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
-----
Quite a lot going on this week and we have had a pretty busy comment flow on the blog. Interesting how comment streams evolve!
The telehealth debate continues and the Government is yet to notice what a ‘steaming pile of poo’the #myHR is!
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/anz/australia-launches-digital-cancer-hub-children-families
Australia launches digital cancer hub for children, families
It builds on Canteen Connect, an online support community for young cancer patients and their families.
By Adam Ang
July 17, 2022 10:23 PM
The Australian government has launched a digital cancer hub to support young cancer patients and their families.
The Cancer Hub was developed in partnership with three of the leading children's cancer support groups in Australia, namely Canteen, Camp Quality, and Redkite.
Based on a media release, the digital hub will be providing online counselling services to children under 12 with cancer and their parents. It builds on Canteen Connect, a mobile app-based online community for people aged 12-25 dealing with their own or a family member’s cancer.
The federal government has provided A$3.3 million ($2.2 million) to Canteen to deliver the Cancer Hub until the end of 2023. This includes A$1.8 million ($1.2 million) in funding to continue its Canteen Connect service and A$1.5 million ($1 million) to offer a cancer navigation service.
-----
https://medicalrepublic.com.au/level-c-phone-backflip-falls-short/73274
18 July 2022
Level C phone backflip ‘falls short’
Reinstating MBS rebates for longer phone consults just for antiviral prescribing ignores the bigger picture.
The government has partially resurrected a popular MBS telehealth item but limited it to covid antiviral prescribing, brushing off the ongoing needs of people without access to reliable fast internet.
The Level C phone consults for antiviral prescribing will expire at the end of October, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said at the weekend.
RACGP president Adjunct Professor Karen Price said she welcomed the news but that it fell short of what was needed for non-covid patients.
“Chronic, isolated and vulnerable patients will now either need to be cut off at 20 minutes, come in face to face, or go without,” she tweeted on Saturday morning.
-----
Rural and remote patients left behind by telehealth cuts: RACGP
Wednesday, 20 July, 2022
The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) has once again urged the federal government to make Medicare rebates for longer telehealth phone consultations a permanent fixture of the nation’s telehealth scheme so that patients living outside of major cities can get the care they need when they need it.
It comes following reports of a study released by Phillips, which found that 40% of people living in rural and remote areas had internet speeds that were less than 28 kilobits per second. This makes conducting telehealth video consultations challenging, if not impossible, given that the minimum recommended speed for video calls is 600 kilobits per second. In addition, other people are not confident using the technology or find the cost of purchasing a smartphone or laptop prohibitive.
The latest Medicare Benefits Schedule, which came into effect on 1 July, has removed a patient rebate for GP phone appointments longer than 20 minutes, but kept patient rebates for video consults that are 20–40 minutes and longer (>40 minutes).* 2.5 million Australians are not using the internet due to issues including access and affordability. It’s estimated that 1 in 4 people in Australia are being “digitally excluded” and unable to properly take advantage of digital technology, according to the RACGP.
-----
Gov spends another $9m on data analytics to detect Medicare fraud
By Justin Hendry on Jul 19, 2022 11:55AM
Looks to Quantium Health.
The federal government will pay Woolworths-backed Quantium Health another $9 million over the next year for tools to detect suspected instances of Medicare claims fraud by health providers.
The Department of Health and Aged Care entered the contract for ‘data analytics services to support health provider compliance’ this month, extending its existing relationship with Quantium Health.
Quantium Health is jointly owned by the data analytics firm Quantium Group, which is majority-owned by the Woolworths Group, and South African insurer Discovery Limited.
The company first began providing data analytics services to support health provider compliance in June 2019 under a now-expired $19.6 million contract that climbed to $28.6 million last year.
-----
-----
https://www.itnews.com.au/news/home-affairs-asic-acma-leave-global-switch-data-centre-582807
Home Affairs, ASIC, ACMA leave Global Switch data centre
By Justin Hendry on Jul 19, 2022 6:37AM
Under $115m 'securing sovereign data' project.
Three federal government agencies exited Global Switch’s Sydney-based data centre in line with a July 2022 deadline to migrate all sensitive data from the facility, with a fourth agency expected to leave this week.
iTnews can reveal the Department of Home Affairs, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and the Australian Communications Media Authority (ACMA) all left the Chinese-owned facility before the end of last month.
The group of agencies agreed to exit GSU by the end of the 2021-22 financial year under the Home Affairs-led ‘securing sovereign data’ project, replacing a previously self-imposed deadline of September 2020.
The deadline coincides with the requirement under the hosting certification framework that agencies now host all sensitive government data, whole-of-government systems and systems rated to a protected-level with only ‘certified strategic’ or ‘certified assured’ data centre providers.
-----
NZ study finds mobile app able to alleviate symptoms of common phobias
The VR app has been shown to reduce 75% of phobia symptoms after six weeks of treatment.
By Adam Ang
July 21, 2022 01:14 am
A clinical trial in New Zealand found a virtual reality app-based cognitive behaviour therapy programme reduced the symptoms of common phobias.
FINDINGS
Conducted between May and December last year, the randomised, controlled trial recruited a total of 129 adult participants with fears of flying, heights, needles, spiders and dogs. It was led by Dr Cameron Lacey, associate professor from the Department of Psychological Medicine at the University of Otago.
The study involved the use of a mobile VR app called oVRcome, which offers an exposure therapy programme for patients dealing with anxieties and phobias. Exposure therapy helps patients build up their tolerance to their specific phobias through short bursts of exposure.
The programme consists of standard CBT components including psychoeducation, relaxation, mindfulness, cognitive techniques, exposure through VR and a relapse prevention model.
Based on findings, which were published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, the app-based CBT programme alleviated symptoms of phobias by 75% among participants after six weeks of treatment.
-----
MEDIA RELEASE
Wednesday 13th July , 2022
Virtual Reality App shown to reduce common phobias through clinical trial in New Zealand.
Results from a New Zealand University trial suggest fresh hope for the estimated one-in-twelve people worldwide suffering from a fear of flying, needles, heights, spiders and dogs.
The trial, led by Associate Professor Cameron Lacey, from the Department of Psychological Medicine, at the University of Otago, studied phobia patients using a headset and a smartphone app treatment programme – a combination of Virtual Reality (VR) 360-degree video exposure therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).
Participants downloaded a fully self-guided smartphone app called “oVRcome”, developed by New Zealand based tech entrepreneur Adam Hutchinson, aimed at treating patients with phobia and anxiety. The app, paired with a VR headset, immerses participants in virtual environments so as to relax and distract technology to help people overcome anxiety disorders and social anxiety through VR exposure therapy. Anxiety and phobias include heights, spiders, flying, dogs and dogs
The results from the trial, just published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/00048674221110779 showed a 75 per cent reduction in phobia symptoms after six weeks of the treatment programme.
-----
Datacom hires Pauline Soo as health director to lead medical sector expansion
By Jeremy Nadel on Jul 21, 2022 1:11PM
Systems integrator Datacom has appointed Pauline Soo to a newly created, Melbourne-based health director role following an expansion of its medical organisation client base.
The Australian Federal Department of Health renewed its IT outsourcing contract with Datacom this April by three years and expanded its services agreement, with the total contract value reaching over $500 million. The company also entered a six-month, $250,000, ‘vaccine clinic finder support service contract’ with the Australian Digital Health Agency at the beginning of the month.
Datacom said the heavy regulatory and compliance requirements that came with these partnerships made it necessary to hire an aged-care and healthcare veteran with an understanding of the sector’s unique needs.
Datacom chief innovation and technology officer Matthew Gooden said Soo had the experience to guide Datacom’s expansion into the health industry.
-----
https://www.itnews.com.au/news/healthscope-appoints-interim-ciso-to-permanent-role-582603
Healthscope appoints interim CISO to permanent role
By Kate Weber on Jul 22, 2022 6:30AM
Concludes three-month search.
Healthscope has appointed its deputy and interim CISO Varun Acharya to the permanent CISO position vacated by Mitra Minai back in May.
Acharya stepped into the acting CISO role at the private hospital operation and healthcare provider soon after Minai left to join KPMG.
He revealed on LinkedIn that he has now been appointed as Healthscope's permanrnt CISO “after nearly three months serving as the deputy and interim CISO”.
Acharya was the company's head of cyber security for threat intelligence and security operations for just over a year prior to taking on the new role.
-----
Improving data quality through Diabetes and Immunisation Data
This 30-minute session will provide an overview of the importance of high-quality patient clinical records and practical examples of how to improve your practice’s data quality, using either a diabetes or immunisation quality improvement activity.
This session will aim to guide medical practice administrative and clinical
staff in gaining a foundational understanding of:
- The clinical risks of poor data;
- The importance of coding clinical information to ensure quality diagnosis and medical history/observations data;
- Importance of medical terminology; and
- The benefits of up-to-date and accurate data within clinical software's and when uploading documents to the My Health Record.
Diabetes
data (28/07/2022):
This training will support practices to use PIP QI Improvement Measures
relating to diabetes
(measures 1 and 10) to improve their data quality.
Register here.
Immunisation
data (25/12/2022):
This training will support practices to use PIP QI Improvement Measures
relating to influenza
immunisation and diagnosis data (measures 5 and 6) to improve
their data quality.
Register here.
-----
https://insightplus.mja.com.au/2022/27/is-telehealth-really-the-great-panacea-for-rural-health/
18 July 2022
Is telehealth the great panacea for rural health?
Authored by Simon Judkins, Belinda Hibble, Stephen Gourley
Instead of a telehealth explosion, where “we will get back in touch with you”, we need to refocus on a rural workforce explosion, where we can have clinicians and patients actually within hand’s reach of each other
OUT of a crisis comes opportunity, and with the effects of the global COVID-19 pandemic marching on, opportunities to transform many aspects of our health care systems have flourished.
One of the areas that has gained much interest is the potential expansion of investment in telehealth in its various guises. We have seen utility in supporting primary care, managing outpatient clinics, mental health consultations, and increasing use in emergency department (ED) settings.
The stars have aligned for this innovation in health care. Telehealth manages the risk of exposure to a wildly contagious disease (for both staff and patients). It allows for reduced movement of people within the community – a further benefit during lockdowns.
-----
Northern Health to expand virtual ED access to COVID-19, aged care patients
This will help free up ambulances and hospitals that are currently overwhelmed with rising COVID-19 cases.
By Adam Ang
July 21, 2022 01:16 AM
Northern Health is expanding the access to its virtual emergency department service to people living in residential aged care facilities and COVID-19 patients being treated at home via the COVID-19 Positive Pathway Program.
This comes as part of the additional A$162 million ($122 million) funding provided by the state government of Victoria to the health service to improve the operations of Ambulance Victoria.
Due to this, the capacity of the Victorian Virtual Emergency Department (VVED) will be doubled from 250 patients per day. The service virtually connects patients with non-life-threatening emergencies to nurses and doctors via video call. It also enables paramedics to connect patients on scene for virtual assessment, management and referral.
THE LARGER CONTEXT
The additional funding for the VVED is part of the Victorian government's initiative to support the state health workers and patients amid a fresh outbreak caused by the emergence of new COVID-19 variants.
-----
AIDH, eHealth NSW partner for digital health conference
Monday, 18 July, 2022
The Australasian Institute of Digital Health is partnering with NSW Health’s digital health agency eHealth NSW to host a digital health conference and expo in Sydney in October.
The Digital Health Summit by AIDH and eHealth NSW will focus on innovations and advances in digital health across NSW Health’s local health districts, specialty health networks and agencies that span the state’s metropolitan, regional and rural areas.
To be held at the International Convention Centre from 17–18 October 2022, the event will feature more than 100 presentations on digital health, virtual care, genomics, precision health, nursing and midwifery, mental health, allied health, safety and quality, patient and workforce experience, as well as highly specialised fields within health informatics.
AIDH CEO Dr Louise Schaper said the institute had worked closely with eHealth NSW for many years.
-----
https://www.hinz.org.nz/news/611925/St-John-launches-telemonitoring-service.htm
St John launches telemonitoring service
July 22, 2022
NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth
St John is trialling a telemonitoring service to improve
access to healthcare for Māori and Pasifika with high blood pressure.
Manaaki Mamao has been developed in partnership with technology company
Spritely and builds on a successful pilot that attracted Ministry of Health
funding and will eventually involve more than 100 participants.
Participants are given a tablet computer that automatically pairs to a blood
pressure monitor that they use at home and allows people to track health
vitals.
St John national Māori advisor - customers and supporters, Malcolm Kendall,
says the easy-to-use kit makes taking readings simple.
“We can’t change what we can’t measure. Being able to see their readings gives
whaiora (patients) something to aim for and to change,” he says.
-----
https://www.greatlakesadvocate.com.au/story/7588342/scamwatch-its-a-rental-scam-but-with-a-twist/
Scamwatch: It's a rental scam but with a twist
July 22 2022 at 1:00pm
Scams, and the con artists behind them, are forever evolving and becoming more sophisticated and harder to spot.
ACM has compiled a list of current scams identified on sites such as scamwatch.gov.au, cyber.gov.au and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's website dedicated to informing people about fraudulent and dishonest activities.
If you have been the victim of a scam report it to scamwatch.gov.au/report-a-scam.
-----
https://www.hinz.org.nz/news/611225/South-Island-links-into-national-image-exchange-solution.htm
South Island links into national image exchange solution
Wednesday, 20 July 2022
NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth
Four South Island districts have gone live with PACSLink,
providing staff with easier access to radiology images and reports from around
the country.
More than 30 radiology providers nationwide are now using the service, which
means staff can pull radiology images and reports from other services
automatically.
Canterbury, West Coast, South Canterbury and Nelson Marlborough districts of Te
Whatu Ora (previously DHBs) went live with the system in February 2022.
These four regions already share a regional Picture Archiving and Communication
System (PACS).
SI regional radiology systems manager Hayley Stewart says that previously,
staff would have to spend time sending emails and placing phone calls to other
DHBs or providers to request images or reports be transferred.
-----
https://www.hinz.org.nz/news/611224/Tech-enables-national-GPMRI-service.htm
Tech enables national GPMRI service
Monday, 18 July 2022
NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth
Technologies enabling the new GPMRI service mean GPs can
directly refer ACC patients for MRI scans, and referrals can be tracked through
the system.
The service allows GPs who have received MRI training to directly refer
patients for a scan if they have knee, lumbar, or upper spine injures.
Patients previously faced an average wait of 23 days to receive MRIs for some
musculoskeletal injuries, which jumped to approximately 30 days in Auckland.
The roll out follows a pilot with ProCare and Mercy Radiology which begun in
Auckland in 2017 and the wait time from referral to MRI is now down to 12.4
days.
Paul Roseman, ProCare’s general manager strategic development, says GPs in the
upper North Island are using the inhouse built referral platform Profusion for
the GPMRI programme. This is a webform tool, integrated with the major patient
management systems.
-----
https://www.digitalhealth.gov.au/careers/director-communication-and-marketing-delivery
Director Communication and Marketing Delivery
EL2
($149,194 - $176,637)
Corporate
Services Division > Communications
Brisbane,
Canberra, Sydney
Closing - 1 Aug 2022
Division Overview
Corporate services – responsible for bringing together our corporate enabling services so that they are coordinated, effective and mutually reinforcing.
Primary Purpose of the Position
As the Director Communication and Marketing Delivery you will hold management responsibility across a broad portfolio of design, media and digital products and services. The primary objective of the position is to manage brand reputation and ensure online presences delivers against key outcomes for all audiences.
In addition, the Director Communication and Marketing Delivery will be an effective leader, adept at leading and developing teams of specialists in delivering complex and time-sensitive outcomes in a dynamic and changing environment, using active planning and optimisation of resources.
Although on call duties are required, it is anticipated that actual response to any issues will be on a very infrequent basis, and the exception rather than the rule.
-----
https://www.digitalhealth.gov.au/careers/programme-support-officer
Programme Support Officer
APS5
($90,901 - $98,303)
Technology
Services Division > Programme Management
Brisbane,
Canberra, Sydney
Closing - 7 Aug 2022
Division Overview
Technology services – responsible for the operation of high quality, trusted, reliable and secure national digital health infrastructure and health support systems.
Primary Purpose of Position
Do you have a passion for quality assurance and continuous improvement? Are you up to the task of driving and supporting high quality performance and culture? Then the Programme Support Officer role is for you! As the Programme Support Officer, you will be responsible for building and maintaining productive and positive stakeholder relationships both within and outside the Agency and will work closely with the Knowledge Management team and Escalations Team within Customer Support. From time to time you may be required to perform other duties as required and assist the Knowledge Management (KM) team to ensure various articles are kept current and up to date.
The Programme Support Officer will be responsible for the following, but not limited to:
- Apply a best practice approach to support the Agency in delivering high quality My Health Record services through regular and robust quality assurance activities.
- Assist in providing operational oversight and governance of customer support operations to ensure contractual obligations and service standards are being met by the Contact Centre.
- Interpret and apply policies, legislation and guidelines relating to My Health Record and other related programs to ensure a high standard of customer service is delivered.
- Assist in the implementation of improvements to drive quality performance, considering the broader work environment.
- Be accountable for own tasks and decisions and provide support and guidance to others to build capability within the team.
- Provide technical expertise that contributes to business unit outcomes.
- Apply innovation initiatives to maximise the benefits of change and contributes to the improvement in quality and efficiency of services.
- Assist with audits and maintaining appropriate risk management programs.
- Perform in-depth analysis of Contact Centre and Customer Support operations to ensure adherence to process and procedure and identify targeted training needs for staff.
- Perform trend analysis of inbound call volumes and topics and identify emerging trends and issues and raise these accordingly.
- Ensure provision of high-quality customer service to support continuous improvement.
-----
SNOMED CT-AU and Australian Medicines Terminology July 2022 Release
Published 21 July 2022
The National Clinical Terminology Service (NCTS) is pleased
to announce that the July combined release of SNOMED CT® AU[1] and the
Australian Medicines Terminology (AMT) is now available to registered users
from the NCTS website.
The latest Release Note and all release files (RF2 bundle, reference sets) can be downloaded from the ACCESS tab.
Important information
The SNOMED International update is currently being targeted
for the September SNOMED CT-AU release. Further information will be
provided to licence holders once it has been confirmed.
If you have any questions or concerns feel free to contact us by emailing help@digitalhealth.gov.au.
Where can I find technical guides and other resources?
All SNOMED CT AU and AMT documentation, including technical and implementation guides, is freely available for download from the NCTS Document Library without registering or logging in. However, if you are a registered user we recommend that you log in before downloading any material so that we can better target our communications to you, based on the resources that you have downloaded.
-----
NBN facing 5G threat as cost of living bites
Telcos are ramping up sales of their own 5G products, which they say are faster - and cheaper - than their NBN counterparts, and thousands of consumers are making the switch.
By David Swan
July 22, 2022
The NBN faces a slide in demand as retailers ramp up the sales pitch on cheaper, faster 5G offerings – as the competition watchdog considers a proposal from the broadband network that could see internet bills double in a decade.
More than a quarter of Australians consider their phone and internet costs to be unaffordable, a recent study from the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) found, and retailers are now increasingly pushing wireless 5G plans which in many cases are superior – and less expensive – than those offered by NBN.
In May TPG’s subsidiary brands launched a new $60 per month 5G home internet service that the telco said offers superior value compared to NBN’s 50 megabit per second plans and is particularly customers keeping a close eye on their budget. Home 5G typically offers speeds of between 100 and 600 megabits per second, which in many cases is as much as 12-times the speed of NBN’s 50 megabits per second plans.
TPG executives say the migration of every 100,000 NBN customers back onto its own infrastructure represents around $50m in annual savings for the telco.
Since launching its 4G and 5G home broadband services last year, it has signed up more than 110,000 customers nationally.
-----
James Webb telescope spots the oldest galaxy back in time
By Sarah Knapton
July 23, 2022 — 11.54am
London: The earliest light in the known universe may have been captured in the latest images from a NASA telescope which shows a star-filled galaxy 13.5 billion years old.
The collection of stars known as GLASS-z13, dates back to 300 million years after the Big Bang. This beats the previous oldest galaxy, spotted by the Hubble Space Telescope, by about 100 million years.
“We’re potentially looking at the most distant starlight that anyone has ever seen,” said Rohan Naidu of the Harvard Centre for Astrophysics.
The universe formed 13.8 billion years ago but was initially dark, taking a while for matter to clump together in such dense formations that stars eventually burst into life.
-----
Galaxy’s peculiar ‘heartbeat’ has scientists enthralled
· The Times
Astronomers have detected a mysterious radio burst with a pattern akin to a heartbeat emerging from a galaxy about a billion light years away.
The fast radio burst, named FRB 20191221A, was picked up on radio telescope by the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (Chime) at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory in British Columbia. Its cause and the galaxy from which it came are unknown.
Astronomers using Chime spotted the signal in 2019 and have just set out their findings in the Nature journal. The team said it was unusual because it lasted for about three seconds, a thousand times longer than is typical.
Hundreds of fast radio bursts have been found at distant points since the first one was detected in 2007.
-----
Enjoy!
David.
No comments:
Post a Comment