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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 any 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, and found interesting.
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Watchdog calls for mandatory data breach notification laws in Victoria
Joseph
Brookes
Senior Reporter
15 September 2022
Victoria’s privacy watchdog has called for data breach notification laws in the state after a government department failed to tell people their data had been exposed in a serious breach by a man convicted of sexually assaulting a child.
The former case worker, Alexander Jones, is currently serving a six-year prison sentence for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy, whose information he attempted to access through the government database.
He had unauthorised access to the system because it was not revoked by the government department when he left one of its service providers in 2017, despite serious concerns about his behaviour at the time.
When the data breach was investigated by the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner (OVIC) in 2020, the department said it was voluntarily notifying the children whose data had been accessed by Jones.
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https://www.innovationaus.com/david-thodey-to-lead-major-audit-of-mygov-platform/
David Thodey to lead major audit of myGov platform
Justin
Hendry
Editor
16 September 2022
A panel of experts led by former CSIRO chair David Thodey will undertake a major audit of myGov promised by the federal government in the lead up to the election to deliver reliability and usability improvements for users.
Former Human Rights Commissioner Edward Santow, eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, social epidemiologist Professor Emily Banks, and Uber’s former head of global economic policy Amit Singh will join Mr Thodey on the panel.
Government Services minister Bill Shorten announced the five-person panel on Friday, making good on an election pledge to review the performance and user experience of the digital services platform that now receives a million sign-ins each day.
“We’ve moved quickly on our election commitment to identify the changes needed to improve myGov’s reliability, functionality and deliver a more user-friendly experience,” he said.
The user audit, which is expected to begin “in the coming weeks” and report by the end of the year, will be used to identify necessary improvements to the revamped myGov platform that launched only last week after two years of work.
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Roundup: Regional Victoria gets medtech boost, RxOne to enhance pharmacy services in Gisborne, and more briefs
Also, the Technology Users Association has set up an advocacy group for the promotion of digital health services in New Zealand.
By Adam Ang
September 15, 2022 11:59 PM
Clinicians in regional Victoria get medtech backing
The University of Melbourne is expanding to regional Victoria its acceleration programme for supporting early-stage venture creations by clinicians and hospital partners.
The 12-month Innovation Acceleration Program will be delivered in partnership with regional health network Bendigo Health. It seeks to engage regional healthcare staff to turn their ideas into commercially viable medical technology solutions for patients and healthcare providers.
According to a press statement, the programme will help clinicians get connected with a team of innovators, engineers, and manufacturers to collaborate in the creation of new medtech solutions, particularly technologies that support remote monitoring and at-home patient care.
The A$260,000 partnership is supported by the Victorian Government through the Australian Medtech Manufacturing Centre.
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Southern starts search for digital infrastructure delivery partner
Monday, 12 September 2022
NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth
Te Whatu Ora Health NZ has gone to market for a digital
infrastructure delivery partner for the New Dunedin Hospital, with a contract
worth in excess of $60 million.
The New Dunedin Hospital includes 421 beds and will be “state of the art, using
digital infrastructure to manage patient flows and improve efficiency,” the
Registration of Interest (ROI) says.
The ROI estimates the value of the hardware and services components for the
outpatients building, due to open in 2025, to be approximately $25 million. The
second stage is estimated at $35 million for the inpatient building, due for
completion in 2029.
The delivery partner will procure, commission, install, integrate, manage and
support all in-scope products for the hospital, as well as “establish and
manage a prototype and staging lab to deliver a fully integrated digital
environment across all ICT at the New Dunedin Hospital”.
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Digital Strategy for Aotearoa highlights digital health innovations
Wednesday, 14 September 2022
NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth
A new Digital Strategy for Aotearoa sets out a vision for
harnessing the potential of the digital economy and features digital health
projects as examples of innovations in the pipeline.
Minister for the Digital Economy and Communications, David Clark, launched Te Rautaki Matihiko mō Aotearoa - The
Digital Strategy for Aotearoa, on
September 15 saying it revolves around three key pillars: Mahi Tika – Trust,
Mahi Tahi – Inclusion and Mahi Ake – Growth.
Clark describes the strategy as “incredibly ambitious” as it sets targets to
have fewer cyber incidents than comparable countries, high-speed internet
available to all New Zealanders and to have the digital and ICT sector on track
to becoming the country’s leading export earner.
A case study included in the strategy says the New Dunedin Hospital will be a
leader in digital health solutions once completed in 2028.
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Ghosted by Meta: Businesses losing out from Facebook’s communication stonewall
By Carla Jaeger
September 17, 2022 — 9.00am
It was a disastrous morning for Deni Ute Muster organisers Charlotte Wade and Vicky Lowry.
Gearing up for a frantic pre-festival period one day in late June, they opened their email account to find a message from Facebook Support – a missive advising that the much-loved event’s Facebook account had been restricted “for violating community guidelines”.
“Social media is one of our main platforms … and suddenly we were facing our busiest time without any Facebook page whatsoever,” Lowry said.
They would later learn the account had been hacked, triggering Facebook’s automated disabling of the page.
“Years of data just disappeared down the bloody hole,” said the event’s publicist, Rina Ferris.
The eight-week scramble to reinstate the page that ensued would cost the Deni Ute Muster nearly $300,000 in ticket sales.
For better or worse, Facebook is indispensable to businesses and organisations. But the travails of the Deni Ute Muster highlight how pernicious this dependence has become, especially when users can be booted out without a moment’s notice.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/expansive-mygov-audit-to-begin-within-weeks-585324
'Expansive' myGov audit to begin within weeks
By Ry Crozier on Sep 16, 2022 8:18AM
David Thodey to lead investigative panel.
Former CSIRO chair David Thodey will lead an “expansive” audit of the federal government’s myGov digital platform that was an election pledge of the new Labor government.
Thodey will lead a five-person audit panel that also includes former human rights commissioner Edward Santow, eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant, Uber’s former head of global economic policy Amit Singh (now managing director, Accenture Australia), and social epidemiologist Professor Emily Banks.
Thodey is no stranger to high-profile reviews, having previously chaired an independent review of the Australian Public Service which, among other things, offered a vision for better use of digital technologies to deliver government services.
The myGov audit will begin “in the coming weeks” and report back to the government “by the end of the year”, government services minister Bill Shorten said.
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‘Clunky, unreliable’ MyGov to be reviewed by former Telstra boss
September 16, 2022 — 5.00am
Former Telstra boss David Thodey will lead a review of MyGov, the federal services online platform that crashed in the early days of the pandemic, sending thousands into Centrelink queues.
MyGov, which receives about 1 million sign-ins daily, connects Australians to agency sites that issue everything from online tax returns to COVID-19 vaccination certificates. It has become ever more important during the pandemic but long been derided as clunky and unreliable.
Former human rights commissioner Edward Santow, who is joining Thodey on the audit, said he had seen the consequences of subpar government software in his previous work as a community lawyer.
“I’ve had lots of clients in the past who have really struggled in accessing really crucial government services, including through MyGov, and often for them this is a matter of keeping a roof over their heads of themselves and their families,” said Santow.
There are about 25 million accounts linked to MyGov.
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eHealth NSW develops cloud infrastructure to scale apps deployment
It is now able to deploy apps after a day down from a six-week period.
By Adam Ang
September 15, 2022 01:02 AM
eHealth NSW, the digital organisation of NSW Health, is now developing and deploying clinical applications through its cloud architecture developed in partnership with hyperscale providers ASW and Microsoft Azure.
Through this partnership, it was able to deploy cloud-optimised and fully automated Enterprise Patient Repository and Electronic Oral Health Record on AWS and directory management software Quest Active Tools on Azure.
WHY IT MATTERS
Automation was a "major objective" for eHealth NSW to enable rapid infrastructure scaling in response to COVID-19. It raised its speed of deployment "from a six-week average [period] down to one day."
"We leveraged infrastructure as code so we could automate the deployment and management of 90% of our apps in scope," explained Cloud Refresh programme manager Daniel Hansen.
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https://wildhealth.net.au/vital-signs-tracked-while-you-wait-in-ed/
14 September 2022
Vital signs tracked while you wait in ED
Hospital Technology Virtual/Remote Care
Armadale Hospital will become the first in the state to adopt wearable monitoring devices in the emergency department’s waiting room.
The devices, which include an armband, blood pressure cuff and oximeter, allow clinicians to monitor the patients’ vital signs in the critical period between the initial triage and when they are next checked on.
The West Australian government’s announcement of the project comes after the death of a patient in a Perth hospital last year after she waited two hours for treatment.
Craig Simmonds, CEO and founder of Australian connected devices and monitoring company Propell Health, told Wild Health that the new devices aim to plug some of the gaps in increasingly pressurised hospital environments.
“We actually forget that within the hospital environment, vital signs are the easiest things to pick up on, but also the hardest, because the nurses can’t be with the patients all the time. So, we now know that all patients can be monitored while they’re sitting there,” Mr Simmonds said.
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The GP who built his own ‘pancreas’ says new research vindicates his leap of faith
Dr Kenny Clark, who has type 1 diabetes, discovered the art of ‘looping’ six years ago.
13 September 2022
A GP who taught dozens of his own patients with type 1 diabetes to build unapproved medical devices to manage their condition says a new randomised control trial has vindicated his work.
Six years ago that Dr Kenny Clark, who has type 1 diabetes himself, discovered ‘looping’ — using software shared on the internet that connected commercially available insulin pumps to continuous glucose monitoring systems.
It means insulin dosing is adjusted automatically based on glucose readings, although he can still make manual adjustments on the homemade device, which he hooked up using instructions shared on social media.
Since 2018, he has taught around 70 patients to do the same. He says he was conscious of the medicolegal risk from dabbling in what were unapproved medical devices.
“With this system, I say to patients: ‘We’re going to put this on your phone, and it’s going to take away all the effort you’re putting in. It’s going to let you focus on life.’
“I see patients a few weeks later, and they’re just so thankful.
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Cyber insurance premiums soar 80pc as claims surge
Sally Patten BOSS editor
Sep 12, 2022 – 10.32am
Cyber insurance premiums have soared in the past year as claims surged in response to a rise in damaging attacks by hackers.
The cost of taking out cyber cover had doubled on average every year for the past three years, said global insurance broker Marsh. Honan Group, another broker, pointed to an 80 per cent rise in premiums in the past 12 months, following a 20 per cent increase in the cost of cover in each of the previous two years.
“Cyber has become the new D&O,” said Craig Claughton, a senior executive at Marsh, referring to sharp rises in directors and officers insurance premiums since 2018.
Mr Claughton and Honan chief executive Andrew Fluitsma were hopeful premiums would ease, but they warned insurers would continue to demand companies prove they had strong security systems and policies in place before agreeing to sell them insurance.
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https://www.smh.com.au/technology/apple-s-bet-on-watch-and-fitness-has-paid-off-20220909-p5bgur.html
Apple’s bet on Watch and fitness has paid off
By Tim Biggs
September 11, 2022 — 1.45pm
As Apple introduces its eighth generation of Apple Watch, the wearable has slowly but steadily transformed from a curious experiment into the company’s second most important device.
In 2015, Apple was late to the wearable game, with fitness trackers and even smartwatches — from Samsung, Pebble and others — already on the market. The Apple Watch was an attempt to take the idea mainstream, but it wasn’t immediately successful. People were unclear on the benefits of what appeared to be a smaller iPhone but attached to your wrists.
Today Apple soundly dominates the space with a global 36.1 per cent market share, according to Counterpoint, with second place going to Samsung at 10.1 per cent.
A key to its success was Apple’s early realisation that the obvious function of the watch as a phone accessory — relaying notifications, allowing control of media, showing the time and temperature — was only a small part of its potential.
“It’s well understood that it’s not about using it as a Dick Tracy phone or a replacement for your smartphone,” said Foad Fadaghi, managing director at research firm Telsyte. Instead, it’s about collecting analytics from your body and movements that a smartphone is not privy to.
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David.
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