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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While the quantity of Digital Health news is back to normal I am not sure about the quality. Seems to be a lot of nonsense about. Some good stuff also!
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Automated high-risk notification coming to ACT's contact tracing app
The ACT government is relaxing its rules for public check-ins starting 11 February.
By Adam Ang
February 08, 2022 03:55 AM
The government of the Australian Capital Territory is working to introduce a new feature on its contact tracing app that automatically notifies users if they have been at a high-risk setting for COVID-19.
First launched in September 2020, the Check In CBR app is used by Canberrans aged 16 and above for entering various locations across the state.
It logs in a user by scanning a QR code posted in public places, including public transport, venues, cafes, bars, restaurants, shops, supermarkets, and events. People's personal information is securely stored in the app and is only accessed by the state for contact tracing purposes.
Given its ease of use, tailored versions of the app have been adopted by Queensland, Tasmania, and the Northern Territory.
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Government-backed study finds Australia's COVIDSafe app ineffective for contact tracing
The findings show that the app has only added more work for already fatigued public health staff.
By Adam Ang
February 07, 2022 12:27 AM
Government-backed research has found Australia's nationwide contract tracing app unhelpful and inefficient for the country's COVID-19 pandemic response.
A study funded by Australia's National Health and Medical Research Council and the New South Wales Ministry of Health evaluated the effectiveness and usefulness of COVIDSafe, a smartphone-based proximity tracing app introduced in April 2020.
FINDINGS
Recently published in The Lancet Public Health journal this month, the study was done in NSW, the country's most populous state, and involved 619 confirmed locally acquired COVID-19 cases with over 25,300 close contacts identified through conventional contact tracing between 4 May and 4 November 2020. Semi-structured interviews with the state's public health staff were also conducted to assess the app's perceived usefulness.
The study identified three broad issues that seemed to make the app unhelpful for COVID-19 contact tracing in NSW:
· Lower-than-expected uptake among the at-risk population;
· Poor diagnostic performance; and
· Low perceived usefulness by public health staff.
Among positive cases, more than one in five or 137 people were using the COVIDSafe app. Only 79 people were considered their close contacts, giving the app a positive predictive value of 39%. Its estimated sensitivity, meanwhile, is at 15% as only 35 out of 236 identified close contacts were detected by the app. Additionally, the app spotted 17 more close contacts who were not identified by conventional contact tracing.
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https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/technology/privacy-commissioner-in-court-win-against-facebook/news-story/c1895d4df0fc377476b8e754a9ba2236
Privacy commissioner in court win against Facebook
5:55PM February 7, 2022
Tech giant Facebook has lost a case in the Federal Court against Australia’s privacy watchdog, with the full bench of the court dismissing Facebook’s appeal that it had lodged on the grounds that it doesn’t actually operate in Australia.
The judgment paves the way for a larger case to now proceed against Facebook over its privacy settings and how it handles user data.
The case relates to the now-infamous Cambridge Analytica data analysis firm and its personality quiz ‘This is Your Digital Life’, which the Australian Information Commissioner alleges unlawfully disclosed the personal information of thousands of Australians between 2014 and 2015.
When launching Federal Court action in 2020, Commissioner Angelene Falk said that Facebook had breached Australian privacy law and that its “opaque” privacy settings made it difficult to exercise control over their own data.
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More funds added for psychosocial telehealth to support ovarian cancer patients in Australia
It will help reach 800 more women from regional communities.
By Adam Ang
February 09, 2022 12:17 AM
The Australian government has added A$2 million ($1.4 million) more to independent non-profit Ovarian Cancer Australia to help maintain its provision of psychosocial telehealth services to ovarian cancer patients.
WHY IT MATTERS
Last year saw approximately 1,700 women in Australia diagnosed with ovarian cancer with 1,000 dying from the disease. Given a low 5-year survival rate of below 50% and a recurrence rate of up to 70%, four in 10 women with ovarian cancer experience clinical levels of anxiety or depression, according to OCA.
The government's additional funding, the group said, will help them continue providing psychosocial telehealth support services through its Teal Support Programme until the fiscal year 2023-2024.
This programme employs trained oncology and gynaecological nurses to provide advice and support to people with ovarian cancer from diagnosis through post-treatment. It aims to "ensure continuity of care, greater access to support and improved quality of life for all women with ovarian cancer," the organisation said.
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https://wildhealth.net.au/app-significantly-increases-cardiac-rehab-participation/
10 February 2022
App significantly increases cardiac rehab participation
A clinical study of patients with cardiovascular disease by Queensland researchers confirms a landmark study of more than eight years ago which found that offering a digital health platform as an option for patients considering cardiac rehabilitation substantially improved participation rates in cardiac rehabilitation.
The findings, published in cardiovascular medicine journal JMIR Cardio, and involving 204 patients, found that participation in cardiac rehabilitation improved from 21% to 63% when app-based cardiac rehabilitation (SmartCR from Cardihab) was offered as an alternative in addition to a conventional in-person program.
The study split its cohort into patients who were offered conventional rehab only, and patients who were offered Cardihab as an alternative after declining conventional rehab.
Rates of conventional rehab rejection are very high, and can depend on a patient’s location relative to where a program might be available, the time needed to complete a conventional program, cost and psychological constraints. Often cultural factors also prevent adoption of a conventional program.
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https://www.thewire.org.au/story/australian-health-services-shifting-to-digital-platforms/
Australian health services shifting to digital platforms
The use of technology in government services has increased, and now Australians can obtain their health records online.
It’s critical Australians get familiarised with online health records because it’s how the health sector will operate in the near future.
My Health Record is an online platform developed by the Australian Digital Health Agency, and its aim is to make sure Australians know how to manage their health records.
It’s also a good tool to remind its users about their health management.
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Summit keynote Liz Ashall-Payne on healthcare’s inflection point: Mobile, virtual, decentralised
In the weeks leading up to our Digital Health Institute Summit we will be speaking with some of our keynote speakers who will share the key themes of their keynotes. We also asked them to share their insights on the challenges and their priority areas in their roles for digital health in 2022.
Our next preview chat is with Orcha Founding CEO, Liz Ashall-Payne whose keynote is ‘Healthcare’s inflection point: Mobile, virtual, decentralised’.
Liz’s career pathway from speech-language pathologist to CEO of Orcha and was inspired by the possibilities of digital health to give millions of people access to health care services.
Frustrated by the restrictions of her personal capacity in the early years of her career, she was inspired by the emerging prospects of the reach of digital health. Her keynote will go deeper into the world of digital health and why, in many areas we are still restricted.
“We are at a proper inflection point in how we can use digital health to revolutionise the way we deliver health and care,” she said.
“We have huge opportunities, growing numbers of usage and technologies coming on to the market to help people.
Here you can create the content that will be used within the module.
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https://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/professional/racgp-calls-for-immediate-exemption-to-12-month-te
RACGP calls for immediate exemption to 12-month telehealth rule for vulnerable GPs
The college is urging the Federal Government to change compliance rules to allow immunocompromised GPs and those in isolation to safely continue caring for patients.
10 Feb 2022
RACGP President Dr
Karen Price has called for changes to the telehealth compliance rule in an open letter to the Department of Health.
Addressed to Daniel McCabe, First Assistant Secretary of Benefits, Integrity
and Digital Health, Dr Price notes that the high demand for general practice
care in conjunction with the high likelihood of exposure to COVID-19 is
impacting general practice’s workforce capacity.
‘An exemption from the existing relationship rule for immunocompromised GPs and
GPs in isolation for patients known to the practice [eg patients who have been
to the practice within the last 24 months] would increase workforce capacity at
this critical time,’ the letter reads.
The Federal Government first introduced the 12-month compliance rule for GPs in July 2020, stipulating that a practice could only
provide rebated telehealth services under the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS)
to a patient that has been seen by a GP at the practice face-to-face in the
preceding 12 months.
The rule was intially introduced to stop opportunistic telehealth-only pop
up clinics from fragmenting care by ensuring patients had an existing
realtionship with the GP or practice providing the service.
But with the risk of COVID-19 transmission so high since the emergence of
Omicron, Dr Price said it is ‘not pragmatic’ for immunocompromised GPs and
those in isolation, particularly given the demand for care.
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https://wildhealth.net.au/tick-tick-boomer-watch-the-over-65s-go/
10 February 2022
Tick tick boomer: watch the over-65s go
By Fran Molloy
Apple Watch-wearing baby boomers were more likely to clock 150 minutes of activity a week than their younger counterparts during 2021, according to new data from the Apple Heart and Movement study.
Is it because during 2021, over-65s had more time than stressed-out working parents also trying to home-school?
Sadly we’re still in the dark on why boomers are best at closing the “activity ring” – but there’s plenty more revealed in the study, which is a collaboration between the American Heart Association and Brigham and Women’s Hospital exploring the link between physical activity and heart health.
The study analysed 18 million workouts logged during 2021 by Apple Watch users who opted-in to the study via the Apple Research iPhone app, sharing health app, medical history and watch sensor data, completing surveys about fitness, mental health, and day-to-day habits, wearing their watch daily and using the Workout app while exercising.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/department-of-health-cio-to-exit-575879
Department of Health CIO to exit
By Justin Hendry on Feb 11, 2022 12:01AM
Departs for private sector.
The federal Department of Health will lose chief information officer Daniel Keys to Canberra-based IT services provider xAmplify.
Keys, who has spent 20 years in the Australian Public Service, will join xAmplify as its head of future and innovation on March 1, 2022.
He joins the company, which was founded in 2018, as it expands its presence in Canberra following launch of a new head office in November 2021.
Keys joined the Health department as an assistant secretary in June 2018 following an eight-month stint as Civil Aviation Safety Authority CIO.
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Funding boost for local nurse's tech startup
Friday, 04 February, 2022
Amelio Health, a provider of chronic pain management programs, has received the federal government’s Boosting Female Founder Initiative grant.
The company is one of 51 recipients from over 2200 applicants vying for $12m in funding. Applications were assessed by an Independent Assessment Committee made up of women entrepreneurs, which was led by Professor Jana Matthews, ANZ Chair in Business Growth and Director of the Australian Centre for Business Growth at the University of South Australia.
CEO, Nurse and Founder of Amelio Health Kathy Hubble said the grant will allow her company to accelerate global growth and develop technical enhancements that will be essential for scaling purposes. “Being a recipient of this grant is a fantastic way to shine the light on the problem of chronic pain and how we are helping thousands of people manage their pain and get their lives back, ” Hubble said.
The Amelio Health program has an 85% completion rate, with 95% of those participants increasing their capacity and getting their life back. Pain coaching alone does not address the complex nature of chronic pain, especially when it comes to medication rationalisation. The company also provides learning for rehabilitation consultants.
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Staying Safe Online and Navigating My Gov/My Aged Care/Centrelink Websites
by Sherwin Rise
Join us for a seminar to help improve your safety online and to help navigate the My Gov and My Aged Care services.
About this event
Join us for a seminar specifically designed to help seniors stay safe online and to help navigate the My Gov and My Aged Care services.
We explore helpful strategies, useful tools and basic guides to protect your personal details online and then learn how to navigate the My Gov website and create a single login that will enable you to access several government services including Centrelink, Medicare, My Aged Care & My Health Record and the NDIS.
1:00pm Scams - Staying Safe online
Do you feel anxious when you go online? If so, join us as we explore helpful strategies, useful tools and basic guides to arm you with the information needed to protect your hard-earned savings & keep your personal details secure online. Learn how to easily recognise a scammer knocking on your door or identify a fraudulent call, text or email to help you stay safe in this digital world. Discover easy ways to manage your passwords on all devices to keep one step ahead of these dishonest people and tick off the 5 “must dos” to keep safe.
2:00pm Afternoon Tea
Join us in-between sessions for a delightful afternoon and have your questions answered.
2:30pm Navigating myGov & My Aged Care websites
Are you constantly being directed to the My Aged Care or myGov websites but now sure how to access them? If so, you are not alone so join us as we explore the My Aged Care website which is brimming with information to help with your aged care journey. Learn about the different types of care available, how to get assessed, find a provider and manage your own services. Once registered with My Aged Care, learn how to navigate the myGov website and create a single login that will enable you to access a number of government services including the Centrelink, Medicare, My Aged Care & My Health Record and the NDIS. You will be amazed at the information you will have at your fingertips.
These sessions are provided complimentary thanks to Be Connected and Lendlease. Feel free to register, and attend one or both sessions as your needs demand.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/nbn-co-lifts-residential-revenue-by-1-per-user-per-month-575859
NBN Co lifts residential revenue by $1 per user per month
By Ry Crozier on Feb 10, 2022 11:49AM
After two years of flat ARPU due to Covid concessions.
NBN Co saw a one dollar lift in average revenue per residential user in the last six months of 2021, as Covid-related concessions eased and customers took up higher speed services.
The company saw its residential average revenue per user (ARPU) move from $45 to $46.
It had been “flat at $45 across the two previous fiscal years… because of considerable Covid support” that the company provided, mostly in the form of foregone excess charges for excess bandwidth usage, CEO Stephen Rue said.
Rue also said that “the uplift in residential ARPU was driven by increased customer demand for broadband including upgrade to higher speed tier plans.”
The six-month period coincided with an end to ‘focus on fast’, a marketing campaign that was intended to get users to trial higher speed services for free, before being presented a formal upgrade offer.
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NBN Co’s interim revenue jumps 12pc as Aussies seek faster broadband plans, underlying earnings surges to $1.5bn
February 10, 2022
NBN Co has posted robust financial results for the six months ending December 31, lifting its revenue by 12 per cent year-on-year to $2.5bn as the government-owned group ramps up a multi-billion dollar network upgrade program and as its significant subscriber costs to Telstra and Optus taper off.
The company on Thursday declared it is on track to achieve full year guidance, reporting revenues for the half greater than that of the 2021 full financial year, with Australian households increasingly opting for higher speed tier broadband plans.
It booked interim underlying earnings of $1.5bn, up by $1.1bn, while subscriber costs paid to the telcos were $126m, down 84 per cent from $809m a year earlier. Revenue from business customers increased to $493m, up 24 per cent from $397m a year earlier.
NBN Co’s crucial average revenue per user (ARPU) metric was up marginally to $46 a month, from $45 a year earlier, as Covid-related concessions to retailers eased.
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Bumper half-year earnings for NBN Co outstrips full FY21 result
Lucas Baird Reporter
Feb 10, 2022 – 10.20am
NBN Co boosted earnings by nearly $1.1 billion in the six months to December 31 as operating costs and subscriber payments fell sharply, surpassing the full-year earnings figure posted in the 2021 financial period.
In its 2021 full-year results, the government-owned entity’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) was $1.35 billion. But in the first half of the 2022 financial year, it recorded EBITDA of $1.5 billion.
NBN Co connected 200 million more premises to the national network in the six months to December 31, with the total now 8.4 million premises.
NBN Co said new customer acquisition and demand for higher speed tiers were the bedrock of the result, which also saw it lift its long-stuck per-user revenue – a closely watched figure in the telecoms sector – from $45 to $46.
Chief executive Stephen Rue said the national broadband network was “financially sound and sustainable” and on track to hit guidance laid out in its stripped-back 2022 corporate plan.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/nbn-co-lobs-fresh-discounts-at-12mbps-users-to-upgrade-575795
NBN Co lobs fresh discounts at 12Mbps users to upgrade
By Ry Crozier on Feb 9, 2022 10:02AM
Up to 25Mbps or 50Mbps plans.
NBN Co will begin the new year with a fresh round of discounts aimed mostly at getting fixed-line users to vacate the 12Mbps tier, in line with a recent push to set 25Mbps as its new minimum speed.
The company will offer six months of wholesale discounts to encourage retail service providers (RSPs) to get customers to trial higher-speed services under a scheme it is calling “step up”. [pdf]
That means an $8 a month discount to move up to 25Mbps services and a $10 a month discount to move up to 50Mbps.
Users would be expected to pay the difference in price once the discount expires.
The discount is a far less combative attempt at vacating the 12Mbps tier, which is still home to 923,684 active services as at November last year, roughly 11 percent of all NBN fixed-line subscribers.
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07 Feb 2022 9:43 AM AEST
Lifeline's new 24/7 Crisis Text Service opens up crisis support to
hard-to-reach groups
Research shows that Lifeline’s Crisis Text service is reaching entirely new groups of Australians in distress and at high risk of suicide.
Since 2019, Lifeline has provided Australia’s only Crisis Text helpline, providing support to people in psychological distress. Thanks to a $1.5 million grant from the Australian Government, Lifeline Australia has now been able to fast-track the expansion of text and chat services to 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week to meet demand and increase accessibility for hard-to-reach groups.
Lifeline CEO Colin Seery said that rather than diverting phone calls from the 13 11 14 service, the always-on digital platform has in fact increased the range and total number of people contacting the organisation.
“This is a landmark in suicide prevention in Australia and is all about bringing help to people who are in situations and environments where accessing support through digital communication is the only safe or viable option,” said Mr Seery.
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NBN Co refuses to say if execs held to account for subcontractor pay scandal
By Ry Crozier on Feb 9, 2022 6:59AM
Or if bonuses were impacted in any way.
NBN Co has refused to say whether anyone in the company was held accountable or had their bonuses reduced after a subcontractor pay cut scandal last year.
The network operator also angrily rejected an assertion by Labor Senator Tony Sheldon that cutting the take-home pay of its contract field force by restructuring agreements with its key delivery partners amounted to “unethical conduct” on NBN Co’s part.
The cuts came courtesy of a troubled program codenamed ‘Unify’ that changed the way NBN Co outsourced field services to its major delivery partners.
The program led to pay cuts, protests, a backdown by NBN Co in the form of a $75 “top-up fee” per job, and a KPMG audit that NBN Co refuses to release.
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Australian telcos in line for classified threat intelligence briefings
By Richard Chirgwin on Feb 8, 2022 12:35PM
Recommendation that spy agencies share more, and vice versa.
Carriers, government agencies, and security agencies need a more structured forum for sharing classified information about security threats, according to the federal Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security (PJCIS).
In a 50-page report published yesterday, the committee also concluded that long-standing requirements that carriers “do their best” to secure their networks should be formalised with standards set by either the same forum or a second, separate one.
Currently, threat information is shared within the Trusted Information Sharing Network, a body that the report recommends be bolstered in two ways: with a “renewed focus on telecommunications security”, and with “advice from security agencies regarding ongoing and emerging threats”.
PJCIS wants the government to establish a dedicated forum for sharing telecommunications security threat information, allowing “ASIO and Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) to brief telecommunications stakeholders about ongoing and emerging threats to the maximum classified level possible”.
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Nuclear fusion breakthrough smashes world record
By Tom Whipple
The Times
4:11PM February 10, 2022
It was just five seconds. It was just a prototype.
But for that short period of time, one day last December, the hottest place in the solar system lay just south of Oxford. And in that place, a 25-year-old record in fusion energy was broken.
Here, over the course of those five seconds, a doughnut-shaped chamber managed to hold together a superheated plasma, 10 times hotter than the centre of the sun. Inside the plasma, hydrogen atoms fused to become helium nuclei, neutrons flew out and 59 megajoules of energy were made.
This output is less than a 250th of that produced by the coal and wood pellet-fired Drax power station in North Yorkshire, day in day out. It is far less than the energy put in to run the plant. It is also, though, more than double the record for fusion, set in 1997 by the same plant, the Joint European Torus (JET).
The result, fusion scientists said on Wednesday, cleared the path for the move to a commercial scale prototype, and – perhaps – the realisation of the long-held dream of clean and near-limitless energy.
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Enjoy!
David.
Department of Health CIO to exit
ReplyDeleteWhat with all those advisers moving, looks like musical chairs - or rats deserting a sinking ship.