with $92 million last year.
This amounts to $295.9 million across the two years of the pandemic, the companies’ annual reports show.
Public fury prompted a government crackdown on generous executive bonuses, with the Australian Public Service Commission recently issuing updated guidance to Commonwealth entities on senior executive bonuses, saying not to pay them unless there were “exceptional circumstances or a contractual obligation”.
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Enjoy!
David.
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