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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! It’s 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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https://www.innovationaus.com/govt-fails-to-pass-anti-trolling-bill-before-election/
Govt fails to pass anti-trolling bill before election
Denham
Sadler
National Affairs Editor
31 March 2022
The federal government has failed to pass its controversial anti-trolling bill before the upcoming election, despite the Prime Minister saying it would be “dealt with” in February.
The Social Media (Anti-Trolling) Bill, which provides a “new novel framework to allow Australians to respond to defamatory content posted on social media”, will now lapse following the May federal election.
The bill was brought for debate in the lower house by the government on Thursday, after the Senate had risen for the final time before the election, meaning it is cannot be passed.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison had earlier said that the bill would be “dealt” with in Parliament in February, but this did not happen.
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Tackling conspiracies and misinformation within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities
· Melissa Sweet
· Bronwyn Fredericks, Abraham Bradfield, James Ward, Sue McAvoy, Shea Spierings, Troy Combo, and Agnes Toth-Peter
· Wednesday, March 30, 2022
Recommendations for countering the spread of misinformation within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities are made in a recent publication, which states that successful COVID-19 communications in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities must centralise Indigenous voices and expertise.
The article below, by Professor Bronwyn Fredericks, Dr Abraham Bradfield, Professor James Ward, Dr Sue McAvoy, Dr Shea Spierings, Troy Combo and Agnes Toth-Peter from the University of Queensland, is based upon the publication in the M/C Journal.
Bronwyn Fredericks, Abraham Bradfield, James Ward, Sue McAvoy, Shea Spierings, Troy Combo, and Agnes Toth-Peter write:
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and its fluctuating waves of infections and the emergence of new variants, Indigenous populations in Australia and worldwide have remained at high risk.
As COVID-19 spreads, preventative measures and vaccinations have never been so important. Vaccination rates in some Indigenous communities, however, remain low with hesitancy coinciding with the spread of misinformation and amplification of conspiracy theories.
A 2021 study conducted at the University of Queensland (UQ) has mapped some of the risk and protective measures that influence responses to COVID-19. Amongst the findings was that an inherent mistrust of mainstream authorities exist in some communities and that this increases the chance of some community members seeking, encountering, or basing their actions on unverified sources of information.
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https://www.zdnet.com/article/australias-second-tranche-of-cyber-laws-passed-both-houses/
Australia's second tranche of cyber laws passes both Houses
Critical infrastructure entities will now be required to maintain a risk management program, which Home Affairs has said, on average, will cost organisations a one-off AU$9.7 million for setting it up and an annual ongoing cost of AU$3.7 million.
Written by Campbell Kwan, Journalist
on March 31, 2022 | Topic: Security
Australia's second tranche of cyber laws has passed through both houses of Parliament, meaning entities running "systems of national significance" will soon be beholden to enhanced cybersecurity obligations that could force them to install third-party software.
Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews said the laws would boost the security and resilience of Australia's critical infrastructure.
"Throughout the pandemic, Australia's critical infrastructure sectors have been regularly targeted by malicious cyber actors seeking to exploit victims for profit, with total disregard for the community and the essential services we all rely on," Andrews said.
"The Bill builds on the Morrison Government's strong support for our national security agencies announced in Tuesday's Federal Budget, to make Australia stronger and keep Australians safe in an increasingly uncertain world.
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https://www.ausdoc.com.au/news/doctors-warn-over-insulin-pumps-flights
Doctors warn over insulin pumps on flights
A woman had hypoglycaemia after her pump delivered too much insulin mid-flight: case study
31st March 2022
Doctors have warned about using insulin pumps on flights, after a patient developed severe hypoglycaemia when her device delivered excess doses midair.
The 55-year-old with type 1 diabetes experienced hypoglycaemia on two flights in non-pressurised cabins while using the Omnipod DASH device, they wrote in a case report.
Continuous glucose monitoring data showed her blood glucose levels started to fall about 15 minutes after the aircraft reached cruising altitude.
During the first flight, the patient’s blood glucose level decreased from 8.9mmol/L to 2.2mmol/L and on the second it decreased from 7.2mmol/L to 2.8mmol/L.
She experienced fatigue, dizziness, diaphoresis and confusion, despite consuming 65g of carbohydrates in the form of glucose gel on the first flight, and 40g of carbohydrates on the second.
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‘Unstoppable momentum’ to rein in Big Tech: Rod Sims
2:04PM March 31, 2022
Regulators are finally coming to grips with reining in Big Tech and there is now unstoppable momentum towards digital regulation, former consumer watchdog chairman Rod Sims has said in his first speech since stepping down as Australian’s competition tsar.
Speaking virtually at the Charles River Associates Conference, Europe’s most prestigious privately run competition summit and attended by European Union competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager and Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan, Mr Sims said regulators were now “very aware of the problem” presented by the dominance of Google and Facebook.
“It is now widely recognised that we cannot have so few companies controlling the internet and, increasingly therefore, our economy. Dynamism and innovation, among other things, will suffer, and there will be continuing significant rent extraction,” the former Australian Competition & Consumer Commission chairman said on Thursday.
“There is also now recognition that the enforcement of existing antitrust laws, while necessary, will not be sufficient. The key players are too entrenched for that. Not only does ex post enforcement take too long, it is essentially a game of ‘whack a mole’; you hit the mole and it emerges elsewhere … The large tech companies have so many avenues to pursue to retain their dominance.”
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https://www.smh.com.au/technology/can-we-trust-wearables-to-watch-our-hearts-20220329-p5a8za.html
Can we trust wearables to watch our hearts?
By Tim Biggs
April 1, 2022 — 3.50pm
Smartwatches and exercise trackers are everywhere, giving people easy access to their physical activity and fitness data. But as wearable devices start sporting more medical features like ECGs and arterial health, it can be hard to tell how much data is too much.
There were 305 million wearable devices shipped globally in 2021, according to ABI research, up from 260 million in 2020. The firm expects that momentum to keep up with around 345 million sold this year. And while almost all of them track steps, sleep, exercise and heart rate, many now go further.
The latest Apple Watches, for example, have clinically validated ECG sensors for detecting atrial fibrillation. Google’s Fitbit is trialling algorithms to detect the same thing using ordinary optical sensors. Samsung’s latest Galaxy watches can do bioimpedance tests to determine your body’s fat and liquid composition. Many devices also estimate your blood oxygen saturation, or blood pressure.
Professor Carol Maher from the University of South Australia — who researches how wearable devices help people make better lifestyle choices — said that having diagnostic data collected and charted to show change over time could be powerful, but that on-demand medical tests weren’t necessarily as useful as they may seem.
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https://www.insightnews.com.au/whats-in-the-2022-23-federal-budget-for-the-eye-health-sector/
What’s in the 2022-23 Federal Budget for the eye health sector?
Myles Hume April 1, 2022
The Federal Government has laid out a $132 billion health agenda for the coming year – if it regains power at the next election – and while there were no major wins for eye health, changes to the PBS safety net and small business incentives are expected to trickle down to the ophthalmic sector.
On Tuesday 29 March, Treasurer Mr Josh Frydenberg delivered the Federal Budget 2022-2023 that had a particular focus on easing cost of living pressures and infrastructure projects in regional Australia.
Outgoing Federal Health Minister Mr Greg Hunt announced $132 billion in 2022–23 for his portfolio, increasing to $140 billion in 2025–26, with a total commitment of $537 billion over the next four years.
While there was nothing “revolutionary” for eye health and optometry, Optometry Australia (OA) said of interest within the health portfolio is additional investment across primary healthcare, rural healthcare, mental healthcare, the ongoing COVID-19 response, and the Medicare Research Future Fund.
Measures expected to positively impact optometry included:
- Free Interpreting Services for allied health, with $1.95m spent over four years allowing allied health professionals access to the Australian Government’s Free Interpreting Services for patient care. OA is pursuing more details to share with members.
- Auslan services in primary health, with $600,000 allocated to a scoping study to identify the need and opportunity to provide Auslan and spoken language services for patients who are deaf.
- A relatively small investment of $500,000 in allied health digital readiness, to work with the allied health sector to identify barriers to greater adoption of digital health tools. OA has been working with the Digital Health Agency for some time on identifying and addressing these barriers as they relate to optometry, and said it would continue to advocate for support to ensure optometry practice management software is integrated with initiatives such as My Health Record.
- Increased investment in scholarships for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to undertake health care studies, including in allied health and optometry.
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Public sector data sharing laws pass parliament with Labor changes
By Justin Hendry on Mar 31, 2022 5:17PM
Privacy protections added, while restrictions imposed on corporations.
Laws that make it easier for government agencies to share data with each other and universities have passed parliament after the opposition secured changes to address privacy concerns.
The Data Availability and Transparency Bill was finally signed off by the Senate on Wednesday night after clearing the House of Representatives with amendments earlier in the day.
It ends an almost four-year journey that began when the Office of the Data Commissioner first began consulting on the reforms following a Productivity Commission report in mid-2018.
The bill, which was introduced to parliament back in 2020, creates an optional pathway for agencies to share data for the purposes of service delivery, to inform policy, and research and development.
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Australian Government delivers tech heavy Budget but critics say health system pressures will continue
This week's Budget will boost digital uptake and cybersecurity, but doctors' groups say it failed to provide the funding the COVID-19 fatigued health system needs.
By Lynne Minion
March 31, 2022 03:59 AM
The Australian Government delivered a 2022-23 Budget on Tuesday focused on cost of living issues, with critics claiming it failed to provide adequate investments in a healthcare system under pressure. But the tech sector has welcomed the Government's commitment to developing the nation's digital economy and reinforcing its cyber resilience.
DIGITAL HEALTH
Within the Budget measures, AU$107.2 million ($80 million) is being invested in the Health Delivery Modernisation Program, including new digital services to manage Medicare Complex Care Plans and register Medicare providers.
Services Australia has secured AU$96.8 million ($72 million) for the next phase of its upgrade of the payments systems that support the operation of Medicare and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
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https://nwmphn.org.au/news/digital-health-update-for-medical-specialists/
Digital health update for medical specialists
31 March 2022
ADHA Propaganda
2022 is shaping up as a transformational year for specialist medical practices in the North Western Melbourne Primary Health Network region.
My Health record update
Viewing and uploading documents to My Health Record is now standard practice for most healthcare providers and expected by many patients. 95 per cent of Australians now have a My Health Record, and pharmacists, GPs and public hospitals are overwhelmingly using it.
My Health Record use among specialists has spiked since it became accessible through clinical software in late 2021. Documents uploaded by specialists and viewed by other healthcare providers increased by 23 per cent in January 2022. Treating specialists can now upload specialist letters to My Health Record for better communication with GPs.
Why should medical specialists use My Health Record?
- Fast access to key health information to support you in caring for your patients.
- Help improve clinical decision making.
- Avoid duplication of tests, scans and diagnostics.
- Medicine reconciliation tasks and prescribing.
- Help to inform end-of- life care decisions.
Practice managers will be thankful for the time saved that would otherwise be spent chasing up paper or faxed records from other practices. This will boost your business efficiency and reduce costs.
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Individual Healthcare Identifier guidance
We
have published new
privacy guidance regarding Individual Healthcare
Identifiers (IHIs) on COVID-19 digital vaccination certificates.
Any individual, entity or state and territory authority that collects a COVID-19
digital certificate containing an IHI will have privacy obligations under the Healthcare
Identifiers Act 2010.
- Don’t collect a COVID-19 digital certificate if it is not required – sight a copy of the certificate instead.
- If a copy of a COVID-19 digital certificate must be collected, do not collect an IHI.
- Consider removing or redacting IHIs from any COVID-19 digital certificates that have already been collected and stored in a record.
- Understand the privacy obligations that apply once you have collected an IHI.
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Budget’s $9.9b cybersecurity spending is worth every dollar
It’s a lot of money, but at tech industry rates, this is a good price for protecting Australia from online threats.
Karly Winkler
Mar 30, 2022 – 6.22pm
The $9.9 billion announced in Tuesday’s budget for the Australian Signals Directorate is a windfall for Australia’s cyber and intelligence capabilities.
The colourfully named project “REDSPICE” (code for “Resilience, Effects, Defence, Space, Intelligence, Cyber & Enablers) is an expensive program that intends to double the ASD’s workforce, dramatically increase Australia’s protective and offensive cyber capabilities – enhanced by AI and smart technologies – and significantly increase its national and global footprint.
The public should well ask: is this investment worth it? The answer is a resounding yes.
Cybercrime alone was estimated to cost Australia up to $42 billion last financial year, according to the Australian Cyber Security Centre and UNSW – more than four times the cost of REDSPICE. But crime prevention is only one of many problems facing Australia’s cyber sector.
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What was (and wasn't) in last night's Federal Budget
Parental support, the modifying the Modified Monash Model and the eternal recurrence of reform
30th March 2022
There were no big bangs for general practice in last night's Federal Budget - which can be a good thing.
But buried in the budget papers were some significant changes.
Here is the list.
GP patient enrolment goes cashless
The Federal Government has dumped its plans to link GP telehealth rebates with voluntary patient enrolment after leaving funding for the scheme out of last night’s budget.
A decade in the making, there are still few details of the policy's future despite the government releasing its Primary Health Care 10 Year plan last night (see here for analysis).
Branded MyGP, it was due to begin as early as July, with a registered patient's rebates for telehealth, care plans and health assessments tied to their practice from July next year.
Given no money was being made available for enrolments, the telehealth restriction at least had been shelved, Mr Hunt said.
“We will now work with the medical groups over the course of the next six months to bring [patient enrolment] to a co-design that is acceptable to everybody,” he pledged.
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https://www.ausdoc.com.au/news/greg-hunts-17-billion-reform-package-general-practice-any-it-real
Greg Hunt's $1.7 billion reform package for general practice: Is any of it real?
Analysis: Australia's Primary Health Care 10 Year plan offers fewer details than last year's draft
30th March 2022
By Paul Smith
It popped up on the Department of Health's website at about 8.30pm last night — the release of the nation’s Primary Health Care 10 Year plan.
I still can’t work out whether the 10 years is a reference to the amount of time it’s taken to get to the point of publication (it seems more like a lifetime) or, as Greg Hunt argues, this is the reform blueprint for the coming decade.
If you had looked at the accompanying media release, the numbers were spinning big again. The plan apparently has $1.7 billion attached to it.
In reality, it's just smoke and mirrors employed to fuel a little excitement as the federal election looms. Most of the money has been spent in response to the COVID-19 pandemic rather than on the plan itself.
So what does it say? Lots of padding obviously and to be honest, it feels like a story of no news here.
Although a draft version mentioned a June start date for a new revolutionary GP patient enrolment scheme (officially known as MyGP), the money for GPs to register patients has gone missing, and references to that July start date seem to have been erased.
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https://www.zdnet.com/article/australian-budget-2022-delivers-au9-9-billion-for-spicy-cyber/
Australian Budget 2022 delivers AU$9.9 billion for spicy cyber
This year's Budget sees the federal government put cybersecurity development at the fore, along with continued funding of the country's digital economy strategy.
Written by Campbell Kwan, Journalist
on March 29, 2022 | Topic: Security
The federal government has released its 2022-23 federal Budget, containing a AU$9.9 billion kitty for bolstering cybersecurity and intelligence capabilities in the midst of a growing cyberthreat landscape around the world. The near-AU$10 billion will be spent across a decade under a program called Resilience, Effects, Defence, Space, Intelligence, Cyber and Enablers (REDSPICE).
"This is the biggest ever investment in Australia's cyber preparedness," said Treasurer Josh Frydenburg, who announced the Budget on Tuesday night.
Looking at how the federal government envisions the AU$9.9 billion will be spent, the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) will be the biggest recipient of these funds. Over the next four years, the ASD will receive AU$4.2 billion to double its employee head count -- amounting to 1,900 new jobs -- triple its offensive cyber capabilities, double its cyber hunt and response activities as well as preserve its ability to deliver a "strategic advantage".
"The package will help ASD to keep pace with the rapid growth of cyber capabilities of potential adversaries, as well as being able to counter attack and protect our most critical systems," according to Budget documents.
REDSPICE will also provide funding for Australian industry and support new employment pathways through partnerships with educational institutions, particularly in the areas of data science and analysis, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and IT engineering.
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Budget 2022: Multi-billion cyber package ‘largest in nation’s history’
8:16PM March 29, 2022
The Morrison government will significantly ramp up cyber defence spending in a 10-year $9.9bn package, amid rising tensions with Russia and China.
The spending, on top of a $1.7bn investment in cyber from the government in 2020, will create 1900 jobs, including data analysts, computer programmers and software engineers.
Josh Frydenberg said it was the most significant cyber defence package in the nation’s history.
The package , known as Resilience, Effects, Defence, Space, Intelligence, Cyber and Enablers, or REDSPICE, will bolster both the offensive and defensive capabilities of the Australian Signals Directorate, and will overall double the ASD’s headcount over the next decade.
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Record investment in the future of Australia's health system
The Australian Government is investing in a stronger health system as part of our plan for a stronger future through a record $132 billion in 2022–23, increasing to $140 billion in 2025–26, with a total commitment of $537 billion over the next four years.
Date published: 29 March 2022
Media type: Media release
Audience: General public
The Coalition Government is investing in a stronger health system as part of our plan for a stronger future through a record $132 billion in 2022–23, increasing to $140 billion in 2025–26, with a total commitment of $537 billion over the next four years.
This record funding will ensure Australians have access to improved healthcare, when and where they need it, helping them to lead healthier lives, with improved health outcomes and to provide ongoing protection against COVID-19.
We are strengthening our commitment to Australia’s Long Term National Health Plan, through important and strategic investments to deliver the world’s best health care system, including:
- $537 billion over the next four years, up $34 billion compared to the 2021–22 Budget including:
- $7.3 billion increase in Medicare funding
- $9.8 billion increase in Hospital funding
- $10.1 billion increase in Aged Care funding.
- $45.5 billion over four years to access more affordable medicines through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), and more than $2.4 billion this Budget to add vital new medicines to the PBS
- $1.7 billion towards the objectives of the Primary Health Care 10 Year Plan including:
- Ensuring telehealth remains a permanent part of Australia’s health system, which has improved access to quality health care for Australians, with more than 100 million services already delivered since March 2020.
- $296.5 million to deliver improvements in regional, rural and remote health as part of the 10-Year Stronger Rural Health Strategy, including $66 million to deregulate access to Medicare funded Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) services in MMM 2–7 areas, and
- $6.8 billion over four years for life-saving and life changing research, informed by the Government’s updated Medical Research Future Fund 10 Year Investment Plan
- $4.2 billion to continue protecting Australians against COVID-19, through supply and access to safe and effective vaccines, treatments and support for our health workforce in primary care, aged care and hospitals
- $4.6 billion over four years to continue to drive improvements in health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians
- $522 million to deliver the second year of our five-year implementation plan of the once-in-a-generation reform to Australia’s aged care system, to deliver respect, care and dignity to our senior Australians in response to the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety
- $648.6 million for Stage 2 of the Government’s Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Reform Plan, to ensure Australians can access appropriate mental health care when they need it, taking total investment in the Plan to nearly $3 billion
- $333 million to increase outcomes in women’s health, including
- $81.2 million to provide carrier screening for three genetic conditions (cystic fibrosis, spinal muscular atrophy and fragile X syndrome), making Mackenzie's Mission a permanent part of our health system, and
- $58 million for diagnosis, treatment and awareness of endometriosis
- $149.8 billion over 5 years to continue our record levels of investment in public hospitals, including funding under the 2020–25 National Health Reform Agreement (NHRA). An increase from $13.3 billion in 2012–13 to $28.1 billion in 2022–23 growing to $32.7 billion in 2025–26.
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https://www.livemint.com/mint-lounge/features/keeping-track-of-audio-drugs-11576212606246.html
30 Mar 2022 11:39 AM AEST
Audio files are being used as digital drugs: survey
Audio files are being used as digital drugs: survey
New study sheds light on the little-known phenomenon of binaural beats, where sounds purportedly evoke psychoactive effects.
A binaural beat is an illusionary tone created by the brain when presenting two tones separately to each ear that slightly differ in their frequency.
It’s claimed binaural beats can have a psychoactive effect on the brain, although there’s limited research on their efficacy and safety.
Now a new study published Thursday in Drug and Alcohol Review has captured how and why people use the tones.
Data comes from the Global Drug Survey 2021, which drew on responses from more than 30,000 people in 22 countries.
Respondents mainly used binaural beats to relax or fall asleep (72%) and to change their mood (35%), while 12% reported trying to get a similar effect to that of psychedelic drugs.
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Medical records of sexual assault survivors to be better protected under new laws
Defence lawyers in Victoria have been able to subpoena records without the person being told
29th March 2022
Sexual assault victims in Victoria will be given greater powers to prevent defence lawyers accessing their medical records in an attempt to undermine their credibility in court.
Back in 2016 and again last year, the Victorian Law Reform Commission warned that confidential patient records were being obtained via a subpoena without the alleged victim’s knowledge.
In other cases, the alleged victims were told by the police, but they did not realise they could then legally contest the application.
The Victorian Government has pledged to close the legal loophole following a campaign by state MP Stuart Grimley.
“Victim’s information can be exploited by [lawyers suggesting] antidepressant medication is a reason for a victim being unreliable or a history of mental health issues being the reason why sexual assault was alleged,” he told the Victorian Parliament last week.
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Federal Government to investigate governance of North Queensland Primary Health Network
29 Mar 2022, 14:01
Main points
- The Federal Health Department will investigate the governance of the North Queensland Primary Health Network
- The North Queensland Doctors Guild has raised concerns over conflicts of interest and a historical disregard for GPs
- Much of the tension centres around a State Government trial allowing pharmacists to prescribe medications
The Federal Health Department has confirmed it will conduct an independent review into tensions between the taxpayer-funded North Queensland Primary Health Network (NQPHN) and local General Practitioners.
Earlier this month, the North Queensland Doctors Guild asked Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt to urgently investigate the organisation, claiming it has a historical disregard for GPs and is operating outside the realms of its own constitution.
Two doctors recently quit the NQPHN board in protest over ‘serious conflicts of interest’, particularly relating to its input into a Queensland Health trial which will see local pharmacists prescribing medications for 23 conditions to help relieve a GP shortage.
Since then, Chairman Nick Loukas – who co-owns the Alive Pharmacy chain and was part of the government’s steering committee - has stood down from his position and the NQPHN has withdrawn its support for the trial.
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COVID-19 has magnified challenges in the health sector, but technology can help.
By Lisa Cornish
Tuesday March 29, 2022 Sponsored
Even before COVID-19 reached Australian shores, the effectiveness of systems supporting the delivery and management of healthcare services was limited by its disconnectedness. Systems facilitating the delivery of patient services, procurement of medicines and medical equipment, and management of staff and finances were siloed, creating workflow difficulties for both staff and patients.
“The challenge, historically, in healthcare is too many siloed systems,” Peter Williams, healthcare advisor with Oracle, explains. “That makes it very difficult to achieve the goal of a patient-centric approach. There’s a lot of integration and effort required. To have a patient-centric system, all systems – whether in a GP’s office, pathology lab, hospital or social service provider – need to be able to talk to one another and understand what is happening.”
Williams, who brings expertise including heading health enterprise architecture teams in two Australian states and as the former chair of the My Health Record jurisdictional advisory committee, supports Oracle in the understanding of industry needs as well as the technology options available. Today, he says, we are starting to get to the point whereby interoperability is technically feasible thanks to the work of the Australian Digital Health Agency and standards such as the Fast Health Interoperability Resources (FHIR), which supports information exchange and enables developers to build systems supporting better health processes.
And with COVID-19 putting demand on health systems to be more agile and responsive, it is capability that is in demand globally.
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https://www.crikey.com.au/2022/03/28/anthony-albanese-facebook-weight-loss-ads/
The mystery behind Facebook ads showing Anthony Albanese spruiking weight-loss supplements
Following the Labor leader's physical transformation, Albanese's image has popped up promoting weight-loss supplements from a company accused of scamming customers.
Mar 28, 2022
“One teaspoon is enough and you will lose 45 kilograms”.
That’s what Anthony Albanese supposedly promises will happen if you take a type of weight-loss supplement, according to advertisements running on Facebook.
Crikey has seen multiple examples of paid advertisements running on Meta’s advertising services that link to a variety of websites hosting a testimonial from Albanese.
While the Labor leader has been through a physical makeover in the lead-up to this year’s federal election, he attributes this body transformation to diet and exercise. So why is Albanese’s visage spruiking these supplements?
Bottom of Form
The advertised testimonials appear to be a fabrication linking to a company selling supplements, one that’s been accused of scamming people. The advertisements are run through new, small Facebook pages that are barebones but for the advertisement, registered with names like “Wealth” and “Personal variety”.
The posts feature bizarre, low-quality collages of Albanese with strange liquids alongside logos like the Department of Health and My Health Record.
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Trolls should not be unmasked if it endangers them, senate committee says
By Jeremy Nadel on Mar 29, 2022 6:45AM
Final report on the anti-trolling bill published.
Disclosing a troll’s identity should require a court order ruling the disclosure would not risk their safety, the Senate committee looking at the Social Media (Anti-Trolling) Bill 2022 has recommended.
“An end-user information disclosure order (EIDO) should not be granted if the Court is satisfied that the disclosure of relevant contact details or country location data is likely to present a risk to the poster's safety,” the recommended amendment said.
The Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee tabled its final report on the bill on Thursday afternoon.
The amendment seeks to address online platforms' concerns unmasking some posters could put them at risk.
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Remote health monitoring — have we learnt our lessons?
By Emeline Ramos*
Friday, 25 March, 2022
If we ever needed proof that our healthcare systems have a sustainability problem, the pandemic provided it. As healthcare organisations struggle with resourcing issues, frontline staff are under enormous pressure, waiting lists for surgery are growing, and health screening appointments are being missed.
However, the pandemic has provided a silver lining at least with the increased use of remote monitoring technology. As we discover new ways for remote monitoring to support the sustainability of our healthcare systems, its importance will only grow.
For example, Mater Health in Queensland has deployed monitoring devices to care for COVID-19 patients living in their homes. In Singapore, COVID-19 patients are being treated remotely using smartphones, tablets and Bluetooth-connected thermometers, oximeters and blood pressure meters. And in New Zealand, remote monitoring technology like ECG devices and pulse oximeters are being used to design a virtual consult service to assist vulnerable populations in South Auckland.
Such approaches have been proven to work. A study at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, found that remote monitoring technology improved outcomes and reduced costs by 40%. Patients were also 70% less likely to be readmitted.
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Cybersecurity is everyone's responsibility
Australasian Institute
of Digital Health (AIDH)
By Deana Scott, Cybersecurity Community of
Practice Chair, Australasian Institute of Digital Health
Monday, 28 March, 2022
Health care continues to become increasingly digitised with an ever-expanding range of infrastructure options, technology platforms and devices being implemented and accessed both internally and externally to hospitals and healthcare organisations. Across the globe, the pandemic has seen the speed of digitisation in care delivery accelerate, with many organisations being caught off guard by legacy infrastructure, poor systemisation and a need to rapidly pivot in response to daily announcements and infection rates.
The challenge now is how do healthcare organisations continue to respond with a secure approach to ensure the sector doesn’t suffer a virtual pandemic due to the opportunistic actions of malicious actors?
Health care has continued to hold first place in the biannual notifiable breach reports and therefore is a top concern for the Office of the Australian Privacy Commissioner (Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, 2022). Of significance, compromised credentials made up 60% of reported cyber incidents, highlighting the need for greater awareness and responsibility in protecting user profiles. Ransomware is in third place and the impact of such an attack can severely disrupt the delivery of care and, consequently, patient safety.
Consumer confidence is crucial to the reputation and sustainability of any organisation and will become a significant metric as health care makes its slow but incremental progress towards value-based care. This brings us back to the question of how health care continues to leverage technology while mitigating the potential for a cyber attack and retain consumer confidence in delivery of care. The answers lie in a two-pronged approach, one that involves accepting that cybersecurity is at the intersection of people and technology. It is a symbiotic relationship, like hardware and software.
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https://www.ausdoc.com.au/opinion/how-look-most-switchedon-gp-ever
How to look like the most switched-on GP ever
Dr Muthiah is a GP on the Central Coast of NSW and medical co-editor of Australian Doctor.
27th March 2022
I often wonder whether many of my patients simply consider me a nag, a fly in their ear constantly buzzing about things they need to do.
Like, taking part in national cancer screening programs, or booking follow-up appointments with their specialists – as was planned one, or even five years ago.
Or nudging them to fill out their pre-admission paperwork so they can finally have that deferred ‘urgent’ procedure.
Sometimes I feel more like a glorified personal assistant than a GP.
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https://itwire.com/business-it-news/security/how-to-prevent-ransomware-devastation.html
Sunday, 27 March 2022 23:29
How to prevent ransomware devastation
COMPANY NEWS by George Tsoukas, ANZ Manager, Gigamon: The devastating effects of ransomware have continued to grow over the past two decades, which have seen it shift from just being opportunistic ‘smash-and-grab’ style attacks to carefully orchestrated attacks.
So let’s consider a high-level assessment of what ransomware is and show how organisations can prevent attacks.
Ransomware describes malware used to digitally extort victims into payment of a specific fee. Once the victim’s computer is locked or encrypted, ransomware actors will often attempt to extort money by displaying an on-screen alert. Victims are notified that unless a ransom is paid, access will not be restored.
Ransomware actors have expanded the scope of their attacks from extorting individual users to disrupting entire businesses and critical infrastructure.
Ransomware is often spread through phishing emails that contain malicious attachments or through drive-by downloading. This occurs when a user unknowingly visits an infected website, then malware is downloaded and installed without the user’s knowledge.
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https://medicalrepublic.com.au/connected-platforms-the-best-hope-for-gp-impact-and-income/65746
25 March 2022
Connected platforms the best hope for GP impact and income
Comment Interoperability Technology
I’m sitting in a live demonstration of interoperability at HIMSS22 in Orlando, Florida that is a little mind-blowing, especially given I’m in the US, where we Australians like to think digital health is backward.
Seated at seven workstations are seven healthcare vendors, mostly electronic health record (EHR) vendors of one sort another, including Cerner, the world’s largest hospital EHR vendor, but also including the equivalent of our Medical Director, Best Practice and FRED IT’s pharmacy dispensing solution. And then a few more (the US healthcare system has a lot more moving parts than Australia).
They are all driving their own applications, and their patient, Ted from Washington State, has just landed for HIMSS (which stands for Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society) in Orlando and isn’t feeling well.
Ted can go online now to his own GP back in Washington if he wants, using his mobile app with a telehealth module, but he decides to visit a local GP, who is using eClinicalWorks, a cloud-based equivalent in the US of Best Practice.
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David.
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